Yumame launches its first ready meal on SBB Trains

Oct 28, 2026 | Headline, Member news, Press-releases

Yumame launches its first ready meal on SBB Trains

Having established its plant-based products at Coop and in food service, Küsnacht-based start-up Yumame Foods is taking the next step: penne with vegan Yumame Bolognese is now served in SBB dining cars as part of Elvetino’s autumn menu. Made from Swiss lentils, mushrooms and grains, it is Yumame’s first ready meal.

“We are incredibly proud that our vegan Bolognese is on Elvetino’s autumn menu,” says Eliana Zamprogna Rosenfeld, founder and CEO of Yumame Foods. “Bolognese is a classic that everyone knows and loves. We give it a twist that is good for people and good for the planet.” 

Clean eating, made tasty and easy

The Bolognese has a hearty, slightly textured bite and deep umami notes from the mushrooms and fermentation. It is familiar and comforting, yet distinctive.

Like every Yumame product, it is made with a few wholesome, recognizable ingredients, gentle processing and no additives. Yumame has developed and optimized its own fermentation process, building on the traditional techniques used to produce foods such as sauerkraut, kimchi and tempeh. This low-energy, low-waste method enhances flavour and texture while supporting digestibility. The result is a naturally rich umami taste and a valuable nutritional profile, with protein, fibre, vitamins and minerals. 

Built on Swiss agriculture, designed for the world

The lentils, mushrooms and grains come, whenever possible, from Swiss agriculture. Through long-term partnerships with local producers, Yumame helps establish lentils and other legumes as a new crop in Switzerland, supporting soil health and biodiversity even under climate stress.

“Working with Swiss farmers is how we build a food system that is resilient and transparent, and delivers high quality, with the shortest distance from the field to the plate,” says Zamprogna Rosenfeld.

Their fermentation-based method can also be replicated anywhere in the world, using local crops and regional tastes.

From innovation to industrial production

Yumame is scaling up its production and has partnered with Le Patron, a subsidiary of ORIOR Food AG. Le Patron brings its innovation drive in developing healthy and tasty products, its expertise in convenience food manufacturing, and its distribution capabilities.

This partnership enables new recipes, particularly in the ready-meal segment, to be produced at scale and brought to market. Yumame has already developed several new product formulations, formats and recipes in-house, and the possibilities are virtually endless.

“Our technology platform and fermentation know-how allow us even to design products for specific nutritional needs, which opens up a wide range of new applications,” says Zamprogna Rosenfeld. The company is currently raising capital to expand its product portfolio and accelerate sales growth.

 

About Yumame Foods

Founded in Zurich in 2021, Yumame Foods AG combines expertise in food manufacturing and fermentation science to create a new generation of plant-based foods. Using its optimized fermentation process, the company transforms whole ingredients, including mushrooms and lentils, into foods with a distinctive umami flavour and texture, naturally rich in protein, fibre, minerals and vitamins. Yumame products offer a minimally processed alternative to conventional plant-based foods. Supported by Innosuisse, Gebert Rüf Stiftung and private investors, the company collaborates with Swiss academic institutions. Its products are available across Switzerland at Coop, online and through food service partners.

Bee People secures CHF 1.3 million in new funding round

Oct 26, 2026 | Headline, Member news, Press-releases

Bee People secures CHF 1.3 million in new funding round

Swiss health and wellness company Bee People has successfully closed a CHF 1.3 million seed funding round. Investor commitments exceeded the target funding amount by more than 30%.

Bee People develops scientifically backed food supplements based on propolis and other bee-derived
ingredients. The company combines the natural defense mechanisms of bees with modern scientific research,
product development, and Swiss quality standards. Its existing product portfolio is currently undergoing significant
expansion, with new applications being continuously introduced.

Founders Marie So and Daniel Meyer previously built the Swiss e-mobility company EGO Movement,
successfully expanded it internationally, and ultimately sold it to India's TVS Motor Group. Several investors from
that venture are now backing the team once again at Bee People.

The funding round includes several prominent Swiss entrepreneurs and investors, alongside respected medical
professionals and healthcare experts. The investor group also includes experienced individuals who will play a
strategically important role in supporting Bee People's expansion into Asia.

"The fact that several investors are backing us for a second time is a strong vote of confidence. They know how
we work and share our ambition to build businesses with a long-term vision and international reach," say Marie
and Daniel.

