A new packaging produced by lettuce by-products wins the Challenge Lab 2021

The project that won 3000€ bases its idea on a new sustainable and biodegradable packaging produced by lettuce by-products. Silvia Cañas and Cheyenne Braojos, investigators from the Autonomous University of Madrid; Amaya Pereda and Alfredo Hernández, students from the Basque Culinary Center; Clara Lledó, biotechnologist and Juanjo Amate, sustainability consultor formed the winning team.

In the III Challenge Lab edition held online, EIT Food next to Logifruit and Oppino launched the challenge of finding solutions for the life cycle of lettuce production and consumption. 47 participants from university students to entrepreneurs and agrifood professionals, who came from different countries, accepted the difficult task. All the contestants were divided in 9 groups.

During the 3rd and 10th of December, participants learnt how to develop an innovative and sustainable solution for the challenge. On the 3rd of December, they designed the solution, product’s vision, and business model of the project. Finally, on the 10th of December, all the projects were showed in a pitching held in front of the jury.

Apart from the winners, other interesting projects were showed too. For instance, a digital label that informs consumers about lettuce production and prosecution phase; a production and vegetable storage connected system to create sustainable crops; a software that facilitates payments between value chain agents by blockchain and a virtual market to help producers foster sustainability and digitalisation.