Cardiff Medicentre have welcomed agri-food and life sciences innovators Feed, Food & Future to their growing community of experts.
Founded in 2017 by regulatory affairs specialist and scientist Dr Naheeda Portocarero, Feed, Food & Future addresses major societal challenges, including tackling antibiotic resistance, reducing the environmental impact of farming, improving food safety, and influencing consumer health through the agri-food chain. They are active in the animal feed sector, and work with several large global corporations, as well as devoting resources to smaller companies with ambitious ideas.
The company has taken separate cell culture and microbiology units at Cardiff Medicentre, as-well-as investing in state-of-the-art equipment and achieving biosafety level 2 capability to facilitate their research and development work, which includes developing antiviral solutions and refining its antibacterial work.
We are one of very few organisations, worldwide, testing natural ingredients against pathogenic viruses. Our Medicentre laboratory has been vital in allowing us to expand our research.
The name Feed, Food & Future references its three areas of work. Feed services: the team offers technical, regulatory and marketing consultancy services, taking ideas through development to launch. Food services: consultancy that adds trust, integrity and value to businesses through the promotion of good quality nutrition and safe food. Future: the development of original, market-driven, science-based innovation, sometimes in collaboration with third parties.
The innovation began as a PhD project at the University of South Wales and has grown into a specialist research group focusing on antibacterial and antiviral properties of active ingredients including plant-based and natural molecules. And there are plans to further expand the team, with a new PhD programme under discussion.
Dr Portocarero continued: "We are already established as industry leaders. We have a strong portfolio and are also looking at other major challenges, especially environmental impacts of farming and food safety. This will involve structured growth and recruiting the 'best-in-class' scientists."
Rhys Pearce-Palmer, Innovation Operations Manager at Cardiff University said: 'It's a delight to welcome Feed, Food & Future to the Medicentre to progress vital work in developing antiviral solutions. Our team will support them to connect with the life-science and healthcare community here at Medicentre and across the University and Health Board.'
