Cox Technologies' FreshTag Selected for Popular Science Magazine's ``Best of What's New'' Award for 1999

Business Wire, Nov 10, 1999

BELMONT, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 10, 1999--

COX Technologies (OTCBB:COXT) Wednesday announced that its FreshTag(TM) product was chosen to receive a "Best of What's New" award from Popular Science magazine.

COX Technologies will participate in an awards ceremony and exhibition today, Nov. 10, 1999, at Tavern on the Green restaurant in New York City's Central Park.

Each year, the editors of Popular Science select 100 products for distinction as the "Best of What's New." The editors annually review thousands of new products, technology developments and scientific achievements. The 1999 winners, including COX Technologies' FreshTag, are featured in the cover story of Popular Science's December 1999 issue. Further, FreshTag was one of just five products among the top 100 featured on Monday's Good Morning America program.

FreshTag is a new technology for the food industry that can detect decomposition in seafood and other protein products. It is currently in commercial testing at several U.S. food companies.

"It is a great honor to be chosen for this award by Popular Science," said Dr. James L. Cox, chief executive officer of COX Technologies. "This award is one more validation of this exciting technology. Currently, we are exploring the full range of applications in food processing, inspection, and eventual consumer packaging."

COX Technologies of Belmont, an industry leader in temperature and humidity monitoring systems for perishable commodities, acquired the FreshTag technology last year from an FDA laboratory. Earlier this year, the inventors of the technology, Dwight Miller, Ph.D., and Jon Wilkes, Ph.D., won two prestigious awards: the 1999 Award of Merit (the FDA's highest honor) and the 1999 Award for Excellence in Technology Transfer from the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer.

COX has also developed a new Rapid Detection Device to be used in conjunction with the tag to enable a quantity of seafood to be tested using only a small sample.

How it works

FreshTags(TM) are small, round chips about the size of a quarter. Each FreshTag(TM) has a small hole on the reverse side to allow vapors to diffuse into the tag through a wick that contains a non-toxic, dye-based formula. As the gases from the seafood move through the wick and intermingle with the chemicals, a gradual color change is produced in the tag. The color will migrate up the wick "thermometer style" -- the greater the migration, the greater the decomposition. The string color will change from yellow to dark blue. Tags will be customized for specific products being tested. FreshTag(TM) will initially be available for the commercial market, with consumer applications set to follow in late year 2000. The consumer version of FreshTag(TM) will be applied directly to packaging and give consumers a "slow read" from one to five days depending on the product being tested.

Information about FreshTag and other COX Technologies products is available at the company's Web site: www.cx-en.com.

Statements in this news release about future results are preliminary and based on partial information and assumptions, and actual results may differ. Except for historical information presented, the matters discussed in this announcement contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including the development and growth of markets targeted by COX Technologies, the acceptance of time/temperature monitoring recorders by customers, the impact of competition, government regulations, general economic conditions in the United Sates and abroad, and other risks detailed from time to time in the company's public disclosure filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.