Smart hires, strong starts: building a food innovation team in Switzerland

Jul 21, 2025 | Uncategorized

Smart hires, strong starts: building a food innovation team in Switzerland

Impact Digest | Cultured foods: How can we drive impact at scale?

Your technology may be world-class – but your growth depends on finding the right people. From specialist recruiters to targeted job platforms, Switzerland’s food ecosystem has unique resources to help you find, attract and retain the right talent. We asked experts from two companies featured in the SFNV Navigator tool for their advice on how to build a team that thrives.

Philippe Sibour, CEO, Alliance Consulting Switzerland 
Q: What talent areas do you specialise in?

At Alliance Consulting, we offer tailor-made executive search solutions to market actors in the nutrition, health, food and dietetics sectors. We've been specializing in these markets for 25 years, enabling us to help organizations grow by identifying the talent that brings not only expertise, but also strategic impact. From C-level to expert positions, our strength lies in our understanding of the complex roles and cultures of the organizations we serve. As a true business partner, we don't just fill vacancies but build lasting partnerships to enhance our customers' performance.

Q: What’s unique about hiring in Switzerland?

Hiring in Switzerland involves navigating a multilingual, highly educated, and regulation-conscious environment. Language skills are critical, with many roles requiring fluency in German, French, or Italian, alongside English. The market places a premium on formal qualifications, discretion, and precision. Labour laws are strict and vary by canton, and cross-border hiring adds layers of complexity. As a result, recruitment here demands deep local insight, an appreciation for cultural nuances, and a structured, trust-based approach to talent engagement. Cultural fit and local network matter a lot – we help with both.

Q: What’s your top advice for newcomers?

If you’re new to hiring in Switzerland, our advice is simple: don’t just chase talent - define your value as an employer. In a market where top candidates have options, clarity on the mission, culture, and purpose is essential. People join people, not job descriptions. Your hiring process should reflect who you are, not just what you need. Swiss professionals value trust, precision, and long-term vision, so consistency and authenticity matter. Invest in relationships early, communicate clearly, and demonstrate why your company is a place where talent can grow - not just work.

Find out more about Alliance Consulting Switzerland. 

Manuel Lanz, CEO, FoodTechScout 
Q: What roles are hardest to fill right now?

The hardest positions to fill are those that require both depth and breadth – for example, CTOs with real experience in food systems and sales directors who know how to scale across various European markets. These are people who think laterally and can bridge technical innovation with operational execution – they’re worth their weight in gold.

On top of that, there’s ongoing demand for fermentation experts, process specialists and engineers in food production, as well as talent in supply chain technology, making the skills shortage very real. The gap is even more pronounced among vocational graduates such as dairy technologists and food technologists. Here, success comes only through industry knowledge, strong networks, and direct outreach.

Q: What makes your approach different?

We’ve all been trained in the food industry or have worked for companies such as Emmi, Nestlé, and Tetra Pak. That’s why we’re actively involved in various networks like SFVN, SGLWT, Svial, and others, and support companies – from startups to large corporations – with recruitment.

We’re well connected and have a keen eye for spotting emerging trends and future requirements early on. It’s about finding people who are already doing today what you’ll need tomorrow – not just those actively applying. In addition to our network, we speak directly with many candidates, often before a vacancy even exists. Our focus is on the right individuals: people who identify with your mission and bring both conviction and adaptability. Every search is highly personal, story-driven, and deeply focused on cultural fit.

Q: Have you got any tips for building early-stage teams?

A successful team is built on clear goals, well-defined roles, and open communication. Different personalities and skill sets should complement each other in a meaningful way. Involving an external coach – either at the beginning or later on – can be particularly valuable. A coach offers neutral support in team development, helps clarify roles, and strengthens collaboration. Leaders should also lead by example – not just coordinating the team, but actively motivating and inspiring it. With the right balance of structure, empathy, and professional support, a strong and high-performing team can emerge.

