Nulab
Spanish food-analysis technology combining a handheld near-infrared scanner with in-line hyperspectral imaging and machine-learning models, so producers can read moisture, water activity, protein and fat on the product itself in seconds instead of days.
What is Nulab?
Nulab is a Spanish food-analysis technology built around near-infrared spectroscopy and machine learning. It comes in two forms. The first is a handheld NIR device, called a gun in the company's own articles, that is pointed at the product itself. The second is a family of NIR and hyperspectral systems installed directly on the production line, measuring the whole output continuously and without contact. The physical principle is described plainly by the vendor: near-infrared light hits the sample, is altered by its composition through transmission and reflectance, and calibration algorithms turn that signal into a result.
The artificial intelligence sits in those models. One of the company's articles states that the strength of the device lies in the artificial intelligence and the programmed algorithms; a page of the company deck is titled NIR plus Artificial Intelligence. The published team includes an artificial intelligence technician and a data scientist who builds predictive machine-learning models from NIR readings and hyperspectral images. Measured parameters include moisture, water activity, protein, fat, phenolics, fungi, nitrates and nitrites, and the shelf life of fresh produce. The accuracy claimed by the vendor is a prediction error of 0.003 on water activity, below 2 percent on moisture and below 1 percent on protein, with models cross-checked against accredited official analysis methods. Three sectors are targeted: cured and cooked meat, cereals, and vegetables, including produce destined for baby food.
The commercial model is not software licensing. Nulab supplies the technology, adapts it to the customer, derives models unique to that customer, then provides ongoing support to hold the stated precision, following a five-phase method that runs from problem diagnosis to industrialisation. The pitch is explicitly a rejection of generic calibrations sold by foreign suppliers. The handheld unit pairs with a companion phone application named nuNir. The publisher is NULAB Analitica Alimentaria S.L, a Navarrese start-up that presented itself as a company of the Centro Nacional de Tecnologia y Seguridad Alimentaria.
What it does
- Measure moisture and water activity directly on the product in seconds
- Predict protein and fat content on cereals, and nitrates and nitrites on vegetables
- Analyse continuously on the production line, without contact and without stopping it
- Sort product and detect defects and foreign bodies through hyperspectral imaging
- Move quality control forward to goods reception or to the field
- Remove sample preparation and the round trip to an external laboratory
- Sample a far larger share of a batch than destructive testing allows
When to use Nulab / When not to
A quick filter to help you decide if Nulab is the right fit.
When to use Nulab
- Quality managers in meat processing who need moisture and water activity on cured and cooked products without destroying samples
- Cereal handlers checking protein, fat, moisture, phenolics or fungal load at intake rather than waiting for a laboratory
- Vegetable and baby-food processors screening for nitrates and nitrites, which few other techniques detect non-invasively
- Production and process engineers who want in-line measurement mounted on the conveyor without changing the process
- Food companies willing to run an adaptation project, since Nulab builds prediction models specific to their product and line
When not to use Nulab
- Anyone expecting self-service software: this is an instrument plus a consulting engagement, with no sign-up and no online account
- Buyers who need a published price before talking to a vendor, since no rate, tier or order of magnitude appears anywhere
- Teams wanting an off-the-shelf generic calibration, which the vendor itself explicitly rejects in favour of per-company models
- Organisations outside food and agriculture, as no other sector is claimed on any page
- Anyone who needs a working contact channel on the website, because the Contacto menu link resolves to an empty anchor
How to use Nulab
A typical end-to-end flow, from setup to results.
