(FORTUNE Small Business) – Most companies can't get away with treating their customers like cattle. But eMerge Interactive will do just that when it takes the technology it has been using in the beef industry and offers it to food-service workers in hospitals and restaurants. Since August 2003, the Sebastian, Fla., company has sold fluorescent scanners that meatpackers use to detect bacteria and other pathogens in cow carcasses. When those clients started asking if the scanners would work on hands—the next point of contamination in the food system—eMerge saw an opportunity. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that proper hand-washing could eliminate as many as one-third of the outbreaks of food-borne illness.

eMerge's wall-mounted version of the scanner, which uses the same fluorescent technology and is due out in 2005, resembles a hand dryer: Workers pass their hands under it after washing, and the scanner shows whether they are clean enough to handle food. While the company envisions its new product in fast-food restaurants and grocery stores, it will first target the early adopters that can afford to pay for such technology—most likely hospital cafeterias. —M.O.