Over 110 start-ups from across the globe applied to the Nutreco Feed&Food Tech Challenge by submitting their breakthrough innovations addressing critical challenges in the feed and food value chain. The competition acknowledges the best breakthrough innovations within livestock farming, aquaculture and NFTC’s new category, alternative food proteins.
From the 112 applications submitted, 15 finalists have been selected to advance to the next round of the competition:
- Livestock farming:
- Alternative proteins for food:
The next phase of the competition would usually involve the finalists joining a three-day final event in the Netherlands, originally planned for May 11-13, 2020. However, due to the exceptional global circumstances presented by COVID-19, this final event will be rescheduled to a new date in autumn 2020.
Nutreco’s director of venturing and NFTC jury member, Joost Matthijssen, said that “we find ourselves in challenging and uncertain times due to the COVID-19 situation. However, it does not impact Nutreco’s commitment to Feeding the Future and as such, we plan to move ahead with our Challenge. Our priority is for all finalists to be able to participate in the next phase of the competition in a safe way. As a result, we have opted to postpone the final event and organize a virtual introduction with the start-ups in May.”
The final event will offer a dynamic ‘greenhouse and pressure cooker’ environment with a pitching competition and plenty of interaction with industry experts, fellow start-ups and an international jury. The new dates for the final event will be communicated in May.
Depending on the business concept, the winner will be rewarded a suitable scientific (on-farm) validation trial, including a validation report, and/or consulting through internal or external experts on topics critical for their business.
