Europe’s food biotech revolution: unlocking opportunities for scale 

On the outskirts of Copenhagen, chefs are serving fermented ingredients that require a fraction of the land and water used by conventional protein production. In Bulgaria, fungi are replacing plastic packaging for global brands. Across southern Europe, farmers are beginning to use AI and microbial technologies to spot crop stress before it becomes visible, helping protect harvests against increasingly unpredictable weather. 

These innovations share something important: they are all using biology to solve some of the food system's most pressing challenges.  

Across Europe, agrifood biotechnology is becoming one of the most powerful tools for building a food system that is more resilient, resource-efficient and competitive. From new ingredients and production methods to circular materials and climate-smart agriculture, it is opening the door to entirely new value chains. 
For the first time in decades, Europe has an opportunity not only to respond to the challenges facing food systems, but to help shape what comes next.

In June 2026, EIT Food convened the Next Bite Satellite event on Biotechnology in Brussels: a high-level plenary that brought together more than 200 leaders from European institutions, industry, startups, investment communities, research organisations, farming, regulatory bodies and innovation ecosystems. Intentionally structured around the systemic bottlenecks, the event aimed to highlight where the ecosystem’s most experienced stakeholders align, identify urgent needs for collective action, and outline clear recommendations for scaling agrifood biotech. 

Europe has many of the ingredients needed to lead this transformation: world-class science, pioneering entrepreneurs and a strong industrial base. The challenge is bringing those strengths together quickly enough to turn scientific breakthroughs into impact at scale. 
 
To bridge this gap, EIT Food is stepping in as Europe's largest food innovation ecosystem, connecting research, industry, entrepreneurship, education and public policy, and helping promising innovations scale. 

For thousands of years, people have relied on biology to make bread rise, brew beer and produce cheese. Today's advances build on those same natural processes, but with far greater precision. 

At EIT Food, we see agrifood biotechnology as one of the most important opportunities to strengthen Europe's competitiveness while supporting healthier lives, net zero and resilient food systems. Alongside resilient agriculture and protein diversification, it is one of our strategic priorities for accelerating innovation where it can deliver the greatest impact. 

Across our innovation community, startups are already demonstrating what this future could look like. Supported by EIT Food’s entrepreneurship programmes and ecosystem matchmaking, a new generation of European biotech pioneers is successfully scaling solutions across three core pillars. 

• Biomanufacturing and fermentation 

  Biotechnology is transforming how sustainable food and feed ingredients are produced, creating new opportunities for European agriculture while reducing reliance on resource-intensive production systems. 

  Danish startup MATR Foods uses fungal fermentation to transform locally grown oats, legumes and vegetables into flavour-rich ingredients. With its new production facility in Denmark, the company expects to help avoid more than 100,000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions every year, while producing foods with a carbon footprint around 95% lower than conventional beef, demonstrating the potential of fungi fermentation to contribute to Europe’s climate goals. 

  Belgian startup Koppie is also using fermentation to create a coffee alternative from locally grown legumes, reducing dependence on imported coffee and building new value chains for European farmers. Lifecycle assessment shows Koppie emits just one kg of CO2 per one kg of product. (1)
   

• Biotech-enabled precision agriculture 

  Biotechnology is equipping farmers with innovative solutions to adapt to climate change, improve resilience and produce more with fewer resources.

  British startup CroBio has developed microbial soil technology that improved water retention in sandy soils by 200% in greenhouse trials, helping crops become more resilient to drought. Meanwhile, Greek startup farmAIr combines thermal imaging and artificial intelligence to detect crop stress before symptoms become visible, enabling earlier and more targeted interventions. 
   

• Bio-based packaging and materials 

  Biotechnology is transforming packaging by enabling sustainable, bio-based and biodegradable alternatives to conventional plastics. Bulgarian startup Biomyc transforms agricultural by-products into mycelium-based packaging, offering eco-friendly alternatives to conventional plastics. Their award-winning design is used by FMCG and automotive companies with active corporate sustainability and innovation mandates. 
  In just 16 months, the company developed more than 25 packaging solutions, demonstrating how biological materials can help build a more circular food system. 

Each of these innovations shows the way agrifood biotechnology is changing how food is produced, how crops are grown and how natural resources are used. 

However, ideas only change the world when they leave the laboratory. Yet Europe still faces significant barriers to scaling innovation: it attracts less than 10% of global biotech investment, more than 90% of industrial fermentation capacity is located elsewhere, and many promising innovations never reach commercial scale. (2)

One of the biggest barriers is what many innovators call the "second valley of death" - the difficult stage between proving that a technology works and producing it at commercial scale. Building pilot facilities, securing investment, navigating regulation and finding industrial partners all require significant time, expertise and capital. 

This is where EIT Food is helping to grow Europe's agrifood innovation ecosystem. We bring together entrepreneurs, researchers, industry, investors and policymakers to create the conditions that allow innovation to scale. By connecting science with entrepreneurship, research with industry, and innovation with market needs, we help promising ideas become real-world solutions that strengthen Europe's food security, competitiveness and resilience. 

That means investing not only in technologies, but also in the people, partnerships and capabilities needed to bring them to market. Through policy engagement, skills development and collaborative innovation, EIT Food helps accelerate the adoption of agrifood biotechnology across Europe. 