Find out more about FoodTechScout

The SFNV Navigator is your guide to scaling in the Swiss food ecosystem.

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Yumame Foods and Le Patron partner for a delicious, plant-based future of food

Jul 8, 2025 | Press-releases, Uncategorized

Yumame Foods and Le Patron partner for a delicious, plant-based future of food

The Future of Food: Givaudan, Nestlé R+D Accelerator Lausanne and FoodHack launch the 2025 FoodTech World Cup

Valley partner Yumame Foods and the long-established food company Patron are announcing their strategic collaboration. Their shared goal is to create plant-based foods that taste outstanding while contributing to healthier diets and greater sustainability.

This partnership brings together the best of both worlds: Yumame Foods contributes pioneering spirit, innovation, and a new generation of food – nutrient-rich, minimally processed, and made using cutting-edge fermentation technology applied to legumes, grains, and fungi. Le Patron brings decades of experience in the development and production of premium specialities and broad market knowledge. Together, the two companies aim to actively shape the transition toward a future-ready food system.

“With Le Patron, we’ve found a partner who shares our values and supports our vision with genuine enthusiasm. Together, we can scale up production – without compromising on quality, culinary excellence, or sustainability. This partnership is a milestone for us – and a strong commitment to better nutrition for the future,” says Dr. Eliana Zamprogna Rosenfeld, Founder and CEO of Yumame Foods. 

Le Patron also looks forward to the journey ahead: “Yumame Foods’ visionary approach perfectly aligns with our mission of ‘Excellence in Taste and Health.’ The team has impressively demonstrated how fermentation can elevate culinary diversity and nutritional quality to a new level. We’re very excited about the collaboration – and about setting new standards in the food industry together,” says Michel Burla, CEO of Le Patron. 

About Yumame Foods 

Yumame Foods is a startup focused on developing plant-based foods using fungal fermentation. Yumame’s products are known for their authentic taste, high nutritional value, and minimal processing – and are already being used by food-service companies in Switzerland. The company’s proprietary production method combines biotechnological and culinary expertise designed to conserve resources. Yumame Foods is supported by Innosuisse, Venture Kick, and the Gebert Rüf Foundation, and is a member of various innovation networks, including Swiss Food Research, Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley, and Foodward.

About Le Patron 

Le Patron is a company within the ORIOR Group, specialising in high-quality, handcrafted pâtés and terrines, ready meals, and tailor-made gourmet specialities. Le Patron’s diverse product range is available in both retail and food service channels and includes a wide variety of chilled delicacies. The combination of traditional craftsmanship, culinary creativity, and innovation makes Le Patron a leading provider of pâtés, terrines, and premium specialities.

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Discover Switzerland’s food innovation ecosystem with the SFNV Navigator

Jun 20, 2025 | Uncategorized

Discover Switzerland’s food innovation ecosystem with the SFNV Navigator

The Future of Food: Givaudan, Nestlé R+D Accelerator Lausanne and FoodHack launch the 2025 FoodTech World Cup

Eager to embark on a journey in the Swiss food innovation ecosystem, but worried about getting lost in the mountains?

Switzerland boasts a wealth of foodtech startups, research institutions, accelerators, and industry leaders. While this diversity fosters innovation, it can also be challenging for newcomers to know how to connect with the right stakeholders. 

Guiding innovators through the Swiss food ecosystem

The SFNV Navigator is an interactive, user-friendly digital tool that guides international innovators through Switzerland's dynamic food innovation ecosystem. It connects them with a multitude of resources, partners, and opportunities – so they can get where they’re headed faster. 

Whether you're a startup looking for funding, a researcher seeking collaboration, or a company aiming to expand in Europe, the Navigator will help you to identify and connect with the most relevant partners and resources.

Key features include:

  • Comprehensive listings: Learn more about Swiss food ecosystem players
  • Search feature: Filter and search based on your specific needs, whether that’s  funding opportunities, research collaborations, or market growth.
  • Targeted filters: Find resources by location and company stage.
Addressing real-world challenges

The Navigator is a response to the real challenges faced by innovators entering the Swiss market.

