Updates from the Nestlé R&D Accelerator since launching in 2019

Jun 3, 2021 | Headline, Member news

Updates from the Nestlé R&D Accelerator since launching in 2019

Since launching in 2019, the Nestlé R&D Accelerator has gathered experts from the company, graduates, students and startups to work together on turning science and innovative concepts into new product solutions.

Nestlé R&D Accelerator Website

The Nestlé R&D Accelerator is a global initiative launched in April 2019 at Nestlé Research in Lausanne, Switzerland. Since then, more than 30 teams completed the R&D Accelerator program by taking product concepts to store shelves in just six months.

“We foster creative entrepreneurship behaviour and provide the teams access to scientific, technical and business expertise, to prototyping and mini-production technologies, and everything that is required for their route to market“, says Tom Wagner, Head of Nestlé’s global R&D Accelerator initiative.

Nestlé R&D Accelerator Innovative Products

One of the R&D Accelerator’s team launched a product building on Nestlé proprietary research identifying new natural bioactive ingredients that can reduce fatigue. They showed that combining micronutrients with a natural olive extract supports muscular energy and allows the body to use its full potential without adding calories to the muscle. The product is currently available in Italy as part of a limited shop test.

The R&D Accelerator has also just launched the first nutritional solution that addresses motivation. The product contains a combination of selected vitamins and the supplement form of a naturally occurring amino acid. The innovative solution promotes the production of glutathione, a powerful antioxidant produced by the body, that has been scientifically proven to be associated with motivation control and energy production. It is sold in France as a food supplement, in selected pharmacies and shops and online platforms.

Another innovative product the R&D Accelerator brought to the market is a superfruit smoothie range that supports immunity, protection and energy. Working with a Swiss start-up founded by two entrepreneurial gastroenterologists, the product contains superfruits selected for their nutrient density and proven health benefits, leveraging the different scientific expertise of the start-up and Nestlé. The team successfully tested the product range in selected supermarkets in Switzerland.

The Mission

Isabelle Bureau-Franz, Head of Nestlé Research, says, “Our R&D Accelerator brings some of our discoveries to the shelves in only six months, helping us to move fast. With great passion and agility, we deliver innovations embracing consumer needs and desires while continuing to broaden and strengthen our scientific work and focus on long-term projects.“

Nestlé is extending the R&D Accelerator initiative to multiple markets and across product categories, and more accelerated science-driven innovations are expected to launch soon.

For more information:

More information on
Nestlé R&D Accelerator Website

For Media contact:
Melanie Kohli, R&D Communications
Tel.: +41 21 785 9515

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Helbling Technik Develops Smart Devices for Sustainable Nutrition

May 7, 2021 | Ecosystem news, Member Highlight, Member news

Helbling Technik Develops Smart Devices for Sustainable Nutrition

Helbling Technik develops smart nutrition systems to tackle the challenge of sustainable food consumption. The approach is based on three pillars: nutrition devices, smart technologies and system circularity.

Helbling Technik's Website
Helbling Technik’s Nutrition Devices

Nutrition devices are known at Helbling Technik as systems that interact with customers to deliver food and beverage products. The devices can be dispensers, juicers or vending machines that normally include a specific packaging to enclose the products. For example, in a coffee system, the coffee is first stored in an individual capsule or in a larger container and then, on request from the customer, processed with hot water and delivered into the cup.

Any nutrition system must ensure a safe and hygienic delivery of the products and most systems integrate technologies of filtration, cleaning and sanitisation.

Finally, a nutrition device must be attractive and easy-to-use for the consumer. These design and usability aspects are necessary for   nice experience in the consumption of the products.

Smart Technologies for Enhanced Consumer Experience and Deeper Market Insights

The interactions between a consumer and a nutrition device is determinant when making consumption decisions. These interactions have been enhanced with smart technologies since the late 2010 and the first devices have been equipped with Bluetooth or WiFi. The consumer experience became more digital and data were collected to generate insights about consumption.

With the development of edge technologies and machine learning, fast, safe and cost-efficient analysis of the data are collected by the system. By combining these new technologies with robust system architecture design, it is possible to deliver added value for consumers and deeper insights for marketing.

