Seeds & Chips 2017 Wraps Up:

13 Prizes Awarded to The Most Cutting-Edge Food Innovation Startups

John Kerry to be among the Guests of Honor in the 2018 edition

Milano, May 18, 2017 - The closing ceremony of the 2017 edition of Seeds&Chips -The Global Food Innovation Summit – took place in Milano with the winners of the Seeds&Chips 2017 Awards collecting their prizes. The world’s most innovative start-ups in food and AgTech were publicly applauded. At the end of the Award Ceremony, Marco Gualtieri - founder and CEO of Seeds&Chips – took stock of the latest edition of the summit with the extraordinary participation of the 44th US President Barack H. Obama and announced the first of the Guest of Honor of Seeds&Chips 2018, former US Secretary of State John Kerry. Over 200 international speakers, investors, policy makers and startups from all over the world participated in SaC2017 with countries ranging from Italy and Israel to the United States, Jordan and Iraq.

“This exceptional edition of Seeds&Chips and Barack Obama's extraordinary participation have established once and for all that Milan and Italy are the world's hub and global reference point of Food and FoodTech. This, while reaffirming our role as a laboratory focused on finding solutions to the major global challenges, from production and nutrition to the sustainable use of resources and climate change,” stated Marco Gualtieri, founder of Seeds&Chips. “Today, more than ever, especially among the new generations, we have technological tools and skills at our fingertips that make it possible for us to face and overcome these challenges. It is our duty and responsibility to invest in and to support youth and innovation, especially in a key sector such as that of food. This in turn will result in an improvement in our lives and better conditions for the whole planet. President Obama personally asked me to collaborate on the themes of youth, food and innovation. A wonderful opportunity for Milano and Italy as a country and a notable and far-reaching task for Seeds&Chips that next year will host one outstanding keynote speaker each day of the Global Food Innovation Summit. Former US Secretary of State John Kerry has been the first to confirm his participation in 2018”.

Seeds&Chips 2017 Awards

Thirteen prizes for as many categories were awarded to participating startups during the Seeds&Chips Closing Ceremony publicly recognizing Italian and international projects that represent the best of today's innovation in food. The founder of Seeds&Chips, Marco Gualtieri hosted the event with journalist Rula Jebreal, who called the winners to the stage. The 12 startups were acknowledged by their "sponsor" companies that had contributed by supporting and promoting the project. The winner of the NextFood Award by Image Line was applauded by the contest's creators, who were also the leaders of the network awarding the prize. An ad-hoc Jury made up of Seeds&Chips staff, representatives of sponsor companies, by members of the Italian National Research Center in its capacity as a scientific advisor evaluated and selected the winning startups.

Awards and Winners

1. “SEEDS&CHIPS VISIONARY AWARD”

WINNER: Ingredient Optimized by Plasma Nutrition (USA), awarded by Alessandro Russo, President of Gruppo CAP

Plasma Nutrition is transforming the performance of protein powders through our patent-pending Ingredient Optimization process to increase sustainability and improve health outcomes.

2. “BEST DISRUPTIVE STARTUP AWARD”

WINNER: Food Pairing and Tailor Made (Belgium) awarded by Marcello Pincelli, Italy General Manager, PepsiCo

Foodpairing® is a market research automation company identifying the successful flavor combinations of tomorrow, through the combination of scientific flavor insights and unique consumer data.

3. “FUTURE FOOD AWARD”

WINNER: Flatev (Switzerland), awarded by Fabio Ziemssen, Head of Food Innovation and Foodtech, Metro Group

The Flatev Artisanal Bakery and Flatev Dough is Your Personal Baking System (PBS)! The closed baking system expertly prepares single servings of fresh tortillas, rotis, flatbreads, cookies and more with no fuss and no mess. A consumer simply pops a proprietary, recyclable, single serve dough container into the Flatev Artisanal Bakery, selects their desired setting, and soon enjoys a delicious, fresh treat in seconds.

4. “BEST FOOD EXPERIENCE AWARD”

WINNER: The Vegetarian Butcher (Italy), awarded by Niccolo Longoni, Innovation Manager of Just Eat

By 2022, the Meat Substitutes Market will be worth around 6 Billion USD. After a ten-year search, the Vegetarian Butcher team, inspired by our founder Jaap, developed and found innovative meat substitutes with a spectacular bite and texture. Our ideal is to have meat enthusiasts experience the meat free products and to realize they do not have to miss out on anything if they leave meat out of their diet for a couple of days a week. Our mission is also to free animals from the food chain by offering a complete and delicious alternative to meat; by doing that we also aim to reduce the carbon footprint caused by the intensive animal farming.

5. “EAT HEALTHY - BEST HEALTH AND DIET SOLUTIONS AWARD”

WINNER: INDI (Israel), awarded by Gabriella Bartoccelli, Head of Communication and External Relations, CAMST

INDI is the world's first Non Dairy Non Soy infant formula, developed by a team of highly experienced infant nutrition experts with over 60 years of relevant experience. Produced in both powder and liquid forms, INDI is a total solution for allergic, sensitive and vegan infants (0-36m). The Formula is 100% vegan (2 plants composition); Hormones free Antibiotic free GMO free Sustainable with Superior taste. Competitively priced and ready for full scaled production INDI has been approved by the Israeli ministry of health, endorsed by leading infant nutrition medical experts as it is fully conforming to infant nutrition strict intl. standards The formula is Patent Pending in 85 countries around the globe (National phase).

