“NIFA’s Small Business Innovation Research program stimulates technological innovations in the private sector and strengthens the role of federal research and development in support of small businesses,” said NIFA director Dr. Carrie Castille. “These investments will help our nation’s small businesses improve food science and nutrition through a variety of early stage research and development projects.”
Examples of the 11 projects awarded through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program’s Food Science and Nutrition priority area include:
- Jun Innovations, Inc., Honolulu, Hawaii, will develop a proprietary, supercooling technology to preserve perishable probiotic products without cell damage and with extended shelf life ($100,000).
- Stixfresh USA, Inc., of Tumwater, Washington, will test essential-oil based formulas to determine their effectiveness as a safe and natural way to suppress microbial spoilage of fresh fruit ($97,697).
- Paragon Flavors, Inc., Belle Mead, New Jersey, will assess the viability of sprouting whole-grain rice to create nutritionally dense, sustainably enhanced, consumer-friendly food ingredients for packaged food products ($99,414).
NIFA invests in and advances agricultural research, education, and Extension across the nation to make transformative discoveries that solve societal challenges. NIFA supports initiatives that ensure the long-term viability of agriculture and applies an integrated approach to ensure that groundbreaking discoveries in agriculture-related sciences and technologies reach the people who can put them into practice. In FY2020, NIFA’s total investment was $1.95 billion.
Visit our website: www.nifa.usda.gov; Twitter: @USDA_NIFA; LinkedIn: USDA-NIFA. To learn more about NIFA’s impact on agricultural science (searchable by state or keyword), visit www.nifa.usda.gov/impacts.
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USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer, and lender.
USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer, and lender.