Since its market launch, Bee People has been expanding its presence in Swiss pharmacies, drugstores,
specialist retailers, and e-commerce platforms. The company has also established an initial foothold in the Asian
market, where traditional and natural health products have a strong cultural presence and propolis is considerably
better known than in many European markets.

The DACH region (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland) plays a central role in Bee People's European growth
strategy. The company sees significant potential to bring propolis beyond its traditional niche and establish it as a
modern ingredient for everyday health and wellness. Bee People is entering the German market in September
2026 through its own online store.

"While propolis is already available in Switzerland, Austria, and Germany, products often lack consistent quality
standards and a solid scientific foundation. This is exactly where we see an opportunity. By incorporating the
latest scientific findings into our products and maintaining Swiss quality standards, we aim to take propolis to the
next level," the founders explain.

The newly raised capital will be invested in research and development, expanding distribution channels, and
accelerating international growth. In addition to Germany, Bee People plans to enter further markets across
Europe and Asia.

"Over millions of years, bees have developed highly sophisticated mechanisms to protect their hives. We want to
harness this knowledge to create modern health and wellness products. Our ambition is to build a global Swiss
health brand at the intersection of nature and science," the founders conclude.

About Bee People

Bee People is a Swiss health and wellness company headquartered in St. Moritz. The company develops scientifically backed food supplements based on propolis and other bee-derived ingredients. Bee People combines the power of nature with scientific research and Swiss quality standards.

How AI is transforming the European food industry

Sep 15, 2026 | Press-releases, SFNV updates, Uncategorized

September 2026

Press-releases

Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley (SFNV) and Porsche Consulting have launched 'How AI changes food', a new report examining how AI is reshaping competition, value creation, and execution across the European food industry with interviews from 12 industry experts.

The report looks at AI in Food through 3 lenses: 

  • Why AI is intensifying competition in the sector
  • What value it can deliver for food industry executives
  • How it can be applied effectively across the value chain and the organisation
Join the AI in Food Masterclass
Why AI, why now?

The report identifies the forces putting AI at the center of food industry strategy: consumers who already expect personalisation, a shift in how executives view AI, from an experimental technology bet to a decision that shows up directly on margin, and Europe's opening to take a leading position in the AI-in-food race.

Anna Mucha, COO and AI in Food Lead at Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley, said: “AI is quickly moving from an emerging technology to a core part of how food companies operate and stay relevant to consumers. This report is part of our AI in Food Masterclass and is designed to help our ecosystem move beyond curiosity to action and application of AI."

From adoption to execution

Giulio Busoni, Partner at Porsche Consulting, frames AI in food as an incremental enabler rather than a disruptor of business models. "The real dividing line in the industry is no longer between companies that use AI and those that don't, but between those running isolated pilots and those integrating it at scale across the organisation, with slow adopters risking lower valuations, persistent cost inefficiencies, and reduced appeal to talent.”

Beyond mapping where AI is being applied, the report focuses on the gap between what AI can do and what companies are actually deploying, and the capabilities food businesses need to build to close it and turn adoption into real execution with first-hand interviews with Nestlé, Bühler, Givaudan, EPFL, Helbling, Tetra Pak, FlavorWiki, University of Bern, Barilla, Novonesis, dsm-firmenich and GDI.

What's next

The report closes with an outlook on the future of the food industry in the AI era, covering regulation, industrial depth, and the trusted data ecosystems that will separate leaders from followers by 2030.

This report is part of the AI in Food Masterclass, with 3 expert led webinars and 2 in-person events.

Access the masterclass today (free for Valley Partners) and join us online and in person over the next few months:

About Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley

Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley (SFNV) is a purpose-driven not-for-profit association, founded in 2020. It brings together the Swiss agrifood ecosystem to pioneer future-proof food systems that are good for the planet, good for people, and good for the economy.

We bring together over 150 partners from startups, industry, research and policymakers to accelerate innovation from farm to fork. Through collaboration and piloting new solutions, we translate science into impact – for people, planet and prosperity.

About Porsche Consulting
Porsche Consulting is a leading management consulting firm, offering executive advice from strategy to operations.

Founded in 1994 following Porsche's successful transformation into one of the most profitable and admired luxury sports car manufacturers.

Today, its experts support companies around the world in business growth, strategic transformation and performance management. The consultants operate in various sectors ranging from mobility to life science, consumer goods to industrial goods, energy to aerospace, construction to defense.

