“Forging tomorrow’s industry”: Nestlé teams up with Swiss research giants to boost nutrition and food innovation

14 Oct 2019 --- Nestlé is joining forces with prominent Swiss research institutions under a new initiative to address the major challenges of the future of food and nutrition. Coined the Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley, the project aims to strengthen the existing innovation ecosystem and attract talent, start-ups and investment to the region. Leveraging cutting-edge science and technology, the collaboration will see the advancement of projects ranging from agricultural development to waste management, and the innovation of products for “healthy and sustainable diets.” The initiative will be officially launched next January.

Founding partners of the project include the Swiss Canton of Vaud, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) and the Swiss Hospitality Management School in Lausanne (EHL Group).

“Switzerland is home to a unique ecosystem in the area of food and nutrition. This is due to its deeply rooted agricultural tradition, an unmatched density of world leading companies and scientific institutions as well as a large number of start-ups in areas such as food, nutrition, life sciences or robotics,” highlights Nestlé.

As a result of the intensive collaboration among local players, leading innovation platforms have emerged in Switzerland, including in the areas of nutrition, nutrigenomics, alternative proteins, packaging sciences and sustainable agriculture.

“This new center of excellence will be driven by shared values and will enhance bridging economic actors and academic institutions, that will forge, together, tomorrow’s industry,” says Michel Rochat, CEO of EHL Group.

The Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley is endorsed by the Swiss Federal Councilor Guy Parmelin, Head of the Swiss Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research.

“Food production in Switzerland is very close to my heart, both as farmer by training and as Minister for Economic Affairs. I therefore support initiatives like the Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley, where we highlight our Swiss competitive advantages in research, innovation and production,” says Parmelin.

Philippe Leuba, State Councilor, Canton of Vaud, adds, “This new initiative will accelerate further the collaborations between all the players already present, and it will actually help to develop and reinforce innovation in the area of nutrition.”

Ambitions in boosting food and nutritionChanging food systems, sustainability and dietary shifts have been major topics of interest for leading industry stakeholders.
This year has seen ample activity within the spaces of innovative food and nutrition solutions for Nestlé. Changing food systems, sustainability and dietary shifts have been major topics of interest for leading industry stakeholders.

Last September, Nestlé Health Science invested in Before Brands, specialists in early childhood food allergy prevention, to forward initiatives to prevent rising allergy rates. Before Brands is the inventor of the SpoonfulOne line, an advanced childhood nutritional product able to reduce food allergy development risk with 16 key allergens. While leveraging Nestlé Health Science’s expertise and financial resources, Before Brands can now broaden its education activities, product offerings and commercialization efforts, while continuing to build proprietary long-term data around usage and product benefits.

In June, Nestlé Health Science piloted OptiJourney, a weight management program for Type 2 diabetics and prediabetics, in six English Tesco stores. The program involves an intake of just 800-850 total calories a day, to be consumed in the sole form of Optifast shakes, bars and soups for eight-12 weeks. OptiJourney is based on a DiRECT study that found that a quarter of participants on a similarly low-calorie diet maintained a weight loss of over 10kg and a third of participants achieved remission from Type 2 diabetes after two years.

Together with developers at Google, Nestlé India launched the country’s first Artificial Intelligence (AI) assistant – Nestlé India Nutrition Assistant (NINA) – last May, as part of the company’s ambitions to further strengthen its credentials as an expert of nutrition and deepen trust with consumers and stakeholders. NINA is integrated into Nestlé India’s new corporate service website (AskNestle.in), geared towards parents seeking nutritional information for their children’s health needs.

Last February, Nestlé was one among prominent food sector players collaborating with a shared aim to accelerate the development of healthy food products that leverage consumer trends. Joined by Bühler and Givaudan, Nestlé co-founded the Future Food Initiative (FFI), designed to step up the search for sustainable, plastic-free packaging and to secure access to affordable nutrition as part of the global challenge of addressing hunger, malnutrition and sustainability.

By Benjamin Ferrer