What FREMONTA does

FREMONTA Corporation is a privately held food safety technology company headquartered in San Jose, California, that develops and commercializes the MicroTally family of non-destructive surface sampling devices used to detect pathogens such as Salmonella and E. coli O157:H7 in food products, primarily beef trim. The product line spans manual tools (MicroTally Swab, Mitt, MicroMitt, MicroCap Sampler) and an automated MicroTally Continuous Sampling Device (CSD) system with consumable cartridges and baseplates that mount on conveyors and chutes to continuously monitor microbiological flora deviations along the product stream. The core technology was co-developed with the USDA Agricultural Research Service under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA), is protected by five granted US utility patents and corresponding international filings, and has been validated across 1,650 matched samples at six commercial beef processing plants.

FREMONTA generates revenue through direct hardware and consumable sales of MicroTally devices to food processing companies, primarily in the beef and meat processing vertical, with secondary expansion potential into low-moisture food producers (nuts, powders). Products are sold via the company website and sales representatives, shipped through UPS to the US, Canada, and US Territories, and the company does not accept returns due to sterility requirements. Pricing is not publicly disclosed and customers are directed to sales contacts. The company is ISO 9001:2015 certified and has received USDA-FSIS Letters of No Objection, a 2019 FLC Excellence in Technology Transfer Award, and a 2020 USDA-ARS Technology Transfer Award. The most significant commercial catalyst is the USDA FSIS decision, effective February 1, 2023, to replace the legacy N60 excision method with MicroTally-based non-destructive cloth sampling for beef trim testing, which positions the technology as a regulatory-aligned standard in the US beef processing industry.

Name

FREMONTA

Legal name

FREMONTA Corporation

Website

https://fremonta.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2020

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

FREMONTA Corporation is a privately held food safety technology company that designs and sells the MicroTally line of non-destructive sampling devices for pathogen detection in beef trim and other food products, sold directly to USDA-inspected meat and food processors.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Food Safety Testing Equipment

akta.pro primary industry

Surface Swab Testing & Contact Plate Sampling Services (AFALAEAC)

akta.pro secondary industries

Environmental Pathogen Monitoring Programs (Listeria, Salmonella, STEC) (AFALAEAA), Biological Hazard Risk Assessment (Pathogens, Spoilage Organisms) (AFALAOAA)

Keywords

• Food safety sampling devices
• Pathogen detection equipment
• Microbiological sampling tools
• Beef trim testing devices
• Non-destructive sampling systems

Headquarters

HQ city

Fremont

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Supply Chain, Operations, Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Hardware Sales - Sampling Devices: FREMONTA generates revenue through the sale of physical sampling devices and consumables including the MicroTally Swab, MicroTally Mitt, MicroTally MicroMitt, MicroTally MicroCap Sampler, CSD Cartridges, and CSD Baseplates. The company sells directly to food processing companies and ships products via UPS. Due to sterility requirements, the company does not offer refunds or exchanges.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

FREMONTA designs, manufactures, and sells proprietary non-destructive food safety sampling devices under the MicroTally brand (including the MicroTally Swab, Mitt, MicroMitt, MicroCap Sampler, and the Continuous Sampling Device (CSD) Swab System with cartridges and baseplates). These devices enable food processing companies to detect pathogens such as E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella in beef trim and other food products more effectively than traditional destructive N60 excision methods. The products are sold directly to beef and meat processing companies in the United States, Canada, and U.S. Territories.

Product overview

FREMONTA is a food safety technology company offering the MicroTally® family of sampling devices designed for non-destructive pathogen detection in food products. The portfolio includes manual sampling devices (MicroTally® Swab, Mitt, MicroMitt™, MicroCap™ Sampler) and the automated MicroTally® Continuous Sampling Device (CSD) system with its cartridges and baseplates. The products work by continuously monitoring deviations in microbiological flora along product streams to indicate pathogen risk, providing superior detection compared to traditional N60 excision methods. Three products are still in development: the Mobile Continuous Sampling Device, the Powered Sampling Device (Smart Sampler™), and the Frozen Sampling System. The company also sells sampling products under the MicroTally sub-brand through microtally.com.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• MicroTally: Food safety sampling device brand including MicroTally Swab, MicroTally Mitt, MicroTally MicroMitt, MicroTally MicroCap Sampler, MicroTally Continuous Sampling Device (CSD) Swab System, CSD Cartridges, CSD Baseplates, Mobile Continuous Sampling Device, Powered Sampling Device (Smart Sampler), and Frozen Sampling System.

