Students present solutions for tackling food waste, nutrition and climate change at STHIRA 2026

The third edition of STHIRA 2026, a sustainable food innovation challenge, was jointly hosted by Foodwize and the University of Gastronomic Sciences of Pollenzo, Italy recently at BIC Bengaluru. The competition saw participants from over 80+ teams from across 16 States in India under various disciplines of education, from chefs and engineers to humanities students.

The finale of STHIRA 2026 brought together 11 finalist teams from universities across India. The participating teams exhibited their prototypes and presented their innovations within the given time limit. The five-member jury evaluated the teams based on various factors including nutrition, cultural influence and climate resilience.

The four themes for this edition are access to nutrition, better livelihoods for small scale farmers, shaping urban food futures and reviving indigenous ingredients and traditional practices.

Incorporated in 2023 by Srijata Sengupta and Priya Joshi, Foodwize is a social initiative focusing on food systems, food cultures, transformation, development and experience design. Talking about the finale, Srijata says, “The purpose behind STHIRA was to encourage students to find solutions for some of the complex problems in our food systems today.”

The three winning teams receive a cash prize. “The winners will also receive hand-painted plates as trophies. We’ve been following this design so that our trophy is not just another cup but something deeply rooted with food and culinary traditions,” says Priya.

The presented prototypes included food solutions for artificial food colouring, exhibited as a solution through extracted natural pigmentation from beetroots and dragon fruit peels. A prototype focused on gut health and fighting heat through a traditional Odisha drink, Tanka Torani traditionally prepared as an offering for Lord Jagannath.

Further innovative ideas included nutritious food choices for present day college students who skip breakfast. A reintroduction of the traditional podi used to enhance tastes of various dishes or consumed with southern Indian breakfast staples including idli and dosa.

Abria Koshy, a student from IHM Aurangabad says, “STHIRA gave us an opportunity to come up with sustainable idea for present-day food challenges. My team, Rasa Roots focuses on making condiments through regional ingredients from Kerala and Mizoram.”

STHIRA and Foodwize also present multiple opportunities to all the finalist participants in taking their innovation forward. Their MOU with IIM Bengaluru helps the participants get an opportunity to enter the NSRCEL startup incubator programme.

“We are starting this incubator program to nurture food enterprises that are committed to sustainable food products and services,” says Priya “They also focus on the livelihoods of people in the supply chain, on the environmental impact of their business and their contribution to protecting and preserving food cultures.” The incubator is designed to provide six months of mentoring capability development and nurturing support.

One of the winning teams, Waste to Wax by Saranya Warrier of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetaam, focused on converting jackfruit processing residues into natural coatings.

Full Circle Feed Co. by Anushka Sahu, Antman Deshpande, Aditya Kannojia of IIM, Indore, also a winning entry, addresses organic food waste and rising animal feed costs by converting market waste into locally produced feed.

Poshan Plate by Suhas Bhat, Sahana Shetty, Rohit Rawal of Alliance University, working to improve nutritional quality and dietary diversity in institutional meals was another winner.

Jury member, K L Mukesh says, “Initiatives like this will introduce more entrepreneurs in the ecosystem. Fresh start-ups and small businesses will create a lot of new employment opportunities with diversity.”