By extending the shelf life of fruits and vegetables from 2 weeks to 2 years through freeze drying and breaking it down into powder, FoPo Company aims to reduce food waste by creating food powder from groceries’ fresh produce before their expiry date. This is their answer to feed billions of people as it is an ideal product for humanitarian aid purposes. It will also generate income by penetrating the freeze dried food powder industry – a $19 billion market globally last 2014. This is the winning social entrepreneurship business which earned $5,000 seed funding after the recently concluded Thought For Food Challenge last February, 2015 in Lisbon, Portugal.

FoPo Food Powder is the brainchild of Erasmus Mundus Masters in Food Innovation and Product Design (FIPDes) students Gerald Perry Marin from the Philippines and Vita Jarolimkova from Czech Republic, and Swedish Mechanical Engineering masters student Kent Ngo from Lund University. They also partnered with business associates and fellow FIPDes batchmates Ada Balazy from Poland and Erliza Cabisidan from Philippines, which helped them get more partners and gather support in their home countries. The competition is aimed to bring together student entrepreneurs, scientists, and experts in the food industry to solve the world’s ever-growing demand for food as the population will hit 9 billion by 2050.

Set in the Philippines, FoPo will be piloted in the next few months together with their partner government agency, groceries, and private companies interested in the idea. After clarifying food safety and nutrition issues with the help of partner universities, they will begin the collection, production, and distribution of fruits and vegetable powders to their channels in the Philippines and globally via online. Short term goals also include setting-up a freeze drying facility, piloting in other countries, and coordinate with humanitarian aid groups. FoPo company is currently interested in getting interns and volunteers, as well as investors, to help pilot the project. For more information, contact hellofopo@gmail.com.

FoPo believes that the world does not need to produce more food to feed the people. Their solution shows that we just have to see value from the inefficiency of the current food system, and create a sustainable, innovative, and socially relevant business out of it. Now that is a great way to feed 9 billion by 2050.

Watch FoPos video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcMeDRBAlyI

More information here:
http://www.tffchallenge.com/
http://tffchallenge.com/team/fopo-food-powder/
https://www.facebook.com/fopofoodpowder

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(Gerald Perry Marin, FIPDes student 2013-2015)

(February 2015)