GDI’s next European Food Trends report will be launched at their International Food Innovation Conference on June 21. This year’s report is a hopeful one. It’s centered around the premise that a healthy and sustainable global food system is a real possibility – and takes a closer look at the opportunities that will help get us there.  

The Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute (GDI), an independent, forward-looking think tank researching future trends in food, retail and health, publishes its European Food Trends report every two years. The publication identifies current trends, developments and innovations in the entire value network, spots the most important changes in the food system and explores how they affect production, processing, distribution & logistics, retail and gastronomy and consumption behaviour. 

This year, the GDI team sat down with a host of European experts, including two Valley partners – Eliana Zamprogna from Yumane Foods and Yannick Gächter from the Cultured Hub – while compiling the report. Here’s a sneak peek into some of the themes that will be making an appearance in the 2023 edition.

1. Food security

Our food systems have been strongly influenced by the changing international environment in the last few years. The pandemic and the war in Ukraine have highlighted the fragility of our international value chains. As a result, food security can no longer be taken for granted and has become a currency of sorts – with countries that can guarantee their own food security at a distinct advantage.

2. Owning responsibility for change

All food system actors need to take responsibility and ownership for a sustainable future, no matter where they are in the value chain. Consumers do have the power to drive change, but this change needs to take place within a system. Securing the support of politicians and setting an appropriate policy framework is vital. Incentives and subsidies need to be aligned with the goals we’re looking to achieve.

3. Novel foods

Novel foods are classed by law as foods that don’t have a ‘significant history of consumption’ by people in the EU prior to May 1997. There’s a huge need for innovation in this space, but the regulatory environment remains complex. New types of food production also require innovation beyond the food sector alone. Many novel foods, for example, require an extremely high level of energy and a stable power supply to produce, so solutions need to be developed with this in mind.

4. Consumer behaviour

Many consumers are open to changing their behaviour but their actions are often shaped by intense marketing efforts across multiple channels. Faced with uncertainty, we see some consumers going “back to the known” and making the best of what they have. This “frugal innovation” focuses on the idea that less is more. New ways of using traditional approaches, like fermentation, are also gaining popularity.

5. Health and nutrition

Health remains a major driver for consumption decisions. Despite broadly knowing what healthy looks like at a population level, consumers can struggle to understand how to apply this knowledge in their day-to-day lives and may be attracted by solutions with unproven health claims. Before investing in personalised solutions for some, we need to ensure that everyone has access to nutritious, health-promoting food. 

Join GDI colleagues as they launch the Trends report at their Third International Food Innovation Conference on June 21. Valley partners can get a 25% discount using the discount code here (Gated page for Valley partners only). 

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When Nadège de Chambrier decided to study environmental engineering she didn’t think she’d end up talking about urine all day long. Her startup has created a unique solution that relates to two resources that are critical to effective food systems: water and fertiliser. And now she’s gearing up to set up three treatment systems in France, Switzerland and Germany as part of a joint programme with the European Space agency.

Tell us a bit about you and your VunaNexus story.

My name is Nadège de Chambrier and I studied Environmental Engineering at EPFL and ETH Zurich, specialising in wastewater treatment. About 2 years ago I joined forces with my brother David and two other co-founders Kai Udert and Bastian Etter and together we founded VunaNexus AG. 

Kai and Bastian had previously been researching how to recycle the nutrients contained in urine for around 15 years with the help of the Eawag (the water research institute of the ETH Domain) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, so we had a great deal of knowledge and practical research to draw on. 

I’ve been working on developing and implementing this urine treatment technology for 5 years now. During the first lockdown, David, who had a background in business, started helping us to build a business case out of it. Then we decided to go ahead and found a company focused on selling the technology. 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

VunaNexus uses a patented technology to transform human and livestock urine into two valuable products: an authorised NPK fertiliser, Aurin,  that is free of all dangerous pollutants and water that can be reused, while drastically reducing ammonia emissions and water pollution.

What gets you out of bed in the morning? 

CO₂ has become “the” topic when it comes to sustainability, but there are many other issues that impact our ecosystem more than global warming – and of which most people are not aware.  

If we look at the planetary boundaries, the cycles of nitrogen and phosphorus have been radically changed by humans and this has a devastating impact on the environment. Raising awareness of the multiple problems linked to wastewater and sanitation, and recycling these precious nutrients, as well as trying to change the linear system we’re currently working within thanks to great technology – this is what gets me up in the morning.  

It’s not always easy to talk about pee and poo, but people are actually really interested in better understanding the challenges associated with this topic, and appreciate that everyone can contribute in their own way to closing the nutrient cycle.

What key milestones have you hit so far?

So far, we’ve bootstrapped the business. But we recently got accepted into a business support program run by the European Space Agency. This will help us install a treatment system at the European Space Agency headquarters in Paris, one at BlueFactory in Fribourg and one in the region of Berlin in the context of the projekt Zirkulierbar. 

At the moment, we don’t think that external investment is the right choice to accelerate the adoption of the technology, as we need to make sure the market can absorb the fertiliser we will produce. Over the next two years we aim to prove that our model can scale, that we can resell fertiliser locally and that these treatment plants are financially viable.

What projects are you and your team working on at the moment? 

We have an ongoing project with Innosuisse that aims to test our technology on animal urine on a larger scale. We have a test reactor that can process up to 3000 litres of urine a day. When it comes to reducing ammonia emissions, this could be a huge step for many farms all over the world. It could also help to tackle micropollutants including antibiotics and other drugs before spreading the manure on fields. 

How do you collaborate and support others in the ecosystem? 

We’re currently new to the ecosystem so we haven’t had the chance to support other Valley partners yet. But we have lots of knowledge and a strong network around wastewater and sustainable fertilisers that we would be more than happy to share! 

What support could the Valley community offer to further your work?

We’re looking for contacts that would be interested in experimenting with a novel fertiliser, and would love to connect with anyone open to collaborating around wastewater recycling more generally. Please get in touch! 

Tell us something we don’t know about your company.

Vuna started as a project in South Africa to tackle two connecting issues that affected decentralised communities: how to treat their wastewater and how to find an economical fertiliser for their fields. The word Vuna means harvest in isiZulu. First there was Vuna GmbH, a company specialised in decentralised sanitation alternatives, and then we created VunaNexus, a sister company. 

Connect with Nadège & David on LinkedIn. 

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