It’s a train we cannot miss. By 2040, up to 60% of what we grow and produce could be influenced by biotechnology-enabled innovation. The opportunity for Europe alone has been estimated at €140 billion in added value. (2) 

Europe is not the only region recognising this opportunity. China has made biotechnology a central pillar of its long-term food security strategy, combining industrial policy, sustained investment and coordinated ecosystem development to accelerate innovation at scale. The lesson for Europe is not to replicate China's model, but to match its intentionality by creating the conditions for scale. (3) 

Considering that it also helps reduce global emissions by up to 3.3 gigatonnes of CO₂ equivalent, save hundreds of billions of cubic metres of water and significantly reduce pressure on land use, (4) it’s clear why the European Commission has identified biotechnology as a strategic technology for Europe's competitiveness. The proposed EU Biotech Act aiming to strengthen research, innovation and industrial deployment across the sector. (5) 

Public trust will be equally important. Recent consumer research commissioned by EIT Food found that many consumers recognise the potential of biotechnology to address major food system challenges. Yet concerns remain around fairness, transparency and how benefits will be shared. Consumers are less worried about the science itself than about who controls it and whether it serves society's interests. (6) That makes engagement essential. 

The future of agrifood biotechnology will therefore depend on communication, collaboration and demonstrating tangible benefits for citizens, farmers and businesses. 

Peter Groothuis, Policy Advisor for Biotechnology and Protein Transition at the Province of South Holland acknowledges: 

Breakthrough technologies need people with the skills to develop, scale and commercialise them.  

To help prepare Europe's future workforce, EIT Food provides accessible and industry-relevant learning and training initiatives, including the Biotech Skills Academy, an open alliance for innovation, collaboration, and learning.  
At the same time, we support programmes and projects which help address talent shortages, such as Gloxad Academy, a personalised online learning platform that equips individuals and organisations with future-ready skills, and TAURUS which aims to become the first European Talent Accelerator dedicated to the agrifood manufacturing sector.   

Collaboration extends beyond skills. EIT Food supports major Horizon Europe innovation projects including FEASTS, which is advancing the science of cultured meat and seafood and exploring their future impact on Europe’s food system; EPIC-SHIFT, a €4.5 million initiative advancing knowledge and unlocking the potential of alternative proteins for protein diversification and food system transformation; and BIOBIVE which helps create sustainable, biodegradable alternatives to synthetic pesticides. These projects delivered with partners from all over Europe, bring together researchers, businesses, citizens and policymakers to explore how biotechnology can contribute to healthier, more sustainable food systems while building public trust and encouraging responsible innovation. 

To navigate consumer acceptance and market readiness, EIT Food also convenes the Protein Diversification, Healthy Ageing and Resilient Agriculture Think & Do Tanks which connect experts from across the agrifood system to identify barriers, explore emerging opportunities and help shape Europe's transition towards more diverse, healthy and sustainable protein sources. 

As Durk Bosma of the Future of Food Institute notes, "Consumers don't eat technology. They eat food." The think tank ensures that alternative proteins and bio-derived ingredients are positioned not as abstract "foods of the future," but as familiar, high-quality, and culturally aligned choices.  

True systemic transformation requires coordinated action and an action-oriented platform. Launched by EIT Food together with over 140 partners from across Europe's biotechnology ecosystem, the European Agri-food Biotech Alliance aims to strengthen collaboration, align strategic priorities and help Europe realise the full potential of agrifood biotechnology. Rather than creating another network, it builds on existing strengths, connecting regional ecosystems, infrastructure, sharing expertise and reducing fragmentation across research, innovation and commercialisation. 

One of its first milestones has been the development of a Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA), bringing together experts from academia, industry, startups and policy to identify the research priorities and investment needs that can accelerate innovation across the sector. 

The Province of Zuid-Holland is one example of the regional ecosystems helping shape this future. Building on decades of leadership in life sciences, it combines world-class research, entrepreneurial talent and scale-up infrastructure through the Leiden Bio Science Park, Biotech Campus Delft, Protein Port and Planet.Bio. Connected through the Alliance, ecosystems like these can complement one another, helping innovations travel further and faster across Europe. 

Ultimately, the Alliance exists to help innovation scale through a more connected European ecosystem. 

By bringing together the people, knowledge and partnerships needed to scale innovation, the European Agrifood Biotech Alliance aims to help Europe remain at the forefront of one of the most important technological transitions of our time instead of watch it happen elsewhere. 

Entrepreneurs in Denmark, Bulgaria and all over Europe are showing what Europe's food future could look like. The challenge now is ensuring these innovations do not remain isolated success stories.  What happens next will depend less on scientific discovery and more on Europe's ability to help innovation scale. By working together, it can build the world's most connected and competitive agrifood biotechnology ecosystem. 

1. Food Navigator: https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2025/12/15/sustainable-coffee-reinvented-koppies-chickpea-based-alternative
2. SYSTEMIQ: Fermentation and the Future of Europe's Protein System, 2025
3. McKinsey Global Institute: Europe's Bio Revolution: Biological innovations for complex problems (2023)
4. SYSTEMIQ: China's Food Future report
5. AB4S: Report on harnessing the economic and  
   environmental benefits of advanced biotechnology (2025)
6. European Commission: European Biotech Act - Public Health - European Commission
7. EIT Food Consumer Observatory: Exploring Consumer Perceptions of the EU Biotech Act