Safe Foods Corp. To Open New Lab

Safe Foods Corp., the North Little Rock biotechnology company, plans to spend about $500,000 to move its research and development operation to Northwest Arkansas.

The company, a 1998 spinoff from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock’s Biomedical Biotechnical Center, recently applied for admission to the UA’s Genesis Technology Incubator in Fayetteville.

Safe Foods primarily wants to open an office here because Amy Waldrop, director of research and development for Safe Foods and a former UA professor, is based in Washington County. Waldrop resigned from her position as an adjunct professor at the UA on Aug. 1 and has since been working out of her Tontitown home.

Curtis Coleman, Safe Foods’ president & CEO, said the company’s R&D budget here would exceed $2 million annually. Its administrative offices, however, will remain in Little Rock.

The privately held company is finishing preparations to begin selling a new sanitizing application in November. Coleman said Safe Foods had looked at leasing 1,000 SF at Genesis but had also been approached by another property owner with 9,000-10,000 SF of space. Negotiations are pending, but Coleman confirmed that the other location is “in Northwest Arkansas but not necessarily Fayetteville.”

Waldrop said the Northwest lab would eventually employ 10 to 12 individuals, including “some Ph.D. types.”

The biotech startup is still awaiting Federal Drug Administration approval of its first product, Cecure, and has not yet recorded any sales. But a number of potential food industry clients have expressed interest because of the excitement generated by Cecure’s impressive lab tests.

The product has been shown effective against pathogens E. coli, salmonella, campylobacter and Listera — the four biggest culprits for causing food-borne illness.

It also attacks other microorganisms like staphylococcus, arcobacter and Aeromonas bacillus. Food producers and processors spend millions annually battling these seven enemies of sanitary food preparation.

Since the U.S. Department of Agriculture has reported that food borne illnesses kill 9,000 annually, Safe Foods is tapping into a potentially lucrative science. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported that an additional 76 million are treated annually for illnesses related to contaminated food, at a cost of $22 billion.

“Amy is the primary reason we want to be in Northwest Arkansas,” Coleman said. “But it’s also because of the significant concentration of food-processing companies there like Tyson Foods and George’s. It’s a demographically good move for us.”