The story
Applied Food Technologies CEO, LeeAnn Applewhite, incorporated APL Sciences in 1997 after inventing a seafood test kit and licensing the technology to Neogen Corporation. APL Sciences received five USDA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Awards totaling approximately $1,000,000.00. AFT was formed in 2003 in Blacksburg, Virginia, by LeeAnn Applewhite and Maureen Dolan to be the fee-for-service testing laboratory and manufacturing and marketing arms for APL Science, Inc. Robert Mino later joined as a co-owner until the company’s sale in 2015. AFT has also been awarded several SBIR grants and industry research contracts including most recently a grant to develop a method for species identification for the U.S. shrimp industry.
Applied Food Technologies was showcased on a national broadcast of The Early Show on CBS on June 8, 2011 to discuss seafood mislabeling after release of a national publication on the issue by consumer advocate group Oceana and a subsequent New York Times publication on the subject. Although in business for several years, Applied Food Technologies came to the national attention after becoming the first company with DNA-based fish species identification methods recognized by the FDA to test all catfish imported from China in the late 2000s. Applied Food Technologies was subsequently interviewed in May, 2010, by ABC affiliate WCJB-TV. Applied Food Technologies was showcased in University of Florida’s Explore magazine Fall 2011, issue.
Milestones
2000 – Started development of DNA-based diagnostics for seafood species identification through USDA SBIR research grant targeted toward the growing national issue of seafood mislabeling.
Collaborated with the Seafood Industry to collect fish and shellfish species for taxonomical verification at museums across the country to establish a validated database of reference specimens.
2002 – Developed and launched the PCR multiplex Authenti-kit(SM) for Crab diagnostic kit for crab species identification.
2004 – Developed and launched the PCR multiplex Authenti-kit(SM) for Catfish diagnostic kit for catfish species identification.
2005 – Began partnering with US Foods after US Foods approached AFT to start a grouper authentication program, following recommendation by NOAA NMFS.
– Worked with US Foods, FDA, and other Seafood Industry stakeholders to develop an acceptable sampling plan for species identification testing.
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- AFT began using protein fingerprinting techniques to perform species identification on a larger number of species.
2006 – Collaborated extensively with FDA to create regulatory standards and protocols currently recommended for molecular regulatory compliance testing for species identification.
– Authenti-kit(SM) for Catfish becomes the first DNA method accepted for regulatory compliance testing by FDA after FDA approves Authenti-kit(SM) for Catfish for use in regulatory compliance testing under Import Alert 16-128.
2007 – AFT’s regulatory testing program expanded to collaborations with multiple state agencies to create state standards and testing programs for species identification testing using Authenti-kit(SM) for Catfish.
– Collaborated with FDA to develop the extraction protocol for DNA-barcoding for fish species identification which later became FDA LIB-4420.
– Greatly expanded industry and regulatory testing programs using DNA-barcoding for most fish species outside the Authenti-kit(SM) product line.
- AFT began to use DNA techniques exclusively to identify seafood species.
2008 – Teamed with FDA to develop the requirements for private laboratory data reports (ORA Laboratory Manual, Section 7) for DNA-barcoding for Import Alert 16-128.
– Began analyzing DNA sequence discrepancies in commonly used databases, such as Genbank and Fish Barcode of Life, to develop definitive secondary tests to differentiate between
closely related species of commercially important seafood that cannot be distinguished using data from the public databases alone.
2009 – Initiated substantial research and development program to create DNA mini-barcoding and real-time PCR methods to discriminate closely related species, allowing AFT to distinguish between
closely related species that are indistinguishable using current DNA-barcoding or public database-related protocols.
2010 - AFT moved operations from Virginia to Alachua, Florida and reincorporated in Florida.
2011 - AFT purchased the assets of EcoArray, Inc., bringing AFT into the environmental arena. AFT currently resides in the Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator. After the acquisition of EcoArray assets, AFT entered into the environmental water testing market. Information gathered from Applied Food Technologies website. (Last visited October 1, 2011).
2012 - AFT becomes first testing laboratory to develop a validated test for identifying species of canned tuna.
2014 - AFT becomes an ISO Accredited laboratory.
2015 - AFT acquired, becoming the largest seafood identity testing lab in the United States.
From Wikipedia’s article on Applied Food Technologies, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3