The Green Chemistry & Commerce Council (GC3) and InnoCentive have launched a global competition to identify innovators developing preservatives with improved environmental health and safety profiles for use in cosmetics, personal care and household products.
The competition is open to broad-spectrum or single action chemical agents effective on gram-positive bacteria, gram-negative bacteria, yeast and mould, as well as preservative boosters and multi-functional ingredients which have a primary non-preserving function yet enhance antimicrobial efficacy.
Regulatory bans and restrictions, coupled with increasing stakeholder concerns around the potential health impacts of several widely-used chemicals, are reducing the current palette of acceptable preservatives. Due to these issues, consumer goods manufacturers are looking for novel preservatives - or preservative boosters - effective in protecting consumer products from contamination.
The contest will award three to five cash prizes from the US$175,000 prize pool, with a minimum single prize award of US$25,000. Sponsors include: Babyganics, Beautycounter, Beiersdorf, Colgate-Palmolive, Johnson & Johnson (J&J), Kao USA, Method - People Against Dirty, Procter & Gamble (P&G), Reckitt Benckiser (RB), SC Johnson, Unilever, Target, Walmart, Dow Microbial Control, Lonza, Schülke, Thor, Environmental Defense Fund and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.
The sponsors are looking to partner with innovators to co-develop, license or invest in new technologies to speed them to market.
Up to five finalists will be invited to present their technologies at a US meeting in the first quarter of 2018, and to network with representatives from consumer product companies, major retailers, and preservative suppliers.
Entries can be made here: www.innocentive.com
