14 Jul 2021 XPRIZE semifinalists – the international competition to discover tomorrow’s proteins

Posted at 10:59h in Sustainability and Green Stuff by

XPRIZE has announced the 28 semifinalist teams moving forward in “XPRIZE Feed the Next Billion” competition, one of which is a South African enterprise.

The $15m competition, launched in December 2020, is aimed at reinventing how humanity will feed future generations by incentivising the production of structured chicken breast or fish fillet alternatives that replicate or outperform conventional chicken and fish in availability, environmental sustainability, animal welfare, nutrition and health, as well as taste and texture.

Selected by the competition’s panel of judges, the 28 semi-finalist teams were chosen based on their technical submissions and represent 14 countries.

Over the next year, semifinalists will work closely with the competition’s ecosystem and sponsors, which include ASPIRE and The Tony Robbins Foundation, as they begin to develop the first iteration of their products.

From the semifinalist teams, up to 10 finalist teams will be chosen based on the merit of their technical solution prototypes towards the end of 2022 and will split a milestone award of $2.5m.

Finalist teams will enter one last round of solution development before final judging which will award one grand prize team a prize of $7m, second & third place prizes of $2m and $1m respectively, and a bonus prize of $2m.

The winning teams will need to create at least twenty-five cuts of structured chicken breast or fish fillet analogs of 115 gram or four ounce that replicate the sensory properties, versatility, and nutritional profile of conventional chicken or fish.

The following teams have been selected to move forward in the competition:

“Over the past several years, as our global population continues to grow and the demand for meat products increases, it has become clear that our current global food chain cannot keep up,” said Caroline Kolta, XPRIZE Feed the Next Billion Program Lead.

“We know we need more nutritious, environmentally-friendly and sustainable alternatives to conventional animal-based products, and that wide scale adoption will require additional innovation continuously being brought to market. I am thrilled about the international cohort of semifinalists selected to embark on this journey of innovation and exploration to shape a future of food, starting with chicken and fish.”

XPRIZE is a global non-profit organisation that designs and implements innovative competition models to solve the world’s grandest challenges.

Source: XPRIZE: Read more here

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