Agri-food start-ups and companies tackling food allergies, preventing food waste and creating chemical-free fertilizers, were crowned the winners of EIT Food’s Venture Summit which looks for Europe’s most promising and innovative ventures for future food.

Nine start-ups pitched for the award, each shortlisted for their positive impact on people and the planet and working toward one of these three missions: Healthier Lives Through Food, A Net-Zero Food System, and A Fully Transparent, Resilient and Fair Food System.

From this shortlist, three winners were chosen following an audience vote of the 300 agri-food professionals and investors at the event.

The three winners for each category are:

Healthier Lives through Food: Vini Mini
Vini Mini is a start-up that aims to stop the rising number of food allergies. Its products offer a healthy, easy and safe way of introducing allergens to babies, helping to reduce food allergies.

According to Laurie Lancee and Jozien Boersma, founders at Vini Mini, one in four children have a food allergy, which has doubled in the past ten years. 

“If we continue this way, by 2050, half of the population will have a food allergy. Vini Mini helps parents prevent food allergies in their children by offering an easy, healthy and safe way to give them allergens,” they say.

A Net-Zero Food System: Bio2Coat
Bio2Coat helps fight against food waste and plastic waste from packaging materials. It is a technological solution able to reduce food waste and single plastic use through a 100% natural, edible coating that extends the shelf life of fruits and vegetables that replaces one-use plastic in multiple applications.

EIT Food is supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European unio.“More than a recognition for all the efforts that the Bio2Coat team has put in the development and validation of our technologies, the EIT Food Accelerator Network Award reinforces our confidence that we are in the right path in our fight against food waste and use of plastics and that we have the right partners and the right support to succeed,” Farayde Matta, co-founder of Bio2Coat, tells FoodIngredientsFirst.

The company is “proud to receive this award from EIT Food, who has supported it from the beginning, from Seedbed to the Bilbao FAN Accelerator Programme.”

Bio2Coat’s edible coating can extend the shelf life of fruits and vegetables up to two weeks; this has a huge impact because it increases food availability across the whole supply chain and reduces water and energy use.

A Fully Transparent, Resilient and Fair Food System: Toopi Organics
Toopi Organics is a circular and affordable solution for agriculture that uses urine instead of expensive chemical fertilizers.

“Recycling urine could save the world. Using urine as a growing medium to produce biofertilizers, Toopi Organics addresses the urgent issues of climate change, biodiversity loss and closing the loop on the nutrients cycle,” explains Alexandra Carpentier, CEO at Toopi Organics. 

Crucial timing 
According to Dr. Andy Zynga, CEO at EIT Food, investing in agri-food innovation has “never been more crucial.”

“To overcome the challenges the world is facing in delivering a healthy and sustainable food system, we need to connect our brightest minds with the support they need to bring innovative new ideas to fruition,” Zynga explains. 

“That is why we are so proud to announce the winners of the 2022 Venture Summit – which represent just three of the brilliant and creative new solutions, products and approaches EIT Food is helping to bring to the agri-food sector.”

EIT Food is supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European unio. The EIT Food Venture Summit 2022 is an interactive invitation-only event for the European agri-food industry, bringing together industry corporates, start-ups and investors to create a more sustainable and trusted food system.