- Request a proposal, since there is no self-service entry point and no online sign-up
- Go through phase one, a diagnosis of the quality and safety parameters you need to monitor
- Let Nulab evaluate which technology fits, handheld NIR or in-line NIR and hyperspectral
- Run the proof of concept, in which the prediction models are developed against your specifications and accredited reference methods
- Validate the prototype device installed in your plant, then move to industrialisation
- For daily handheld use, pair the device with the nuNir application, take the reading on the product, and get the result in seconds
- For in-line use, let Nulab mount the unit on the conveyor, which the vendor says does not alter the process
- Keep the recurring service going: adjustments, recalibration and, for hyperspectral, lighting and wavelength checks on site
- Note that the Solicitar prueba buttons on the site point to an empty anchor, so contact has to go through the email printed on page 15 of the downloadable presentation
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Accuracy figures are published and repeated consistently across the homepage, an article and the company deck
- Analysis is non-destructive, so product is not lost and food waste falls
- Turnaround drops from days to seconds with no shipment to an external laboratory
- A far larger share of each batch can be sampled than with classical analytical control
- Models are built for the individual company rather than sold as generic calibrations
- The vendor is local to its market and sends its own team on site, unlike foreign suppliers it contrasts itself with
- Both spot checking with the handheld unit and continuous in-line monitoring are covered
Cons
- No public pricing at all: no rate card, no tier and no order of magnitude on the site or in either PDF
- The live site is threadbare and frozen, four pages and six articles all dating from 2021 to 2023
- No privacy policy, legal notice, terms or cookie policy is published, although Spanish law requires legal notices on a commercial site
- The Contacto menu link points to an empty anchor, leaving no working contact form, email or phone number on the site
- No social profile, no API documentation, no named integration and no declared interface language
- WordPress leftovers remain visible: the default Sample Page is still online and indexed, and an unfilled Lorem ipsum block sits on the About page
- An outbound link to a replica-watch retailer is embedded in the product copy, concealed inside a collapsed toggle with no label
Pricing & Plans
No price is published. Nulab does not operate a free plan or a paid tier, and no amount, currency or billing unit appears on any page of the website or in either of the two PDF documents it serves. An exhaustive enumeration of the site's content confirms that no pricing page exists, and the usual guessed paths all return the site's soft error page. Commercial engagement is by quotation only, through the Solicitar prueba and Solicita una propuesta calls to action. This is consistent with the nature of the offer, an instrument supplied together with a per-company adaptation project rather than a subscription product. Prospective buyers should expect a capital purchase plus a services engagement, and should obtain the full cost in writing, since nothing published allows even a range to be estimated.
Data, GDPR & hosting
A consolidated view of how Nulab handles your data.
GDPR overview
As of September 2026 the live website publishes no GDPR material whatsoever: no privacy policy, no legal notice, no cookie policy, no terms. An exhaustive enumeration of the WordPress content confirms only twelve items exist, none of them legal. The publisher is established in Navarre, Spain, so the GDPR and Spanish law LOPDGDD 3/2018 apply regardless. A legal page archived on 16 June 2021 did invoke Regulation (EU) 2016/679 explicitly, named a data protection officer and listed the five data-subject rights, but it has since been removed. The privacy page from the same capture was worse: it relied on LOPD 15/1999, repealed in 2018, and twice named an unrelated company, Aticus, betraying a template reused from another client. No DPA, no subprocessor list, no impact assessment has ever been published.
Who owns the data?
Nothing on the live site answers this question. Nulab publishes no terms and conditions, no privacy policy and no legal notice, so there is no clause anywhere stating who owns the measurement data the instrument produces. The only document ever found is the legal page captured by the Wayback Machine on 16 June 2021 and removed since. It names NULAB Analitica Alimentaria S.L (tax ID B71391668) as data controller, states that data are handled confidentially, and covers only the personal data of website visitors. It says nothing about ownership of analytical results, spectra or calibration models. Treat data ownership as undocumented and settle it contractually before any deployment.
Reuse rights
No current document grants or restricts reuse, because the live site carries no terms at all. The 2021 archived legal page addressed only visitor data: consent to answer enquiries, plus legitimate interest for commercial relations and marketing messages, with the right to withdraw consent in writing. That same page contains a contradiction worth knowing about. It first states that no data are transferred to third countries, then states that form data sit on Mailchimp servers (The Rocket Science Group LLC) and Microsoft servers in the United States, under the EU-US Privacy Shield, a framework already struck down by the Schrems II ruling of July 2020. On reuse of measurement data by either party, nothing is written.
