Grand Prize Challenge 2026: "Ritto Comprehensive Industry Award" Award Ceremony and Kickoff Event Held

At the National Knowledge-Based Manufacturing Conference 2026, organized and operated by Ribanes Co., Ltd., the “National Knowledge-Based Manufacturing Grand Prize Challenge” (hereinafter referred to as the “Grand Prize Challenge”) was held as an initiative designed to effectively foster new collaborations. Ritto Sogo Sangyo Co., Ltd., which participated as a co-creation partner, announced the theme “Collaborative Ideas Contributing to Solving Challenges in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta Region” for this initiative and solicited collaboration proposals.

Following discussions held on the day of the meeting, several collaboration proposals were submitted. Based on these proposals, DigiTaste Co., Ltd. was selected as the recipient of the “Ritto General Industry Award,” and a kickoff meeting was held to serve as the award ceremony.

The theme of this award is “Visualizing the Aging of Beverages.” This collaboration uses liquid analysis technology developed by DigiTaste, Inc. to evaluate changes in the taste and mouthfeel of beverages when using tumblers and stirrers from VANTECH PRODUCTS (*).

Ahead of the award announcement, both companies—which had begun evaluating samples shortly after the conference—expanded the scope of their collaboration during a kickoff meeting that doubled as the award ceremony, and also began exploring applications for water quality management at aquaculture farms.

Going beyond the award-winning application of beverage evaluation, the expansion of this technology to water quality management at aquaculture farms not only broadens the potential for Ritto Sogo Sangyo to address challenges in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta region but also holds the potential to lead to the development of new applications for DigiTaste’s technology.

In addition to the aquaculture sludge treatment projects that Ritto Sogo Sangyo has been undertaking in the Mekong Delta region, DigiTaste’s technology has the potential to evolve into tools and services that measure water quality at aquaculture farms on-site, detect changes in water quality and signs of abnormalities, and help managers determine the appropriate next steps. Moving forward, the company plans to strengthen collaboration by identifying verification themes tailored to actual water quality management challenges, while also exploring partnerships with local aquaculture operators and research institutions.

Mr. Inokuchi of Ritto Sogo Sangyo commented, “We met at the National Knowledge-Based Manufacturing Conference, and through subsequent discussions, we began to see the potential for combining the water environment challenges our company has been addressing with DigiTaste’s liquid analysis technology. We hope to apply this to water quality management at aquaculture sites in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta in the future.”

Going forward, we plan to proceed with studies on measurement parameters and evaluation methods for water quality management at aquaculture farms, as well as investigations into the feasibility of pilot projects in the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam.

The National Knowledge-Based Manufacturing Conference serves as a forum for combining the diverse knowledge held by startups, mid-sized companies, and small and medium-sized enterprises to generate concrete steps toward solving unresolved challenges. We will continue to engage in discussions to ensure that the collaboration launched this time leads to products and services that contribute to resolving these unresolved challenges.

*VANTECH PRODUCTS (https://vantech-products.com/) are catalytically treated cutlery products manufactured by VANTECH Ltd., a group company of Ritto Sogo Sangyo.

＜会社概要＞

Ritto Sogo Sangyo Co.

Business Activities: Waste management, plumbing and environmental services, etc.
URL:https://ritto.co.jp/

DigiTaste Corporation

Business Activities: Development and provision of a liquid analysis platform utilizing EIS and AI
URL:https://www.digitaste.co.jp/

Inquiries Regarding This Matter

Lifeness Co., Ltd. Contact: Okazaki

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