Coroos is a Dutch family business with 60 years of experience in food preservation of fruit, vegetables and pulses. Our quality products find their way to consumers through the supermarkets of our European retail partners. From premium label to private label and basic products. At Coroos we are constantly striving to keep our ecological footprint as small as possible. As part of this we try to minimize our food waste and use every available part of the fruit and vegetables. In this challenge we are looking for ways to valorise the waste of apples.
In our production process we can use 95% of the apple, mainly from the making of apple puree. What is left is the peel and the core of the apple, which makes up for the other 5%. Although this might not seem much, because of the scale of our production, this residual flow amounts to around 100.000 kilos per month. The residual flow now ends up in low grade animal feed or for the production of biogas. Although all apple waste is currently used, we are looking for better ways to use our waste streams.
In this picture you can see what the residual flow looks like. The peels and core of the apples are grinded and end up as a dry, sawdust like, product. A potential hazard is the durability of the residual flow which depends on the outside temperature. To make use of the residual flow a maximum of around a week is required. The longer you leave it, the more sour it gets.
What we are looking for:
We are interested in the valorisation of the residual flow of apples to an end product. That way we improve the sustainability of our business and meet our principle of having a low ecological footprint. Potential solutions can be converting apple waste into higher grade ingredients or other ways to “upgrade” the use of our waste streams.
Does your company have a solution? Then we would like to get in touch with you!
What we are not looking for:
Solutions focused on reducing the amount of waste created in our production process.
What we offer:
Besides the use of (part of) our waste stream, Coroos is open to team up with start ups and scale ups. We are eager to learn about new innovative solutions and practices that can make our production more sustainable. Therefore, we see this challenge is an opportunity to collaborate and actively support startups and scale ups in growing their business.
This challenge is part of the Sidestream Innovation Challenge 2023, which consists of a total of 9 challenges in the field of valorization solutions and upcycling ingredients offered.
Conditions for Participation:
- You can demonstrate a working prototype/product/service.
- Able to start a pilot project in 3-6 months.
How does it work?
- Send in a short and concise pitch deck with your solution;
- As soon as you have uploaded your pitch, you will receive a confirmation so that you know that we have received your pitch;
- Your pitch is only visible to Direct Source International;;
- After the deadline, Direct Source International will assess all pitches individually and invite the companies with the most interesting solutions for a 1:1 conversation to get to know each other and look for opportunities to collaborate.
Pitch Format
Send in a short and concise pitch deck of your solution (max 4 pages / 12 slides) with description of the following two parts:
- A description of your product or solution:
- Give a short description of your product or solution, as detailed and visual as possible. In which phase is the solution?
- A description of your company & team;
- How and when was your company founded? In which phase are you? How many people? In which market are you active? Also a short description of the (managing) team.
- The pitch deck may be submitted in free form (presentation, slide deck, letter form), but must be uploaded as a PDF file (landscape or portrait A4 - max 30MB). Videos, example websites, etc. can be included as a link.
Timeline
- December 7 at 17.00 CET: Deadline challenge
- December 8 – December 20: Review period
- January 2024: 1:1 conversations
- Q1/Q2 2024 onwards: Discuss and start collaboration
Terms & Conditions
- Participation is open for startups, scale-ups, SMEs, grown-ups, innovators and scientists with an innovative product and/or technology.
- You will remain the owner of your intellectual rights, concept or solution in your pitch, until you agree otherwise.
- We strongly advise you to document everything you share with others and mention that information provided is confidential and intellectual property rights remain with you/ your company until agreed otherwise.
- Be aware of the fact that your pitch (and concepts and ideas in it) will be viewed and be shared with (internal) stakeholders. Keep IP sensitive unique (technical) details out of your pitch, keep it a secret that you can share later.
- Download Terms & Conditions