This week, Nestlé announced the creation of Nestlé Institute of Agricultural Sciences. Focusing on plant science, dairy livestock and agricultural systems, it will translate novel agricultural science into concrete applications and identify the most promising technologies to implement at farm level.

Translating science into concrete solutions

Transitioning towards a regenerative food system requires large-scale changes in the way agricultural raw materials are produced and sourced. To translate novel agricultural science into concrete applications and to identify the most promising agricultural technologies, Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley member Nestlé announced today the creation of the Nestlé Institute of Agricultural Sciences.

This new institute will focus on the areas of plant science, dairy livestock and agricultural systems science. In close collaboration with internal and external partners, it will assess and combine science-based solutions to improve the nutritional and sensorial qualities and the environmental impact of agricultural raw materials.

Stefan Palzer, Nestlé CTO and Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley’s Vice-President, said: “Our transition towards a regenerative food system is enabled by agricultural science and new agricultural technologies. The new institute will accelerate the translation of science into concrete solutions that can be implemented at farm level, to support farmers globally in improving their environmental footprint, in reducing food and nutrient losses, and in better adapting to climate change while ensuring the quality of the raw materials they produce.” 

Building on strong foundations

The institute builds on Nestlé’s existing work and expertise in agricultural science, with numerous programs already being implemented. Nestle’s plant science experts have, for example, been contributing to the company’s sustainable cocoa and coffee sourcing plans – the Nestlé Cocoa Plan and the Nescafé Plan – including scientific discoveries such as the recently announced high-yield, drought and disease resistant coffee varieties.

Nestlé experts are also working on identifying the most suitable pulses and grains to provide low carbon, plant-based alternatives to meat, seafood and dairy. This strong focus on plant science will be further strengthened and extended to additional crops. The institute will accelerate the work with external partners to contribute to reducing emissions in dairy farming, to develop regenerative agriculture practices, and to improve biodiversity and soil health. It will also explore new approaches to upcycling agricultural side streams to reduce nutrient loss and food waste along the agricultural value chain.

Isabelle Bureau-Franz, Head of Nestlé Research, said: “The work in agricultural sciences will complement our broad expertise at Nestlé Research, ranging from food safety to health science, material science and packaging. We will leverage our scientific breadth to drive holistic approaches, contributing to concrete solutions and innovation applied throughout the value chain, including in products.”

Working across the ecosystem

The institute will work closely with academic institutions and research organizations, start-ups, industry partners and farmers to assess and develop science-based solutions and adapt them for implementation and scale-up across the company’s supply chain, while having a positive impact on the livelihoods and incomes of farmers. It will rely on new and existing collaborations, such as the research program with fellow Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley member ETHZ to reduce the carbon footprint of agricultural products.

Jeroen Dijkman, Head of the Institute of Agricultural Sciences, said: “At the institute we will screen a wide variety of science-based agricultural solutions and assess their potential for reducing the environmental footprint of key agricultural raw materials. Together with our research and industry partners we want to bring the most promising approaches and solutions to farmers and contribute to their transition to regenerative practices with scalable and impactful applications.“

About the institute
The institute will be part of Nestlé’s global research organization, based in state-of-the-art facilities in Lausanne, Switzerland and will be formally inaugurated later this year. It will also include the company’s plant science unit in France, as well as existing cocoa, coffee, and dairy research farms based in Ecuador, Côte d’Ivoire, Thailand and Switzerland.

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The investment will enable the Swiss Biotech Startup to further scale up its production, boost product development and pursue its ambitious internationalization strategy to meet increasing global demand.

DÜBENDORF, Zurich – Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley member, NEMIS Technologies Ltd. – ranked as one of the Top 15 Swiss Biotech Startups in 2021 – announced the closing of a CHF 7.75 million Series A financing round with the participation of both institutional and private investors this week.

The problem
Food borne pathogens like Listeria Monocytogenes, Salmonella, E. Coli and others can be found everywhere and are spreading rapidly throughout global food and supply chains. They make hundreds of thousands of consumers sick every year, and can even be fatal. Contamination by microorganisms also causes huge amounts of food waste. Food manufacturers and distributors are increasingly confronted with product recalls, which not only cause immense financial costs, but also major reputational damage to the companies concerned.