The main areas of expertise are corporate strategy and corporate finance, sales and services, organization and efficiency, development and technology, as well as operational excellence.

Porsche Consulting has offices in Germany, Italy, France, China, Brazil, and the United States

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From Policy to Plate: Turning food policy into healthier, lower-carbon meals

Sep 14, 2026 | Press-releases, Uncategorized

From Policy to Plate: Turning food policy into healthier, lower-carbon meals

Every year, schools, hospitals and other public institutions across the Canton de Vaud serve around four million meals. 
What if those meals could improve people's health while increasing local sourcing and highlighting a seasonal menu?
That is the opportunity behind From Policy to Plate, a new collaborative initiative supported by the Canton de Vaud and led by Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley, pi2Life and FOOD2050.
Over the next 18 months, the programme will work with collective catering providers across Vaud to demonstrate how healthier, lower-carbon menus can be implemented in real kitchens.
The ambition is simple: turn policy-level health and climate goals into practical changes on the plate.
A huge opportunity hiding in plain sight
Public and institutional catering has an enormous influence on what people eat.
Every day, kitchens in schools, hospitals, care settings and other public institutions make decisions about thousands of meals. Those decisions need to balance nutritional requirements, budgets, procurement, kitchen capabilities, customer preferences and increasingly, environmental targets.
That makes collective catering both a challenge and a powerful opportunity.

“Translating health and climate ambitions into meals that work for chefs, kitchens and the people they serve can be a huge challenge. From Policy to Plate allows us to use recipe intelligence in real catering environments, helping teams redesign menus, understand their impact and identify changes that can be scaled across public institutions.”

Christian Kramer, CEO & Co-founder, FOOD2050

Rather than asking individuals to change their diets one meal at a time, From Policy to Plate looks at the institutions serving food at scale. 
If a kitchen can improve the health profile of its menus, reduce their carbon footprint and increase the use of locally sourced plant-based and alternative proteins, the impact can be multiplied across millions of meals.
From ambition to action
Translating policy ambitions into a menu that works in a real kitchen is rarely straightforward.
A policy might call for healthier diets or lower emissions. A chef still has to decide what goes on the menu. Ingredients need to be available, affordable and practical to prepare, and, importantly, people need to want to eat the result.
Policy to Plate is designed to bridge that gap.
The programme brings together public authorities, caterers, food suppliers, technology providers and innovators to test what works in practice, learn from implementation and identify approaches that can be scaled.
The programme is targeting:
  • +15% improvement in the health profile of redesigned menus
  • Significantly increase the share of local and Swiss products in menus
  • -10% reduction in CO₂ emissions, as a minimum

“By making high-quality, locally relevant options easier to discover and source, we can help turn ambitious sustainability targets into practical purchasing decisions and create new opportunities for food innovators across Vaud and Switzerland.”

Dhanesh Kothari, Founder, pi2Life

Connecting innovation with real-world demand
A core part of the programme is connecting kitchens with the companies developing new food products and solutions.
  • For food suppliers and brands, collective catering offers an opportunity to demonstrate how plant-based and alternative protein products can work in institutional settings.
  • For solution providers, it offers a chance to test technologies and services against real-world challenges.
  • And for caterers, it creates access to a wider ecosystem of products, expertise and ideas that can help them meet changing health and sustainability expectations.
Innovation needs to find its way into menus, procurement systems and kitchens, and ultimately onto people's plates.

“The opportunity is to move beyond setting ambitious targets and start testing what change actually looks like in the kitchens serving people every day. By bringing the right partners together, we can learn what works, build capability and create models that can be replicated.”

Marco La Fortezza, Head of Funding Strategies and Initiatives at Swiss Food Nutrition Valley

Now, we need the food ecosystem
The first phase of From Policy to Plate is now getting underway, and the programme is looking to expand its network of participants and partners.
We are particularly interested in hearing from:
  • Collective caterers and kitchen operators interested in piloting the approach
  • Food suppliers and brands looking to showcase their plant-based and alternative protein products
  • Solution and service providers with technologies, expertise or services that can help accelerate the transition
Because creating healthier, lower-carbon food systems is about changing what happens when policy meets procurement, innovation meets the kitchen, and ambition meets the plate.

Register your interest here to take part in the initiative and to get the full over of the initiative head this way.

