Bilbao becomes the world epicenter of the foodtech sector

May 20th 2022

food4future

Bilbao this week has become world capital of the foodtech sector. A total of 7.217 visitors pComing from more than 25 countries have discovered at the BEC in Bilbao the latest innovations and technological solutions that are transforming the food and beverage industry during the second edition of Food 4 Future – Foodtech Expo, organized by Nebext and AztI.

With an economic impact of more than 14 million euros for the city of Biscay, Food 4 Future has established itself as the technological forum of international reference for the food and beverage industry, leading innovation in the sector in all its segments: meat, beverages, fishing, dairy, fruit and vegetable, cereals, preserves, and oil.

Precisely to promote this innovation and encourage the digitization of the industry, F4F2022 has had more than 250 exhibiting firms, among which Ibermática, Tecnalia, Chemometric Brain, BCC Innovation, TTAF, Eurecat, Basque Food Cluster, Blendhub, Lantern, Multiscan Technologies, IFR SAU, AZTI, Dassault Systèmes, BASF, Buhler, CEIN, Agrobank, Beaz, Sener, Icex, Infor Software Iberia, T-Systems, CNTA, EIT FOOD, Convertix or Pal Robotics.
In addition, the Netherlands has been the guest country in recognition of the leadership in the transformation of the food system that the nation is leading.

three days of congress
Food 4 Future World Summit 2022
, the largest European congress of foodtech innovation, has analyzed during the three days of the event, from May 17 to 19, the new methods applied by the food industry in each of its categories; the establishment of plant-based products and the change in consumption factors; the relationship between health and nutrition; concern for sustainability and the reduction of food waste; and the lever of transformation that technology supposes to turn these challenges into business opportunities that help the sector to continue being one of the main ones in the world economy.

Likewise, 386 experts from around the world have addressed the main issues to redesign business models in the field of food. Big names like José M. Ordovás, Director of Nutrition and Genomics at Tufts University; Andoni Luis Aduriz, chef and founder of Mugaritz; o Dipika Matthias, from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, have shared the stage with established organizations such as Coca-Cola, Carrefour, Angulas Aguinaga, AZTI or Blendhub, to help the industry advance towards more efficient and sustainable production systems, through from the experience of real cases that are already succeeding today.
Food 4 Future 2022 has been the edition that has brought together the most international startups.

In an exclusive space of more than 4.000 square meters, more than 200 entrepreneurial projects have participated in the Food Tech Startup Forum, a scenario through which startups from Agrotech, Industry 4.0, Automation, Refrigeration and Climate, Food Processing, Food Packaging, and Food Science have passed; and Get in the Ring Bilbao, an initiative to promote emerging talent and learn about the scalability of proposals, which has been organized for the first time in the Basque Country by the organization Get in the Ring and ICEX.

Food Tech Innovation Awards 2022
Food 4 Future – Foodtech Expo
has celebrated its Food Tech Innovation Awards, awards that recognize companies in the food and beverage industry that are driving innovation and digitization.

Among the winners of this second edition, which has received more than 145 nominations, is the company Heura Foods, which has received the ICEX Award for the Spanish startup with the best international projection for being the fastest growing vegetable protein company in Europe. Together with her, the finalist emerging companies have been bread-free, which has developed a process to eliminate the immunotoxicity of gluten and cereal flours, and cultzyme for its automated bioreactor managed from the mobile.

El Agrobank Award for the most innovative digitization solution for the food and beverage industry has fallen on the company Kaampo, for its 'smarthub farming' project capable of bringing together all the technologies applied to the field on the same platform. The finalists in this category were Sonicat Systems, for its HONEY.AI solution, which combines optical microscopy, robotics and artificial intelligence to perform fast and accurate automated pollen analysis in situ. The third finalist was Biolan Microbiosensors, for developing Biolanglobal, the first digitized, quantitative and low-cost comprehensive solution for testing and monitoring food safety.

The third recognition BASF Award for the best Sustainability Project has fallen on Retoornado, the first reusable packaging ecosystem whose purpose is to reduce the waste generated by single-use packaging. Bolton Group, which is promoting the transparent management of tuna fishing through the Hopper Project and the Electronic Monitoring System platform; and Yenxa, a company that has developed a small appliance that transforms used oil into soap for different uses through a kit of biodegradable capsules, have been the other two candidates to win this category.

El Azti Award for healthy eating has recognized Picadeli's solution of digitized self-service salad bars for democratizing healthy food by making it accessible, affordable and appetizing. WhatIF Foods, which seeks to regenerate the health and well-being of consumers with foods rich in nutrients made from peanuts, and Nucaps Nanotechnology, which has developed natural flour nanocapsules with bioactives and probiotics, complete the finalists for this award.

MyOr, has risen with the Tech Transfer Agrifood Award for the most innovative foodtech startup for developing a business model that helps ensure a healthier future for newborns by providing parents with information and resources to reduce allergy risks. Other finalists in this category were SwipeGuide, for its collaborative platform for work instructions with the purpose of helping employees; and Celsicom AB, for its innovative NB-IoT sensors to monitor food temperature and notify potential errors.

Finally, the Ibermática Award for the best automation and robotics solution it has gone to Pazzi Robotics who have created the ultimate autonomous pizza kitchen, capable of baking a pizza every 47 seconds without human intervention. The other two companies that have competed for the first position have been Viridius Technology, which has developed a technology that uses 87% less human resources in raspberry harvesting; while BCN vision has developed a solution based on deep learning to automate meat tray classification processes.

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