As a showcase, the experts in edge technologies at Helbling Technik have developed a system where the data collected by a smart watch are interpreted by a dispenser to provide a personalized beverage. Based on the data, the dispenser can learn the consumer habit and thus predict the need and optimize the resources to make the consumption more sustainable.

Circular Engineering for Sustainable Nutrition

The designed system is also optimized in terms of reliability, reparability, reusability, and recyclability. Resources needed to manufacture and use a nutrition system (device and packaging) and treat the generated wastes are significant. A reduction of the environmental footprint can be achieved with the method of circular engineering. This method uses life cycle assessment (LCA) and material circularity evaluation and focuses on the selection of the materials and components, as well as production processes. Several packaging and systems have been developed based on this approach to provide sustainable solutions for nutrition, where the packaging is not only used to store the product but also to record information about the product such as the date of consumption or remaining volume of product. The information is then used by the systems to optimize the food processing and to avoid any waste.

Helbling Technik provides independent R&D development services, from the idea to the market-ready products. With more than 55 years of experience in the innovation and development of devices for home and professional use, Helbling Technik is a reliable partner for the design and industrialisation of smart and sustainable nutrition systems.

For more information, please visit:
www.helbling.ch

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Givaudan Collaborates with Microcaps on Microencapsulation

Apr 28, 2021 | Ecosystem news, Member news

Givaudan Collaborates with Microcaps on Microencapsulation

Givaudan, a global leader in flavours, food ingredients, fragrances and active cosmetic ingredients, partnered with Microcaps to advance their innovative ideas.

Visit Microcap's Website

A company over 250 years old, Givaudan is a founding partner of MassChallenge Switzerland since 2016. The partnership aims to continue their practice of adaptability and broadening their business technologies with smart and thorough collaboration sourcing. 

While keeping an eye on all startups coming through, Givaudan works with MassChallenge on focus areas their innovation teams are looking at each year. These could include food sustainability, fragrance technology or digital expansion.

And with the startup Microcaps, a 2019 MassChallenge Switzerland finalist, the area Givaudan was focusing on was in microencapsulation for flavours and fragrances. 

Microcaps solves a common problem with microencapsulation – the trade-off between high throughput and precise particle size, a crucial factor for increased stability and controlled release. The startup has developed a novel technology that solves this problem by enabling precise microencapsulation at an industrial scale.

Givaudan’s collaboration with Microcaps is being explored to both bolster their own approach to flavour and fragrant control, as well as a service to their clients in food, beverage, nutrition and consumer products. 

Givaudan’s approach made it very compelling for us. Even before the pitch, they made it clear which Givaudan team members we were going to be working with, and this makes the pitch much more targeted and focused on Givaudan’s needs instead of us trying to intuit their goals.

Michael Hagander

Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Microcaps

For more information:

Microcaps AG
Wagistrasse 13
8952 Schlieren, Switzerland
Phone : +41 (0)44 733 45 50
Emails : alessandro.ofner@microcaps.ch; michael.hagander@microcaps.ch

Or you can also reach them here.

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YASAI: Building The Largest Vertical Farm in the World

Apr 22, 2021 | Ecosystem news, Headline, Member Highlight, Member news

YASAI: Building The Largest Vertical Farm in the World

YASAI empowers customers to grow more with less for the health of people, plants and the planet.

Visit YASAI's Website

Headquartered in Zurich, YASAI is a vertical farming service that allows its customers to grow more with less. The startup creates circular food production systems in regions lacking sufficient agricultural resources like freshwater or arable land. Their model drastically reduces the use of pesticides and increases biodiversity by enhancing food production through resource-saving technologies. YASAI replaces food imports and reduces production costs across the value chain by focusing on locality and premium quality.

The idea started with founder Mark Zahran’s Master’s thesis at ETH Zurich. His mission is to feed the world sustainably and contribute to the health of people, plants, and the planet. He sought to integrate vertical farming within the mountainous Swiss landscape. And he saw the opportunity to do so by transforming the La Sarraz quarry into the world’s largest vertical farm.

