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The Startup Challenge: Showcasing tomorrow’s F&B innovations today
The 2025 categories At the forefront of innovation
Why take part in the Fi Europe Startup Challenge 2025? Testimonials from last year’s winners
EXCLUSIVE CONTENT: The foodtech startup founder’s survival guide 2025
The Fi Europe Startup Challenge is a unique competition for innovative earlystage companies offering ingredients, services, or foodtech or digital solutions for the food and beverage industry.
Since its beginnings in 2016, the Challenge has been offering the perfect platform for startups seeking to make powerful partnerships and attract investment, giving them the chance to showcase their innovations to an audience at Fi Europe, the annual global meeting of thousands of decisionmakers in the food ingredients industry.
Startups active for seven years or under can apply to as many of the categories that are relevant to them, free of charge.
All finalists gain access to Fi Europe 2025, held in person at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, where they can mingle with industry stakeholders and gain valuable exposure when pitching their solutions on stage.
What’s more, they will be interviewed for an article to be published on the Fi Global Insights website, which has more than 230,000 unique visitors annually and 28,000-plus newsletter subscribers.
Pitches will take place in person on 1 December in front of a panel of judges at Station F – the world’s biggest startup campus. Later that day, finalists can also join the New Food Paradigm Conference, a special event hosted by Shakeup Factory at the same location, where more than 60 startups will take part in a day of pitching, demos, and networking.
Then, on 2 December, finalists will take to the stage once more to pitch for an audience at Fi Europe – the leading event for food ingredients globally, where more than 1,500 exhibiting companies and 25,000 industry stakeholders gather each year.
Category winners will have the opportunity to select one of two prizes: either a fully equipped stand at Fi
Europe 2026, or mentorship opportunities from our esteemed partners.
And Smartcore, the official digital marketing provider for exhibitors at Fi Europe, is introducing a bonus prize for 2025! Two selected Startup Challenge finalists and the Most Innovative Sustainable Solution winner (if applicable) will receive a smarter digital marketing package. This exclusive package can help you showcase your innovation or sustainability initiative and elevate your digital marketing strategy in 2026.
Click here to register your interest for the Startup Challenge 2025 and find out more about the exciting prizes up for grabs.
CATEGORY
This category covers innovations related to food and beverage ingredients or additives from animal and non-animal/plantbased/alternative sources. These innovations can be related to improvements in taste, texture, appearance, or nutritional value/ health benefits.
CATEGORY
This category covers innovations in digital services and solutions such as AI, machine learning, blockchain, IoT, digital platforms, or data analytics that support improvements in ingredients sourcing and production, food formulation, food safety and quality, traceability, transparency, smart packaging, and/or supply chain management.In addition, a special jury’s choice award will be awarded to one of the finalists.
(Please note that startups cannot apply to this category.)
CATEGORY
This category covers innovations related to food processing or bioprocessing technologies, solutions or services that enhance either operational efficiency or the nutritional/health value of food.
CATEGORY
This special prize will be awarded to the startup with the most sustainable innovation. All finalists across all categories can be considered for this award, with the winners being decided by the expert jury. The startup’s overall sustainability efforts will be considered, including efforts to reduce resource usage, minimize waste, and enhance both environmental and societal impact, ensuring the innovation contributes to a more sustainable and resilient food system.
The Fi Europe Startup Challenge is the place to discover the most innovative ideas and concepts emerging in the food and beverage sector.
Veteran jury member Sandra Einerhand, the brains behind the Challenge, said the innovative ideas on display were what made this event so exciting.
“I’ve been involved in the Challenge since 2016,” she said. “The idea was to find a way of bringing more innovation to Fi Europe, and I am delighted to see how this event has evolved.”
The nutrition expert, who leads the consultancy Einerhand Science & Innovation, has watched the Challenge grow and change since its inception nine years ago. She sees huge benefits for startups in applying.
“Visibility and feedback are essential to helping startups further refine their business model, and to make sure that their ideas are successful,” she said. “This is one of the main reasons I would encourage startups to apply.”
Fi Europe also presents the ideal platform for startups to attract investment. From the point of view of established food ingredient companies, the show gives industry players the chance to see what ideas are out there, and to invest in something at an early stage.
“This is what I am passionate about – driving innovation and health forward, not only for the consumer, but for the planet,” said Einerhand. “This is what I like about the Startup Challenge: being at the forefront of where innovation is entering the market.”
1,500+
25,000
135+ Countries represented
The Startup Challenge has played a pivotal role in accelerating the businesses of many startups – as previous participants can testify.
Adi Yehezkeli CEO and co-founder, Fabumin
What were the benefits for you of participating in the Startup Challenge?
“Everybody is here – all the stakeholders, manufacturers, and creators. I’m getting such great attention and traction here because I met so many people that we can do business with. And this is what Fi Europe is for me: oceans of opportunities.”
What does it mean to win Most Innovative Plant-Based or Alternative Ingredient?
“It is such a great privilege to be among these such great ideas and inventors. When I saw their pitches, I was overwhelmed from the creativity and the desire and the ability to change the world. To be considered as one of them is quite amazing.
“Thank you so much [to Fi Europe] for this opportunity and for this amazing ability to present our company and present our solution to the world.”
CEO and co-founder, Yeastime
What does it mean to win the Startup Challenge?
“We’re an Italian startup, where the innovation ecosystem is really going off, and since the beginning… our intention was always one of internationalising our company.
“And so, receiving such an award in such an international environment, in such an international event, really means a lot [regarding] the work that we have done during this year. We’re really, really happy for this recognition.”
Would you recommend other food ingredient startups to apply to the Challenge?
“[Fi Europe] is amazing: lots of companies from small to big in the space. I really, really recommend [taking part].”
