Chiara Di Lorenzo is a pharmacist and entrepreneur, the creator of Glutensens. A professor of food chemistry at the University of Milan, her research—driven by her vision and intuition—has led to the development of a device that promises to make social life easier—and above all safer—for people with celiac disease and gluten sensitivity. Glutensens, to be precise. Di Lorenzo is the founder of the Milanese university’s spin-off dedicated to developing a device to detect the presence of gluten (as a contaminant) in food. The technology isn’t on the market yet—it’s still in the testing phase—but experiments conducted so far, both in the lab and in the kitchen, show that it’s quite sensitive.
Glutensens: How the Idea Behind the Startup to Detect Gluten Contamination Came About
It all started, Di Lorenzo tells Wired, with a desire to make a new contribution to celiac disease research. “Although it’s quite widespread—since celiac disease affects about 1% of the population—and we all have a general idea of what it entails, when it comes to the restaurant industry, it’s still a very confusing topic. Restaurant owners don’t always know what they can and cannot offer as alternatives.” Fortunately, this isn’t always the case: the gluten-free offering has grown in recent years, even in the restaurant industry, and today there are many establishments specializing in gluten-free dining.
“But above all, personally, I was struck by the psychological dimension of the disease—that is, the fact that people with celiac disease significantly limit their social outings, fearing that situations meant to be relaxing might instead turn into moments of anxiety and stress,” Di Lorenzo continues “While conducting some interviews, in an effort to develop a practical solution that could help them in this context, I realized that the fear of contamination was among the recurring concerns, and among the main reasons leading to a reduction in social interaction among people with celiac disease.”
Di Lorenzo then wondered how she could apply her research on celiac disease—she had also worked on developing new diets with health benefits for people with celiac disease—to create something that would make restaurants (as well as cafeterias and catering services) more welcoming and inclusive. “Something useful that addressed the social aspect of life for people with celiac disease,” she confides. That something would become, thanks to a university call for proposals and the interest of CDP Venture Capital and Toseed & Partners, Glutensens: a technology to quickly and accurately detect the presence of gluten in food.
The idea is not to set aside the rules for preventing cross-contamination in the kitchen and rely solely on the results of an analytical test. The guiding principle, Di Lorenzo explains, is to provide the restaurant industry with an additional tool to protect customers—something that helps certify the establishment’s reliability in preparing and serving gluten-free dishes. This complements systems such as the certification offered by the Italian Celiac Association, which provides (to its members) a list of establishments participating in the “Alimentazione Fuori Casa” program. That said, how does Glutensens work?
Detecting traces of gluten on your plate: Glutensens technology
It all began, needless to say, with research. “I delved deeper into the study of the disease mechanism—beyond its pathogenesis—examining every single metabolic step to understand how gluten is metabolized in the intestine, with the aim of identifying a potential marker that could be utilized in some way, even indirectly,” Di Lorenzo continues. Gluten is composed of two fractions, gliadin and glutenin. “Gliadins are prolamins and represent the toxic fraction for people with celiac disease. Once ingested, the glutamine contained in gliadin is metabolized by transglutaminase, generating ammonia as a byproduct. I therefore thought we could exploit the action of this enzyme and the production of ammonia—which we can measure—to detect the presence of gluten as a contaminant in food.” This led to the first prototype of the Glutensens system, thanks in part to a collaboration with the Politecnico di Milano.
Overall, the device is about the size of a coffee maker, and inside it is a test strip onto which the food to be tested is placed. “The strip contains an electrochemical sensor capable of detecting the presence of ammonia. This signal is then processed and converted into a result that is easily readable by the restaurant owner,” the researcher continues. When the strip is placed in the system, it returns a signal—yes or no—indicating whether or not gluten is present in the food. “The system can also quantify the presence of gluten, but what matters to the restaurant owner is knowing whether gluten is present or not, that is, whether the food exceeds the gluten threshold below which it can be considered gluten-free. This threshold is 20 parts per million of gluten. Our system can detect the presence of gluten down to 3 parts per million in just one minute: the time it takes to plate a dish.”
A certification to reassure consumers
The system, tested on various dishes and under different experimental contamination conditions, is currently being refined. The goal, Di Lorenzo continues, is to make it increasingly specific for gliadin and reduce the risk of false positives (which can occur, for example, in the presence of cured meats, due to nitrites used as preservatives), and perhaps adapt the same technology in the future to the detection of allergens. “The main advantage of Glutensens is that it will provide certification throughout the entire supply chain.
Glutensens includes the qualification of suppliers and raw materials, process management, and, above all, a real-time analytical plan for dishes, traceability systems, and non-compliance management. The process concludes with a final audit and certification issued by a notified body, which can also serve as a guarantee to the consumer,” he explains. “It is therefore not just a check on the dish: the certification involves regular inspections and staff training, providing greater assurance than facilities that do not have it. Finally, this data can also be collected for research purposes, to better understand when and why contamination occurs.”
Work and testing on Glutensens are currently ongoing, with the hope that it will soon find its way into the kitchens of cafeterias and restaurants. In the meantime, the startup has received several accolades, including winning the Seed4Innovation 2022 program and the award for women’s entrepreneurship at the 2024 National Innovation Awards.
