The Jukolan Juusto Hackathon was organised as part of the FinFoodNet project, which aims to boost the growth of Finnish food exports by strengthening cooperation between regions and companies.
One of the project’s activities was to organise a co-creation event for companies aimed at strengthening export readiness. For this purpose, the proven BioBoosters Hackathon concept was utilised, and the challenge was framed around exploring how side streams could be processed into export products.
Jukolan Juusto, a cheesery from Leivonmäki, offered the hackathon a concrete example: the whey generated as a side stream from its cheddar production. Each week, roughly 2,500 litres of whey ended up being used to improve soil on nearby fields, but Jukolan Juusto wanted to find a higher‑value application for this high‑quality, protein‑rich raw material. The hackathon served as a tool to explore new applications and suitable collaboration opportunities.
At the hackathon’s kick‑off event, the five selected teams were introduced to Jukolan Juusto’s operations, the competition’s evaluation criteria and potential export opportunities. The programme also included a presentation by Lotta Westerlund from the German‑Finnish Chamber of Commerce, who outlined opportunities in the German market as well as key considerations when developing an export product for Germany.
On the hackathon day, held at the Bioeconomy Campus in Saarijärvi, the teams refined their concepts with support from multidisciplinary experts. The event concluded with a series of pitches presenting new opportunities for whey utilisation in food products, cosmetics and scientific research.
