Wednesday, February 8, 2017

Three finalists in dairy competition

 Argopur has narrowed the list to three for its Inno Challenge which aims to identify ideas that will expand the demand for milk.

Sixt-three entries came from eight countries for this, the first Inno Challenge.

It's a great idea. Agropur gets cheap access to great ideas and the innovators get a crack at a huge market via one of Canada's largest dairy processors.

The three finalists are:

Marc Purcell and Nathalie Miller of Quebec, serial entrepreneurs who are enthusiastic about teaming up with a major Canadian cooperative to bring their latest creation to grocery store shelves;

Martin Macouzet, Ph.D., an inventor who has been refining a dairy product concept for years, and

Institut de technologie des emballages et du génie alimentaire (ITEGA), which joined forces with the leading communications agency LG2 to develop a project that bridges research, consumer wants and the dairy industry's needs.

The three selected respondents were chosen after thorough examination of the files by the Inno Challenge jury.

"We were very excited about the number, the diversity and especially the quality of the submissions," said Robert Coallier, chief executive officer of Agropur.

" We believe there is incredible potential to reinvent dairy products. We are very eager to work with these creative thinkers to co-develop revolutionary products through open innovation."

Over the next 16 weeks, the selected respondents will work with Agropur's experts on a weekly basis to co-develop the selected concepts and bring them to the prototype stage.
Throughout the process, they will have access to Agropur's innovation know-how and facilities, work space at the Quartier de l'innovation, and AG-Bio Centre's business development consulting services.

 On May 31 and June 1, 2017, they will face the ultimate presentation and taste test when the prototypes are finally unveiled at Agropur Inno Expo.

The Inno Challenge call went out to creators in Quebec, Canada and the entire world in October 2016.

Participants had seven weeks to come up with proposals for innovative dairy solutions.