Dr Julia Lee Xiaoyun Chief commercial officer, Natural Trace
What does it mean to win the Startup Challenge?
“Winning first prize is really a validation not just of our efforts but also the issue out there that needs to be solved. In this case, it’s about trust in the supply chain –it’s about traceability and transparency.”
Would you recommend other food ingredient startups to apply to the Challenge?
“Fi Europe is really a huge event and it is the event you need to go to! I flew halfway across the globe for this, so I definitely do recommend that startups come!”
By Adam M Adamek, PhD
After a quarter-century watching brilliant ideas founder while simple solutions flourish, here’s what separates the survivors from the casualties.
Read on for an exclusive excerpt from the upcoming book Growth Factor: How Science-First Founders Build €100 Million Nutrition Brands (2025)
The email arrived early in the morning on Tuesday –one of those messages that makes your stomach drop even before you’ve properly read it. Another promising foodtech startup was packing it in. Brilliant fermentation technology, genuinely clever founders with PhDs in biotechnology, decent funding round only 18 months prior. Yet here they were, joining the sobering reality that around 90% of startups across Europe still fail to reach their 10th year, despite record funding levels.
I’ve been pondering this problem for the better part of 25 years now, ever since I first stepped out of academic research into the rather more chaotic world of innovation. Started as a PhD researcher, absolutely convinced that the cleverest technology would inevitably triumph. Rather naive, looking back.
The startups that survive aren’t necessarily the smartest or best funded. They’re simply the ones that systematically avoid making the same 7 mistakes that have been killing promising companies for decades.
Here’s the survival guide I rather wish someone had pressed into my hands when I was starting out.
The plant-based revolution that nearly wasn’t In 2015, a European food-biotech startup – much like Formo or Better Dairy – approached several major food corporations with what seemed impossible: plant-based milk that would actually taste like proper dairy. The founders had developed a novel fermentation process that could replicate exact protein structures found in cow’s milk using precision-engineered microorganisms.
Every established food company they approached politely declined. R&D departments declared protein engineering “technically unfeasible at commercial scale”. Regulatory teams produced lengthy lists of novel food approval hurdles. Marketing departments declared the concept “commercially unviable”.
The startup relocated to California and secured funding from investors who understood biotechnology rather better than food industry incumbents. What they built became the foundation of what is now a €4.5 billion European plant-based dairy segment, growing steadily at 7% annually.
Manual validation (0-€100,000 revenue)
The founders who spot these opportunities approach early-stage validation differently. They conduct 48 to 72 hours of intensive customer discovery, engaging directly with 10 potential buyers who experience the problem daily. This isn’t market research – it’s systematic pain point archaeology.
During initial discovery, successful biotech and foodtech startups listen for specific markers: “Oh, we just work around that,” or “It’s always been a nightmare, but what can you do?” These phrases indicate significant operational pain points that have been normalised through repetition.
They build something rudimentary within one weekend –a laboratory demonstration, functional prototype, or sophisticated simulation that proves the concept could work. Speed matters enormously, because the objective isn’t perfection but evidence that the core scientific principle has commercial merit.
Most crucially, they charge money immediately, even if it’s merely €3 or €50. This payment threshold filters out polite academic interest from genuine commercial demand. Research institutions will engage intellectually, but commercial entities only part with cash for solutions they genuinely need.
Regulatory navigation (€100,000-€1 million revenue)
Once initial market validation proves successful, nutrition and biotech companies must navigate the particularly complex regulatory landscape. EFSA approval processes demand systematic preparation— allocate 24 to 36 months for regulatory preparation, in line with the European Food Safety Authority’s average review duration of 889 days.
Successful scale-ups engage specialist consultants who understand EFSA procedures, conduct comprehensive safety studies, and develop supply chain traceability protocols that satisfy both regulators and sophisticated corporate customers.
precision biology lesson
A Netherlands-based fermentation technology startup had developed breakthrough capabilities: engineered microorganisms that could produce complex nutritional compounds at roughly 15% of current market costs whilst maintaining superior purity profiles.
Rather than immediately pursuing venture capital to build automated production facilities, the founders made what seemed perverse. They began manually producing small batches using standard laboratory equipment, personally managing every aspect from substrate preparation to final purification.
This hands-on approach revealed critical insights that no theoretical modelling could have uncovered. Specific temperature fluctuations affecting yield consistency. Contamination risks are invisible in controlled laboratory conditions. Quality control challenges essential for regulatory approval. Customer feedback about product characteristics influencing purchasing decisions.
Manual operations (first 50 production runs)
The most successful biotech startups discipline themselves to manage their first 50 production runs manually, regardless of how tedious this appears. They personally oversee fermentation conditions, monitor quality parameters in real time, and troubleshoot problems as they emerge.
This manual phase serves multiple purposes beyond cost efficiency. Founders develop intimate familiarity with their technology’s practical limitations, regulatory compliance requirements, and customer quality expectations. They identify which process variables most significantly affect product performance.
During manual operations, successful startups document every deviation, complaint, and process modification systematically. These records become invaluable for designing automated systems that address real-world challenges rather than theoretical engineering elegance.
manufacturing (automation transition)
Once manual processes demonstrate consistent results and clear customer demand, nutrition technology companies transition toward systematic automation. However, successful scale-ups avoid automating everything simultaneously. They implement automation incrementally, beginning with process steps that create the most significant quality improvements.
Manufacturing partnerships become particularly important during this transition. Rather than building internal production capabilities immediately, successful scale-ups establish relationships with contract manufacturers who possess relevant certifications and regulatory experience.