Cedric Verstraeten, CEO of revyve, explains: “Switzerland’s reputation as a hub for cutting-edge technology and forward-thinking business practices perfectly complements our mission at revyve. Our partnership with Swiss food and ingredients manufacturers allows us to enhance our ability to deliver natural, animal-free, and high-performing texturising ingredients to consumers worldwide. For companies like ours, understanding and navigating this environment quickly and efficiently is vital to building meaningful collaborations and scaling innovations.”

Diana Sabrain, CEO and co-founder at Valley partner OneAgrix AG added: "Switzerland's role as a European gateway has become increasingly strategic as companies navigate AI-driven market transformations and evolving trade policies. Its proactive approach to emerging technologies and neutral trade status offer the infrastructure to adopt AI while preserving operational flexibility. For new entrants, navigating Switzerland's diverse landscape of AI innovators and established industry leaders is key to seizing opportunities created by technological advances and the demand for tariff-resilient supply chains."

Whether you're in the early stages of your venture or looking to expand your existing operations, the SFNV Navigator can help understand what support is available.

Get the most out of the Swiss food ecosystem

Explore the Navigator

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Impact Digest | Nutrition & Mental Health

Jun 20, 2025 | Impact Digests, Impact Platforms, Uncategorized

Impact Digest | Nutrition & Mental Health

Impact Digest | Cultured foods: How can we drive impact at scale?

As the global population ages, the role of nutrition in promoting longer, healthier lives has never been more vital. And yet it’s not just our physical health that is impacted by what we eat: increasingly, the role of diet and its links to mental wellbeing are coming to the forefront.

At our Impact Forum: Nutrition and Mental Health on 10 June 2025 we were joined by two expert speakers to discuss how the field looks today, chaired by Valley CEO Christina Senn-Jakobsen. Here’s what we learned…

Key Takeaways

  • Mental health is often overlooked in global illness discussions. Even though nutrition plays a central role in mental well-being, it is under-addressed and underfunded.
  • Emerging research on the “gut-brain connection” shows just how linked our brains are to what we eat. Food impacts mental health via neurotransmitter production, energy metabolism, and inflammation.
  • Nutrient deficiencies can have consequences for our emotional wellbeing, but current farming practices mean modern food is not nutrient-dense enough. Supplementation is increasingly necessary, but sourcing quality products is crucial.
  • There’s rising demand for preventive healthcare via dietary approaches. Evidence-based nutritional interventions should complement mental health care.
  • Both speakers highlighted the interconnectedness of diet, supplementation, movement sleep and social connection for their influence on mental (and physical) health.
  • The panel also brainstormed ways to increase the visibility of food’s role in mental health, such as political engagement and food business participation in healthcare.
“Mental health starts in the mind, but it’s always fueled by the body.”
Insights from Dr.Teresa Cramer, Co-Founder and Chief Science Officer, FoodFor

Teresa credits her early curiosity around food as instrumental in shaping her understanding of cognitive performance and mental resilience. This led to her research work - currently as a Neuroscience Fellow at MIT - and passion for translating this work into everyday impact. Hence her startup FoodFor, which makes functional drinks for Energy, Focus, Calm and Mood.

The food-brain connection

The human brain consumes approximately 25% of dietary energy, yet unlike the liver or muscles, it cannot store energy. It requires a constant supply of key nutrients to maintain cognitive and emotional functions. Teresa stressed that mental wellbeing is closely tied to the production of neurotransmitters, which are directly affected by diet.

She highlighted four key neurochemicals: serotonin for mood and appetite regulation, dopamine for focus and motivation, GABA for anxiety reduction, and ATP, the energy molecule that powers brain activity. "These neurotransmitters don’t make themselves. They rely on the vitamins, minerals, and amino acids that you provide through your diet,” Teresa shared.

Supplementation: necessary or optional?

"I know that a lot of people are not big fans of supplementation. But in my world, it’s not just helpful - it’s often necessary.”

