Innovation Booster
Seit 2021 unterstützt Swiss Food Research im Mandat der Innosuisse mit den Innovation Boostern „Swiss Food Ecosystems“ (SFE) und „Future Food Farming“ (FFF) radikale Ideen auf dem Weg vom Konzept zum Markt. Eine Auswahl aus 55 geförderten Projekten.
This project develops a local bonus system that promotes climate-friendly and soil-conserving agriculture in Wädenswil by financially rewarding farmers for regenerative practices such as humus building, carbon sequestration, and improved soil management, while strengthening local value creation and community engagement.
This project, Symactiv, addresses the problem of soil degradation in onion production, where high pathogen pressure leads to heavy reliance on fungicides. The solution develops a site-specific biostimulant in pellet form enriched with tailored microbial communities that aim to restore soil microbiology, strengthen plant resilience, and reduce fungal disease pressure.
CHIPOTS+ addresses the challenge of maintaining soil health and reducing peat use in seedling production without compromising efficiency. The solution introduces chitin-integrated, mycelium-bound substrate blocks that deliver living saprophytic fungi directly to plant roots, improving soil structure, enhancing plant growth, and naturally increasing resistance to pathogens while serving as a sustainable alternative to peat-based substrates.
The project develops a radically new retail system where greens are grown in vertical farming towers and sold alive directly in stores, allowing customers to harvest them themselves. By eliminating harvesting, packaging, and long transport chains, the concept keeps produce fresh until the point of consumption, significantly reduces food waste, and enables a circular system where growing towers are returned, replanted, and reused.
The project focuses on increasing energy efficiency in agriculture by developing a local, community-based energy system where producers and consumers jointly manage and share renewable energy resources. Instead of relying on centralized energy supply, it promotes regional energy independence through the formation of energy communities that link agricultural production with local energy demand.
This project aims to upcycle agricultural by-products such as Brewer's Spent Grain and okara into functional, health-promoting food ingredients that address both food waste and global nutritional deficiencies. The solution, based on the ProSeed process, modifies the structural composition of these by-products to enhance their solubility and fermentability in the human gut.
The project develops a milk mix package that markets butter together with its co-products (skim milk, buttermilk, ziger) directly from small farms, instead of treating these nutrient-rich fractions as waste or animal feed. It addresses structural gaps in small-scale dairy processing by enabling on-farm, decentralized value creation and direct marketing.
This pilot project develops a peer-to-peer coaching system where pioneering agroecological farms (Leuchttürme) share their practical knowledge directly with other farmers through individual on-farm coaching sessions. The solution creates structured one-on-one coaching exchanges on fields and farms, enabling horizontal knowledge transfer between practitioners in a highly contextual, practical, and trust-based format.
hoshī is an AI-based automation system for food wholesalers that consolidates fragmented communication channels such as phone calls, emails and SMS into a single intelligent interface connected to existing ERP systems. It uses AI to transcribe and interpret incoming messages, automatically generate order baskets, and support or fully automate customer operations, thereby reducing manual workload, errors and inefficiencies in order processing. By streamlining and partially automating communication workflows, hoshī aims to reduce administrative effort in customer operations by up to 90%.
Development of a Swiss morel cultivar from wild strains to enable local indoor (and later outdoor) cultivation, aiming to replace the current import-dependent, environmentally and socially problematic morel market with a sustainable, economically viable alternative. The project focuses on building a local value chain using agricultural and food waste as substrates.
PeelPack develops biodegradable and compostable biopolymer punnets made from renewable materials to replace conventional plastic and paper packaging for fresh produce, aiming to reduce CO₂ emissions, waste, and fossil fuel use. The project includes prototype development, field testing, compostability validation, and stakeholder engagement to enable industry adoption of sustainable, circular packaging solutions.
Empowering regional leadership in Switzerland to drive local food system transformation aims to strengthen food security and resilience at the territorial level by using a food system dashboard and a new methodology that combines quantitative and qualitative data to analyse regional food needs, resources and dynamics. The project works with municipalities as pilot territories to engage citizens, stakeholders and local leadership in a systems-thinking approach.