The personalised nutrition platform that wasn’t
A Copenhagen-based nutrition technology startup had developed a “comprehensive wellness platform” combining genetic testing, dietary analysis, supplement personalisation, fitness tracking, meal planning, and social features. The scientific foundation was genuinely impressive – algorithms could analyse hundreds of genetic markers to provide personalised nutrition recommendations with remarkable sophistication.
After 18 months of development, user engagement remained stubbornly flat. Their comprehensive platform attracted curiosity but failed to generate sustained usage that creates valuable businesses.
Through systematic user behaviour analysis, the founders discovered something humbling: customers used precisely one feature consistently. The genetic testing component providing specific supplement recommendations based on individual metabolism profiles generated genuine engagement, whilst everything else remained unused despite months of careful development.
The founders stripped away everything except genetic testing and supplement recommendations, focusing exclusively on delivering the most accurate, actionable nutritional guidance possible.
Product definition (single focus validation)
The most successful foodtech, nutrition, and biotech startups identify the single customer action that generates genuine value – the specific moment when users think, “I genuinely cannot imagine managing my health without this insight.” Everything else becomes secondary until that core interaction delivers consistent value.
This focus requires systematic measurement of user behaviour rather than assumptions. Weekly active usage metrics reveal which features generate genuine engagement versus impressive technical capabilities that don’t translate into sustained commercial value.
Successful startups resist the temptation to build comprehensive solutions addressing multiple customer needs simultaneously. They perfect one specific capability that solves one significant problem exceptionally well.
Platform development (strategic expansion)
Once single-purpose solutions demonstrate strong product-market fit – typically evidenced by 20 to 30% monthly retention (an exceptional figure in consumer health apps where 10% is the norm) – nutrition technology companies can begin systematic expansion into adjacent capabilities.
However, successful scale-ups maintain discipline about expansion priorities, adding only features that meaningfully enhance the core value proposition rather than creating separate product categories. Each new capability must strengthen the primary use case.
Strategic partnerships become increasingly important during platform expansion. Rather than building every capability internally, successful nutrition companies establish relationships with complementary technology providers, creating integrated solutions whilst maintaining focus on their core scientific differentiation.
The microbiome startup that cracked the code
A microbiome analysis company developing diagnostic tools for personalised nutrition had crafted what they considered compelling investment presentations. Market size projections, competitive landscape analysis, technical architecture diagrams, regulatory pathway timelines, detailed financial models extending years into uncertain futures.
They pitched this comprehensive presentation to 15 investors across three months and received consistently polite feedback about “interesting technology” and “compelling market opportunity”, but no actual term sheet offers.
Then something significant happened. Their pilot customer programme began generating remarkable results. Healthcare practitioners using their diagnostic tools reported that patients achieved substantially better dietary compliance when recommendations were based on specific microbiome profiles. Patient satisfaction scores improved by 40%, and long-term health outcomes showed measurable improvement.
Armed with concrete evidence, the founders rebuilt their investment approach around actual customer results. Their new presentation led with third-party patient outcome data, included healthcare provider testimonials, and showed actual customer churn and ARR growth.
The difference was remarkable. Their first meeting using the evidence-based approach resulted in a term sheet offer within one week.
Biotech and nutrition startups often face extended technical validation timelines, making it critical to raise €500,000 to €1 million seed rounds backed by data, not just vision. The most effective approach involves
establishing partnerships with academic institutions, healthcare providers, or corporate research departments who can validate technology performance in real-world applications.
Early-stage biotech companies should target seed rounds between €500,000 and €1 million, particularly when pursuing grant-matched or lab-to-pilot transition phases. Smaller rounds limit dilution whilst larger rounds often require traction levels that early-stage companies haven’t yet achieved.
Grant funding becomes particularly important during this phase. European Innovation Council programmes, Horizon Europe initiatives, and national biotechnology grants provide non-dilutive capital that enables extended development timelines whilst preserving founder equity positions.
Once biotech companies demonstrate initial productmarket fit through pilot customers and early revenue generation, they typically pursue Series A rounds typically ranging from €8 million to €20 million, with top quartile biotech deals now exceeding €25 million.
Investors at this stage expect comprehensive regulatory strategies, established manufacturing partnerships, and clear paths toward profitability within 36 months. Financial models must demonstrate realistic unit economics based on actual customer data rather than theoretical projections.
Strategic investors – pharmaceutical companies, food corporations, or ingredient manufacturers – often provide valuable partnerships beyond pure financial investment. These relationships can accelerate regulatory approval, provide manufacturing capabilities, and establish distribution channels.
The synthetic biology dilution disaster
A synthetic biology startup developing novel protein production methods had navigated early fundraising successfully, they thought. Four separate funding rounds using convertible instruments: €300,000 at a €4 million valuation cap, €500,000 at €6 million, €400,000 at €8 million, and €600,000 at €10 million. Each round included 20% discount provisions.
The founders felt confident about maintaining control whilst building toward Series A. Their technology was progressing well, customer pilots showed promising results, and market interest was growing.
Then Series A negotiations began, and mathematical reality became rather more complex. Stacked SAFE conversions and discounts reduced the founders’ stake to just 38% post-Series A – a scenario they hadn’t fully modelled. A simple cap table model would’ve revealed how multi-round SAFEs, each with discounts and valuation caps, compounded their dilution.
The lead investor demanded board control, while unmodelled dilution triggered staff departures – an avoidable outcome had cap-table simulations been run earlier.
Founder protection (early equity management)
Biotech startups face particular equity challenges because extended development timelines often require multiple funding rounds before achieving substantial revenue growth. Each funding event creates dilution that compounds over time, making early-stage equity protection particularly important.
The most successful approach involves establishing clear equity policies before any external funding. Founders should model various funding scenarios, establish maximum dilution thresholds, and implement protective mechanisms that preserve control through extended development periods.