Products and services

• MicroTally Swab Handheld non-destructive cloth-based surface sampling device for detection of E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella in beef trim. Validated for use with GENE-UP and Bax molecular analysis systems. Covered by US patent 10,935,535 and international equivalents.
• MicroTally Mitt Mitt-shaped manual sampling device for non-destructive surface sampling of beef trim and combos. Covered by US patent 10,935,535.
• MicroTally MicroMitt Compact hand-covering sampling device for surface sampling applications in food safety quality control. Covered by US patent 10,935,535.
• MicroTally MicroCap Sampler Specialized cap-shaped sampling device covered by foreign design registrations in EU, UK and other foreign jurisdictions.
• MicroTally Continuous Sampling Device (CSD) Swab System Automated continuous sampling system using cloth cartridges mounted on 30-cm-wide conveyors or chutes to provide non-destructive inline sampling of beef trim with organism recovery equivalent to or better than N60 Excision and N60 Plus methods. Covered by US patent 10,663,446.
• MicroTally CSD Cartridges Consumable cloth cartridges for the Continuous Sampling Device system, designed for mounting on 30-cm-wide conveyors. Covered by US patent 10,663,446.
• MicroTally CSD Baseplates Mounting baseplate components for attaching the Continuous Sampling Device system to processing equipment such as conveyors. Covered by US patent 10,663,446.

Quantifiable outcome

• Continuous Sampling Device (CSD) showed 9.2% Salmonella prevalence vs. 6.0% for N60 Excision in experiments with natural contamination
• +3 more outcomes

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration2 records

Feature9 records

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• Beef Industry Food Safety Summit (BIFSCo)minorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2019FREMONTA was selected for an oral presentation at BIFSCo 2019 where Dr. Hua Yang presented MicroTally research on E. coli O157 detection. The company also received public endorsement from USDA FSIS Head Administrator Dr. Kiecker at the conference.
• USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2018FREMONTA and USDA-ARS scientists (Dr. Tommy Wheeler, Dr. Terry Arthur, Dr. Hua Yang, Mr. Hoffmann) co-developed the MicroTally sampling technology through a Cooperative Research and Developmental Agreement (CRADA), renewed in 2018. This partnership produced multiple utility patents and resulted in USDA-ARS winning two technology transfer awards. The collaboration validated MicroTally-based sampling across 1,650 matched samples in six commercial beef processing plants.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Charm Sciences: Privately held food-safety diagnostics company offering rapid test kits and ATP-based hygiene monitoring for meat, dairy, produce, and processed-food manufacturers. Direct competitor in pathogen and sanitation testing consumables sold to food-plant quality teams.
• Hygiena: Specialty food-safety testing company selling ATP hygiene monitoring swabs, PCR-based pathogen detection, and rapid test kits to food processors. Highly comparable in its focus on rapid, easy-to-use sampling/detection consumables sold to quality managers in food plants.
• bioMérieux: Global leader in in vitro diagnostics and food pathogen detection, owner of the GENE-UP and Bax System molecular-analysis platforms with which FREMONTA's MicroTally Swab is validated. bioMérieux is both a technology integration partner and a direct competitor in the broader food-safety pathogen detection workflow.
• Neogen Corporation: Public food safety and animal safety company offering pathogen detection kits, sanitation monitoring, and molecular diagnostics for meat, dairy, and produce processors. Direct competitor in pathogen detection consumables and lab-based food-safety testing workflows.

Broad incumbents

• Eurofins Scientific: World-leading food testing laboratory network offering microbiological, molecular, and chemical testing services to food producers. Overlaps with FREMONTA's downstream workflow on the analytical side, and competes for food-processor testing budgets.
• Bio-Rad Laboratories: Life science company with a food-science division offering iQ-Check PCR-based pathogen detection kits for Salmonella, Listeria, and E. coli O157:H7. Comparable in providing lab-based molecular detection workflows into which FREMONTA sampling devices feed.
• Mérieux NutriSciences: Global food testing and consulting services provider related to bioMérieux, offering microbiological, chemical, and allergen testing for food processors. Comparable in the food-safety testing value chain, particularly in delivering pathogen testing services to meat and processed-food customers.
• 3M Food Safety: Division of 3M offering a broad portfolio of pathogen detection, hygiene monitoring, and indicator organism tests for the food industry. A much larger incumbent that overlaps with FREMONTA in food-plant sampling and testing consumables but as part of a far wider product range.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about FREMONTA