Entwicklung eines webbasierten Etiketten-, Rezept- und Nährwertgenerators für Hof- und Kleinverarbeiter, der Rezepte skaliert, Nährwerte automatisch berechnet und gesetzeskonforme Etiketten (inkl. Bio Suisse/Demeter) erstellt. Ziel ist die starke Vereinfachung der oft überfordernden, manuellen Kennzeichnungspflichten, höhere Compliance, Zeitersparnis und bessere Zugänglichkeit für kleine Produzenten.
The project addresses the lack of suitable post-harvest infrastructure for niche crops like lentils, chickpeas, or flaxseed in Switzerland. The project proposes a cost-efficient system combining highly decentralized drying close to farms with regional cleaning centers that include sieving, optical sorting, and optional storage under protective atmosphere. A pilot center is planned in the Wetzikon region.
Niatsu is an AI-powered platform that automates CO2 emissions accounting for the food industry by using machine learning, OCR, and NLP to extract and process data from financial systems, product specifications, and supplier documents, enabling fast and scalable carbon footprint calculations without manual consultancy work. The system builds a data foundation that matches financial and product data with emissions factors to generate real-time, portfolio-wide sustainability insights. Its modular design allows companies to start with minimal data and progressively expand to more advanced analyses, making carbon accounting accessible to SMEs as well as large enterprises. By leveraging a large food-related LCA database and automated data pipelines, Niatsu aims to improve transparency, benchmarking, and decision-making across supply chains. The expected impact includes significant CO2 reduction potential, with estimates of over 200,000 tons of CO2e reductions by 2028, while helping companies meet sustainability targets through more efficient and data-driven environmental reporting.
Plantimaux is an idea for developing hybrid food products that combine animal and plant-based proteins to reduce the environmental impact of food while maintaining taste and nutritional value. The concept addresses the gap between strict vegan/vegetarian products and the large majority of flexitarian consumers by offering foods that integrate plant proteins into animal-based products. Inspired by existing hybrid approaches in pet food, the project explores technological and processing methods to combine both protein sources, including compatibility at molecular and process level, microbiological safety, and product development potential.
The NextTofu project addresses the growing complexity of food choices by offering simplified, transparent value chains that combine regional sourcing, sustainability, health, and high taste quality. It aims to work closely with farmers to source organic pulses that cannot be sold on the market and transform them into value-added tofu-like products while integrating all side streams (okara, starch, hulls) into a circular system.
Food Basket for Social Impact proposes to aggregate and democratize consumer food purchase data from loyalty systems and voluntary sharing so that individuals can access their own consumption insights while pooled data can be used for public health, sustainability research and policy. The project aims to automatically retrieve data from loyalty cards or consumer platforms, build a secure data infrastructure, and enable citizens to contribute data in exchange for personalized recommendations for healthier and more sustainable food choices.
ZooZen tests natural compounds in aquaculture to reduce acute stress in farmed fish, aiming to improve fish welfare, resilience, feed efficiency and survival rates by targeting stress as the root cause of disease and mortality rather than treating illness after it occurs. The project involves in-vivo trials under controlled stress conditions to generate proof-of-concept data.
The project addresses the current limitation of plant-based food development, where product design is mainly driven by taste, texture, and consumer acceptance, while nutritional quality is often secondary. The project proposes a data-driven platform that integrates artificial intelligence, experimental data, and food science to design plant-based foods with optimized nutritional profiles from the outset. The impact lies in accelerating the development of healthier, more nutritious, and more resource-efficient plant-based foods, enabling better use of agricultural side-streams, and supporting broader adoption of sustainable protein alternatives.
Bentomo Circular addresses the unsustainable handling of organic canteen waste in university settings and the limited awareness and adoption of insect-based waste valorization. The project proposes a campus-based BSFL (Black Soldier Fly Larvae) pilot facility that transforms canteen waste into high-protein animal feed and nutrient-rich fertilizer while also serving as a hands-on educational platform for students and researchers.
Electroculture is a research project investigating the use of electric fields around crops to enhance plant growth, increase yields, and reduce the need for chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The idea is based on historical findings suggesting that both natural and artificial electric fields can positively influence plant development and biochemical processes. The project tests these effects experimentally in controlled phytotron conditions as well as in greenhouses and fields.