Convertible instruments require particularly careful consideration in biotech contexts. SAFE agreements and convertible notes can create unexpected dilution when multiple rounds occur before priced equity rounds. Founders should model post-money conversion scenarios under various valuation outcomes.
Professional management (strategic equity)
As biotech companies transition toward commercial operations, their equity structures must accommodate professional management, strategic investors, and potential acquisition scenarios. This phase requires sophisticated cap table management that balances founder control with investor rights.
Series A and subsequent rounds typically involve professional investors who expect standard liquidation preferences, anti-dilution protection, and board representation rights. Founders should negotiate these terms carefully, maintaining sufficient voting control whilst providing investors with appropriate downside protection.
Strategic partnerships often involve equity components that require careful integration with existing cap table structures. Pharmaceutical companies, food corporations, or ingredient manufacturers may invest directly or establish option arrangements that affect ownership calculations.
The functional ingredient success story
A Finnish biotechnology company had developed genuinely innovative functional ingredients – specific probiotic strains that could demonstrably improve digestive health whilst maintaining stability in various food processing environments. Laboratory results were impressive, intellectual property protection was comprehensive, and early customer feedback was enthusiastic.
However, establishing commercial relationships with major food corporations proved considerably more challenging than anticipated. Large companies operate complex procurement processes, require extensive safety documentation, and prefer working with established suppliers who can guarantee consistent quality.
Rather than attempting to penetrate these markets through traditional sales approaches, the founders developed a systematic partnership strategy. They identified mid-sized food manufacturers actively seeking differentiation through functional ingredients but lacking access to cutting-edge biotechnology research.
These partnerships provided mutual benefits: food manufacturers gained exclusive access to innovative ingredients that created competitive advantages, whilst the biotech startup secured commercial validation, manufacturing scale-up assistance, and distribution channel access that would have taken years to develop independently.
Nutrition and biotech startups can overcome market access challenges by establishing strategic partnerships with companies that possess complementary capabilities. Rather than competing directly with established suppliers, successful startups position themselves as innovation partners who enable differentiation through novel technologies.
The most effective approach involves identifying potential partners who face specific technical challenges that startup innovations can address. Food manufacturers seeking clean-label solutions, supplement companies requiring novel delivery mechanisms, or healthcare providers pursuing personalised nutrition capabilities represent potential partnership opportunities.
Partnership agreements should provide mutual value creation rather than simple supplier-customer relationships. Startups contribute innovative technologies and scientific expertise, whilst partners provide market access, manufacturing capabilities, and commercial validation.
Market leadership (channel expansion)
Once initial partnerships demonstrate commercial success, nutrition technology companies can leverage this validation to establish relationships with larger strategic partners. Demonstrated success with mid-sized companies provides credible evidence of commercial viability that larger corporations require.
Strategic partnerships during scale-up often involve co-development arrangements where startups and established companies jointly develop new products or technologies. These collaborations provide access to substantial research and development resources whilst maintaining startup innovation capabilities.
International expansion through strategic partnerships enables faster market entry whilst minimising capital requirements and regulatory complexities. Local partners provide market knowledge, regulatory expertise, and distribution capabilities.
The personalised nutrition platform that lost its way
A particularly successful personalised nutrition company had achieved what most founders dream about: strong product-market fit, 60% year-over-year revenue growth, enthusiastic customer testimonials, and interest from strategic acquirers. Their genetic testing and nutritional recommendation platform served over 50,000 active users.
Success, however, created new challenges that proved more dangerous than their earlier struggles. Corporate partnership opportunities multiplied rapidly. Potential acquirers initiated conversations. Consulting projects emerged promising substantial immediate revenue. Media opportunities increased their public profile significantly.
The founders, understandably proud of their achievements and eager to capitalise on growing opportunities, began accepting strategic consulting projects with large food corporations whilst simultaneously exploring partnership opportunities with pharmaceutical companies interested in their genetic analysis capabilities
Within 18 months, their core business metrics began deteriorating. Product development velocity decreased as engineering resources were diverted to consulting deliverables. Customer support quality declined because the same team members were managing both platform users and consulting clients. Their 60% growth rate slowed to 20%, then 15%, then became negative as competitors introduced superior products whilst the team’s attention was fragmented.
The most successful nutrition and biotech startups establish systematic disciplines that protect focus on core business objectives even when attractive alternatives emerge. This requires establishing clear criteria for evaluating opportunities and maintaining organisational discipline about strategic priorities.
Monthly focus audits help maintain strategic clarity by evaluating all activities that consume more than minimal time or resources. Each activity should contribute directly to core business metrics – customer acquisition, product development, or revenue growth – or be eliminated regardless of how interesting it might appear.
Opportunity evaluation frameworks enable systematic decision-making about partnerships, consulting projects, and strategic initiatives. These frameworks should prioritise activities that strengthen core business capabilities rather than creating new revenue streams that dilute focus.
As nutrition and biotech companies achieve initial success, they face increasing pressure to pursue expansion opportunities that can enhance growth but also create dangerous distractions. Successful scaleups develop systematic approaches to expansion that strengthen rather than dilute their core competitive advantages.
Strategic partnership evaluation requires particular discipline during growth phases. Partnerships should provide access to capabilities, markets, or resources that accelerate core business development rather than creating entirely new business lines that require separate management attention.
Product expansion decisions must reinforce core value propositions rather than pursuing market opportunities that dilute brand positioning or technical expertise. Each new product or service should strengthen customer relationships and competitive positioning within existing market segments.
Resource allocation discipline becomes increasingly important as companies scale beyond initial success. Growing organisations must resist the temptation to pursue every promising opportunity, instead maintaining focus on activities that compound existing advantages rather than creating new challenges.
