A novel bio-controlling pre-harvest method to eliminate the mycotoxins contamination in agri-food sector

Mycotoxins are toxic molecules produced by different fungal strains such as Aspergillus, Fusarium and Penicillium that mainly affect grains both in the pre and postharvest stages. One of them, aflatoxin, is one of the most hazardous toxins for human health, and till date there is no solution to control it through a sustainable way. Ideagro is a 9-year experienced company which main activity is R&D focused on the agrifood sector. Our R&D efforts have found that a Trichoderma koningiopsis strain fungus (IDE-Tri1) is able to control the aforenamed fungi and toxins in cereals crops in a preharvest stage. Thus, in the wake of these investigation works, FREEMYCO is born as the unique bio-fungicide active substance that have shown its absolute effectiveness for Aspergillus fungi and consequently aflatoxin in cereal crops during pre-harvest stage, for both conventional and organic agriculture. It will be able to control also remaining mycotoxins which are less harmful. controlling the mycotoxins, as it has been successfully tested through in vitro and in vivo tests. FREEMYCO is a great economic opportunity (cumulative profit of €11.47M in three years after its launching) to take advantages of a natural product for facing a serious problem for agriculture, food quality/security and human health in a sustainable way. Our target customers are the largest phytosanitary producers’ firms. We consider that through a B2B business approach we will be successful to penetrating into the highly competitive global bio-pesticide market and ensure our product selling. This Feasibility Study’s goal is to deepen in those key points to assess the economic, technical and commercial viability of FREEMYCO (including in vivo trial and end final product formulation) to tackle this challenge for us to scale-up.