EIT Food’s Missions

EIT Food is the world’s largest food innovation community, creating connections right across the food system. Supported by the EU, they invest in projects, organisations and individuals who share their goals for a healthy and sustainable food system.

Last June celebrated their 5^th Annual Event dedicated to accelerating the sustainable transformation of food systems. Interactive sessions, panel discussions, and networking took place during this event where stakeholders, experts, and industry peers from across the entire food value established contacts and learn about the sustainable and innovative food systems.

The need of health policies that support consumers, the transition to regenerative agriculture or the recognition of the value of young people to collaborate with them were some of the main highlights of the annual event. But there was another topic that we were all waiting for more information: the EIT Food’s Missions.

EIT FOOD’S MISSIONS

EIT Food has built a unique not-for-profit business to carry their transformative programmes in skills, education, entrepreneurship, start-up investment and communications. They deliver programmes in partnership with their members to create a culture and build a community which sees the long-term value in the food innovation they fund through open, competitive calls.

They are in the process of shaping priorities for action over the next 3-5 years in the following Mission Programme areas:

Mission 1: Healthier Lives through Food. The aim of this mission is to make a material difference to quality of life by enabling more consumers to have better choices through access to affordable, healthier products and actionable information. The report reveals that there has been:

1. An increase in the numbers of consumers using technology, solutions or guidance developed with the support of EIT Food to personalise or change diet in line with relevant Food- Based Dietary Guidelines for Europe.
2. An increase in the number of food products on the market with levels of salt, free sugars, trans and saturated fats reduced to, or below, recommended food-based dietary guidelines for Europe.
3. An increase in the safer consumption of affordable food products on the market with an improved nutritional profile.

Mission 2:Net-Zero Food System. This mission is focused on enabling the transition to a net zero food system, measuring and quantifying the change through reduced CO2 equivalent emissions. EIT Food carries out this by enabling farmers and producers to lead the transition to regenerative agriculture, creating new markets and opportunities to reduce our food waste and food loss in production and empowering consumers, making their food purchasing choices count and play a crucial role in the circular food economy. The work carried out shows that there has been:

1. A volume reduction in CO2 equivalent tonnes from areas, business segments or practices of the agri- food system identified as major contributory sources by Life Cycle Analysis methodology.
2. An increasing the number of products on the market derived from alternative sources (e.g. alternative proteins, new plant varieties, alternative production techniques.
3. An increasing the number of products or processes launched using revalorised and/ or reintegrated food system side-streams and waste streams.

Mission 3: A Fully Transparent, Resilient and Fair Food System. During this mission programme they improve food security and safety for consumers everywhere by enabling and establishing resilient and dependable digitally enabled food supply chains. The report concludes that there are:

1. An increasing the number of new digital solutions in use to improve supply chain efficiency, integrity and transparency.
2. An improvement in indicators supporting SROI such as employment, new businesses created, investment in innovation and start-ups, development of economic clusters, regional development funding secured.
3. An improvement in trust metrics identified by EIT Food’s Trust Report and Trust Tracker data.

If you want to learn more about the work carried out in the different missions, EIT Food organised a series of webinars (one per mission) where you can hear directly from the authors and their findings. Now they are available in YouTube:

• Webinar Mission 1.
• Webinar Mission 2.
• Webinar Mission 3.

BIOAZUL EIT FOOD MEMBER

BIOAZUL has been a member of EIT Food since 2019, and we have currently become a strategic partner. This role means work with EIT Food on strategic direction, to set the agenda for a future-fit food system.

As a Strategic partner, we benefit from a dedicated account managed service. This involves support us to develop a strong strategic engagement plan, support with matchmaking and networking and the identification of opportunities, everything together a designated Key Account Manager (KAM) supported by EIT Food’s Partner Support Team when relevant.

The service starts with the Strategic Engagement Planning workshop which took place last Wednesday in our office. The outcome of the workshop is an annual Action Plan, identifying how EIT Food can support our strategic priorities, and calls, events, working groups which align with our goals.