The project addresses the global crisis of soil degradation caused by intensive agriculture, particularly the overuse of synthetic fertilizers and unsustainable land management practices. The project proposes a decentralized, field-based solution that empowers farmers to actively restore soil health through a practical toolkit and a soil enhancer designed to stimulate and propagate local microbial life. The approach is based on a three-step process including local land assessment, on-site preparation of a tailored soil enhancer, and implementation of regenerative practices adapted to each context. The impact includes improved soil fertility and biodiversity, increased resilience of agricultural systems, and reduced dependency on agrochemicals.
The project investigates how different light wavelengths affect the growth, shelf life, and sensory quality of cultivated mushrooms. It tests whether specific electromagnetic light conditions can improve yield, texture, taste, and nutritional properties such as vitamins and secondary metabolites, while also extending shelf life and reducing spoilage.
An on-farm mobile reactor for better agricultural nutrient management and stabilization. The project focuses on transforming livestock manure and other organic farm by-products into a stable, standardized, and easy-to-use fertilizer alternative. The system uses a mobile reactor based on supercavitation technology to separate water from manure, recover nutrients such as nitrogen, stabilize the material, and reduce its volume for easier storage, transport, and application.
This project addresses the problem of large-scale food industry waste, where protein-rich byproducts such as whey, plant proteins, and keratin are often discarded. The solution transforms these food waste proteins into protein nanofibrils through self-assembly, creating high-value cosmetic ingredients for products like creams, shampoos, and masks with improved functionality due to their high surface area and rich amino acid profile.
Soil Care addresses the degradation of agricultural soils in Switzerland caused by soil compaction, erosion, and the overuse of fertilizers and pesticides, all of which are intensified by conventional heavy farming machinery. The project proposes ultralight, small, and autonomous agricultural machines designed to enable regenerative farming practices. By minimizing soil compaction, supporting continuous ground cover, and making labor-intensive methods like mulching more feasible, these machines help maintain soil as a living ecosystem.
The project addresses the growing challenges of sustainable food production, including climate impact, resource constraints, declining nutritional quality of transported produce, and the loss of domestic gardening skills. The project proposes a self-thermoregulated greenhouse combined with modern vertical farming technologies and an AI-supported digital app that enables users—ranging from private households to community and corporate settings—to grow fruits and vegetables locally and continuously, even on small surfaces. The system integrates thermal optimisation, hydroponics, and automated guidance to make food self-sufficiency possible without prior agricultural expertise. Its impact lies in enabling decentralised food production, improving food security, reducing transport-related emissions, and increasing access to fresh, high-quality produce.
WaNCaaS addresses the challenge that food industries generate large volumes of wastewater containing water and valuable nutrients, which are currently underutilized and often simply treated and discharged. The project proposes a Water and Nutrient Circularity as a Service model, where an external provider designs, implements, and manages systems to recover water and nutrients from industrial wastewater.
WheatUP addresses the large-scale problem of wheat losses caused by mycotoxin contamination, which leads to the rejection of up to 25% of global wheat production despite its nutritional value. The project proposes a technological detoxification process using pulsed electric fields (PEF), potentially combined with enzymatic or microbial treatments, to reduce or eliminate mycotoxins in contaminated wheat while preserving its functional and nutritional properties.
Woosa addresses the major problem in aquaculture where fish experience high levels of stress during farming, which weakens their immune systems and leads to disease outbreaks and mortality rates of 30–50%. The project proposes a preventive approach by reducing physiological stress in farmed fish using cannabinoid-based feed additives such as CBD to modulate stress responses before stress events occur.
nOS is an AI-based decision support system for farmers that optimises fertiliser use by combining crop growth models, farm data and satellite information to recommend the right type, amount and timing of nutrient application. The goal is to reduce fertiliser overuse, lower environmental impacts such as nitrogen leaching and greenhouse gas emissions, and improve soil health while maintaining or increasing crop yields.
The project addresses the challenge that consumer resistance, particularly toward alternative protein sources such as edible insects, limits the transition to more sustainable food systems despite their environmental and nutritional benefits. The project applies consumer psychology methods, including the Implicit Association Test (IAT) and evaluative conditioning, to measure and gradually shift subconscious associations between food products and attributes such as disgusting or healthy.