Startup phase implementation (0-€500,000 revenue)
During initial development stages, companies should focus on market validation, technology development, and early customer acquisition. Implementation priorities include customer discovery processes, regulatory planning, and partnership development that enables market access whilst maintaining technology focus.
Key metrics during this phase include customer validation rates, technology development milestones, and regulatory progress indicators. Financial metrics remain secondary to technology and market validation achievements that establish foundation for sustainable growth.
Scale-up phase implementation (€500,000-€10 million revenue)
Growth stage companies must balance expansion opportunities with operational discipline that maintains competitive advantages. Implementation priorities include manufacturing scale-up, distribution expansion, and strategic partnerships that accelerate growth whilst preserving technology leadership.
Metrics during this phase should emphasise sustainable growth rates, customer retention, and operational efficiency indicators that demonstrate scalability beyond initial market validation. Financial management becomes increasingly important as companies approach profitability and prepare for institutional investment rounds.
After observing hundreds of nutrition, biotech, and foodtech companies across 25 years spanning multiple economic cycles, I’ve reached a rather humbling conclusion: the companies that create lasting value aren’t necessarily those with the most sophisticated technologies or largest funding rounds. They’re the ones who maintain systematic discipline about their core value propositions whilst navigating the complex challenges of regulated markets, sophisticated customers, and extended development timelines. The most valuable opportunities in food technology and biotechnology continue emerging from fundamental scientific advances that create genuine competitive advantages. However, these advantages only translate into commercial success when companies maintain relentless focus on customer value creation rather than pursuing every attractive opportunity that emerges during growth phases.
Success in regulated industries requires particularly sophisticated strategic thinking that balances innovation with compliance, growth with discipline, and opportunity with focus. The companies that achieve sustainable leadership positions are those that master these balances whilst maintaining the innovative capabilities that created their initial advantages.
Build something that genuinely improves human health and nutrition. Everything else, however intellectually interesting or commercially attractive, represents distraction from that fundamental purpose.
Adam M Adamek, PhD is an innovation director and former chief impact officer at EIT Food, Europe’s leading food innovation community, as well as startup founder himself. With a 25-year track record across academic research, multinational giants like Danone, Mondelēz International, MARS/foodspring, and the startup frontier, he has helped accelerate breakthrough technologies at the intersection of foodtech, biotech, and personalised nutrition. At EIT Food, he has built bridges between startups and corporate, SMEs, academic, and research ecosystems – mobilising impact across the entire value chain. Having advised, funded, and scaled hundreds of science-led ventures from lab to market, he knows what separates enduring innovations from promising ideas that never make it past the pitch deck.
Growth Factor will be available in print by the end of 2025.
Fabumin, winner of the Most Innovative Plant-Based or Alternative Ingredient category, has overcome the obstacles to making aquafaba powder production commercially viable, thanks to its proprietary clean-label additive technology and drying process design.
In 2014, French chef Joël Roessel discovered that the water from canned chickpeas can be whipped up into a foam. Over a decade later, aquafaba has become increasingly sought-after as an egg white substitute in multiple applications.
The food industry prefers powders as they are easier to work with, store and transport, and have a longer shelf life. However, when Israeli plant-based cheese manufacturer Human-Nature looked at using aquafaba as an ingredient, it could only find it in liquid format.
This led the company to experiment in its test kitchen, which gave it an appreciation of the challenges entailed in creating aquafaba powder.
“Aquafaba contains sugar, so it is impossible to dry it efficiently because it caramelises into something black and sticky, and a film develops on the surface of the powder,” said Adi Lengel, R&D manager at HumanNature and co-founder of Fabumin.
After a lengthy R&D process, the team came up with a solution in the form of clean-label additives that can be added to aquafaba to overcome these issues – and Fabumin was born.
The startup’s business model is to sell its additives to legume factories so that they can dry their own aquafaba into flakes, which are then sold back to Fabumin for processing into a powder and supplying to customers.
Lengel explained that Fabumin does not produce aquafaba. As he puts it the startup is an “impact company”, therefore working with waste is a priority for Lengel and his team.
“The legume factories pour millions of cubic metres of water down the drain. By collaborating with us, they can reduce their water bills by 80% and generate a new income stream. We can also help them to meet the UN requirements for circular economy and efficiency, which can enable them to access certain subsidiaries,” Lengel added.
The process of producing the flakes involves two steps: evaporation and drying. In the evaporation step, 80% of the wastewater is evaporated, the steam is cooled, and the distilled water is returned to the factory.
In the drying step, the remaining 20% is dried into flakes. While the equipment can be purchased off the shelf, it needs to be configured according to Fabumin’s specifications to ensure a successful outcome.
Fabumin has just signed an agreement with its first partner – the largest legume factory in the Netherlands – and is planning to establish its powder processing facility near that factory in the next six months, Lengel confirmed.
“Then we can upscale the process and commercialise our aquafaba powder – at present we are still at the pilot stage,” he said.
The use of aquafaba in mayonnaise and meringue is well established, thanks to its superior foaming and emulsification properties, but Fabumin is confident that there is still plenty of space in the market, as all the major food manufacturers are seeking egg replacement solutions.
The first market that Fabumin is hoping to penetrate is bakery, which is one of the heaviest users of egg powder. Bakery companies are looking to replace eggs in recipes on several grounds, with unpredictable prices as the main pain point, Lengel explained.
“Egg prices keep fluctuating due to crises like Covid-19 and avian flu; throughout Europe, manufacturers are at the mercy of changing prices, and it makes it difficult for them to plan annual production,” he said.
Food safety is another motivator for moving to a plantbased egg replacer, according to Lengel.
