Blakbear

BlakBear develops a food freshness monitoring system built around sensors that are placed inside product packaging on the production line, where they continuously detect gases released by food as it spoils. Gateways read the sensors and transmit readings to the cloud automatically, and the resulting shelf-life information is presented in a web platform where users can export and compare data across products.

The company positions its approach against conventional practice, which relies on fixed date labels and on laboratory and sensory testing that it characterises as expensive, slow and wasteful. The product offering is described in three stages — in-pack sensors, automated data capture via gateways, and a real-time dashboard — with accuracy benchmarked against laboratory microbiology testing. The platform also incorporates AI models, which are demonstrated alongside the dashboard in customer demos.

Business model

BlakBear supplies a combined hardware-and-software system to food producers: in-pack sensors and reading gateways deployed at production plants, paired with a cloud dashboard that delivers shelf-life and quality data.

Traction

The company reports deployments at live production plants and cites products tested and accuracy versus laboratory microbiology on its website, though the figures are not stated numerically. It names Cranswick plc as a customer, with the company's R&D head stating that BlakBear provides roughly 1,000 times more data per product, supporting quality insight and reduced product waste.