EcoPhage’s Virus-Based Biopesticide Clears US EPA for Tomato and Pepper Diseases

28 September 2026, Rehovot, Israel: Israeli agtech company EcoPhage has won United States Environmental Protection Agency approval for GoldenEco, a biopesticide built from bacteriophages, naturally occurring viruses that infect and kill specific bacteria, aimed at two of the most damaging bacterial diseases in tomato and pepper production. The approval, granted September 16, 2026, clears a major regulatory hurdle toward a commercial launch in the US market, though the product still needs state level registrations before it reaches growers’ fields.

GoldenEco targets Xanthomonas and Pseudomonas bacterial species, the pathogens behind bacterial spot and bacterial speck, two diseases that cause dark, water soaked lesions on the leaves, stems and fruit of tomato and pepper plants. Both diseases spread easily through rain splash, wind driven water and contaminated equipment, and can sharply cut marketable yield in warm, humid growing seasons. For decades, growers have leaned on copper based bactericides as their main defense, but copper resistance has built up in Xanthomonas and Pseudomonas populations in many growing regions over repeated seasons of use, steadily weakening control and pushing growers to spray more often for the same result.

How the Phage Cocktail Works

Bacteriophages, often shortened to “phages,” are viruses that attach to a specific bacterial cell, inject their genetic material, hijack the cell’s machinery to replicate, and eventually rupture the cell, killing it and releasing new phage particles to repeat the cycle. Because most phages recognize only a narrow range of bacterial strains, a single phage type would be too limited to use on its own as a crop protection product. EcoPhage’s approach is to screen phages collected from environmental samples for their “mode of infection,” meaning how each phage attaches to and enters its target bacterial cell, then characterize promising candidates using genetic and physical analysis. Phages that show strong, complementary activity against the target pathogens are combined into a multi phage cocktail, so GoldenEco can address the range of Xanthomonas and Pseudomonas strains typically found in a field rather than relying on a single mechanism a pathogen population could more easily evade.

Because phages are highly specific to their bacterial targets and do not affect the plant, beneficial insects or, according to the company, the wider soil and leaf microbial community, the approach is positioned as a more targeted alternative to broad spectrum chemical bactericides. According to EcoPhage’s announcement of the approval, field trials conducted in the United States found that GoldenEco provided superior disease control compared with conventional copper based grower practices, though the company has not yet published detailed trial data, such as disease severity ratings or yield figures, in a peer reviewed format.

EcoPhage, based in Rehovot, Israel, is a portfolio company of the Trendlines Group, an investment and incubation firm. Chief executive Guy Elitzur described the EPA decision as a milestone for the company’s plan to bring phage based crop protection to US growers. EcoPhage has said it will now focus on state registrations, commercial partnerships and grower engagement ahead of a full market launch. GoldenEco is one of two biopesticide applications EcoPhage has filed with the EPA, and the company continues to develop additional phage based products aimed at other bacterial crop diseases.

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