A large Swiss study revealed 59% of primary care patients were deficient in vitamin D and around 40% had insufficient levels of vitamin A and zinc. Teresa emphasised these were not marginalised populations but typical individuals eating everyday diets. These can all affect mood, and supplementation is often necessary to bridge modern dietary gaps. Teresa acknowledged the skepticism around supplements but advocated strongly for their use. She argued that even well-intentioned diets struggle to meet nutritional needs due to food system limitations. Her advice? Seek out EU-sourced and EU-produced supplements for stricter regulation and higher quality standards.

Preventive care and the need for innovation

"There’s a very big disconnect between what a patient experiences and how it's being diagnosed."

Teresa criticised the current diagnostic models in psychiatry, citing a study showing patients with the same symptoms received different diagnoses across the US, Germany, and India. She called for a shift to preventive tools, such as biomarker tracking, like those her co-panelist Roland is developing. She concluded with a convincing call for better public awareness and systemic change to bring food and mental health into mainstream medical and political attention.

"Mental health isn’t just in your head—it starts in your gut, in your food, and in your daily habits."
Insights from Roland Pfeuti, Co-founder & Director, HEALTHY-LONGER GmbH
A personal origin story

Roland began with a deeply personal account: he and his wife pivoted their careers in response to challenges surrounding their son’s health. It was this experience that led to the founding of HEALTHY-LONGER, a health platform offering personalised nutrition assessments and supplement recommendations.

Nutrient decline = mental health challenges?

“What your food ate matters. If it’s not in the soil, it’s not on your plate, and it won’t reach your brain.”

Echoing Teresa, Roland pointed out that modern agricultural practices - especially postwar industrial farming - have severely degraded soil health, stripping fruits and vegetables of essential nutrients.As a result, even a diet that appears balanced may not provide sufficient micronutrients to support mental well-being.

Personalised assessment & advice

HEALTHY-LONGER’s offering includes at-home assessments, personalised health reports and tailored dietary and supplement recommendations. These reports are designed to be actionable, offering specific guidance rather than generic advice: "You can go online, order an assessment, and get recommendations tailored to your body's needs." Roland also issued a warning on supplement quality: he cautioned against cheap, synthetic supplements, often found online and advocated for natural, well-regulated alternatives backed by proper testing.

Political engagement & public awareness

“There’s a big opportunity for the food sector to step into mental and preventive health care.”

Roland agreed with Teresa's remarks that mental health remains overlooked in public discourse and healthcare spending, and stressed that food businesses could and should play a proactive role in preventive mental health care. HEALTHY-LONGER supports the idea of greater political engagement and education campaigns. Roland positioned his venture as not just a health business, but a movement toward holistic, food-based well-being.

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Bühler launches state-of-the-art Milling Academy

Jun 14, 2025 | Partner success stories, Press-releases, Uncategorized

Bühler launches state-of-the-art Milling Academy

The Future of Food: Givaudan, Nestlé R+D Accelerator Lausanne and FoodHack launch the 2025 FoodTech World Cup
Valley partner Bühler has opened a new, state-of-the-art Milling Academy – a 1,800-square-meter training center for food and feed millers – at the heart of its headquarters in Switzerland. Designed to meet the evolving needs of the industry, the facility combines decades of expertise with the latest technology and modern teaching methods. Direct access to research and training centers enables course participants to gain unique hands-on insight into key industry areas.

The milling industry plays a vital role in global food security, but it is also navigating an era of significant change and challenge. In addition to ever-higher food safety standards and the need for efficiency and sustainability, millers are facing increasing pressures from climate change, a shrinking skilled workforce, and supply chain volatility.

Against this backdrop, technology and digital solutions are emerging as powerful tools to boost yield, profitability, and resilience. However, realizing the full potential of these advancements depends on a well-trained workforce. This makes advanced, hands-on training programs for millers more important than ever before.

