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Congress Grants Food and Drug Administration Enhanced Powers to Prevent Food-Borne Illnesses
Micro Imaging Technology's MIT 1000 Rapid Microbial Identification System Is a Cost-Effective Solution for Rapid Microbial Identification; With the FDA's New Enforcement Authority and Ability to Impose Beefed-Up Civil and Criminal Penalties, Companies Now Have Much Greater Incentive to Regularly Test Potential Bacteria and Ensure Inventories Are Free of Pathogen Contamination
| Source: Micro Imaging Technology, Inc.
SAN CLEMENTE, CA--(Marketwire - August 11, 2009) - Micro Imaging Technology, Inc. (OTCBB : MMTC ) asserted today that its MIT 1000 Rapid Microbial Identification
System is an ideal, operator-friendly and cost-effective solution for
companies establishing enhanced food safety standards within their
facilities to comply with and prepare for the House's recent enactment of
enhanced food safety standards, and the resulting increased inspection and
enforcement activities being planned by the Food and Drug Administration.
On July 30, 2009, the United States Congress approved the first significant
changes to food-safety laws in over 70 years, giving broad new authority to
the FDA to regulate the way food is grown, harvested, processed and
delivered. These changes are officially known as the Food-Safety
Modernization Act of 2009 (aka the Food Safety Bill), and were implemented
in response to the numerous outbreaks that have affected our food supply
here in the U.S. over the past few years.
If the Bill is enacted by the Senate after their August recess, as
President Obama has already given it his verbal thumbs up, it would be the
first major overhaul of food laws since 1938 when Congress gave the FDA
limited power to "oversee" the safety of most foods, as well as drugs and
cosmetics. Today, however, the U.S. food supply chain has grown
increasingly complex.
The legislation requires the FDA to sharply step up inspections. It also
gives the FDA significant authority to contain outbreaks of food-borne
illnesses. The agency would be able to recall food if contamination is
suspected, instead of relying on the food maker to act voluntarily as they
have in the past.
The FDA will also get new enforcement powers and the ability to impose
beefed-up civil and criminal penalties. One provision allows the agency to
declare food "adulterated" simply if the grower or manufacturer has failed
to follow safety standards, regardless of whether the food is actually
tainted.
According to a July 31 article in the Washington Post
(www.washingtonpost.com), the action by Congress follows a wave of
food-borne illnesses over the past three years, involving products as
varied as spinach and cookie dough. Declining consumer confidence made the
issue a priority for congressional leaders and the White House. The article
points to government statistics that show food illnesses sicken one in four
Americans and kill 5,000 each year and that tainted food has cost the food
industry billions of dollars in recalls, lost sales and legal expenses.
The bill's author, Representative John D. Dingell (D-Michigan), has been
pushing for changes in food safety for years and stated, "Americans are
dying because the Food and Drug Administration does not have authority to
protect them, and American producers and agriculture are being hurt."
President Obama praised the Bill as well, saying, "This action represents a
major step forward modernizing our food safety system and protecting
Americans from food borne illness."
As MMTC reported in a June 6, 2009 press release, after approximately one
year of exhaustive testing of its revolutionary MIT 1000 System, it has
received the AOAC Research Institute's (AOAC RI) Performance Test
Method™ (PTM) certification for the system's identification of Listeria.
MMTC is currently adding E. Coli and Salmonella certifications, and earlier
-- through numerous independent tests -- proved the system's ability to
identify the most dangerous and pervasive pathogens: E. coli; Listeria;
Salmonella, and; Staphylococcus aureus (aka Staph). Twenty other bacteria
were also identified through these tests.
According to the Chairman of Micro Imaging Technology, Michael Brennan,
"The AOAC RI certification is the highest standard achievable for food
safety inspection. We're confident that this endorsement will go a long way
towards our efforts to take a significant piece of the rapid identification
market share. As will the work we did with other laboratories, including
the USDA and NAMSA."
The MIT 1000 System performs rapid and low-cost microbial identifications
via a process that is entirely unique compared to all other currently
employed pathogen identification techniques. It does not rely on chemical
or biological agents, conventional processing, fluorescent tags, gas
chromatography or DNA analysis. The MIT 1000 System's process is totally
GREEN, as it only requires clean water and a sample of the unknown bacteria
in question. MMTC plans to target the food industry in the U.S. initially
where over $3 billion is spent in rapid bacterial identification testing
annually; a number that is rising at a rate of nearly 10 percent per year.
ABOUT MICRO IMAGING TECHNOLOGY, INC.:
Micro Imaging Technology ("MMTC") is a California-based public company that
has developed and patented a rapid microbial identification system that can
revolutionize the pathogenic recognition process and has the potential to
save thousands of lives and tens of millions of dollars annually. The
System identifies bacteria in minutes, not days, and at a significant per
test cost savings when compared to any conventional method. Revenues for
all rapid testing methods currently available exceed $5 billion annually,
with food-safety accounting for over $3 billion of that -- a number that
has expanded at a rate of 9.2 percent annually since 1998. Future growth
projections are closer to 30 percent annually, with test demands driven by
major health, safety and homeland security issues, as well as the pending
Food Safety Bill.
The MIT 1000 System has numerous applications including food quality
control, clinical diagnostics, pharmaceutical quality assurance,
semiconductor processing control and water quality monitoring. MMTC has
chosen to focus initial efforts on food safety as recent events have
created an urgent demand for quicker and more cost-effective testing;
demands that promote a high-value return on any MMTC's technology
investment.
Interested parties are encouraged to visit MMTC's corporate Web site:
www.micro-imaging.com
This release contains statements that are forward-looking in nature.
Statements that are predictive in nature, that depend upon or refer to
future events or conditions or that include words such as "expects,"
"anticipates," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," and similar
expressions are forward-looking statements. These statements are made based
upon information available to the Company as of the date of this release,
and we assume no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements.
These statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual
results could differ materially from our current expectations. Factors that
could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited
to dependence on suppliers; short product life cycles and reductions in
unit selling prices; delays in development or shipment of new products;
lack of market acceptance of our new products or services; inability to
continue to develop competitive new products and services on a timely
basis; introduction of new products or services by major competitors; our
ability to attract and retain qualified employees; inability to expand our
operations to support increased growth; and declining economic conditions,
including a recession. These and other factors and risks associated with
our business are discussed from time to time within our filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission.