Ideaz

🍏BareBite

Bio-Indicator for Toxic Elements

"BITE your food before it bites you!"
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1️⃣The Problem 

• "An apple a day keeps the doctor away"
  Unless, of course, your apple is coated with enough pesticides to keep the doctor in business.
• Shoppers today face a choice: Play Russian roulette with a variety of chemical assassins. Or wash their food for 20 minutes while hoping the chemicals peel off (they really don't).
  
• The issue isn't just paranoia. WHO estimates ~200,000 deaths annually from pesticide poisoning both direct and chronic.
• For parents, their children, health freaks and anyone who doesn't want their fresh produce to double as slow poison, trust in food safety is fragile.
  

2️⃣The Gap in the Market 

• Lab Tests: Accurate but slow, expensive and inaccessible for daily use.
  
• Home Kits: Bulky, confusing and often limited to only a type of pesticide.
  
• Organic Labeling: Misleading and doesn't always guarantee safety.
  

BareBite attempts to fill this gap:

• Portable, instant and reliable detection of fresh food pesticides in 10-20 seconds with a single strip.
• Can be used on fruits, vegetables and even liquids like juices and soups.
  
• User-friendly and eco-friendly with no lab work, no guesswork, and recyclable product material.
  

3️⃣The Solution- 🍏BareBite

• BareBite is a biodegradable test strip which instantly tells you if your food is safe to consume
  
• Wet the BareBite paper strip --> Rub a region of the fruit/vegetable with it --> wait 10-20 seconds --> see the truth in the colour of the BareBite strip:
  🟢Green: Safe to consume
  🟡Yellow: Mild residue, wash thoroughly before consumption
  🔴Red: Do Not Consume. High levels of chemical pesticide residue detected
• This works on liquids as well. Pour a drop of fruit juice/soup onto the BareBite strip and check colour change for spoilage or contamination.
• Makes pesticide testing simpler like a litmus test but for invisible toxins.

4️⃣Scientifc Mechanism

• Chemicals like Organophosphates, Organosulfates and Carbamates are major components of fruit/vegetable farming pesticides that also leech into water and cause major food and water contaminations.
• They inhibit the enzyme acetylcholinesterase (AChE), which causes toxic effects.
  
• BareBite principles this enzyme-substrate reaction:
  Wipes contain food safe AchE + a chromogenic substance
  Active enzyme = Reaction with substrate = green colour
  Pesticides inhibit enzyme = Reaction blocked = yellow/red colour
  
  
• Further fine-tunings in the lab can quantify enzyme inhibition and define color thresholds, while expanding into future detection of heavy metals, aflatoxins from microorganism and plant metabolites.
• The BareBite strips can be recycled by returning to the distributor, going through a reverse enzymatic process to separate toxin from non-leaching cellulose based strips for repurposing.

5️⃣Who Does it Benefit? 

• Families who wish to have healthy bites with peace of mind.
• Parents who want to protect their children from future complications.
• Farmers’ Markets to show credibility and pesticide-free assurance.
• Encourage safer farming, reduced chemical exposure and less food waste.
• A chance to finally say “I’m eating this apple, but I won’t die for it”.

6️⃣Why it Matters to Me? 

• Giving consumers awareness on safe food consumption can promote a healthier world, and ensure a sustainable environment for the next generation.
• Shiny =/= Safe. BareBite attempts to fill this trust gap in production.
• I want to provide affordable and biodegradable methods of chemical testing to encourage a cleaner and greener world.
• I wish to empower people to make informed food choices and give them control over what they eat.

7️⃣Road Map to the Market 

• Step 1: Demo with variety of safe chemicals in the lab for prototype
• Step 2: Test the enzyme-substrate reaction on real produce to confirm no leaching
• Step 3: Incubation/Funding, pitch to local farmer markets.
• Step 4: Packaging & Branding with clear instructions and affordable prizing
• Step 5: Launch & Expansion targeting both urban and rural centres with B2C and B2B models with next steps for development of multi-analyte detection