The solution
NEMIS specializes in fast, easy-to-use, affordable and reliable on-site pathogen detection solutions. The company will use the investment to scale up its production, accelerate its ongoing international expansion, boost product development and relocate to new laboratory and office facilities in Au, ZH, Switzerland.

Arnaud Muller, CEO of NEMIS, stated:

“Following the great care and dedication of our team over the past year to rapidly industrialize and scale our production, the capital raised will enable us to accelerate our expansion in Europe and overseas. We also have the means to accelerate the development of additional diagnostic test kits and methods to further improve our offering, strengthen our organization in a targeted manner and to reach profitable growth. This would not be possible without the great trust from our partners and investors, for which we are very grateful.”

Roger Meier, the Chairman of the Board, added:

“In just three years, NEMIS has transformed itself from an interesting start-up into a very dynamic and promising growth company with a value proposition that serves a rapidly growing need in an almost optimal way. We are very pleased that we were able to inspire different types of investors – from the extraordinary successful company leader and entrepreneur to the international highly specialized, renown Foodtech fund, who will accompany us on our further journey. With gratitude and confidence, we look forward to creating great benefit for our stakeholders.”

About NEMIS Technologies Ltd
NEMIS Technologies Ltd. (www.nemistech.com) founded in January 2018 by an experienced team of entrepreneurs, scientists and diagnostics, medical and food business professionals. Its patented core technology opens up a near-endless application space for the detection, identification, or monitoring of bacteria, parasites, viruses, or fungi. Unlike most other technologies, the company’s kits can be used anywhere by anyone, empowering food producers to take back control. By meeting several stringent requirements simultaneously, the young company is now on the verge of setting a new transformative industry standard. The power of mass testing closes the current environment control gaps and enables permanent process control in the food chain and allows for preventative elimination of contaminated sites to massively improve product safety.

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In January last year, the Fribourg State Council approved a new Agri-Food Strategy. Now they’re launching three projects to bring their flagship programs to life.

FRIBOURG, January 17, 2022 — Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley member, the Canton of Fribourg, has a strong agri-food sector ecosystem. Both agricultural and industrial, with a dense network of agri-food SMEs and leading national and international companies, the canton processes nearly a quarter of Swiss agricultural products. Fribourg’s Agri-Food Strategy illustrates the need for a new way of thinking, requiring a profound changes on the part of all actors in the food system to enable us to move towards a more sustainable and a circular economy.

The 3 Flagship Programs
The strategy identified three flagship programs, designed to promote systemic solutions that reflect all local stakeholders’ needs:

• Flagship program 1: “Food & Farm Living Lab”
• Flagship program 2: “Biomass Valorization”
• Flagship program 3: “Agriculture & Industry 4.0”

The approach
Back in September, Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley member, Food & Nutrition Cluster, organized a participatory co-creation process that brought together academic and private representatives to present ten projects. The project committee (Copro), with representatives from the Food & Nutrition Cluster (CFN), Grangeneuve, the HES-SO Fribourg and the Fribourg Development Agency (FDA), then chose three projects and two sub-projects to bring the Flagship programs to life. Project kick-off meetings will take place in the next few days.

The three projects

Food & Farm Living Lab
I. Setting up the Food & Farm Living Lab
The Food & Farm Living Lab aims to support actors of the agricultural, food and nutritional economy in the canton of Fribourg to develop innovations. The project will be split into two subprojects:

1. Development of a pilot project exploring links between information and consumer behavior relating to food choices. This project is intended to be global and will also address health and nutrition, innovation and the potential of local production
2. Creation of an innovation voucher mechanism for agricultural and food actors with a call for projects.

Biomass Valorization
II. Functionalized proteins from biomass and agri-food co-products
This project will aims to increase the attractiveness and sustainability of existing value chains in the canton through innovative intermediate and finished food products, tailored to consumer demand more for healthy and sustainable products.

Agriculture & Industry 4.0
III. Optimized nitrogen fertilization
This project will use of agricultural data and imagery to optimize fertilizer quantities to increase crop yields while reducing nitrogen emissions into the environment.

Find out more about Fribourg’s Agrifood Strategy here.

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