HyperKit Rapid On-site Food Pathogen Detection

Hypercell Technologies Inc. is a food-safety diagnostics startup headquartered in Ithaca, New York. Its roots trace to infectious-disease research at the University of Georgia, and it later incubated at the University of Illinois EnterpriseWorks. It addresses the gap between fast but unreliable rapid tests and accurate laboratory PCR, which forces processors to wait days for results while food moves through plants in hours.

The HyperKit series is a portable, two-step micro-test that purifies and concentrates samples of up to 200 ml in a three-minute workflow, then detects targets with shelf-stable lyophilised amplification reagents read by the compact HyperReader incubator and fluorescence reader. Results arrive in 15 to 60 minutes without extraction equipment, with sensitivity down to 10 CFU without enrichment. Assays cover Salmonella, E. coli O157, total E. coli, Enterobacteriaceae, Listeria monocytogenes and total Listeria, plus fungi and parasites, and results are managed in a web-based SaaS platform.

• HyperKit sample prep: single-use tool that purifies and concentrates up to 200 ml of sample in three minutes.
• Multi-matrix support: environmental swabs, carcass rinses, meat, fresh produce, fermentation products and liquids.
• Pathogen assays: Salmonella, E. coli O157, total E. coli, Enterobacteriaceae and Listeria targets.
• Shelf-stable reagents: lyophilised amplification reagents in optical PCR tubes.
• HyperReader: compact point-of-use incubator and fluorescence reader with results in about 45 minutes.
• Connected SaaS: web-based platform for results, environmental monitoring and records.

• Seafood and meat processing plants in Vietnam screening for Salmonella and Listeria before shipment release.
• Fresh-produce packers running environmental swab programmes on processing lines.
• Central kitchens and caterers verifying hygiene of ready-to-eat foods.

• Faster release decisions: results in under one hour on premises instead of days waiting for a central lab.
• Lower logistics cost: no shipping or storage of samples sent to third-party laboratories.
• Lab-level sensitivity: detection down to 10 CFU without enrichment, or lower with a 3-hour proprietary enrichment.
• Easy for plant staff: two-step process with a web interface on phone, tablet or desktop.

Food processors face stricter pathogen-control and environmental-monitoring requirements from regulators and export buyers, while lab turnaround times hold up product release. Point-of-use molecular testing is emerging as an alternative, and Southeast Asian food exporters, including Vietnamese seafood and meat processors, need faster verification to meet buyer standards.

Headquartered at 95 Brown Rd., Ithaca, New York since 2024. Founded by Dr. Bruno Jactel; Chief Science Officer Dr. Loic Deblais. Accelerator programmes include SOSV IndieBio (2024), Plug and Play (2024), FoodBytes (2022) and SPACE-F Batch 6 in Thailand (2025). Works with Fortune 100 food companies, per the company.