The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sought faster Salmonella detection methods to prevent foodborne illnesses, as detection had an average wait period of 24-48 hours. FDA was most interested in concepts that explored the acceleration or elimination of sample preparation and/or enrichment in the testing process, and/or those that employ novel or revolutionary techniques to achieve pathogen detection.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates foodborne illnesses sicken 1 in 6 Americans every year, leading to 3,000 deaths. Salmonella> bacteria cause over 1 million illnesses yearly, leading to $365 million in direct medical costs.

We designed and produced The 2014 FDA Food Safety Challenge, calling for cutting-edge techniques to speed up Salmonella detection in fresh produce. The challenge offered a $500k prize package, with five finalists receiving $20k and access to a field accelerator phase, which included a bootcamp at FDA.

The challenge drew 49 entries, finalists filed for 7 new patent applications based on their accelerator experience, and the winning solution had a 94% reduction in waiting time to detect Salmonella. FDA received a license to technology that reduced the waiting time of Salmonella detection to less than 3 hours. Gaining national press and social media attention, the challenge continues to serve as a model of what open innovation in government can look like.