First European BISC-E final won by Ghent University students

The first BISC-E final in Berlin was won by a Belgian team of two students from Ghent University for their innovative project named ‘Sauveur’. After coaching by GREEN-CHEM, they delivered an eye-catching presentation on their dream to reduce food waste. They impressed the jury with their ingenious concept, which will use fruit waste to create various sustainable biobased solutions, such as savory lemonades.

Meet Sauveur, the winners of the first EU final of the Biobased Innovation Student Challenge (BISC-E) supported by BIC. Joining forces, social entrepreneurs, Maud and Nienke, two students from Ghent University, dreamed of tackling food waste. “That is exactly what we do with Sauveur!”, says Maud. ‘We reduce fruit waste by making fruit cordial and other biobased solutions, such as natural colorants and food supplements. Zero waste is the name of the game!” When you mix the more sustainable cordial with tap water, it creates delicious lemonades, thereby also reducing the use of plastic packaging and transportation costs. “For our first pilot in Belgium, we already have a value chain in place to validate the concept and to further develop our recipes”, continues Nienke. “Reducing food waste has never tasted better!”

The final was hosted by the Bio-based Industries Consortium (BIC) at its annual gathering of top bio-based industry experts in Berlin, Germany, where finalists from five EU member countries (Belgium, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, and Portugal) competed. “This competition aims to bridge the knowledge gap between students and bio-based materials and is held on a national level in several European countries”, says Nathan De Geyter, the coach from UGent. “That is why GREEN-CHEM supports BISC-E. However, our interest is to go beyond student awareness towards actual entrepreneurship!”

“We are super happy and excited to win the first prize in the first EU final of the BISC-E challenge”, say the two students. “The prize money will allow us to finance our first next steps, such as producing the first batch of delicious Sauveur cordial. During the final, we also had some great contacts with BIC members who gave us good advice. Since we’re also looking to better map sources of fruit surplus and local processors, we can definitely use their help. So, if you have relevant know-how to help realize our dream, feel free to contact us at siroop.sauveur@gmail.com. ”