Have you ever bought a bunch of avocados that ripened so quickly you had to throw them away before you could use them?
Well I have, and I’m not the only one. In fact, almost half of food waste happens at home, often because of scenarios like the one above. StixFresh is a new startup that’s combatting downstream food waste in grocery stores and consumer kitchens — with a sticker. They’re also one of the finalist companies who will pitch live at the SKS 2019 Startup Showcase in October.
We spoke with StixFresh cofounder and CEO Moody Soliman to learn a little more about these seemingly magical food waste fighting stickers. Check out the Q&A below then grab your tickets to SKS before they sell out.
Give us your 15-second elevator pitch
At StixFresh, we’ve developed a food-safe sticker that can extend the shelf life of fresh fruit by up to two weeks. This simple sticker can be applied at any point along the produce supply chain.
What inspired you to start StixFresh?
My co-founder and I both have an unyielding passion for bringing innovative technologies to market that ultimately improve people’s health, safety and quality of life. This is exactly what we saw in StixFresh — a technology that truly has the potential to change the world. It will not only have an economical benefit, but it will also have enormous social and environmental benefits across governments, companies and communities around the world.
What have you found to be the most challenging part of getting a food startup off the ground?
In a food tech startup, efficacy and safety go hand-in-hand. You are not only faced with the challenge of developing an innovative and potentially disruptive technology that has to work, but it must also be 100% safe. Because of our backgrounds, this has been our focus from the get-go. Nevertheless, this requires extensive R&D and product development work. This takes significant resources in the form of time and money in order to do it right, neither of which are a luxury for most startups.
How will StixFresh change the day-to-day life of consumers and the food space as a whole?
StixFresh will (1) significantly reduce fresh food waste by extending shelf-life via an all-natural process, and (2) maintain the food’s freshness longer, thus allowing many communities (especially developing ones) to consume fresh, natural, organic foods they were not able to access previously.
Furthermore, fruits and vegetables account for the largest portion of wasted food in terms of mass. So, by reducing the food waste that makes up a significant portion of today’s landfills, StixFresh will help reduce our carbon footprint and foster more responsible stewardship of the huge amounts of natural resources required to grow our food. StixFresh will not only help consumers save money, it will also help farmers, governments, companies, and communities provide food sustainably, as well as help address the issue of climate change.
Come watch Moody pitch live and at the SKS Startup Showcase next month! Get 25% off your tickets here.
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