eMerge Interactive, Excel Enter Into Production Development Agreement For New Breakthrough Food-Safety Technology
For Immediate Release: February 5, 2002
Contact: Mark Klein, Cargill (952) 742-6211
SEBASTIAN, Fla., February 5, 2002 – eMerge Interactive, Inc. (NASDAQ: EMRG), a technology company providing individual-animal tracking, food safety and supply-procurement services to the $40-billion U.S. beef-production industry, and Excel Corporation, a leading U.S. beef processor and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cargill Incorporated, today announced an agreement to integrate eMerge’s VerifEYE™ meat inspection system into Excel’s beef operations to finalize specifications for commercialization.
“We are extremely excited to have Excel, the recognized leader in the beef and pork packing industry, agree to help eMerge with final, in-plant development of its VerifEYE™ system,” stated Scott Mathews, eMerge’s President and Chief Operating Officer. “The system is designed to help detect even minute traces of the organic contamination that can harbor such bacteria as E. coli 0157:H7 – bacteria that can survive even the aggressive pathogen interventions currently in place at beef-processing plants.”
“Extensive, university-controlled trials have already demonstrated that VerifEYE could help packers minimize outbreaks of potentially deadly bacterial infections,” Mathews said. “We’re pleased that Excel has decided to help us integrate this technology into the production line – in essence, transforming our prototypes into a commercial system that will make whole-carcass scanning virtually automatic and practical.”
“We hope that this technology will further enhance food safety,” stated Bill Buckner, Excel Corporation’s President. “Our policy all along has been to use the best technology to produce the safest products possible, and we believe eMerge’s VerifEYE™ meat inspection system has great potential. We’re proud to be playing a pioneering role in this continuing drive to ensure beef safety by integrating this additional verification system for evaluation.”
“VerifEYE is the first tool of its kind to identify the presence of trace levels of organic contamination at the commercial level,” Mathews said. “This device – a real-time, electronically controlled optical instrument – provides workers with detailed roadmaps of contaminated areas that must be removed from freshly harvested carcasses, as well as of contamination-free areas that can be spared.”
“By agreeing to help us integrate VerifEYE™ into the production line, Excel will be making an invaluable contribution to ensure consumer confidence in our beef supply,” Mathews said. “Excel’s willingness to participate in this final stage of commercialization should not be surprising,” he added. “When it comes to quality control and food safety, Excel has always been one of the most progressive, innovative and aggressively pro-active companies in the U.S. This agreement is just one more example of its commitment to delivering beef products of the highest quality.”
The VerifEYE™ technology was developed and patented by scientists at Iowa State University and the Agricultural Research Service of the USDA and eMerge Interactive holds exclusive rights to its commercialization.
“Additional potential applications for this technology beyond the meat-packing plant include hand-scan units for use in facilities ranging from restaurants to hospitals and daycare centers,” continued Mathews. “This technology has tremendous potential for helping to improve the safety of other protein sources – including pork and poultry – both here in the U.S. and abroad.”
About eMerge Interactive
eMerge Interactive, Inc. is a technology company providing individual-animal tracking, food safety and supply procurement services to the $40 billion U.S. beef production industry. The Company's technologies primarily focus on information-management, individual animal tracking, such as CattleLog, its exclusive individual-animal data collection and reporting system that enables beef-verification and branding, and other technologies designed to enhance consumer confidence in beef safety. The Company's cattle marketing operation is the largest in the U.S. and consists of regional livestock marketing and order buying facilities, a nationwide network of cattle representatives and an online auction and brokerage service that combined have the capacity to market 4 million head of cattle annually.
About Cargill and Excel
Cargill is an international marketer, processor and distributor of agricultural, food, financial and industrial products and services with 90,000 employees in 57 countries. The company provides distinctive customer solutions in supply chain management, food applications and health and nutrition. Based in Wichita, Kan., Excel is a leader in providing innovative red meat solutions to customers and consumers.
This release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements containing words such as “anticipates,” “believes,” “expects,” “intends,” “may,” “will” and words of similar meaning. These statements involve various risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in these forward-looking statements, including the acceptance by our customers of electronic commerce as a means of conducting business, our ability to grow revenue and margins, our ability to implement our acquisition and expansion strategy, the impact of competition on pricing, the impact of litigation, general economic conditions and other factors discussed in this release and as set forth from time to time in our other public filings and public statements. Readers of this release are cautioned to consider these risks and uncertainties and to not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.