The US$ 10 million prize aims to encourage the creation of sustainable food packaging. Find out what this challenge will be like.
How can we resolve the issue of excess plastic involved in the packaging of the products we consume? Finding innovative solutions to this problem is the challenge that iFood wants to solve in partnership with XPRIZE, leader in competitions that seek to accelerate advances that benefit society and companies around the world.
A foodtech will be one of the partners in the competition to develop biodegradable, flexible and bio-based packaging, such as plastic bags and PVC films.
In partnership with XPRIZE, iFood wants to raise US$ 20 million between companies to carry out this competition and encourage the creation of packaging that is sustainable, produced on a large scale and safe for human consumption and the environment.
“We want to give a big prize so that companies, governments, startups and universities invest in research and development for biodegradable packaging, which can reduce the pollution caused by and linked to plastic packaging”, says Fabrício Bloisi, CEO of iFood and member of the XPRIZE innovation board.
The prize at stake is US$ 10 million — US$ 6 million for whoever comes in first place; US$ 2 million for second place and US$ 1 million for third. In addition, US$ 1 million will also be awarded to so-called Milestone Prizes, prizes awarded throughout the competition to support competitor solutions that meet certain goals. “I think this type of incentive as a prize is wonderful, as it helps startups moving faster and the world improving through innovation”, comments Bloisi.
The rules of the game
The competition should last 3 years and will be divided into three phases: registration, semi-finals and finals. At each stage, proposals will be evaluated by jurors who will evaluate the projects according to the award guidelines:
- Develop biodegradable, bio-based and flexible food packaging;
- Production must be sustainable and on a scale (resources and process);
- Packaging must be safe for humans and the environment throughout its life cycle;
- Creations must support the shelf life of fresh produce and dry foods;
- Packaging must be industrially compostable or quickly biodegradable (within 90 days).
The partnership with XPRIZE is one of the efforts of iFood Regenera, the company's positive environmental impact plan, which seeks eradicate plastic pollution of your delivery operations and make it neutral in carbon emissions by 2025.
“The ESG agenda has been and will be increasingly addressed. We need to encourage companies to invest in the next challenge, in addition to encouraging universities and startups Brazilians to sign up for the competition, so that Brazil can be part of the leadership in developing research projects that will help reduce the use of plastic and guarantee a more promising future for our environment”, concludes Bloisi.
