NETHERLANDS – Dutch animal nutrition and aquafeed company, Nutreco has announced that it has selected 15 finalists for the Nutreco Feed&Food Tech Challenge (NFTC).

Nutreco Feed&Food Tech Challenge is a competition that acknowledges the best breakthrough innovations within livestock farming, aquaculture and its new category, alternative food proteins.

The competition attracted 122 start-ups from across the globe with propositions on breakthrough innovations to address critical challenges in the feed and food value chain, of which 15 finalists were selected.

Cultured Decadence, a cellular aquaculture startup; Bond Pet Foods, which makes meat proteins derived from animal cells and natural microbes; Fumi Ingredients, makes animal-free food ingredients; Flying Spark, an insect protein manufacturer; and Back of the Yards Algae Sciences were selected for their breakthrough innovations in alternative proteins for food.

Canadian biotechnology company, Glysantis; Swiss probiotic feed supplement startup, TwentyGreen; natural ingredients producer, Michroma; Fishency360, a hardware and software solution for fish welfare; and eniferBio, a fish feed ingredient producer were selected for their breakthrough innovations in aquaculture.

Sustainability tech platform, AgUnity; Poultrix, and tech enabled poultry monitoring solution; Pandonutriton, an animal microbiome company; Nanomik Biotechnology; which has developed food preservation solutions; and Beefanalyser were selected for their innovative solutions in livestock farming.

Nutreco said that the next phase of the competition would 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 was rescheduled to a new date in autumn 2020, which the company said will be communicated in May.

Nutreco said that the final event will offer a dynamic ‘greenhouse and pressure cooker’ environment with a pitching competition and interaction with industry experts, fellow start-ups and an international jury.

“The NFTC provides a unique opportunity for start-ups to progress their breakthrough innovations to the next stage,” Nutreco’s Director of Venturing and NFTC jury member, Joost Matthijssen said.

“Throughout this competition we want to continue providing support and guidance to help finalists to progress their ideas in a safe way and to do so, we will be providing virtual mentors to help them on their journey.”

Depending on the business concept, the winner will be rewarded with 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.