“With the opening of our new, state-of-the-art Milling Academy, we are empowering the next generation of milling professionals by offering advanced training, hands-on experience, and access to the latest technologies,” says Stefan Birrer, Head of Business Area Milling Solutions at Bühler Group. “This ensures customers can meet evolving industry demands and drive continuous improvement throughout the food and feed sectors.”

The Milling Academy is the place where industry professionals can deepen their knowledge, expand their network, and drive innovation for a more efficient and sustainable food value chain. The facility provides participants with direct access to Bühler’s Grain Innovation Center, multiple research and training centers, and the CUBIC innovation campus. Participants gain practical experience across every aspect of the milling process, from raw material intake to final packaging.

Meeting rising training demands

Purpose-built with a strong focus on educational methodology, the Milling Academy is developed to optimize learning outcomes. “The construction of the Milling Academy gave us the opportunity to design and implement everything exactly the way it makes the most sense for our customer training programs. We also took the opportunity to create many more ways for interactive learning directly at the machines,” says Dario Grossmann, Head of the Milling Academy. “Participants tell us that with the Milling Academy, we’ve reached an entirely new level of quality. We are seeing increasing interest in training from our customers and are more than ready to meet this growing demand by continuing to provide the best training for millers in the future.” 

Featuring three modern classrooms, various break-out spaces for self-learning and group work, and an arena located directly in the machine park, the facility offers a range of teaching environments. A welcoming coffee area fosters networking between participants from different courses and encourages knowledge exchange. Practical, hands-on training takes place on both the latest milling machines and older models, ensuring participants receive instruction tailored to the equipment they use in their own plants.

The Milling Academy also integrates advanced digital learning tools and features two laboratories: one for analytical training and another for electronics training and experimentation. It includes a fully automated school mill, which processes 24 tonnes per day, allowing for industrial-scale training. It also houses the School of Feed Technology (SFT), significantly expanding resources for both food and feed milling professionals.

The Milling Academy, alongside the School of Feed Technology, offers over 100 courses a year to over 750 trainees in seven languages. The courses are structured in a modular way and are tailored to the needs of machine operators, head millers, plant managers but also include trainings for executives, laboratory workforce, and electrical and mechanical maintenance engineers. On top of that, customized trainings in Uzwil or directly at customer sites around the world are conducted by Bühler’s Milling Academy personnel.

Bühler’s global learning ecosystem

The Milling Academy also runs specialized programs in partnership with Kansas State University in the US, and at Bühler’s training mill in Wuxi and feed mill in Changzhou, China. Bühler’s African Milling School, located in Nairobi, Kenya has also served millers from across Africa and the Middle East since 2015.

Participants in Uzwil have direct access to the Grain Innovation Center (GIC), where they can test the machines with material and gain insights into the development and testing of advanced grain processing technologies. The GIC is closely connected to Bühler’s network of research and training centers including the Grain Processing Innovation Center in Kano (GPIC), Nigeria, which is dedicated to exploring the industrial potential of local and ancient grains and offers training programs. Bühler’s education and innovation efforts are supported by other research and training centers that serve multiple industrial applications for food and feed, as well as specialist facilities such as the Cocoa Competence Center in Côte d’Ivoire and the International Rice Milling Academy in India. 

This global network is further strengthened through partnerships with leading academic institutes and research organizations, for example the ETH Zürich in Switzerland, DIL in Germany, and the North Carolina Food Innovation Lab (NCFIL) in the US, to name a few. By connecting scientific research with industrial practice, these partnerships support market-driven innovation in areas such as sustainable proteins, digitalization, and next-generation food production. In Singapore, Bühler and Givaudan co-run the Protein Innovation Centre, where new plant-based products are developed and scaled. 

“We continuously invest in strengthening our global education network to equip the next generation of millers with the skills they need to succeed. And with our extensive learning ecosystem, Bühler is shaping the future of food – building skills, advancing innovation, and helping customers to stay competitive while driving a more sustainable and resilient food system,” says Stefan Birrer.

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