Ga verder naar de inhoud

About EIT Food

Supported by the EU, we lead the world’s largest and most dynamic food innovation community. We create connections right across the food system that stimulate new ideas and inventions to drive change.

Who we are

We believe inclusive systems innovation, which enables all people and places to participate and benefit, is essential to a strong food system that is better for everyone. With teams on the ground across Europe, we bridge the gap between countries and regions with low innovation capacity and those leading the way. And we put consumers at the heart of our work, helping build trust by reconnecting them to the origins of their food, directly involving them in the innovation process, and working with the food sector to increase transparency.

Collaboration is central to all our work, which spans the whole food value chain, and is vital to meet the big challenges we face. Together with our community, we will build an innovative and resilient food system that in turn creates a healthier society and planet.

In Your Area

EIT Food is a pan-European organisation with headquarters in Leuven, Belgium, and regional offices in different locations.

About our community

With teams across Europe, our community is working together to build an innovative, inclusive and resilient food system.

Meet the team

Get to know the faces behind EIT Food. We are all passionate about transforming the food system, with expertise and perspectives from across the food chain.

What we do

We guide and accelerate food innovation to transform the food system. We focus on inclusive systems innovation, which enables all people and places to participate and benefit.
We are attracting, developing and empowering bright minds to lead the transformation of the food system into an innovative sector that produces healthy and sustainable food, and is trusted by society.
Startups play a fundamental role in transforming the food system. EIT Food supports innovative impactful agrifood entrepreneurs and startups to deliver new food innovations and businesses across Europe.
We believe that we are all responsible for, and connected to, the food that we eat, so we all need to work together to improve it. Our activities are designed to engage with people so that they can become agents of change in the food…

Our objectives

At EIT Food, our mission is to transform how food is produced, distributed, and consumed and to increase its value to European society. We will achieve this by solving the biggest innovation challenges through trusted industry, education and research partners working together with informed and engaged citizens.

We will achieve this through our strategic objectives:

Educate to engage, innovate and advance

Providing ‘food system’ skills for students, entrepreneurs and professionals through advanced training programmes

Enhance sustainability through resource stewardship

Developing solutions to transform the traditional ‘produce-use-dispose’ model into a circular bio-economy

Catalyse food entrepreneurship and innovation

Fostering innovation at all stages of business creation

Build a consumer-centric connected food system

Developing a digital food supply network with consumers and industry as equal partners

Create consumer-valued food for healthier nutrition

Enabling individuals to make informed and affordable personal nutrition choices

Overcome low consumer trust

Supporting European citizens in the transition towards a smart food system that is inclusive and reassuring

"By bringing all players together, we are building a shared vision for the future of food, and a shared agenda to transform it and make it better."

- Dr Andy Zynga, CEO of EIT Food

Our progress

A1
168
partners
Asset 16 EUR
50m
direct financial support in grants and investments
A4
350+
organisations across the globe in our community
Asset 19 Engagement
27218
 people taking part in EIT Food co-creation activities 
Asset 18 learners
37222
learners benefitting from (non-degree) education and training 
A5
361
startups supported
A3
407m
of investment attracted by startups and scaleups supported by EIT Food
Asset 20 engagement
8.8m+
engagements across EIT Food and FoodUnfolded digital channels
A6
15
innovations launched

EIT Food Annual Report 2021

If you’d like to learn more about our annual highlights and our financial and non-financial performance metrics please explore our Annual Report website of 2021.