{"id":8449,"date":"2023-11-09T14:14:22","date_gmt":"2023-11-09T18:14:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mced.biz\/?p=8449"},"modified":"2023-11-09T15:33:18","modified_gmt":"2023-11-09T19:33:18","slug":"mce-announces-first-foodtech-maine-cohort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mced.biz\/news\/2023\/11\/09\/mce-announces-first-foodtech-maine-cohort","title":{"rendered":"First FoodTech Maine Cohort Announced"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
PORTLAND, Maine, October 18, 2023 <\/strong>\u2013 The Maine Center for Entrepreneurs (MCE) and FocusMaine are proud to announce that FoodTech Maine has officially welcomed its first cohort of participant companies. This marks the beginning of an exciting journey to drive innovation and growth in Maine’s food, agriculture, and aquaculture industries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n FoodTech Maine’s mission is to revolutionize traditional food value chains in response to macro-level food trends such as the growing demand for healthy and sustainable food sources, population growth forecasts, climate change, and increased trade competition. These trends have posed unique challenges to Maine’s food industry, which this program aims to address. By leveraging innovation, technology, and science across all stages of the agrifood industry, including producing, processing, packaging, and waste management, FoodTech Maine will enhance the efficiency and sustainability of the sector, building on Maine’s rich history of high-quality food and beverage production. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Introducing the inaugural participant companies: <\/p>\n\n\n\n 1. Everything Seaweed<\/a> <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n EvSe is looking to use seaweed for a variety of applications in the food industry, including as a natural gelling\/stabilization ingredient for processed foods, and a replacement for PFAS. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 2. Maine Cap n\u2019 Stem<\/a> <\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Innovative solutions for mushroom farmers, including substrate products, mushroom start material, in-house designed and manufactured equipment like the \u201cFenrir\u201d bagger, and consulting services. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 3. Maine Garum Company <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Maine Garum Company produces unique umami sauces called garums. They use a novel approach by using waste from established processing operations as raw material rather than using large amounts of whole small fish, a foundation of marine ecosystems. Their current product uses eel byproducts, and Maine Garum Company is exploring a product using green crab.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 4. Ocean Farm Supply<\/a> <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Their flagship product, the Ocean Harvest BagTM, is 100% Beechwood, 100% Biodegradable, and 100% Compostable, and stands to change the standard of shellfish packaging. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 5. Salmonics<\/a> <\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Biotechnology company that focuses on upcycling salmon blood waste to develop and manufacture biomedical products, reducing the environmental impact of aquaculture practices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n