Earlier this month in Munich, new trends in sustainable food were featured at the annual Food Marketplace event hosted by the European Institute for Innovation and Technology (EIT). The future of food appears to emphasize clean, sustainable eating that boosts personal and planetary health.
The EIT Food Marketplace serves as a venue for innovators to pitch their game-changing or disruptive ideas in front of investors and corporate partners to accelerate market entry. The recent event hosted 25 invited startups from across Europe. New ideas that were proposed by these startups included a new vegetable milk, a software that targets healthier nutrition and diets for hospital patients as well as fruit chips for breakfast cereal made from discarded bananas.
Ultimately, this year’s winner was “Air up Gmbh” for its innovative bottle, from which mineral water is sipped through a straw. “Taste” is given to the mineral water by aromatic sponges in the lid that provide a “pretend” taste, free of artificial flavors.
As Air up Gmbh CEO and founder Jannis Koppitz explained, “While you suck through the straw and drink at the same time, our palate communicates the mix then as the taste. Thanks to the replaceable aroma sponges, this can be anything from mango to lime to cucumber.” In other words, with this method, drinks of the future will need no additives nor sugar, thereby providing a revolutionized, healthier beverage to quench one’s thirst.
“In terms of healthy nutrition and new techniques, we want to offer a platform with a lot of publicity to young junior researchers. It is the responsibility of EIT Food, on behalf of the EU and as a transformer, to make the food system fit for the future with the help of innovations,” said Dr. Georg Schirrmacher, director of EIT Food in Germany. “Sustainability, healthy nutrition and new ways of training at universities are crucial factors. But each and every one of us can help transform the food system worldwide with well-considered decisions on what to buy and what to eat.”
Thanks to this year’s successful Food Marketplace, another is scheduled for next year. EIT Food, after all, strives to achieve its strategic agenda of “creating consumer-valued food for healthier nutrition, enhanced sustainability through resource stewardship and supportive food entrepreneurship” by integrating education, business creation and innovation.