One hundred ambassadors in the world against food waste: the winners of #FoodSavingBEC

THE TWELVE WINNERS OF THE COMPETITION ORGANIZED BY BOCCONI, EXPO, MIPAAF AND THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION COME FROM EIGHT DIFFERENT COUNTRIES AND TEN UNIVERSITIES

A low tech and yet highly smart refrigerating system that could maintain the temperature and the humidity required to transport bananas in a developing country such as Kenya. A communication campaign targeting American citizens to stimulate the consumption of fruits and vegetables regardless of their external appearance. An app that helps planning food purchases by reminding users which ingredients are about to expire and suggesting the best recipes to use them. These are the winning ideas of #FoodSavingBEC, the international competition that took place over the last week at Università Bocconi, in Milan, and which ended with today’s final event at EXPO, firstly at Palazzo Italia for the presentations of the nine finalist teams, and finally at the Kazakhstan Pavilion for the award ceremony, in an imaginary relay with the hosting country of the next edition of EXPO (in 2017 in Astana).

The 12 winners come from 8 countries and ten different universities, which attests to the great diversity that characterized the competition, with more than 100 participants from 25 countries.

Starting from tomorrow, the 100 students will return to their home countries to become the ambassadors of the fight against food waste, a theme that is connected with that of EXPO Milan 2015 and a problem whose extent is startling: according to FAO data, one third of the food produced globally never gets to be eaten, and food waste accounts for the emission of 3,3 Gtonnes of CO2 equivalent (between 6 and 10% of greenhouse gases total emissions – only the US and China, among the world’s nations, emit more), for the  use of 14 million km² of land (only the Russian Federation has a larger surface area) and for the consumption of more than 250 km3 of water (no other country in the world uses as much water).

Over the last week the students were divided into three tracks (communication, supply chain and start-up), they followed an intense round of lectures by experts of the fight against food waste and classes held by Bocconi faculty, and worked in teams to find creative solutions to the problem.

It was the participants themselves who, through a peer evaluation process, shortlisted the nine finalist teams (three for each track), who refined their exposition yesterday late afternoon and night to present themselves in front of a jury formed by Bocconi faculty and experts appointed by the partner organizations.

#FoodSavingBEC was organized by Università Bocconi in collaboration with EXPO Milan 2015, the Italian Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policy and the European Commission. The initiative is under the patronage of the UN at Expo, FAO and the World Food Programme, the high patronage of the President of the Italian Republic and the contribution of the Chamber of Commerce of Milan.

These are the winning teams. Communication track: The Tomato Team (Francesco Ambroz, Florent Garnier, Anna Puig, Veciye Tasci). Start-up team: Food Aid (Davide Vittori, Dorota Krysinska, Giulia Agata Scammacca Del Murgo, Kuanysh Tazhibayev). Supply chain team: B.e. cool (Gabriela Dimitriu, Tecla Guarino, Giulia Marzetti, Julia Wagner).
 

by Fabio Todesco