Foodtech Innovation Awards 2026

Laminar: The average F&B factory uses enough water daily to fill multiple Olympic swimming pools – most of it wasted by pumps running longer than they need to. Every extra second costs water, energy, and chemicals. Laminar’s patented AI sensors read the live chemistry inside your pipes and tell your line exactly when to stop – no timers and no guessing. Deployed all over the world with manufactures, Laminar proves sustainability and profitability aren’t a zero-sum game. They’re the same decision.

Incarlopsa presents: MODELCHAIN combines artificial intelligence and blockchain to revolutionize the pork supply chain. Our system accurately predicts the quality of incoming pigs, including weight and fat levels, while immutably recording each batch throughout the entire process up to the final product. It reduces planning costs, enhances sustainability, improves regulatory traceability, and strengthens competitiveness in the European premium ham market. This project has been funded by the PERTE Agro-Food programme.

Arquea’s AMP-LAMP® platform combines proprietary biotechnology, AI-accelerated enzyme development, and a fully digitized end-to-end detection workflow — directly transforming how food manufacturers manage safety at the process level. The solution integrates IoT-ready portable hardware, a companion mobile application, and real-time data traceability, placing it squarely within the digitalization of the food and beverage industry.

Beer Burger is a circular food innovation by Mahou San Miguel that transforms brewers’ spent grain—the main byproduct of beer production—into a new food ingredient. Developed through BarLab Circular, it incorporates bagasse flour into both bread and meat, creating a new application in human nutrition and testing its acceptance in a real Horeca environment.

URAPHEX offers a sustainable, profitable alternative to industrial water overconsumption. Our patented, chemical-free technology enables complete disinfection and water reuse across washing, sterilisation, and cooling processes. Modular and scalable, our systems preserve water quality, eliminate chemicals, and deliver unprecedented circularity, efficiency, and cost savings for industrial operations.

Since 2020, Incarlopsa has been driving a comprehensive and pioneering “waste-to-resource” strategy aimed at reducing food waste and maximizing the valorization of by-products across its meat production chain. Thanks to the company’s efforts and investments in this area, Incarlopsa has reduced food waste by 36.5% compared to 2020 and successfully valorized 99.4% of its non-hazardous waste, moving steadily towards a fully circular economy model.

Rich’in develops 100% plant-based high-protein pasta delivering 29g of complete protein and 7g of fiber per 100g. Designed to fight malnutrition in seniors and optimize athletic performance, our product integrates seamlessly into traditional meals without changing eating habits. Produced through a decentralized, CAPEX-light industrial model, it combines nutrition performance, sustainability and scalability.

NOIET is a foodtech startup developing clean label fermented ingredients for healthier and more sustainable food. Its core ingredient NOIFERM, is a fermented protein designed to replace synthetic preservatives and antioxidants in food products. Produced by upcycling oat and rice byproducts from plant-based beverage production, NOIFERM naturally extends shelf life, protects nutrients from oxidation, and enhances nutritional value through added protein and fiber, enabling simpler ingredient lists.

MiFood is an AgTech leader redefining farming through autonomous swarm robotics. We solve critical labor shortages and rising input costs by deploying AI-driven platforms for precision weeding and soil health monitoring. Our mission is to empower farmers with scalable, cost-effective technology that boosts yields while slashing environmental impact. We bridge the gap between traditional heritage and the digital future, ensuring a sustainable food supply for a growing planet.

VinWizard automates temperature-critical operations in wineries and breweries by managing fermentation correctly using sensors, controllers, and wireless connectivity integrated with dashboards and alarms. By understanding fermentation dynamics and process needs, it applies closed-loop control and scheduling that reduces manual intervention and energy waste, while maintaining product quality. Results are tracked via KPIs against a baseline, without replacing existing core equipment.

Traditionally, industrial freezing has relied only on thermal control, leaving ice nucleation uncontrolled and preventing true automation. PROTON overcomes this limitation by synchronizing cold-air freezing with controlled electromagnetic fields, enabling active control of water nucleation. This transforms freezing into a reproducible and scalable industrial process, improving product quality, production planning, and efficiency. The same principle is validated in biomedical cryopreservation.

A new generation of flexible packaging based on a predominantly polyethylene (MonoPE) structure, developed to replace traditional multilayer as PA/PE or PET/PE, while maintaining mechanical performance and improving compatibility with PE recycling streams. The main added value is its functional equivalence in terms of mechanical strength, particularly puncture and impact resistance, which are critical in demanding applications such as fatty products, sharp-edged items, or heavy-weight formats.

En Bioplastics4health, tenemos un objetivo claro: liderar la transición hacia una economía circular y sostenible. A través de nuestra producción industrial de PHBV, un biopolímero completamente compostable y de base biológica, ofrecemos una solución real y escalable para reemplazar los plásticos tradicionales en el envasado de alimentos.

Nestlé nos planteó un reto para el ecommerce de Dolce Gusto: permitir que cada consumidor configurara cajas personalizadas con hasta 30 variedades distintas de café en un único pedido y un packaging adaptado para ello. La solución disruptiva que desarrollamos fue la máquina Pick & Mix, una tecnología de hardware y software que automatiza la preparación de pedidos (picking), asegura la trazabilidad y hace viable la personalización masiva mediante un sistema poka-yoke con eficiencia industrial.

Thec onsumer.ai is an AI-powered SaaS platform that enables FMCG teams to validate product concepts, packaging, and claims in minutes instead of weeks. Using AI-based consumer personas grounded in real behavioral data, it simulates market reactions with scientific rigor reducing cost, bias and uncertainty in early-stage innovation decisions.

Polysense delivers AI powered quality inspection to help food producers reduce waste and increase profit. Variability in raw materials and manual checks create inefficiencies and operator bias. Our in-line camera technology automates quality control and removes subjective decisions from the process. Real-time data strengthens process control, compensates input variability, improves efficiency, and drives measurable waste reduction across production lines.

RAWGA’s VC-H1 is the world’s 1st 100% organic, ultra-low molecular weight (363 Da) plant-based collagen derived from Hibiscus. It disrupts the animal collagen market by eliminating disease risks, heavy metals, and fishy odors. Clinically proven to boost skin hydration and elasticity, VC-H1 offers a sustainable, vegan B2B solution. Cultivated ethically in Laos, it achieves social impact and sets a new health standard in the global FoodTech industry.

URAPHEX offers a sustainable, profitable alternative to industrial water overconsumption. Our patented, chemical-free technology enables complete disinfection and water reuse across washing, sterilisation, and cooling processes. Modular and scalable, our systems preserve water quality, eliminate chemicals, and deliver unprecedented circularity, efficiency, and cost savings for industrial operations.

Spanish foodtech building clean-label, allergen-free flavour and plant-based formats with proven traction across 7 countries/3 continents—validated by Korean government programmes and now scaling via Japan (Kobe Next Kitchen 2026; SKS Japan 2025) and dual-coast US entry (LOTTE West Coast + East Coast distributors).

Sporalys es una startup biotecnológica que convierte la fermentación en estado sólido en infraestructura industrial para el sistema alimentario. Desarrollamos ingredientes funcionales que aceleran procesos de maduración hasta un 90%, generan hasta 10x más sabor y mejoran la eficiencia productiva. Nuestra tecnología combina cepas optimizadas de Aspergillus oryzae, evolución dirigida y optimización con IA para diseñar sabor de forma predecible.