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PURE Bioscience Provides Update: Expanding Use of PURE Control® Antimicrobial in Produce Processing; Expanding Use of PURE® Hard Surface Disinfectant
[February 28, 2018]

PURE Bioscience Provides Update: Expanding Use of PURE Control® Antimicrobial in Produce Processing; Expanding Use of PURE® Hard Surface Disinfectant


PURE Bioscience, Inc. (OTCQB: PURE), creator of the patented non-toxic silver dihydrogen citrate (SDC) antimicrobial, provided an update on the expanded use of FDA approved PURE Control® antimicrobial for application directly onto produce during processing and the expanded use of PURE Hard Surface disinfectant.

PURE Control - Produce Update

The first customer for PURE Control, Taylor Farms, is North America's largest supplier of salads, fresh-cut vegetables and healthy fresh foods. It serves leading customers in the foodservice, retail produce, and retail deli segments of the fresh business.

  • In the fall of 2017, Taylor Farms began a pilot test applying PURE Control as an added intervention step on one processing line in its Salinas, CA (News - Alert), plant to eliminate pathogens causing foodborne illness, including E. coli, Listeria, and Salmonella.
  • The processor conducted extensive use validation studies (including efficacy and organoleptic), on the way to evaluating the use of PURE Control in its US processing plant network.
  • Processors typically seek a 1 log reduction* in pathogens from an intervention or processing aid. Testing at produce processors, including Taylor Farms, consistently exceeded expectations, indicating pathogen reductions averaging 3 logs - or 99.9%.
  • Earlier this month, Taylor Farms expanded its use of PURE Control to a second line in the first plant, initiated installation on multiple lines in a second plant in Salinas, CA, and developed plans to expand to a third plant in calendar Q2. These plants supply produce to leading foodservice chains as well as to retailers.

*Log reduction is a mathematical term used to show the relative number of live microbes eliminated from a surface by disinfecting or cleaning. A 2-Log reduction can be best illustrated as having two zeros, meaning the number of germs is 100 times smaller.

A growing number of produce processors continue to be in various stages of testing PURE Control, and testing results to date have been positive. These processors supply fresh and/or frozen produce. The sales cycle for PURE Control for each customer will continue to involvevarying amounts of validation and optimization testing by those customers.



The Company estimates that sales of PURE Control to the average produce processing plant can generate approximately $1 million in annual sales per plant/year.

Expanding Use - PURE Hard Surface


Food Transport

  • As previously announced, PURE's new truck sanitization solution (using PURE® Hard Surface disinfectant) is being rolled out by one of the largest foodservice distribution companies.
  • Several other large food transport companies are in various stages of testing.

Restaurants

  • Beginning early in calendar Q2, use of PURE Hard Surface will be rolled out by a blue chip national casual dining chain.

Processing/Manufacturing

  • In addition to PURE Control, Taylor Farms has been PURE's leading adopter of PURE Hard Surface for environmental and surface disinfection in its processing plants, and is currently using it in a growing majority of its 14 plant network. Within each plant, additional applications are being added regularly (including the Company's food transport sanitization solution).
  • The Company continues to on board additional food processing/manufacturing plants (most recently two household name national brands) while expanding applications within its customer portfolio of 70+ food processors.

Hank R. Lambert, CEO of PURE, said, "While slower than first anticipated, the validation that comes from industry leading Taylor Farms expanding the use of PURE Control gives us confidence that our revenue growth will accelerate. We believe this is the start of our meaningful penetration into the $300+ million US produce processing aids market.

"In addition, because of Taylor Farms preeminence, we believe its validation of PURE Control will encourage others in the produce processing industry to move more quickly.

"We are also encouraged by the growing momentum for PURE Hard Surface among food transport companies, food processors and restaurant chains," concluded Lambert.

About PURE Bioscience, Inc.

PURE Bioscience, Inc. is focused on developing and commercializing our proprietary antimicrobial products primarily in the food safety arena -- providing solutions to the health and environmental challenges of pathogen and hygienic control. Our technology platform is based on patented stabilized ionic silver, and our initial products contain silver dihydrogen citrate, or SDC. SDC is a broad-spectrum, non-toxic antimicrobial agent, which offers 24-hour residual protection and formulates well with other compounds. As a platform technology, SDC is distinguished from existing products in the marketplace because of its superior efficacy, reduced toxicity and it mitigates bacterial resistance. PURE is headquartered in El Cajon, California (San Diego metropolitan area). Additional information on PURE is available at www.purebio.com.

Forward-looking Statements

Any statements contained in this press release that do not describe historical facts may constitute forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements inherently involve risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from any forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, the Company's failure to implement or otherwise achieve the benefits of its proposed business initiatives and plans; acceptance of the Company's current and future products and services in the marketplace, including the Company's ability to convert successful evaluations and tests for PURE Control into customer orders and customers continuing to place product orders as expected and to expand their use of the Company's products and Taylor Farms' willingness to continue to roll out PURE Control throughout its US processing plants; the ability of the Company to develop effective new products and receive required regulatory approvals for such products, including the required data and regulatory approvals required to use its SDC-based technology as a direct food contact processing aid in raw meat processing and to expand its use in OLR poultry processing; competitive factors, including customer acceptance of the Company's SDC-based products that are typically more expensive than existing treatment chemicals; dependence upon third-party vendors, including to manufacture its products; the Company's ability to raise additional funds to support its operations; and other risks detailed in the Company's periodic report filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC (News - Alert)), including its Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended July 31, 2017 and Form 10-Q for the first fiscal quarter ended October 31, 2017. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. By making these forward-looking statements, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these statements for revisions or changes after the date of this release.


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