The project addresses the difficulty of accessing agricultural land, which is a major barrier for new farming projects and for young or non-inheriting farmers, while landowners often struggle to find suitable tenants through traditional informal networks. The project proposes a digital platform that transforms and modernises the agricultural land market by directly connecting landowners, project developers, service providers, and investors.
The project addresses the challenge of underutilised waste streams in modern aquaculture, particularly from recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS), where sludge and fish processing residues are generated in large quantities but often represent a disposal cost. The project proposes to valorise these fish-derived side-streams by using them as feed substrates for black soldier fly larvae (BSFL).
The project addresses the inefficiency and environmental impact of current fertiliser use in agriculture, where large amounts of nutrients are lost due to poor timing and low uptake efficiency. The project proposes a solution based on real-time measurement of soil enzymatic activity using a sensor-based system, enabling the estimation of nutrient release dynamics directly in the field. This data is translated into a digital decision-support tool that provides farmers with recommendations on fertiliser type, quantity, and timing.
The project develops an innovative food printing process to create multiscale structured protein gels designed for seafood analogue applications. It aims to address the ecological unsustainability of industrial fishing and aquaculture, which contribute significantly to biodiversity loss, mangrove degradation, and ecosystem damage. The core innovation lies in a novel structuring approach that enables precise multi-scale organization of protein-rich food formulations to replicate the authentic texture and juiciness of seafood. The expected impact includes reducing pressure on marine ecosystems, offering more sustainable seafood consumption options, and enabling food producers to deliver products that combine environmental responsibility with high sensory quality.
The project develops a novel food structuring approach focused on creating new textures for plant-based meat alternatives in order to improve their sensory appeal and promote more sustainable consumption habits. It aims to address one of the main barriers to adoption of plant-based proteins—namely the lack of realistic and satisfying meat-like textures—by designing heterogeneous food structures that replicate the microstructure of animal muscle tissue at the 10–100 µm scale.
The project develops a novel continuous foaming unit integrated into a robotic-assisted food 3D printing platform to enable the creation of complex aerated food structures. It addresses the current limitation of additive manufacturing in handling foamed or aerated food systems, which are important for both sensory perception and nutritional modulation. The target application is the individualized and functional food sector, where products are tailored to consumer preferences for sensory experience and nutritional profiles, including reduced-calorie formulations.
The project develops an on-site wet by-product stabilization system designed to transform diverse food industry side streams into stable, storable granules suitable for human consumption and further food processing. It addresses the challenge that wet food by-products such as fruit pomace, brewery spent grain, grape pomace, and oilseed cake are difficult to valorize due to their high perishability and variable composition. The proposed solution is a modular container-based processing unit installed directly at production sites.
The project addresses the challenge that plant stress, caused by drought, nutrient deficiencies, or pests, is usually detected too late in agriculture because it is only observed through indirect visual symptoms such as leaf discoloration. The project proposes to decode plants internal communication by applying graph theory and mathematical modelling to represent the plant as an interconnected system. By doing so, stress propagation pathways can be identified, critical communication nodes detected, and optimal measurement points defined for early and more precise stress detection.
The project addresses the problem of surplus and downgraded cereals in Switzerland, where a large share of annual production loses value due to weather-related quality issues. It proposes a circular solution based on triple fermentation, transforming cereals through alkaline, alcoholic and acetic fermentation into two main outputs: functional cereal vinegar with preservative and health-related properties, and a nutrient-rich spent grain containing proteins, fibers and pre- and probiotic compounds.
The project tackles the inefficiency of current food systems by upcycling industrial food by-products into high-value protein foods using solid-state fermentation with fungal mycelium. Today, large volumes of nutrient-rich side-streams such as spent grain or coffee residues are underutilised and often converted into low-value applications like biogas. The project proposes a fully circular, zero-waste process in which selected fungal strains transform these side-streams directly into edible, protein-rich, minimally processed foods.
The project develops sustainable seafood analogues based on microalgae to address the environmental and ecological damage caused by overfishing, habitat destruction, and the growing global demand for seafood. The approach uses microalgae as a nutrient-rich raw material containing proteins, essential fatty acids, and micronutrients. An innovative food printing and structuring process is used to create products that closely mimic the sensory and functional properties of seafood.
