Federal agriculture minister Marie-Claude Bibeau has announced 24 semi-finalists in the 20 million dollar Food Waste Reduction challenge.

The Challenge was launched last November to advance diverse and high-impact solutions to food waste in Canada.

The focus is on business model solutions to prevent or divert food waste at any point from farm to plate.

The 24 semi-finalists span a wide range of production, inventory management, transportation, food safety, upcycling and organic waste treatment.

Each semi-finalist receives 100 thousand dollars to move to the market demonstration stage.

Over the next 8 months, semi-finalists will pilot their solutions and report on the effectiveness.

Agriculture Canada will select up to 12 finalists, which will receive 400 thousand dollars, with one winner awarded a grant prize of up to 1.5 million dollars.

Some estimates put more than half of Canada’s food supply wasted each year and nearly 50 billion dollars of the wasted food is avoidable.
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