Deadline: April 30, 2022
Applications are open for the EatSafe Innovation Challenge 2022. The EatSafe Innovation Challenge is calling on innovators to share their ideas on how existing food safety innovations can be adapted and applied in traditional markets in Nigeria and Ethiopia.
Applicants stand a chance to participate in the Global EatSafe Innovation Challenge that will take place in Denmark where USD 10,000 dollars is up for grabs for the winning concept! The challenge will take place between April-October 2022 and will be organized as a global initiative including national pitching events in Nigeria and Ethiopia and a global final event will take place in Denmark.
Categories
- Peer learning platforms: Innovations in this category should provide a channel for consumers to receive/share food safety information or provide feedback (to businesses and with peers), as appropriate to the local context.
- Processing: Under this category, they are looking for innovations in processing that enhance food safety.
- Food waste technology: Under this category, they are looking for food waste innovations that specifically work to enhance food safety or detect food safety risks in upcycled food for traditional markets.
- Sensors for food safety assessment: Under this category, they are looking for sensor innovations that can detect hazard(s), such as chemicals or microbials, or, alternatively, the symptoms of contamination (i.e. turgor, color, density, etc.) in LMICs.
- Retailing and packaging: Under this category, they are looking for innovations that enhance food safety in retail or packaging of nutritious foods.
- Urban to rural linkages and food logistics: Under this category, they are looking for innovations that enable more efficient communication between urban demand and rural supply.
- Platforms for supply chain management: Under this category, they are looking for innovations that increase operational efficiency of food production/processing that would add clear value to businesses and include food safety operations (e.g. built-in cleaning schedules; reminders of processing parameters such as temperature, time, concentration of cleaning agent; easy protocols to troubleshoot issues).
Benefits
- The participants will benefit from national and global visibility, recognition, mentorship, technical training and networking opportunities with leading industry players, investors, researchers and academia.
- 4 winners from National EatSafe Innovation Challenges will be announced and promoted in an online event. In addition, they will receive technical support to refine their idea from IFSS portal team in a design workshop and mentoring with a local food safety expert to prepare the finalists to pitch their proposal at the final Demo Day.
- Thereafter, 4 winners will be chosen from each national competition to participate in the Global EatSafe Innovation Challenge Finals that will take place in Denmark in September 2022. The global finals participants stand a chance at winning USD 10,000 dollars. The uniqueness of the EatSafe Challenge is in the walk the team takes the shortlisted participant through from the entry process to the final pitch.
Eligibility
- Open to entrepreneurs, students, researchers, and other innovators based in Nigeria or Ethiopia.
- You must be available to travel in October 2022 and adhere to travel rules in Denmark.
- Each applicant will be tasked to select one of the seven innovation categories and develop a compelling concept of how the innovation can be adapted in a local food market.
Selection Criteria
A Selection Committee comprising of food safety experts will rate entries on a scale of 1-5, with 1 being the lowest (poor) and 5 the highest score (great) against the 5 selection criteria: food safety and nutritional benefit, feasibility, adaptability in low-and-middle-income countries, scalability, and environmental sensitivity.
- Food Safety and Nutritional Benefit: The extent to which an innovation can be used to reduce the pathogens and contaminants at strategic points in the supply chain and improve food safety for nutritious foods in upstream and downstream activities.
- Adaptability to LMICs: The extent to which an innovation can be widely implemented and adopted, especially in low-resource settings and traditional markets. Give special consideration to the availability of resources in the country to build and use the innovation.
- Scalability: The ability of an innovation to be scaled to a broad population for greater impact with a focus on vulnerable populations (i.e. empowering consumers, vendors, women, and young children). This element recognizes that there could be initial costs and risks that may hinder the scalability of the innovation. Business models should consider who their primary users will be and their ability to pay for a new product.
- Environmental Sensitivity: The impact of an innovation around ensuring climate and environmental resilience and reducing the greenhouse gas footprint of the food system.
- Novelty: **Applicants will NOT be judged on the innovation’s novelty, or its maturity level/readiness: idea, prototype, gaining traction, moving to scale, mainstream.
Application
The application deadline is April 30, 2022 at 11:00 Nigeria time/13:00 Ethiopia time/12:00 CEST.
For more information, visit EatSafe Innovation Challenge.
