Berlin gets it right: rapid tests for safer food
Berlin, 25.08.2025 - Healthy eating starts with fresh, local ingredients, balanced nutrition and reliable products on supermarket shelves. But while vitamins, proteins and minerals are essential to a good diet, one thing should never make its way onto the plate: mold toxins. Aiming to help make food safer, Berlin-based SAFIA Technologies GmbH has developed a rapid test for mycotoxin analysis. The young company’s test kits quickly detect mycotoxins – harmful byproducts of molds – in foods such as wheat, corn, hazelnuts, raisins, pepper, cocoa and wine.
Founded in 2022 by Peter Carl and Timm Schwaar, SAFIA launched its first kit in May 2023 Within months, it secured IMD Berlin and the German armed forces as early customers. The momentum continued in January 2024 with a distribution partnership with Sysmex Partec,international expansion, and the Deep Tec Award. Since October 2024, the company has also been supported by the European Union as it advances its platform to identify newly emerging mycotoxins.
Mycotoxins – produced by common molds such as Aspergillus, Penicillium and Fusarium – can develop under poor storage conditions and pose serious health risks, from neurological damage and weakened immunity to hormone disruption and liver toxicity. Mycotoxins also pose an increased risk of cancer.
SAFIA’s multiplex test kits offer a fast and user-friendly way to identify multiple toxins in a single analysis, helping food and feed producers meet EU safety standards. The kits include a reader device and proprietary evaluation software, SAFIA-Score, making complex diagnostics both accessible and precise. To round out its offer, SAFIA also provides training and tailored consulting – an end-to-end service for food and feed analytics. The company’s mission is to reduce product recalls and make both domestic and global food chains safer and more reliable, protecting consumers locally and globally. From its base in Berlin, SAFIA is combining innovation and precision to make global food safety more reliable.