Hey Food Guys, Process This

Rong Murphy’s Fayetteville company BioKinetic Controls LLC, a software firm specializing in food process modeling and control, has just received a $100,000 Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Institutes of Health.

A client of Virtual Incubation LLC in Fayetteville, BioKinetic hopes to help food processors increase their further processing line yields while simultaneously improving food safety and quality. The firm’s software interacts with equipment to help engineers set better processing parameters and can even be used to automatically control the lines.

We’re told that traditional methods for cooking value-added food products, particularly meat, usually cook away more moisture than is necessary. But Biokinetic’s goal is to get rid of pathogens without overcooking the product.

Calvin Goforth, Virtual’s president, said a 10 percent improvement in yield could be possible for most food processors using BioKinetic’s product.

The Phase I SBIR grant will be used for a feasibility study. Sufficient progress at that level could quality BioKinetic for a Phase II grant worth $750,000.

Murphy, who earned a chemical engineering degree from the University of Arkansas, is a research professor in biological and agricultural engineering with the UA’s Bumpers College of Agriculture, Food & Life Sciences. She is a native of China but has lived in Fayetteville for 17 years.