The winning team of the hackathon challenge of HKScan’s Agrofood Ecosystem developed an innovative application that allows event organisers to follow the environmental impact of food choices. The winning Social Meat team members were Linnéa Hammarberg (Finland), Nguyen Le Khanh Ngoc (Vietnam), Deepjyoti Paul (India) and Tulika Ganoo (India/Finland).

“Social Meat team managed to surprise us with their innovative approach. We were excited about the idea that an event organiser could make choices in advance according to the participants’ wishes. At the same time, the organiser gets valuable information on the food’s environmental footprint and how different choices affect the footprint,” says Ulf Jahnsson, HKScan’s VP, Strategic development primary production.

“Winning the Agrofood Ecosystem challenge feels really great. We built our team on Friday when the event began and right from the start, we had a blank that we refined all weekend. I study chemical engineering at Aalto University and we are just having lectures on sustainable development. That’s why I became interested in the HKScan challenge. In addition, we had a good team spirit from the very beginning," says Linnéa Hammarberg happily.

Hammarberg continues that she participated in a hackathon for the first time. “The coding weekend was an exciting and wonderful experience.”

A tight race

Responsibility and environmental aspects of food interest young people. HKScan got altogether 15 different solution models to its hackathon challenge.

“Food must taste good both in the mouth as between the ears. Thanks to the hackathon, we got a lot of new ideas on how to make use of the Agrofood Ecosystem data. In general, many of the suggestions used cleverly, for example, gamification and augmented reality, and of course data,” Jahnsson emphasises.

Virtual event

Over 2,000 young people participated in the Junction 2020 Connected hackathon event over the weekend. The participants of the international event were mainly from Europe and Asia. Due to the coronavirus restrictions, the Finnish part of the event was arranged virtually online.

Have a peek at CEO Tero Hemmilä’s video greeting to hackathon teams.

Contacts:

  • Ulf Jahnsson, VP, Strategic development primary production, tel. +358 400 784 193 or by email: ulf.jahnsson@hkscan.com 
  • HKScan Media Service Desk, tel. +358 10 570 5700 or by email: communications@hkscan.com

 

HKScan’s target is to grow into a versatile food company. With over 100 years of experience, we make tasty, healthy and responsibly produced food responding to the needs of consumers and customers. For us at HKScan, responsibility includes the development of food production throughout the value chain, from farms to consumers. Our home markets cover Finland, Sweden, Denmark and the Baltics. Our nearly 7,000 HKScan professionals ensure tastier life - today and tomorrow. Our diverse product portfolio includes poultry, pork and beef, as well as meat products and meals. Our strong brands are HK®, Kariniemen®, Via®, Scan®, Pärsons®, Rakvere®, Tallegg® and Rose®. In 2019, net sales of the publicly listed HKScan totalled EUR 1.7 billion.