The project develops a novel biological pest control system for greenhouse agriculture that targets the western flower thrips, a highly destructive insect affecting a wide range of vegetable and ornamental crops worldwide. Instead of relying on conventional insecticides or standard biological controls, the concept uses the pest insect itself as a vector for spreading a bioinsecticide. The approach aims to increase efficiency by expanding the spatial impact of control compared to traditional methods.
The project develops a novel deinking process for printed plastic food packaging to significantly improve recyclability and support a circular plastics economy. It addresses the problem that printed inks, varnishes, and their degradation products contaminate recycled plastics, reducing material quality and limiting large-scale recycling of food packaging beyond PET bottles.
The project develops Equal Profit, a certification and smart logistics platform designed to ensure equitable profit distribution across food supply chains based on the actual cost contribution of each actor. Instead of relying on traditional fair-trade or subjective pricing mechanisms, it applies a mathematical model to allocate profits proportionally and transparently, thereby addressing power imbalances in global supply chains. The system has already been piloted in cocoa, coffee, and mango value chains.
The project develops fungal-based meat alternatives that address the environmental and processing limitations of current plant-based products. It uses mycelium grown on regional agricultural by-products to create minimally processed foods with a natural meat-like texture and umami flavor. The solution operates within the food system and alternative protein market, with a focus on regional agriculture and sustainable consumption, primarily in Switzerland and potentially Europe. Its impact includes reduced environmental footprint through lower emissions and pesticide use, economic value creation for farmers via new circular value chains, and social benefits by supporting healthier diets and strengthening local food culture and identity.
The project develops a new generation of sustainable insect-based protein ingredients by producing a refined mealworm protein powder for use in food applications such as meat alternatives, protein-enriched products, and functional foods. Instead of simply milling whole insects, the approach focuses on an advanced fractionation process that separates mealworms into protein, fat, and chitin.
The project Mushrimps develops a vegan shrimp alternative based on the mushroom Pleurotus djamor (Rosen-Seitling) to address the environmental and ecological problems caused by both wild shrimp fishing and shrimp farming. The concept leverages the mushroom's natural reddish colour, high protein content, and seafood-like flavour profile to create a plant-based substitute with appealing sensory properties. The target market includes sushi restaurants, supermarkets, and convenience food sectors.
The project Patate develops a smart monitoring and decision-support system to optimise anti-sprouting treatments in stored potatoes by using plant electrophysiology signals. It addresses the problem that potatoes must be stored for long periods after harvest, during which sprouting leads to quality loss, economic waste, and increased use of chemical anti-sprouting agents.
The project focuses on converting whey, a by-product of cheese production, into hydrogen through microbial fermentation processes. This approach addresses the environmental burden of whey disposal and the limited availability of sustainable energy sources by transforming waste into renewable fuel. It connects the dairy industry with the energy sector, agriculture, and infrastructure development by integrating food production with renewable energy systems. The impact includes environmental benefits through reduced pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, economic advantages by creating additional revenue streams for dairy farmers, and social contributions by supporting the energy transition.
The project develops optimized cow muscle stem cell lines for cultivated meat production by enhancing the proliferation and regenerative capacity of bovine myoblasts using small-molecule-based cellular reprogramming. It addresses the key limitation in cultivated meat production, namely the limited expansion capacity and declining differentiation potential of conventional muscle cells.
The project develops sustainable, biodegradable bioplastic packaging materials by combining protein-based amyloid fibrils derived from food industry by-products, such as whey, with biodegradable polymers and plasticizers. These materials offer improved mechanical strength, water stability, and functional properties compared to conventional protein-based bioplastics, while remaining fully compostable or even potentially edible.
The project develops cultivated meat using animal stem cells combined with innovative biomaterial scaffolds derived from food industry by-products to create a sustainable and circular bioeconomy approach to meat production. The solution focuses on developing edible, fibrous scaffolds made from renewable biomaterials such as whey proteins, starch, or chitin, which support the growth of muscle and fat cells in a 3D structure that mimics real meat.
Datenquelle: Die Projektdaten stammen aus dem internen Innovation-Booster-CRM. Stand: Mai 2026. Für Anfragen zu einem spezifischen Projekt oder einer Kontaktaufnahme mit den Projektpartnern wenden Sie sich an die SFR Geschäftsstelle.