“Aquafaba doesn’t contain pathogens and allergens, so it alleviates concerns about exposure to salmonella, egg-based allergens, and even antibiotics,” he said.
Price has historically been a barrier to the use of aquafaba powder, as the inefficiency of the drying process yielded an ingredient that was prohibitively expensive for many industrial users. However, Fabumin says its technology overcomes this by allowing aquafaba to be dried very cheaply.
“There is powdered aquafaba on the market, but it is very highly priced. Ours is going to be at a similar price point to egg powder, which is $15 per kg,” Lengel said.
“When we look at the whole value chain, everyone stands to benefit from this innovation. The legume factory reduces waste and generates income from a byproduct and the food industry has an affordable, sustainable and versatile raw material at its disposal,” he added.
Yeastime, which was named Most Innovative Foodtech Solution at the Fi Europe Startup Challenge 2024, is using ultrasound to stimulate the growth of microorganisms and shorten fermentation times, bringing bioacoustics to the brewing and alt protein industries.
Pay a visit to Birra Gaia, a craft brewery in Carate Brianza, northern Italy, and if you look very carefully, you might notice something unusual.
The brewery’s 1,600- and 3,000-litre fermentation tanks are fitted with a special ultrasound device. It might not look like much, but this unassuming piece of tech has the potential to accelerate the fermentation process by up to 30%, thereby saving the brewery a considerable amount of money.
“Take a top fermenting beer like an IPA, which ferments, on average, for about 15 days. With our technology, we can reduce fermentation time to under 10 days. So what we guarantee is one extra cycle of fermentation from the same tank every month,” said Pierfrancesco Mazzolini, co-founder of Yeastime, the company behind this pioneering technology and a finalist in the Fi Europe Startup Challenge 2024.
The concept of using ultrasound to stimulate the growth of microorganisms and improve the efficacy of fermentation has been a subject of much discussion, but to date, practical application has failed to progress beyond the use of invasive sonotrodes in laboratory settings, explained Mazzolini.
“The issue is one of scalability and the non-invasive application of the ultrasound technology – in other words, applying it without altering the geometry of the fermentation tank or inserting a device that would have direct contact with the products and therefore require regulatory approval,” he said.
In 2021, digital marketeer Mazzolini and his friend Federico Ortenzi, a biotechnologist, resolved to address this challenge. Both were hobby brewers and could
see the potential of ultrasound as a stimulator for fermentation in the brewing process.
Later that year they participated in Dock3 – The Startup Lab, an incubator programme, where they met their third co-founder, Alessandro Contaldo, who brought electrical engineering know-how to the venture. During the programme, the trio developed their first MVP: a small ultrasound generator that they applied to the homebrewing set-up in Ortenzi’s garage.
“We ended up winning the incubation programme, which awarded us €10,000 to establish and incorporate the company,” said Mazzolini.
Yeastime’s solution is a device that can be retrofitted to the external jacket of the bioreactor or fermentation tank. It comprises an ultrasound generator, coupled with piezoelectric transducers which receive the ultrasound signal.
“What we have patented is the process of applying non-invasive ultrasound technologies as a means of stimulation for microorganisms during the catalysis – the active state of the fermentation process. The frequencies we apply have been widely studied but they haven’t been applied in an industrial application before,” explained Mazzolini.
Whilst there are other techniques for accelerating fermentation, such as pulsed electric field, none can match the efficiency of Yeastime, he added.
“Rival technologies deliver efficiency improvements in the range of 8 to 15%, which is just not high enough to make them viable,” he said.
Yeastime has adopted a hybrid model, whereby the customer pays a one-time price that equates to approximately 30% of the cost of installing a new bioreactor, as well as paying Yeastime a percentage on every extra fermentation cycle.
The startup’s initial focus is the brewing industry, although it is already looking at other market applications, including alternative proteins.
“We are starting with brewing, but as a startup, we are heavily driven by research and development,” said Mazzolini. “We are actively collaborating with the University of Roma Tor Vergata, where we are co-financing three PhD programmes and testing the technology not only for beer brewing but on other applications, from increases in yields of yeast biomass and microalgae biomass.”
For producers of alt proteins, Yeastime is testing its technology at laboratory scale to understand the response of its ultrasound stimulation for expression of high-value molecules on different microorganisms.
“We want to be a reliable technology for helping those players to reduce their cost of production,” he added.
Perfat Technologies, which won Most Innovative Food or Beverage Ingredient at the Fi Europe Startup Challenge 2024, has applied material physics to transform vegetable oils into solid fats that are structurally similar to butter, palm oil, and coconut oil but contain 80% less saturated fat.
Around the turn of the millennium, researchers discovered that it was possible to convert liquid vegetable oil into a solid-like gel with the use of organogelators – molecules that can be added in small quantities to organic solvents to create a gel – enabling the creation of solid fats with the nutritional profile of liquid oils.
While this new technology stirred up some interest, it didn’t go anywhere, mainly because the early oleogels did not have the structural properties they needed to work in real-life food applications.
Fast-forward two decades and Dr Fabio Valoppi, an academic researcher at the University of Helsinki in Finland, revisited this topic. He formed a multi-disciplinary team of food scientists and material physicists, and, together, they came up with a “reinforced” oleogel that had a more robust structure and could withstand processing.
In 2022, Jyrki Lee-Korhonen came on board the project. At the time it was publicly funded to the tune of €2 million and his mandate was to look at the prospects for commercialising the technology and raising funds. Once the publicly funded project was completed in May 2023, Perfat Technologies was established as a university spin-out.
The startup could see that there was growing demand from the food industry for healthier solid and semi-solid fats and was convinced that its technology could offer an alternative.
