St. Catharines company Clean Works Inc. is one of six finalists in the federal government’s latest venture to reduce food waste.
Yesterday (January 16), Marie-Claude Bibeau, the federal Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, announced the six finalists in the “Novel Technologies Streams for the Food Waste Reduction Challenge” and the St. Catharines company was named.
Back in January 2022, 18 semi-finalists nation-wide each received $100,000 to build a prototype of their innovative technology.
After presenting the most promising ideas to an External Review Committee, the ministry says the six finalists will now receive up to $450,000 each to test their technology in an operational environment with at least one partner.
They are competing to win one of two grand prizes of up to $1 million.
Clean Works Inc created a non-water solution for keeping crops clean using a combination of hydrogen peroxide, ozone and UV, creating a compound that will be able to control mildew and micro-organism growth in pre-harvest (greenhouses, field crops, grapevines) fruit and vegetables.
“Every year, Canada wastes more than half of its food supply,” said Bibeau.
“The six finalists of the Food Waste Reduction Challenge – Novel Technologies Streams are proposing original solutions to this problem. I wish them good luck as they test their prototypes in an operational environment.”
As menioned, Clean Works’ innovative technology does not use water and is able to kill more harmful pathogens and mold than previous internationally recognized processes.
This can extend produce shelf life by 25 per cent and can be up to 99.9 per cent effective. This process has also been validated by the Food Science Department at the University of Guelph, which is a leading agri-food institution in Canada.
Clean Works’ process was developed by Beamsville’s Moyer Apple Products, whose family have been farmers in the region for 200 years.
Three years ago, Clean Works received an award from the International Association for Food Protection for their innovative new procedure in cleaning produce.
