EIT Food announces winners of Venture Summit 2022 for agrifood innovation

The EIT Food Venture Summit 2022 is an inspiring and interactive invitation only event for the European agrifood industry, bringing together industry-leading corporates, innovative start-ups and key investors, with the aim of creating a more sustainable and trusted food system.

More than 300+ attendees have been brought together to enjoy keynote speeches on the future of food, as well as collaborate with over 40 agrifood start-ups that EIT Food has been working with closely over the past year.

Nine start-ups pitched for the prestigious award, each shortlisted for their positive impact on people and planet, and working towards one of these three missions: Healthier Lives Through Food, A Net-Zero Food System, and A Fully Transparent, Resilient and Fair Food System.

From this shortlist, three winners were chosen following an audience vote of the 300 agrifood professionals and investors at the event.

The three winners for each category are:

• Healthier Lives through Food: Vini Mini

Vini Mini is a start-up that aims to stop the rising trend of the number of food allergies. Its innovative products offer a healthy, easy and safe way of introducing allergens to babies, helping to reduce food allergies.

• A Net-Zero Food System: Bio2Coat

Bio2Coat helps to fight against food waste and the plastic waste coming from packaging materials. It is a technological solution able to reduce food waste and single plastic use through a 100% natural, edible coating that extends shelf-life of fruits and vegetables and a 100% natural, edible packaging material that replaces one use plastic in multiple applications.

• A Fully Transparent, Resilient and Fair Food System: Toopi Organics

Toopi Organics is a circular and affordable solution for agriculture that uses urine instead of expensive chemical fertilisers.

“Investing in agrifood innovation has never been more crucial. To overcome the challenges the world is facing in delivering a healthy and sustainable food system, we need to connect our brightest minds with the support they need, to bring innovative new ideas to fruition. That is why we are so proud to announce the winners of the 2022 Venture Summit – which represent just three of the brilliant and creative new solutions, products and approaches EIT Food is helping to bring to the agrifood sector.”

“One in four children have a food allergy, and this number has doubled in the past ten years. If we continue this way, by 2050 half of the population will have a food allergy. Vini Mini helps parents prevent food allergies in their children by offering an easy, healthy and safe way to give them allergens.”

“We are very proud to receive this award from EIT Food. EIT Food has supported us from the beginning, from Seedbed to the Bilbao FAN Accelerator Programme, and it is thanks to them that we have achieved so much in such a short space of time. Bio2Coat edible coating can extend shelf life of fruits and vegetables up to two weeks; this has a huge impact because it increases the availability of food across the whole supply chain, and reduces the use of water and energy.”

“Recycling urine could save the world. By using urine as a growing medium to produce biofertilizers, Toopi Organics addresses the urgent issues of climate change, biodiversity loss and closing the loop on the nutrients cycle.”