“Conventional fats such as butter, palm oil, and coconut oil are all fantastic from a structural point of view but are very high in saturated fats. We can produce healthy fats that offer the same solid fat structure and functionality. So, they do the same job, but the food product has a far better nutritional profile,” Lee-Korhonen, Perfat’s CEO and co-founder, told Fi Global Insights
He said the company’s fats contain, on average, 80% less saturated fat than conventional fats; saturated fat accounts for 10 to 15% of the overall content, compared to 50 to 90% in conventional fats.
“That is a key selling point because food manufacturers are looking for that reduction,” he added.
Perfat has five patents pending in relation to its technologies, so Lee-Korhonen was understandably vague when asked to describe the process by which the startup produces its ‘healthy’ fats.
“When we build our products, the starting point is to look at existing fats – whether coconut or palm oil – analyse the structure, and work backwards to see how we can build a similar structure using our oleogel technology,” he said.
The process for creating the new fat can be broken down into three steps.
“The first is that we produce an emulsion by combining oil, water, and something else,” he said. “The second is encapsulation, which involves removing the water and trapping oil within the structure to create an oleogel; and the final step is that we produce another oleogel and combine it with the first one.”
He added: “We don’t manipulate the chemical structures of the ingredients we use – the oil itself is not chemically modified during the process. Instead, we use material physics to combine the ingredients and build structures that entrap the oil within a matrix.”
This process means Perfat’s products offer a much shorter pathway to market than many alternative solutions. It also offers plenty of scope for tailoring the fats to different applications, Lee-Korhonen said.
“We can make fats that are creamy and soft in texture, as well as fats that are as hard as or even harder than refrigerated butter.”
The core ingredient in Perfat’s fats is vegetable oil.
“This can be any vegetable oil; rapeseed and sunflower are the most commonly used oils in Europe, but it could equally be soy or olive oil,” he added.
The second key ingredient is dietary fibre, which performs a dual role in the matrix.
“We use dietary fibre for two reasons,” said LeeKorhonen. “One is that it provides the structure for the oil; the other is that it is very healthy in its own right.”
Perfat mainly works with corn fibre but Lee-Korhonen said there is flexibility to work with other fibres if required by customers.
Dietary fibre accounts for approximately 30% of the overall content of the final fat, enabling food manufacturers to make “rich in fibre” or “source of fibre” claims (depending on the amount of fat in the final product).
Additionally, because dietary fibre provides fewer calories than fat, Perfat’s fat has fewer calories than conventional fats. In some formulations, it reduces the calorie content of the recipe by as much as 30%, said Lee-Korhonen.
Perfat has tested its fats as a one-to-one replacer for conventional fats in numerous applications, from cookies, puff pastry, cakes, chocolate spread, yoghurt and ice cream, to plant-based sausages and meat balls.
It says some recipes may require some minor adjustments. For example, cookies might need a small amount of additional water to increase the moisture levels, as some of the water is tied up by the dietary fibre.
Interestingly, Perfat noted that when formulating plantbased meatballs, less fat was needed compared to a reference product made with coconut oil. It also reported that despite containing less oil, the meatballs made with its fat were juicier because they retained the oil much better.
It says its fats are also suitable for partial replacement, an approach that may be of interest to biscuit makers who want to advertise that their product contains “real butter” while improving the nutritional profile, for example.
Perfat is currently at laboratory scale but is aiming to have commercial capacity in place by the second half of 2025. Having raised €1 million in seed funding last year, the startup is now seeking Series A investment.
Tagging the product rather than the packaging could help tackle food crimes like substitution and dilution, according to Natural Trace, winner of the Most Innovative Service or Digital Solution Supporting the Food and Beverage Industry category.
According to the Food Authenticity Network, food fraud costs the global food industry an estimated $40 billion annually Crimes vary from substitution with an inferior ingredient to dilution, mislabelling and intellectual property rights infringement, but all have the common objective of undue economic gain.
Technologies for preventing and detecting food fraud are continually advancing, but increasingly complex global supply chains are making it more difficult to combat these crimes. Recognising that traceability is key to tackling food fraud, the food industry is proactively developing more effective solutions for product identification throughout the supply chain.
Embedding chips or tags in packaging can mitigate the risk of certain acts of food fraud, such as counterfeiting, but cannot authenticate the contents. To provide holistic protection against food fraud, strategies need to go beyond unit-level traceability and enable the identification of the product and its ingredients.
This was the motivation behind the conceptualisation of Natural Trace – a DNA-based traceability solution that can be added directly into products and detected along the supply chain.
“It was an idea that came about during the pandemic,” Dr Julia Lee, chief commercial officer of Natural Trace, told Fi Global Insights. “We could see what the industry needed, and at that time, the adoption of molecularbased technologies such as PCR was accelerating rapidly. That gave us the inspiration for a bio-barcode that could be detected using molecular technologies.”
Three years on, this concept has crystallised into a concrete business venture that was named the ‘Most innovative service or digital solution supporting the food industry’ in the 2024 Fi Europe Startup Challenge.
There are three elements to the Natural Trace solution, Lee explained.
“There is the ingredient that we put into the food that gives it a unique signature. That is what we call the NaturalTag. Then, at a later point in the food supply chain, at a factory or retailer, for example, this tag is detected using our NaturalDetect PCR-based method,” she said.
Then comes the third part, when the results from the testing are uploaded to the NaturalCloud, which serves as a digital database as well as providing surveillance, mapping, and supply chain insights.
“Specifically, it tells you what is happening when and where to your product; it becomes a digital link between a food and its rightful owner,” said Lee.
While Natural Trace is not alone in offering DNA-based food tags, the clue to its unique selling point lies in the name.