Data retention & training
Hosting summary
The live site says nothing about where data are hosted. Network lookups place the website itself on 185.49.186.55, in the Tecnocratica Centro de Datos network in Madrid, Spain, and route the domain's mail through Microsoft 365; these are technical observations, not vendor statements. The only hosting declaration ever published appears in the legal page archived on 16 June 2021, which stated that data submitted through website forms sat on Mailchimp servers (The Rocket Science Group LLC) and Microsoft servers in the United States, under the EU-US Privacy Shield, a framework already invalidated in July 2020. The same page asserted, one paragraph earlier, that no transfers to third countries took place. Nothing has ever been published about where the measurement data produced by the instrument are stored, which is why no hosting country is recorded for the product itself.
Things to keep in mind
Risks and trade-offs to weigh before adopting Nulab.
- The site offers no working way to contact the company: the Contacto link resolves to an empty section with no form, email or phone number
- An outbound link to a replica-watch retailer is inserted into the product paragraph on the homepage, hidden inside a collapsed toggle with no label, which points to a covert link placement or a compromised installation
- No legal document is published at all, so a buyer has nothing in writing on liability, data ownership, retention or transfers before signing
- The company details circulating for Nulab, including its registered name, address, phone number and email addresses, come from a page removed from the site years ago and should be verified before any correspondence
- The archived privacy policy named an unrelated company and rested on a Spanish law repealed in 2018, so old copies of it should not be relied on either
- Headcount and customer-base figures quoted around Nulab describe the wider technology centre it belongs to rather than Nulab itself, whose own deck shows two executives
- Accuracy is vendor-stated and unaudited: models calibrated for one product and process should not be assumed valid for another without revalidation, and an over-trusted reading on a food-safety parameter such as water activity carries real consumer risk
Setup & Integrations
Technical difficulty
Setup is not self-service. Nulab runs a five-phase project before industrial use: diagnosis, technology selection, proof of concept in which the prediction models are developed, prototype, then industrialisation. The vendor installs and calibrates on site, and returns for recurring maintenance, including lighting and wavelength checks on hyperspectral units. The burden on the customer is therefore project time and sample provision rather than technical skill. Day-to-day operation is presented as simple: pair the device with the nuNir application, take the reading, read the result. In-line units are mounted on the conveyor without altering the process, according to the vendor.
Deployment
Behind Nulab
Resources
All the official URLs gathered for verification and reference.
Frequently asked questions
What does the Nulab device actually measure?
How accurate does Nulab claim to be?
Where does the artificial intelligence come in?
Does the sample need to be prepared or destroyed?
Is it a handheld device or a production-line system?
Which industries is it aimed at?
How much does it cost?
Is there an API?
Is there a mobile application?
How do you get in touch with Nulab?
Should you pick Nulab?
Nulab is a case where the technology reads far better than the shop window. The substance is credible: a clearly explained physical principle, machine-learning models cross-checked against accredited reference methods, accuracy figures repeated consistently across three separate documents, three named target sectors, and a deliberate positioning against generic calibrations sold by foreign suppliers. For a meat, cereal or vegetable processor that currently ships samples to a laboratory and waits days for a result, the promise is concrete and the parameters listed are the ones that matter.
The website telling that story, however, has decayed badly. It carries four pages and six articles, none newer than 2023. It publishes no price, no terms, no privacy policy, no legal notice and no cookie policy, although a commercial Spanish site is legally required to display legal notices. Its Contacto link leads to an empty anchor, so there is no working way to reach the company from the site itself; the only address still served sits on page 15 of a downloadable PDF. WordPress leftovers are still online, including the default sample page and an unfilled Lorem ipsum block. Most troubling, a link to a replica-watch retailer has been slipped into the product copy inside a collapsed, unlabelled toggle, which is either a covert paid placement or a sign the site has been tampered with.
The company itself is demonstrably still trading, with a corporate filing recorded as recently as mid-2026 and a live careers portal. So the sensible reading is that the offer is real but the web presence is neglected. Anyone interested should treat the site as a brochure, verify the published contact details independently, and settle pricing, data ownership and retention contractually, because none of the three is documented anywhere.
- Choosing a selection results in a full page refresh.
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