An idea for a device that uses food leftovers to help feed livestock in Mozambique won the national final of the Global Enterprise Challenge this week.

Dubbed "The Granulator" the bench-top food processor takes waste food, mulches and pasturises it, then dehydrates it into a fine grain that can be used to feed chickens and pigs.

The design is the brainchild of a team of seven teenagers who took part in the event at Massey University's Albany campus.

The challenge was to create a product or service that would reduce food waste in New Zealand and stop people going hungry in one of the world's poorest countries.

Led by joint managing directors Ashleigh Bennett, of Diocesan School for Girls, Auckland, and Aimee Groom, of Taradale High School, Napier, the team named their company Envirolink.

Other team members were: Bethany Balmer of Tawa College, Wellington; Xinran Chen, St Cuthbert's College; Edvince Hermanoche, Westlake Boys' High School; Carissa Heunes, Long Bay College and Christina Mills, of Massey High School (all Auckland).

They came up with an idea to use leftover pizza, ham, chicken and beef sandwiches, fruit and a slice from their lunch and process it into granules.

The product would then be collected by a waste management company, put into 20kg loads and given to World Vision, which could pass it onto farmers for animal feed.

"There is nothing you cannot put in The Granulator," Ms Groom said. "It reduces waste in New Zealand because less goes to landfill and what was once waste now has a purpose."

The team selected Mozambique as a suitable country to receive the product because of political stability. They spoke to World Vision and Foodstuffs, which would retail the item at $200, about their idea.

Ms Bennett said their business plan included a marketing campaign outlining the key social goal of caring for the global environment.

Corporate mentor Paul Bolte, from Albany-based firm Bartercard, said he never doubted the team would win.

"The team had two strong co-leaders, which made them very powerful because they were able to delegate and lead in separate areas - it is very rare to see young people have the maturity to be able to deal with that," Mr Bolte said.

Professor John Raine, regional chief executive of the Albany campus, described the energy of the students taking part in this challenge as amazing.

"If you can bring the same application and ideas to your own businesses I am sure the country is in good hands," Professor Raine told them.

The winning team's proposal then competed against 20 others in a global online contest. The overall winner was Indonesia, which also came up with a way to turn food waste into animal feed.

Watch the New Zealand students' presentation at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twycz9RsYQ4

The Global Enterprise Challenge was organised by the Young Enterprise Trust and the University was the principal sponsor and host. Eighty year-12 and 13 secondary pupils from across New Zealand took part.

Every participant in the challenge received a scholarship worth $1000 from the University's College of Business and the winning team's members received $2000 scholarships.