About the challenge
Our food choices have a significant impact on our health, society, and the environment. A plant-based diet is a multiproblem solution to several key global problems, including climate change, food security, animal welfare, and health and pandemics.
In response to the global transition towards plant-rich sustainable living, ProVeg International launched the inaugural Food Innovation Challenge in China in 2020, with the 2021 Challenge expanded to include South-East Asia. For the 2022 edition of the competition, we have set our sights on the entire Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.
The Food Innovation Challenge will allow students to gain valuable insight into an exciting and fast-growing industry, while channelling their creativity and skills towards solving some of the biggest challenges facing the world today. We invite university students from all academic disciplines to take part in the challenge.
The competition will once again be held online this year in order to allow students from all over the APAC region to participate.
Why take the challenge?
The finalists of the ProVeg Food Innovation Challenge will have the opportunity to:
- Get the chance to win a share of cash awards totaling 10,000 USD.
- Gain food-innovation experience and recognition through participation in real-world challenges while honing essential innovation skills.
- Receive expert mentoring from key industry professionals.
- Network with representatives from leading organisations and peers from Asia-Pacific countries.
- Potential internships/employment opportunities with leading food-and-beverage companies.
Innovation topics – 2022 APAC Challenge
OATLY
Develop a unique selling proposition for Oatly’s yoghurt, identify target consumers, develop product concepts and a launch plan in Asia or your selected market.
BEYOND MEAT
Develop a recipe utilising Beyond Meat’s minced pork that can be presented to a foodservice chain based in Asia. Specify which foodservice operator you are pitching to and formulate a marketing strategy to support sales of your recipe.
CPF
Develop a local dish for CPF all over the Asia-Pacific region using a plant-based meat alternative, such as plant-based beef, pork, chicken or seafood, to achieve both the taste and texture of real meat.
UNILEVER
Choose one of The Vegetarian Butcher’s product prototype from plant-based beef patty, plant-based mince beef and plant-based chicken balls and propose a new product application for target consumers. The application should include product format and series of varieties, product names, product claims, and advertising slogan and the package design.
HAOFOOD
Use Haofood plant-based chicken to develop a series of applications, identify target food-service customers, and develop a launch plan.
OMNI
Further develop OMNI’s new plant-based range, OmniSeafood, including OMNI Tuna, OMNI Classic Fillet, Omni Golden Fillet, and Omni Ocean Burger. What’s the key selling point and which seafood dishes can better attract a new generation by making it easy to buy and share on social media.
PEPSICO
Develop a tasty and nutritious product by utilising plant-based ingredients (e.g. plant protein, algae protein). It can be a beverage, snack, or nutrition product. The proposal should cover the detailed product format, product name, claims, price and proposition, target consumer group and consumption occasion, added value to consumers and packaging design.
Selection Criteria
Market Potential: 30%
projected revenue, profitability, and growth opportunities, taking challenges and available alternatives into consideration.
Uniqueness/creativity: 20%
clear explanations on how your project is innovative and different from what is currently available in the sector.
Feasibility 20%
feasibility of product (or campaign) ideas, including formulation, manufacturing, supply chain, and distribution.
Go-to-market strategy: 20%
clear explanations on how you would introduce your products to the market.
Online voting: 10%
online voting will be launched at the end of November.
Awards
2nd
place
1,500 USD
2x
1st
place
3,000 USD
3rd
place
1,000 USD
3x
Finalists 200 USD 5x
- ● Finalist teams will have a chance to participate in an invite-only programme hosted by the ProVeg Incubator to help further idea development.
- ● Selected teams will also have the chance to present their ideas online at the UN Climate Change Conference – COP27 – Food4Climate Pavilion hosted by ProVeg International.
- ● Participants will be awarded with a ProVeg Food Innovation Challenge certificate.
COP27 Presenting Teams
We are super excited to announce the teams selected to present their innovative ideas at the UN Climate Change Conference COP27 – Food4Climate in Cairo, Egypt on 10 November!