At YASAI, we imagine a world where everyone is empowered to grow their own plants, a planet of self-sustaining ecocities that form a sea of biodiversity

Mark Zahran

Co-Founder & CEO, YASAI

For more information:

YASAI AG
c/o ETH Zurich
iE-Lab, 4th Floor, STE J16
Stampfenbachstrasse 54, 8092 Zurich

Phone : +41 79 866 10 67

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Farmer Connect Secures US$9M to Bring Transparency to Supply Chains

Apr 20, 2021 | Ecosystem news, Headline, Member news

Farmer Connect Secures US$9M to Bring Transparency to Supply Chains

Swiss agritech startup Farmer Connect has raised a US$9M in a Series A investment round.

Farmer Connect Website

An investment led by ITOCHU Corporation, a major Japanese general trading company, resulted in Farmer Connect securing US$9M. The Series A financing comes after significant growth in 2020 when the company’s revenue surged and its roster of clients and partners grew. Their partners include Cooxupé, the biggest coffee cooperative in Brazil, UCC Coffee, Beyers Koffie and The J.M. Smucker Company. Farmer Connect will use the money to develop new solutions for sustainability efforts in coffee and other agricultural sectors. They also plan to build new teams across the world like Geneva, New York City, Singapore and Brazil. ​

Launched in 2019, Farmer Connect offers a blockchain-based traceability platform for the safe storage and sharing of business data. Essentially, this technology connects producers to consumers to empower them and help their business grow. The blockchain-based tech was developed in part by IBM, based on the IBM Food Trust platform.

Investors from Europe and both North and South America participated in the round, along with Farmer Connect’s founding partner, Sucafina.

For more information:

Farmer Connect
Chemin de Blandonnet 8
Vernier, Geneva 1214, CH
Email : media@farmerconnect.com

Or you can also contact them here.

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Nestlé Launches Bio-Based Packaging For Infant Formula

Mar 23, 2021 | Ecosystem news, Headline, Member news

Nestlé Launches Bio-Based Packaging For Infant Formula

Nestlé will soon launch bio-based lids and scoops made from sugar cane and its byproduct for its paediatric nutrition products.

Nestlé Website

A range of Nestlé’s nutrition products for infants and children will soon launch with a newly innovated packaging. This comes after the introduction of bio-based lids and scoops made from 66% and 95% sugar cane respectively. They also have similar properties and functionalities as conventional plastic without compromising the high level of hygiene and freshness required. The bio-based lids and scoops complement the metal-based tin can, which is the most recycled material in the world. These certified plant-based packagings are also recyclable in countries with recycling facilities for polyethylene (PE).

Nestlé Products with Bio-Based Packaging

In 2020, Nestlé Nutrition’s NAN infant formula in the new packaging materials was introduced in Hong Kong. These will be available in other markets globally from 2021, including for other brands such as BEBA and GUIGOZ.

Meanwhile, Wyeth Nutrition is launching the new bio-based packaging for its brands SMA, LITTLE STEPS, S-26 and ILLUMA.

Nestlé Health Science is also introducing the new packaging material for its Althéra, Alfaré, Alfamino, Modulen and Peptamen Junior brands. These brands are part of its global range of paediatric food for special medical purposes.

Commitment to Innovation and Sustainability

Thierry Philardeau, Head of Nestlé Nutrition, said, “Nestlé continues to push the boundaries of science to provide nutritional solutions for children, and we are putting that same passion into pioneering new packaging that is good for our planet.”

Meanwhile, Ryan Carvalho, Head of R&D and Chief Medical Officer for Nestlé Nutrition, said, “The development of innovative sustainable packaging solutions plays an important role in our journey to net-zero… while ensuring that our products maintain a high level of safety and quality.“

Nestlé Health Science CEO Greg Behar said, “We are pleased that Nestlé Health Science’s paediatric range is our first product group to include the new bio-based lids and scoops: new solutions for a new generation.“

Nestlé is a founding member of the Bioplastics Feedstock Alliance. The association aims to encourage the production of bioplastic feedstocks in an environmentally responsible, socially beneficial and economically viable manner.

For more information:

Nestlé Suisse S.A.
Rue Entre-deux-Villes 10 1814 La Tour-de-Peilz Switzerland
Switzerland
Tel: +41 21 924 51 11

You can also reach them here.

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