Around a third of all food produced for people is lost or wasted.
Long before fresh produce looks or smells spoiled, it releases a faint, shifting mix of molecules. Olfactos is a deep-tech company that reads this scent signature to catch spoilage early, far ahead of the eye or nose. We are building from the Netherlands, at the heart of one of the world's most advanced agrifood ecosystems.
To make food-waste prevention proactive instead of reactive. By reading the scent signature that produce releases as it begins to spoil, we help growers, packers and distributors act while there is still time, reducing waste, protecting margins and cutting the emissions tied to discarded food.
A fresh-produce supply chain that can read the condition of its own products in real time. We see a future where every batch carries a reliable, data-driven forecast of how long it will last, turning shelf-life from a guess into a measurable signal the whole chain can plan around.
Every fruit and vegetable gives off a changing mix of volatile molecules as it ripens and begins to decay. Olfactos captures this scent signature with standard sensing hardware and turns it into reliable spoilage prediction through a proprietary signal and machine-learning layer, with no expensive or fragile laboratory instruments.
A non-intrusive sensing module built on standard, field-proven components, designed to sit alongside produce wherever it is stored or moved.
A signal-processing layer that turns noisy real-world readings into a stable signal, paired with a real-time interface that lets you watch the VOC patterns as they change.
Lightweight models that run on the device itself, learning the scent signature of spoilage for each crop and growing more accurate with every deployment.
We validate Olfactos in the field, alongside the people who handle fresh produce every day.
Our focus is building and integrating the sensing node with our software.
A pilot test with De Laat to validate Olfactos in real conditions.
We are not actively hiring just yet, but we are always glad to meet people who share our mission of cutting food waste. As we grow, one of the first roles we expect to open is a molecular analyst to help expand our scent-signature work. If that sounds like you, we would love to stay in touch.
Future role: Molecular analystWhether you handle fresh produce, invest in deep tech, or just want to learn more, we would love to hear from you.