Submissions before the deadline 30 November are all eligible for finalists cash awards and potential internships and opportunities!
IMPORTANT DATES
30 November: Final Idea Submission
9 December: Finalist Teams Announced
QUALIFying Criteria
Students currently enrolled in undergraduate or graduate programmes at universities and colleges in the Asia-Pacific region.
Teams must have a minimum of two and a maximum of four people.
Teams can include students from different disciplines and different schools.
Students can submit a maximum of two proposals or join a maximum of two teams.
You have great food-innovation ideas (no prototype necessary).
EVENTS AND PROMOTION
Webinars
As part of the third ProVeg International Food Innovation Challenge campaign in Asia, we have partnered with industry experts for a webinar series to share their vision, strategies, and expectations on innovation proposals. Scan below to find out more and register in advance!
Invite your peers to join!
Enlist three teams to join the Challenge (including your own teams) and win a free ticket to the New Food Invest 2022.
How to qualify?
Email us at [email protected] with the names and emails of your enlisted team members before 30 November!
Most Creative Promotion Awards
We encourage students to create content about this campaign using hashtag #ProVegFoodInnovationChallenge on their TikTok and/or Instagram to invite more peers to participate.
The two students with the most creative posts before 25 November will each receive a 150-USD gift certificate! There will be one gift certificate for Instagram and one for Tik Tok.
Previous Innovation Challenges
2021 Food Innovation Challenge SEA
In 2021, the ProVeg Food Innovation Challenge attracted student participants from 54 different universities across the South-East Asia region. Participating students could choose between eight different innovation topics, presented by seven major actors from the plant-based industry as well as ProVeg itself.
7 leading companies involved
50+ universities
125 proposals received
410 participants
The Challenge won the ‘Best use of digital by a charity, NGO or NFP’ Award at the Digital Impact Awards
“It has been a pleasure to witness the variety and diversity of student group ideas related to the future of plant-based meat. The creativity and thoughtfulness of the submissions we have received has inspired our whole team.”
WILL SCHAFER
Beyond Meat
“The Proveg Innovation campaign gives us an opportunity to learn more about the SEA market. As one of our target groups is Generation Z, the participants of this campaign – university students – can inspire us a lot and raise valuable ideas.”
FRED ZHU
R&D Head of Asia at Oatly
2020 Food Innovation Challenge China
In June 2020, the Plant-Based Food Innovation Contest in China attracted 260 students from more than 20 universities across China, along with 10 food-and-beverage companies that took part in the contest. Students competed in three different categories: pre-packaged foods, main-course recipes, and animal-free ingredients. Finalists were coached and mentored by industry experts.
10 companies involved
20+ schools participated
78 proposals received
“Thank you for your kind note and happy to see one of the ice-cream challenge participants reaching second place. It was a good experience for us and we look forward to leveraging the learnings in our activities. I would like to thank the whole ProVeg organisation for their professionalism and we look forward to future collaboration.”
GUGLIELMO BONORA
Nestle
“I must say these young talents were working effortlessly with passion and dedication to achieve their goals and hoping that their product ideas would end up in retail stores or food-service channels. I hope the audience or potential investors can help make their dream a reality!“
Lalana Thiranusornkij
Vice President of R&D, Charoen Pokphand Foods Public Company Limited
GET INVOLVED
Join the challenge as a student ambassador
Students who are interested in innovation are encouraged to volunteer as ambassadors to help promote the challenge in your universities.
● A special certificate of leadership and social responsibility will be provided as thanks for your contribution.
● Ambassadors who help enlist four teams (including their own team) will be invited to join the ProVeg Incubator programmes.
If you’d like to apply, please email us a copy of your Student ID and why you’d be great for the role, with the subject line ‘your country+your school’ before 25 November: [email protected]
Sponsors and partnerships
If you are interested in supporting the Challenge, please contact us at [email protected] for further discussion.
