Sarah Talbi: Edible Tableware to Reduce Waste
by Sara Hammoud, Gather Reporter for MENA
Thanks to Algerian entrepreneur and JA alumna Sarah Talbi, cleaning your plate at the end of the meal is no longer enough. Now, your plate is part of the meal. Sarah, a 22-year-old food engineer, is the co-founder of Genewin, a startup with a mission to replace plastic plates and cutlery with edible and biodegradable versions. Through her patent-pending product, Sarah sources wheat bran, a part of wheat that is usually thrown away by bread makers, to manufacture Genewin’s products: plates, bowls, cups, flatware, and more.
““The worst enemy of yourself is yourself. The most difficult challenges to overcome are the ones we carry internally.””
It took hundreds of hours in the lab to develop a product that starts biodegrading as soon as it touches soil or water and that is edible. (Compare this to several centuries required for plastic products to biodegrade!) Genewin’s first prototype was tested with team members and university professors.
By January 2020, the prototype was assessed to be safe for both the consumer and the environment, and Sarah applied for a patent to protect the formula and the process of manufacturing. She expects to be granted the patent in 2021, giving her 20 years of protection in Algeria, which can be extended to other countries through the collaboration that exists between the Algerian government and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
“It all started with the JA Company Program,” Sarah says, thinking back to her time with INJAZ Algeria, when she decided to combine her newfound business skills with her engineering background to create a successful startup.
Her JA team, which was made up of 20 students working in the food industry, came in second at the INJAZ Algeria Company of the Year competition. That singular experience brought out the entrepreneur in Sarah, and began building both her confidence and skills. She adds that being a young female entrepreneur in the MENA region is challenging, because women are often not taken seriously in the business world. But her INJAZ mentors did. They treated all students equally, regardless of gender.
Today, the Genewin team all have backgrounds in food engineering and business and are targeting Algeria youth, with green consumption patterns, as their target market. Over time, they also hope to lower costs though economies of scale by expanding to other countries in Europe and in the Arab world. And Genewin continues to research improvements in the shelf life of the product: It’s currently six months before opening the package and one month after opening.
But Sarah’s longevity in the business world is practically a guarantee given all that she has already accomplished. Sarah encourages young people like her to dream big and work hard toward their goals. Bran may be the main ingredient of Sarah’s product, but ambition and passion are the ingredients of her success.
““It all started with the JA Company Program.””