The Dutch fish feed and animal nutrition group has just opened the 2022 Nutreco Feed & Food Tech Challenge (NFFTC).
Start-ups across the globe are invited to submit their applications. The contest, which was held for the first time in 2017, focuses on breakthrough innovations within livestock farming, aquaculture and alternative food proteins.
The winning start-up receives a scientific validation trial at one of Nutreco’s research centers.
Joost Matthijssen, Nutreco’s director of venturing and NFFTC head juror, said: “To develop their solutions and attract funding, start-ups need proof of concept. The Nutreco Feed & Food Tech Challenge can help by creating more exposure and further validation of innovative ideas.”
Nutreco experts will select 15 teams to receive coaching by industry experts and to pitch virtually to the jury in June. The jury will consist of Nutreco and industry experts. The top five teams will then be invited to an in-person event in the Netherlands later in the year.
The deadline for applications, said the company, is midday, April 25, 2002.
SPC alternative chosen last time out
The 2020 NFFTC winner was Finnish biotech, eniferBio; the jury deemed its ingredient, Pekilo mycoprotein, was a “sustainable, locally-produced, and cost-competitive alternative” for soy protein concentrate (SPC) used in aquaculture feeds and, in the future, also in food.
Skretting, Nutreco’s aquaculture division, last year set about corroborating the efficacy of the novel protein through trials held in R&D facilities at its research center in Norway.
eniferBio began life in the startup incubator, Launchpad, run by Finnish technical research organization, VTT. Co-founder and COO, Joosu Kuivanen, praised the validation work the biotech undertook with Skretting. “While we are experts in the development and production of our Pekilo mycoprotein, we needed a helping hand to bring our innovation to the aquaculture market.”
