Micro Imaging Technology, Inc. announced that the first commercial units of its Rapid Microbial Identification System will be available by the first week of July 2012 from its Hawthorne, CA-based Manufacturing Partner.
"Although we were unable to meet our 2011 manufacturing goal," stated Jeffrey Nunez, Micro Imaging's newly appointed President and CEO. "We have made tremendous strides in just the past 45 days and are very excited to be now in the production phase. We are working closely with our manufacturing partner and feel confident we will meet the specifications outlined for the first several MIT 1000 units," Nunez continued. MIT contracted with a Hawthorne, CA-based manufacturer in 2010 under an exclusive five-year manufacturing agreement to produce MIT's Rapid Microbial Identification System and received the first pre-production MIT 1000 System in late December 2010. This System, manufactured exclusively for MIT, is a stand-alone, optically-based, software driven system. The MIT 1000 can complete an identifying test in less than five (5) minutes and with a material cost of pennies -- adding further credence to MIT's claims of being able to save thousands of lives and tens of millions of dollars in health care cost with its unique technology.
Furthermore, MIT's Chief Scientist, David Haavig, PhD explains: "In the U.S., around 76 million cases of food- borne illnesses, resulting in 325,000 hospitalizations and 5000 deaths, are estimated to occur each year. The leading cause of these illnesses and deaths are three main strains of bacteria: E. coli, Salmonella, and Listeria. Rapid identification of these disease-causing pathogens in food is critical to the health and safety of all consumers."
The AOAC Research Institute (AOAC RI) awarded the Company in June 2009, Performance Tested Methods SM (PTM) certification for the rapid identification of Listeria. The AOAC RI provides an independent third party evaluation and expert reviews of methods and will award PTM certification to methods that demonstrate performance levels equivalent or better than other certified bacteria identifying methods. The MIT System underwent hundreds of individual tests, including ruggedness and accuracy, to earn AOAC RI's certification for the identification of Listeria.
MIT is a California-based public company that has developed and patented a Microbial Identification System that revolutionizes the pathogenic bacteria diagnostic process and can annually save thousands of lives and tens of millions of dollars in health care costs. The MIT 1000 identifies bacteria in minutes, not days, and at a significant per test cost savings when compared to any other conventional method. It does not rely on chemical or biological agents, conventional processing, fluorescent tags, gas chromatography or DNA analysis. The process requires only clean water and a sample of the unknown bacteria. Revenues for all rapid testing methods exceed $5 billion annually -- with food safety accounting for over $3.5 billion, which is expected to surpass $4.7 billion by 2015 according to BCC Research. In addition, the recently passed "New" U.S. Food Safety Bill is expected to further accelerate the current annual growth rate of 6.6 percent.