Food Waste Reduction Challenge

This Action aligns with the following Calls to Action from the Circular Economy Action Agenda for Food

6. Increase investment in food loss and waste reduction

7. Reframe wasted food and byproducts as valuable resources

8. Facilitate secondary market development and access

Ambition

An initiative under the Food Policy for Canada, the $20-million Food Waste Reduction Challenge was launched in November 2020 to accelerate and advance diverse and high-impact solutions to food waste in Canada. Funding will be awarded to innovators with business model solutions that can prevent or divert food waste at any point from farm-to-plate, as well as to new technologies that extend the life of food or transform food waste into new foods or value-added products.

Objectives

The challenge is divided into four streams:

Streams A and B focus on solutions that are ready for commercialization and that provide an innovative “way of doing business” (i.e. business model) to reduce food waste across any or multiple stages of the food supply chain. Successful solutions will have a high impact in reducing the volume of food waste in absolute (total volume of food saved) or relative terms (percentage of food saved). Semi-Finalists have been announced in spring 2021 and have received approximately $100,000 and the chance to advance to stage 2 ending in spring 2022.
Streams C and D focus on the life of food or transform food waste. They fund technologies that are at the prototype and testing phases to improve their effectiveness and make them ready for market within the next two years. Applications for these streams will be open until August 31st 2021.

Partners

The Government of Canada