as with last year<\/a>, there were many exceptional proposals for research and development.<\/p>\n\u201cUltimately, our panel of expert judges chose Ron\u2019s proposal because of the opportunities for global interest in applying a uniquely Kiwi innovation to a process which already has a strong foothold in Asia in the hospital and aged care sector.\u201d<\/p>\n
Park said he was delighted with the win. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe grant will enable us to build the business case needed to attract investment and bring this product to market.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said Kiwi Tender offered a transformational opportunity for New Zealand\u2019s red meat industry, creating a new premium export product category targeting older adults, the fastest-growing consumer demographic globally.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy adapting the successful Eatender model to New Zealand\u2019s world-class grass-fed beef and lamb, we can create export-ready products that transform underutilised cuts into high-value senior nutrition solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Park said more than 333 manufacturers and at least 1000 products now carry Eatender certification, with the global market for easy-to-eat protein sources estimated at $500 billion.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith support from leading meat processors and academic expertise, we\u2019re really excited about the potential for this project.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"]()
From left to right, top row: Andrew Clark of MPI, Chris Mawson of Ovation, Palmerston North Mayor Grant Smith, Bottom row: Neil Smith of Silver Fern Farms, Dragon’s Den winner Ron Park and independent chairman of the Meat Industry Association, Nathan Guy<\/p>\n
The Dragon\u2019s Den final took place at the joint MIA-Bioeconomy Science Institute Meat Innovation Workshop in Palmerston North on March 11-12. <\/p>\n
The five finalists had five minutes to pitch their ideas to the judging panel, followed by five minutes of Q&A with the judges and audience.<\/p>\n
The judging panel featured industry leaders:<\/p>\n
Nathan Guy, independent chairman, Meat Industry AssociationAndrew Clark, investment manager at MPI\u2019s primary sector growth teamNeil Smith, group manager market access and regulation, Silver Fern FarmsChris Mawson, group technical manager, Ovation Ltd.<\/p>\n
– Meat Industry Association<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This includes developing a local tenderisation protocol, with parameters optimised for grass-fed meat. Park \u2013 known as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354315,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2246,3110,4596,132456,41721,15453,2082,2454,194,170924,3822,37511,111,43,139,69,384,4460,29544,15406,87980,52442,223,187365,124802,6202,102],"class_list":["post-354314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-2246","tag-association","tag-competition","tag-den","tag-dragons","tag-elderly","tag-for","tag-industry","tag-kiwi","tag-kiwimade","tag-meat","tag-mia","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-people","tag-product","tag-range","tag-red","tag-tender","tag-texture","tag-the","tag-tonguesoft","tag-unwell","tag-wins","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}