Fribourg-based Startup Bloom Biorenewables Wins the Sustainable Economy Prize

May 31, 2021 | Uncategorized

Fribourg-based Startup Bloom Biorenewables Wins the Sustainable Economy Prize

This year, the canton of Fribourg presented for the first time the Sustainable Economy Award, and it was given to Bloom Biorenewables.

Bloom Biorenewables Website

Bloom Biorenewables received the CHF 6,000 Sustainable Economy Award for developing a process to exploit the hidden value of biomass. From wood waste, Bloom Biorenewables managed to extract soluble lignin. It is then used to replace petrochemical compounds largely present in perfumes, aromas, inks, cosmetics, medicines, adhesives, plastics, and textiles. Often unsuspected, the quantities of CO2 contained in these products are considerable. In this way, Bloom eliminates the utilisation of petroleum by recycling the waste of an industry that is well entrenched in the Canton.

Created in 2019, Bloom Biorenewables SA is a spin-off from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). Bloom has developed the first technology to selectively convert the most abundant biopolymers on Earth – cellulose and lignin – into added-value chemical products. The vision is to efficiently utilise resources and promote the shift towards a green and circular society.

The Sustainable Economy Award was presented by Chantal Robin, Director of the Fribourg Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI), and a member of the panel of judges. The Award is attributed jointly by the FCCI, the Cantonal Service of Energy, and the Fribourg Development Agency (FDA). Learn more about the State of Fribourg’s commitent towards agrifood innovation in their latest factsheet.

The other winners are Ascenseurs Menétrey for the Business Award, while GBY received the Start-up Award.

For more information:
Bloom Biorenewables SA
Route de l’ancienne papeterie, 106
Case postale 146
CH-1723 Marly 1 – Switzerland
Email : info@bloombiorenewables.com

Latest News

Join the Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley ecosystem and be partof the journey!

Become a member

Applications for NTN Swiss Food Ecosystem Ideation Campaign Now Open

May 27, 2021 | Uncategorized

Applications for NTN Swiss Food Ecosystem Ideation Campaign Now Open

You may now register for the NTN Swiss Food Ecosystem Ideation Campaign by the 4th of June 2021.

Register here

The Ideation Campaign on the online innovation platform is a semi-public event with a large community from different NTNs and expertise. People submitting their ideas do so in an attitude of open innovation and are interested in solving the given challenge in collaboration with other community members.

The ideation campaign is open to anyone, who…

  • Is prepared to share their idea with a community and embrace the open innovation approach to find radical solutions
  • Applications are screened by the Suisse Agro Food Leadinghouse prior to publication on the HYPE platform and made visible to the community
  • Participation is free of charge!

What kind of ideas are we looking for?
This overarching question can be subdivided into: 

  • How to solve the plastic problem for food packaging? 
  • What innovative bio-based and biodegradable materials could be developed and used as packaging material?
  • For what type of application would that be suitable – chilled, frozen or room temperature storage?
  • Heatable/freezable? Liquid/soft/solid material products?
  • Logistic concepts are linked to packaging of food and also to the collection of used packaging material.
  • What are innovative logistic & distribution concepts to support the use of biopolymers?  

Evaluation Criteria
All ideas will be rated on:

  • Potential of innovation
  • Degree of novelty – to Switzerland / to the world
  • Desirability, viability and feasibility
  • Economic impact
  • Sustainability
  • Scale-up / follow-up potential

Ideation Campaign Awards

  • Top 3 ideas rated by community CHF 500.- and 3h of dedicated support
  • Top 5 ideas assessed by the jury CHF 1’000.- and 3h of dedicated support
  • Participation voucher to either Workshop or Hackathon

For more information:

Suisse Agro Food Leadinghouse
Passage du Cardinal 11
1700 Fribourg
Email : innoboost@swissfoodecosystems.ch

Or you can also contact them here.

Latest News

Join the Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley ecosystem and be partof the journey!

Become a member

35th EFFoST International Conference 2021 | 1-4 November 2021

May 19, 2021 | Uncategorized

35th EFFoST International Conference 2021 | 1-4 November 2021

Healthy Individuals, Resilient Communities, and Global Food Security

  • Lausanne, Switzerland | 1-4 November 2021 
  • Supported by the Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley

Get Tickets

The 35th EFFoST International Conference: Healthy Individuals, Resilient Communities, and Global Food Security will be hosted by Agroscope, Bühler Group, EPFL, ETH Zürich and Nestlé, and supported by an independent scientific committee. We would like to invite you to EFFoST2021 that will be held in the city of Lausanne, Switzerland from 1-4 November 2021. 

The acceleration of climate change and the outbreak of the COVID pandemic, shows the central role of food & nutrition to provide basic needs, wellbeing and resilience for individuals, families and societies around the world. We share FAO’s vision of a world free from hunger and malnutrition, where food and agriculture contribute to improving the living standards of all. Therefore, EFFoST2021 aims to be a catalyst for collaboration between industry, academia and governments to address challenges in food and nutrition.

Every year the European Federation of Food Science and Technology (EFFoST) organises this prestigious academic food science and technology conference. Join world-renowned researchers, scientists, policy makers, professionals and students from multi-disciplinary food-related fields to share the latest developments and create new partnerships.

