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Food technology

Agrofood, Biomedical/pharma, Food technology, Microbial systems and fermentation, Personal/public health, Plant science

Alga-Care Project Explores Microalgae as a One Health Solution for Fatty Liver Disease

What if the next step in preventing fatty liver disease could come from the sea? The Alga-Care project is investigating whether bioactive compounds from microalgae could help protect the liver from fat accumulation, oxidation, and damage. This VLAIO-funded intercluster project is supported by both Biovia and De Blauwe Cluster, uniting biomedical expertise and marine biology for a potential One Health solution.

Why Only Some Mice Get Fat Without Eating More — And What it Might Mean for People

What if obesity was not only about how much you eat? A new study in mice suggests that a small motor protein hidden inside the cell nucleus may help decide whether fat tissue ages healthily or quietly turns sick. Lose this protein, and the body's fat get bigger even when the diet never changes — a twist that may carry lessons far beyond the lab.

Saving Europe’s Soils: One Dataset At A Time

Over 60% of European soils are considered unhealthy, threatening our food, water, and climate. Yet the knowledge needed to restore them exists — it is just inaccessible and underused, scattered across hundreds of databases and institutions. The SoilWise project is changing that by building a one-stop-shop for soil data that anyone can access and build upon. Because to save our soils, we first need to find our data.

Bacteria as Plant Fertilizers: How Soil Microbes Can Help Plants Grow During Drought

Farmers rely heavily on chemical fertilizers to boost crop yields, but this approach comes at a cost to soil quality, biodiversity, and plant fertility. Soil microbes may provide greener alternatives to help plants grow better under tough conditions like drought by triggering faster growth and earlier flowering. The intended result? Improved crop yields when water is scarce.

Stop Being a Pest About It: How AI Can Help Agriculture

Insect pests are a major cause of quality and economic losses in agriculture. Due to policy constraints that aim for a greener future, the use of general pesticides is being phased out, and a push towards species-specific pesticides and biological control methods is being promoted. But these methods require the pest species to first be identified, which is costly. AI could help speed up this process, thus reducing costs and helping us push towards a greener tomorrow.

Co-Creation in Agrifood and Bio-Based Innovation: Accelerating Trust and Impact

As a sector, agrifood biotech has enormous potential to improve the sustainability, resilience, and productivity of our food systems. Yet many promising innovations still fail to reach the market, often because they are not sufficiently aligned with real-world needs or adoption barriers. The B-Trust project aims to involve end-users from the start, to help make agrifood R&D more relevant, equitable, and impactful.

The benefits of One Health in Flanders

Biovia is Europe’s first industry-led One Health innovation cluster—uniting medical biotech, medtech, digital health, agtech and industrial biotech to advance human and planetary health. Katrien Lorré explains how this unified approach benefits companies by unlocking opportunities and fostering a better environment for health innovation.

Johan Cardoen’s hopes for the future of agriculture

Flanders is home to one of the world’s most innovative agrifood clusters, and Johan Cardoen has been a central figure in that ecosystem for over three decades. From leading positions in agtech startups to the Managing Director of VIB, Cardoen has run the gamut of Flemish biotech. Interested in his decades of firsthand experience in the sector, we spoke with Cardoen about his views on the past, present, and future of sustainable agriculture.

Fermenting a more sustainable future

In the battle against the climate crisis, precision fermentation presents a hopeful aid. Using microbes to create valuable materials, we can help to transform the global economy and shift away from harmful agricultural and industrial practices. However, despite the support of industry and Venture Capital cash, this field still faces many challenges. Though promising, we need further investment in this innovative technology before it can fully deliver on its potential for sustainable solutions.

Bar.on presents the world’s first beer printer

Instantly turning water into beer may sound like a biblical miracle, but that’s exactly what Belgian start-up Bar.on is now doing. Their ‘molecular beer printer’ takes mere seconds to turn water into different styles of beer, with customized bitterness, alcohol content, fruitiness, and sweetness. Backed by science, the company is on a mission to make the beer industry more sustainable and hopes to soon roll out its molecular beer mixing technology to different markets.

Brewing up a new business: AB InBev surprises with ambitions for animal-free proteins

Belgian-American AB InBev, the world's largest brewer, has set up a separate R&D division called BioBrew to develop animal-free proteins using precision fermentation. Quite a number of companies are already focused on producing alternative proteins, which don’t cause harm to animals and are more sustainable, but they generally lack the capacity to produce them on a commercial level. This is one of the things that sets BioBrew apart, thanks to AB InBev’s knowhow of using yeast fermentation on a large scale to make beer.

Modern alchemy: turning microalgae into ‘green gold’

Much has been said about the huge economic potential of algae, but this ‘green gold’ has yet to meet expectations. The European project IDEA – led by Belgian research center VITO – is examining the economic benefits of microalgae and developing strategies to overcome remaining challenges. Interim results show that algae can very well be grown in the climate of Northwestern Europe and can be used to efficiently produce products such as healthy biscuits, animal feed and cosmetic applications.

CRISPR takes the ‘bitter’ out of Belgian endives and chicory

Researchers have identified the bitter substances in Belgian endives and chicory. Using the gene-editing technique CRISPR/Cas9, they have also succeeded in eliminating them. The result is a less bitter vegetable that may be more appetizing to children and adults alike. The catch? Outdated EU gene editing laws present a major roadblock for any company looking to actually produce the vegetables in Europe.

New GMOs on the horizon: say ‘cheese’!

To meet the challenges of climate change and global food demand, more VCs are investing in AgTech companies. A lot of these companies are using genetic modification to create better plant-based alternatives for animal products. One US company, Nobell Foods, is even developing casein-producing soybean plants that can be used to make plant-based cheese that tastes and melts like the real deal.

V-Bio Ventures invests in new start-up Protealis to uplift sustainable plant protein production

Ghent, Belgium, 8 April 2021 - Today V-Bio Ventures announces its investment in Ghent-based company Protealis, a new spin-off from VIB and ILVO. Inspired by the mission to grow more sustainable plant-based proteins locally, Protealis aims to harvest the full potential of legume crops. With innovative breeding technologies and proprietary seed coatings, Protealis will create new opportunities for European farmers to help overcome Europe’s protein deficit. The initial focus is to develop high-yielding, high-protein soybean varieties. V-Bio Ventures led the EUR 6 million seed financing round joined by Agri Investment Fund (AIF), Participatiemaatschappij Vlaanderen (PMV), Estari Group, Globachem Group, Gemma Frisius Fund and VIB. The capital will support the company’s plans to further develop its proprietary technology, expand its crop portfolio and bring the first soy varieties adapted to local needs to the market by 2022.