Project Idea Anisakis
- 1. PROJECT IDEA RED TASTE a new way to detect the presence of parasite ANISAKIS in raw fresh fish by Andrea Fresu, Andrea Avanzini and Massimo Mastrocchio
- 2. PREAMBLE Anisakis is a genus of parasitic nematodes, which have a life cycle involving fish and marine mammals. They are infective to humans and cause anisakiasis. People who produce immunoglobulin E (IgE) in response to this parasite may subsequently have an allergic reaction, including anaphylaxis, after eating fish that have been infected with Anisakis. Fresh raw fish consumption in Italy as lately reached a point where local press often talks of a wide diffusion of new oriental food cultures, as Japanese, stressing the need to face its related problems. Open sea fishes are usually exposed to contamination of ANISAKIS, a dangerous parasite if ingested by humans. Some particular species of fish known as blue fishes (herrings, anchovies, codfish etc.) are more exposed then others. Some of the processes they go through (raw marinade, smoked, cold salting) do not exterminate the parasite. Eventually the actual procedures are not enough to prevent humans from infection in the west as in the east. A common solution adopted in many countries by local Ministries of Health consists of freezing below -25°C for at least 24 hours to kill the parasite. This procedure affects the quality of the fish without completely solving the problem. In fact the parasite releases in the host some thermal- resistant substances that can induce allergy in some humans. These allergies have been studied and listed in the official documents of the Worldwide Health Organization. Looking for a solution, for my personal experience as expert in raw fish food production, I met Doctor Fulvio Salati, head of the department of Icthyopathology and Aquaculture of the Experimental Zoo-prophylactic Institute of Sardinia, who has been spent a lot of researches on this issue. Confronting with him and discussing the case, has been very productive so to lead me to the idea of developing a way of detecting a substance that could reveal the presence of the parasite without damaging or altering the host.
- 3. PROJECT INFO Total Investment of 250.000 € to reach the final goal: R&D: 158.000 € Patent: 42.000 € Marketing: 50.000 € R&D will identify all parameters necessary to produce the prototype; once completed the prototype will be ready for patenting. Patent is the source of incoming by giving its licence to clients who will pay royalties on income. Marketing will attract potential clients' interests to the patent; there will be meetings, seminars and PR; one of the most logic action will be to try to make a European Country Legislation adopt the solution so to initiate a chain of wider interests by other countries. TEAM Andrea Fresu: CV Andrea Avanzini: CV Massimo Mastorchio: CV OPPORTUNITY The patent will allow the client to distribute the solution on the market. The final customer is the worldwide consumer of fresh raw fish, particularly blue fish. The current regulation tries to prevent from ANISAKIS human contamination by recommending an expensive and invasive process of freezing below -25°C raw fish before consumption, as a result this process is often bypassed causing a wide contamination especially in those poorer countries around the world where raw fish is very common in the daily diet. The availability of a low cost solution will open such an extensive market that actually it could be associated to the worldwide raw fish consumption. In Italy (as well as in many other countries), at the fish market, particularly blue fish is controlled by inspectors who run sample tests by opening the belly of the fish and visually determine if the parasite is present. This process is far from effective. If any final consumer could rapidly and easily verify the contamination before even buying the fish, it would not be necessary this control nor the freezing process, which ultimately alter the value of the fish. 150.000 ton of blue fish have been sold to final consumers in Italy only in 2005. Considering an average weight of 200 gr. we would then be speaking of some 750 million fishes. If a simple disposable one use paper strip would allow the consumer to check the presence of the contamination, at a cost of 15 eurocents, then we would be talking about over 10 million euros of gross sales just in Italy. COMPETITION Despite some researches already studied ANISAKIS and the related consequences, nothing has been done yet to find a cheap solution for the problem. A recent review of the existent patents nothing revealed in this direction. There is although a possibility that, once the project enters the operational status, somebody could run for the solution even faster and get the licence before us. Timing and security are of essence in this process. In addition a good patent will be necessary to protect ownership and related privileges.
- 4. PRODUCT In order to understand the value of the patent, it should be analysed the potential market first. An important point of referral should be the worldwide consumption of raw fish, but it could not be limited to it, as it is well known that the allergic effects of ANISAKIS are present also in the cooked fish. Therefore when the public can access to a cheap solution, it is easy to expect a wider consumption, sometimes related just to psychological factors. TECHNOLOGY The solution will be a paper strip (such as litmus test). It will be very cheap one use disposable solution. The results of R&D should also address the efficiency and dependability of the product. PLAN First of all the necessary funds to follow through the entire process should be secured from a reliable source (venture capital, investors …?). The team is already in place as well as the technical supplier in order to perform the R&D, that would take roughly 12 months, patenting, about 6 months, and marketing, three to six months. Marketing should consist in contacting major pharmaceutical industries and governments of a target country where to try to introduce the solution through Health regulation. RETURN The return on investment will depend on the licences for use of the patent that will be negotiated. Sales activity should not be very extensive as it will be dealing with big organization such as pharmaceutical organizations that potentially cover the worldwide market. Income will be determined by royalties to be paid based on sales. Even if royalties on sales will be very little (2-3 %), and sales price few eurocents, total gross sales could be of great size due to the enormous quantity of products to be potentially sold worldwide. Just in western Europe we might look at least at 5 times the gross sales above mentioned for Italy only, reaching easily a value around 375 million €, with royalties around 10 million € per year. FINANCIAL Although still to be implemented, the project already absorbed human and capital resources by the inventing team. In order to be operational, a financial source to sustain all expenses is necessary. Patenting is the milestone to be absolutely reached once the process has been initiated so to secure the investment and to give enough time to the marketing activity to reach its goal. Attached there is the quotation for R&D, while the costs of patenting and marketing have been determined based on confrontation with different information gathered on internet with a little bit of wild guess. Technical supervision will be performed by the proposing team at no additional cost during the entire process. The general agreement with the sponsors will be based on a percentage of ownership and privileges of the patent once the goal will be reached.