Pasta Premium launches cook-stable pasta without egg white using EggField Aquafaba

Apr 22, 2026 | Headline, Press-releases, SFNV updates, Talent, Uncategorized

Pasta Premium launches cook-stable pasta without egg white using EggField Aquafaba

In collaboration with EggField, Pasta Premium is launching a new generation of cook-stable, plant-based pasta. The products will be introduced under the ERNST brand and combine the firm bite of traditional pasta with a fully plant-based formulation. They have been specifically developed for use in gastronomy, catering, and food service.

The new ERNST pasta is based on durum wheat semolina and aquafaba (legume cooking water), a by-product of legume processing. It replaces key functionalities of egg, enabling pasta with a stable structure and high cooking, holding, and regeneration performance—critical for professional kitchen environments. With this development, Pasta Premium also responds to volatile egg availability while offering a resource-efficient and long-term stable alternative.

“Our legume-based ingredient delivers the functionality of egg—without compromising on sensory quality. The collaboration with Pasta Premium shows that even in pasta applications, sustainable, scalable, and high-performing solutions are possible,” says Silvan Leibacher, CEO and co-founder of EggField. For ERNST pasta, the focus was not only on product quality but also on real-world applicability.

“What mattered most was a solution that works in everyday professional kitchens and is future-proof,” says Sarah Anderhub, Head of Marketing at ERNST pasta. “The new products allow our customers to simplify their assortment, respond flexibly to different dietary needs, and consistently deliver high quality. At the same time, they rely on an innovative Swiss product with a compelling price-performance ratio—both from a quality and economic perspective.”

Traditional egg-based recipes are not being replaced; rather, EggField enables, for the first time, the production of cook-stable pasta without the addition of egg white. For food service operators, this simplifies both offerings and processes: the pasta serves as a single solution across different dietary requirements—from conventional to plant-based. In addition, removing egg as an allergen simplifies labeling, procurement, and storage—without requiring changes in kitchen processes or recipes.

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Cosaic secures $6 million seed extension as industry leaders back next-generation food ingredients

Apr 21, 2026 | Headline, Press-releases, SFNV updates, Talent, Uncategorized

Cosaic secures $6 million seed extension as industry leaders back next-generation food ingredients

Cosaic, the Swiss food biotech startup developing yeast-derived multifunctional ingredients, today announced a $6 million round. The round includes participation from dsm-firmenich Ventures, the venture arm of dsm-firmenich, a global leader in Health, Nutrition and Beauty. Also joining the round are a large Swiss family office and Kickfund, a Swiss deeptech investor,  as well as existing investors such as Navus Ventures and Zuercher Kantonalbank. In a tougher funding environment, this round shows that investors continue to support foodtech companies when the technology is distinctive and the commercialization plan is realistic.

Cosaic is developing a new category of food ingredients based on yeast fermentation. Its platform is designed to help food and beverage manufacturers deliver creaminess, stability and functionality in a single ingredient, addressing formulation challenges that have traditionally required multiple components and additives. This investment signals growing industry interest in ingredient platforms that move beyond one-to-one replacement narratives and instead offer measurable functional value to manufacturers.

The round will support three priorities over the coming phase of growth to become market ready: regulatory work, production scale-up, and industrial trials with large clients.

"This round sends a clear signal: the market is backing foodtech companies that can deliver real functional value and a credible path to commercialization," said Tomas Turner, co-founder and CEO of Cosaic. "At Cosaic, we are building an ingredient that resolves the trade-offs food companies face every day between clean label, sensory performance, and cost. With strong strategic backing and a capital-efficient scale-up model, we are well positioned to move from development to launch readiness."

The announcement follows Cosaic’s strategic go-to-market partnership with another leading ingredient house, Ingredion, announced in late 2025, which provided the company with important commercial validation. With backing from Ingredion and dsm-firmenich Ventures, Cosaic is now accelerating the path from product development to market launch.

About Cosaic (formerly known as Cultivated Biosciences)

Cosaic is a Swiss biotech and foodtech startup that aims for a world in which good food choices benefit everyone: people, businesses, and the planet. They do this with ingredient solutions that offer greater industry resilience and greater consumer satisfaction. Cosaic Neo is their first ingredient, a unique natural multifunctional emulsion that delivers perfect stability and delicious creaminess, all at once, by itself. It is a patented food ingredient born from yeast fermentation. Its complex microstructure allows for multiple functionalities to reconcile product performance with sensory experience while cleaning labels. Cosaic employs 15 people and is in pre-series A stage, preparing for a market entry next year in the US. More info: www.cosaic.bio

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