Conference topics

The 35th EFFoST International Conference will explore the theme: Healthy Individuals, Resilient Communities, and Global Food Security. This is further examined in the below-mentioned sub-themes that highlight the expertise of our conference host, Nestle.

Advancing Science for Shifting Consumer Trends

  • Food product design in times of uncertainties: technologies for affordable, shelf-stable products
  • Food & nutrition to enhance the resilience of individuals and societies

Shaping Robust and Flexible Supply Chains & Manufacturing Setups

  • Technologies for decentralized and modular food processing
  • Safety, Authenticity, Sanitation in innovative food processing
  • Towards Food Industry 4.0

Engineering Affordable and Sustainable Nutrition Solutions

  • Food technology for low cost & high nutritional value
  • Biodiversity for healthier diets: alternative proteins, ancient ingredients, minimum processing
  • Plant-based vs. animal-based protein: ingredients, processing, nutrition and liking

Make sure to block 1-4 November 2021 in your diary, to join world-renowned researchers, scientists, policy makers, professionals and students from multidisciplinary food-related fields to share the latest developments and create new partnerships.

For more information visit www.effostconference.com.

Learn more

Supported by the Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley

Latest News

Join the Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley ecosystem and be partof the journey!

Become a member

UN Food System Summit | 3rd of June 2021

May 17, 2021 | Uncategorized

UN Food System Summit | 3rd of June 2021

UN Food System Summit | Trilateral Independent Dialogue

Shift to healthy and sustainable consumption patterns. Focus on consumers’ education, innovative solutions and cross-borders learning experience.

  • Date: June 3rd 2021
    From Thursday, June 3, 2021, 13:30 GMT+2
    to Thursday, June 3, 2021, 16:00 GMT+2

Get Tickets

The Summit will launch bold new actions to deliver progress on all 17 SDGs, each of which relies to some degree on healthier, more sustainable and equitable food systems. The initiative will awaken the world to the fact that we all must work together to transform the way the world produces, consumes and thinks about food. It is a summit for everyone everywhere – a people’s summit. It is also a solutions summit that will require everyone to take action to transform the world’s food systems.

 

Guided by five Action Tracks, the Summit will bring together key players from the worlds of science, business, policy, healthcare and academia, as well as farmers, indigenous people, youth organizations, consumer groups, environmental activists, and other key stakeholders. Before, during and after the Summit, these actors will come together to bring about tangible, positive changes to the world’s food systems.
About the Independent Dialogue
The success of the 2021 Food Systems Summit depends on the engagement of citizens all over the world. By convening or joining an Independent Dialogue, you can have a seat at the table and contribute directly to the Summit’s ambitious vision and objectives. But that’s not all: Dialogues also give you the chance to learn from others in your community, form new partnerships, and explore important challenges facing your local food system.
About Swissnex
Swissnex is the Swiss global network (5 swissnex locations + 22 Science & Technology Offices in Swiss Embassies) connecting the dots in education, research, and innovation. Our mission is to support the outreach and active engagement of our partners in the international exchange of knowledge, ideas and talents. Swissnex is an initiative of the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation and is part of the Confederation’s network abroad managed by the Federal Department of Foreign As connectors among cultures and dialogue facilitators, this year our network in Brazil and South Korea decided to support the UN in the mission to shift towards healthy and sustainable consumption patterns.
View Programm

SFNV Speaking 🎤

Meet with our Managing Director Christina Senn-Jakobsen and our Exco Member Christian Nils Schwab, both speaking at the event. 

Event promotion poster

Latest News

Join the Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley ecosystem and be partof the journey!

Become a member

SNAQ: Get Nutritional Information Using an Image of Your Meal

May 12, 2021 | Uncategorized

SNAQ: Get Nutritional Information Using an Image of Your Meal

Zurich-based startup SNAQ developed a patent-pending food analysis app that gives users nutritional information about their meals just by taking its picture.

SNAQ Website

SNAQ is a machine learning and computer vision startup active in the medical field. It has developed a mobile app solution enabling anyone to take a picture of a prepared meal and immediately receive its nutritional information. The Artificial Intelligence-powered app automatically recognises the food and using 3D models; it calculates the volume, deduces its weight. After comparison with a nutritional value database, the app provides a nutritional value analysis of the food.

Beyond being a lifestyle solution, the app is also being developed to help diabetes patients. Once the startup obtains approval to use the solution as a medical device, the app will be used to calculate the required insulin dosage.

Founders Aurelian Briner and Nico Previtali established SNAQ in 2017 to reveal the impact of food on health. SNAQ’s patent-pending and scientifically verified technology provides users with the most convenient and accurate way to capture nutritional intake and helps to manage the impact of food on health through personalised insights and recommendations.

For more information:

SNAQ AG
Birmensdorferstrasse 94
Zurich, 8003, CH
Email : info@snaq.io

Or you can contact them here.

Latest News

Join the Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley ecosystem and be partof the journey!

Become a member

Helbling Technik Develops Smart Devices for Sustainable Nutrition

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

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

Latest News

Join the Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley ecosystem and be partof the journey!

Become a member