It has increased its sales by 14 in 2009 EUR 6

Check the presentation of sushi, detecting the fruity odour, control the contamination of the products from the sea by the oil spill américaine nose and languages manufactured by Alpha MOS found licensee everywhere in the world. These electronic appendices measure odours and tastes in the agri-food, environment, cosmetics and pharmacy. The Toulouse SMEs with 70 employees, coming also to develop the first eye artificial ("Les Echos" of July 9 and 10), owns 70 of the world market.

To get this far, Alpha MOS devotes 15 of its turnover in research and development. Its founding CEO, Jean-Christophe Mifsud, is a chemical, a PhD in neurochemistry and an MBA graduate engineer. He created Alpha MOS in 1993 with a partner in raising EUR 1 million from venture capitalists. To finance his research, he introduced the company on Euronext in 1998, rising, since then, 11.5 million. In 2008, he bought Périchrom which complements its offer by making chromatographs.

"I was surprised to see that, in groups such as l ' Oréal or Renault, there is many panelists that measure the sensory aspect of objects, he says." This gave me the idea to develop an electronic instrument of odours by coupling chemical sensors, gas and liquids to pattern recognition software. "Alpha MOS has created its first electronic nose in 1994 and its first language in 1999. The company employs three doctors in mathematics, computer scientists and chemists that make up complex algorithms, allowing the nose to characterize odours flower, earthy, mouldy, green, etc. "there are 34 items of description of Apple juice!", is the CEO. The electronic language measure five major taste: savoury, the sweet, bitterness, acidity and the umami, a flavour enhancer linked to cooked meat. "But 90 of the perception of what you eat comes from the nose, the language accounts for only 4 and the rest comes from the view," said Jean-Christophe Mifsud.

Alpha MOS sold 1,400 instruments in the world in the agri-food and the packaging in plastic (50), hygiene products, pharmacy and environmental odours of the stations of purification and waste. The company has also developed an electronic eye to measure our look at food, Japanese supermarkets have ordered 40 copies. The DGA entrusted a EUR 2.5 million research contract to create a transportable chemical agent detector by the military. Society has sold electronic nose at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) after the oil spill and has won a contract for 1 million euros with the Chinese environmental agency to equip it with 60 electronic nose, complete weather data, which provide the dispersion of odours. Alpha MOS has three subsidiaries in the United States, China, to the Japan and open one in India in October. It is 30 of its turnover in the United States, about 20 in China and the Japan, but only 5 in France. It has increased its sales by 14 in 2009, EUR 6.5 million, and expects to reach 9 to 10 million by 2010 with the recent recognition of its electronic nose by Ademe, Ineris and the FDA.