“Most other DNA-based tags are genetically modified – in other words, they have been changed in a lab – or they are made from synthetic DNA. We do not genetically modify, and our tags are 100 per cent natural,” said Lee.
“This is absolutely central to our value proposition and provides assurance to the food industry and clarity on our regulatory position. We have, for instance, achieved self-determined GRAS status for our unique tags.”
Natural Trace’s tags are made from inactivated probiotics, which helps to reinforce their “food-safe” and “natural” positioning. Each tag is unique, and the company has built up a library of more than 20,000 that are ready for use by the industry, with plans to expand this further in 2025.
Giving an example of the insights that would be generated from this solution, Lee said that a company might submit samples to Natural Trace’s laboratory for testing, with details of when and where the samples were collected. If the tag is present, this will be denoted via a green light on a map; if no tag is present, there will be a red light.
“In this way it serves as an alarm system for alerting producers to potential food fraud. If they see a red dot where they are expecting a green one, it begs the question of what is happening – could it be that substitution has taken place, for example?” said Lee.
By determining whether there is a DNA match, the system can detect the presence or absence of the original product/ingredient.
“It gives you surveillance of your supply chain, and that is a very helpful starting point for addressing food fraud,” she said.
The PCR method that Natural Trace is currently using is a semi-quantitative method which may indicate possible cases of fraud involving substitution or dilution. The company is working on a fully quantitative method to unequivocally confirm such fraud cases.
Natural Trace is already in commercial use and the firm reports significant traction in the nutraceuticals industry, where companies are using it to prevent fraud and achieve supply chain transparency.
“We’re also engaged in various pilot trials, including applications in sustainable agriculture and cross-border supply chains, such as coffee and fruits,” Lee added.
Asked what types of businesses are adopting Natural Trace, Lee replied: “We are seeing interest from multiple actors within the supply chain because they all want transparency. So it might be implemented by an end-product manufacturer, a retailer, an ingredient manufacturer or by multiple players in the chain working together.”
AKOUA, which won the jury’s choice award for Most Innovative Sustainable Solution, is a mission to valorise the cashew apple which, despite its sweet taste and high vitamin C content, is nothing more than waste to many farmers.
There are 2.5 million cashew farmers in Africa, who, collectively, supply 57% of the global cashew demand. But although the nuts of the cashew are a valuable cash crop, the fruit to which the nuts are attached – the cashew apple – is generally treated as a worthless byproduct.
After harvesting, the nuts are separated from the apples, and the apples are generally discarded, even though they are completely edible, have a high nutritional value and account for 90% of yield in weight terms. This is partly due to a lack of processing and cold chain transportation infrastructure in the countries where they are grown, but also because they are highly perishable, requiring them to be eaten or processed immediately after harvesting.
The underutilisation of cashew apples is not only a missed revenue opportunity for farmers, but also a waste of a highly nutritious natural food source. The apples are loaded with fibre, phytonutrients, minerals, and vitamin C. Yet they go to waste today in countries across West Africa, including Senegal, Tanzania, Mozambique, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, and Benin.
Two million tons of wasted cashew apples a year: ‘We want to change that’
Simon Debade, founder and CEO of AKOUA GmbH, said that his home country, Benin, exports around 200,000 tons of cashew nuts annually.
“This amounts to about two million tons of unprocessed, unused cashew apples each year. We want to change that,” he told Fi Global Insights.
Debade first found out about the plight of the cashew apple when he was studying computer science in Germany.
“When I moved to Germany, I could buy cashew nuts but not cashew apples. Back at home, people eat the apples, so I wondered why they are not being exported. I did some research and discovered that they are highly perishable so they have to be processed on the same day they are harvested,” he explained.
This discovery sowed the seed of an idea, and Debade founded AKOUA with the aim of processing cashew apples locally and turning them into juices and concentrates that can be sold internationally, thereby reducing waste and creating new revenue streams for farmers.
“Given the natural sugar content in the cashew juice, I believed it could be ideal for creating a juice concentrate to use as an ingredient. That was the beginning of our project,” he said.
Developing a process for producing a shelf-stable juice was straightforward enough, as AKOUA was able to use tried and testing pressing, pasteurisation and aseptic filling techniques. However, the logistics of the project required more careful consideration, due to the tight harvesting window and perishable nature of the fruit, which spoils quickly if bruised.
“With normal apples, the harvesting timing is not that critical; once the fruit is ripe, you can leave it on the tree for four or five days if needs be, but cashew apples deteriorate rapidly once they have matured so unless they are picked at the optimal time, the fruit cannot be used,” explained Debade.
To overcome this challenge, AKOUA has partnered with a women’s cooperative, led by Thérèse Orou Ali, Debade’s co-founder. The women who belong to the cooperative pick the fruit at the same time as they harvest the nuts, thereby earning additional income.
“This collaboration is empowering over 400 women. In this way, our startup has the potential to transform livelihoods,” said Debade.
In a factory located close to the plantations in Benin, the cashew fruits are pressed into juice, which is then transported to Germany, where it is either made into a concentrate or sold as is.
AKOUA has launched the juice, as well as a fruit lemonade, in Germany under its own brand. The readyto-drink beverages are on sale in supermarkets and available directly to consumers via the company’s online store.
The concentrate can be used as a sweetener for baked goods, desserts, and ice cream, and to boost the vitamin C content of a variety of products, said Debade, citing a study which reported that the cashew apple contains between three and five times more vitamin C than citrus.
Given the vast quantity of unused cashew apples that are still available in Benin, Debade said AKOUA would be focusing its efforts there for the time being, but the startup plans to replicate the model in other West African countries, subject to investment and demand.
“We are seeking the right customers and investors to join us in transforming the potential of cashew nuts into a sustainable future,” he said.