 6. “BEST MORNING SOLUTION AWARD”

WINNER: RISE Products (USA), awarded by Franck Bocquet, General Manager Délifrance Italy

RISE is a green startup that upcycles spent barley from microbreweries into flour for bakers. We produce a sustainable, organic, high-protein, nutritious and inexpensive alternative flour that has a wide range of applications –from cookies to pasta.

7. “INCREDIBLE GROWTH - FASTEST GROWING STARTUP AWARD”

WINNER: Blue Cart (USA), awarded by Francesco Spadaro and Giovanni Rebay, KPMG Partner

BlueCart is a SaaS mobile turnkey procurement platform that connects wholesale buyers with their exclusive network of suppliers in the hospitality industry. Every day, wholesale buyers, restaurants, hotels, etc. spend hours, placing orders to each of their suppliers via email or text messages. BlueCart enables orders to be communicated to all distributors with one click on their mobile phone. Distributors receive all orders in one dashboard, eliminating the need for manual data entry. This digital workflow offers transparency, efficiency, and accountability in the wholesale procurement process that simply does not exist today.

 8. “FARMING OF TOMORROW - BEST INNOVATION IN FARMING AWARD”

WINNER: Agrologies (Greece), awarded by Anders Nilsson, GROW IT UP Partner

Our products and services offer needed technology solutions to the agriculture sector. Agrologies has developed an automation irrigation platform & device, which combine an IOT device, a cloud service & a mobile app. Agrologies enables farmers to plan the irrigation of their crops depending on weather conditions & other data. Additionally, during Seeds&Chips, in partnership with New Holland Agriculture, growITup has opened the #CallForGrowth tender on Precision Farming: a call for all Italian startups and SMEs involved in developing innovative solutions in the food-value chain. To join the call, startups and SMEs must have significant business in Italy and submit their application by 6 June 2017 atwww.growITup.com .

9. “SMARTER RETAIL EXPERIENCE AWARD”

WINNER: Coffee Hat (Italy), awarded by Federica Palermini - Head of Brand & Communication and Digital Innovation, CARREFOUR

Coffee Hat was born with a clear mission: to deliver the finest specialty coffees with a cosmopolitan brewing approach and in line with our modern lifestyles. Our single-serve coffee capsule represents the synthesis of the values of Coffee Hat: Excellence of aromas, Genuineness & Traceability of the coffee beans.

 10. “BEST VERTICAL FARMING INNOVATION AWARD”

WINNER: Robonica (Italy), awarded by Association for Vertical Farming (AVF)

Linfa (Lymph) is Robonica’s smart and beautifully designed home greenhouse, which can have a strong impact on people's habits. It allows you to grow any kind of vegetables, such as herbs, hot peppers or salad, ready to eat in just 5 days. Linfa is a hydroponics culture system with LED lighting to replace natural light, where the recreated microenvironment is fully controlled.

11. “BEST SMART CITY VISION AWARD”

WINNER: AeroFarms (USA) awarded by Marco Moretti, A2A

Aerofarms produces delicious, nutritious leafy greens and herbs without sunlight, soil, or pesticides. Crops get the perfect amount of moisture and nutrients misted directly onto their roots in a completely controlled environment. With our patented technology, we take indoor vertical farming to a new level of precision and productivity with minimal environmental impact and virtually zero risk.

12. “NEXTFOOD AWARD by Image Line”

WINNER: Seamore Food (Netherlands), awarded by Roberto Ghioni, Partner and Graphic Designer at63De-Sign and by Paolo Rumi, Creative Director at63De-Sign

Seamore Food wins a full mentoring package aimed at product placement and industrialization. Seamore Food’s product SEA PASTA, 100% seaweed vegetable noodles -, stood out among participants in this 1st International edition of NEXTFOOD AWARD focused on Food Innovation targeted to all food startups with at least one branded product and which was held in conjunction with Seeds&Chips - The Global Food Innovation Summit. The NEXTFOOD AWARD is promoted by 63DE-SIGN, a team of communication designers with experience in different and converging sectors. Partnering with Seeds & Chips and thanks to the participation of the Politecnico di Torino Department of Architecture and Design and the Ecopak Observatory (OEP), the NextFood Award by Image Line enjoys the support of the main sponsor Image Line …Since 1988 hands on a keyboard, feet in the field ... and eyes on the present and the future of agriculture. With this in mind, Image Line develops digital solutions for professionals: innovative software for the sustainable management of agricultural holdings, vertical portals and search engines for sharing technical knowledge.

13. “BEST SOLUTION FOR A BETTER WORLD AWARD”

WINNER: Impact Vision (United Kingdom) awarded by Hugo Doyle, Head of International Public Affairs, Intesa Sanpaolo

ImpactVision's mission is to build a more transparent and secure global food system using hyperspectral technology. ImpactVision’s software platform provides quick and non-invasive information on the quality and characteristics of different foods, using image recognition and predictive learning. With ImpactVision, a picture of a food product is enough to understand its nutritional content, freshness level, ad protein, fat, sugar, or moisture content. An innovative solution to reduce waste by increasing quality and safety.

Information : www.seedsandchips.com; @SEEDSandCHIPS, #Sac17

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