From innovation to adoption: scaling protein diversification in Europe

On a cold morning in early spring, a young farmer in eastern Poland kneels to inspect a field of fava beans, a crop his family has never grown before. A few hundred kilometres away, in a small food‑tech lab, an entrepreneur is perfecting a plant‑based fat that melts like butter. And in Brussels, policymakers debate how Europe can secure its protein future without compromising the planet that feeds us. 

These moments may seem disconnected. But they are not. They are threads of the same story of systemic change, linked by EIT Food. 

Transforming Europe’s protein system requires building the conditions for change: the science, the skills, the entrepreneurs, the farmers, the investors, the evidence, the policy frameworks, and the trust that allow sustainable protein solutions to take root and scale. 

Across Europe, EIT Food is building those pathways, creating the conditions for diverse protein solutions to move from promising ideas to systemic change.

Europe’s food system is entering a decisive decade. Climate change is reshaping harvests. Geopolitical tensions are exposing Europe’s dependence on imported feed. Consumers are demanding healthier, more sustainable options. And new technologies, from precision fermentation to mycelium‑based foods, are redefining what protein can be. 

European policymakers are working on a coherent EU protein strategy. According to the Good Food Institute Europe, if the EU makes alternative proteins a strategic priority, the sector could contribute €111 billion annually to Europe’s economy and create 400,000 jobs by 2040. (1) 

EIT Food’s own foresight study warns that Europe must diversify its protein sources to remain food‑secure.(2) Importantly, this is not a niche innovation trend. It is a structural transition which can only happen when someone builds the bridge between what exists and what is possible while ensuring coordination across the food system. 

This is where EIT Food’s role is evolving: from supporting individual projects to helping create the pathways that allow entire innovation ecosystems to scale. 

Food innovation has often happened in fragments: promising startups, pilot projects and prototypes with limited reach or limited integration into the wider system. The next phase is different. Bringing protein diversification the mainstream requires connecting innovations into larger portfolios capable of creating change across markets, supply chains and society.  

A startup may develop a technically successful protein ingredient, but still face barriers around manufacturing infrastructure, regulation, consumer trust or affordability. Farmers may be willing to diversify crops, but lack market certainty. Consumers may express interest in sustainable proteins, but remain unconvinced by taste, price or accessibility. 

Scenario 2 from EIT Food’s foresight study presents a future where protein diversification succeeds because Europe creates the enabling conditions for transition: coordinated policy frameworks, stronger regional value chains, investment in infrastructure, consumer trust, education and cross-sector collaboration. 

In this scenario, protein diversification becomes embedded across the food system rather than remaining a specialist market category. Farmers, manufacturers, retailers, startups, researchers and public institutions all play a role in scaling adoption. 

Scaling starts with innovation. EIT Food identifies and strengthens the most promising protein innovations across Europe. These companies are part of a curated, mission‑aligned pipeline strengthened through EIT Food’s entrepreneurship programmes, skills academies, and partner network. 

A few examples from the pipeline: 

These innovations are supported not only with funding, but with market access, scientific expertise, regulatory insight, and corporate partnerships, the elements that reduce investor risk and accelerate time to market. 

The talent pipeline is equally strong. Learners such as Laura Bolognesi, founder of C’era un Tarallo which uses, credit EIT Food’s education programmes for enabling them to commercialise their ideas. Six months after graduation, she sold the first batch of 1,200 packages of her cricket flour-based Italian snack in just six days. 

Similarly, Viva la Faba evolved from a lockdown experiment into an award-winning vegan cheese business with support from EIT Food programmes and mentoring. 

These stories demonstrate how learners can become founders, and how education can feed directly into Europe’s future innovation capacity. What links these businesses is ultimately their ability to contribute to a broader transition towards more resilient and diversified protein systems.

The EU actively supports the development of protein diversification through innovation and research funding. EIT Food is a partner in various European innovation projects developing new approaches to protein production, ingredients and food experiences. Projects such as Taste2Meat explore sustainable meat alternatives made from plant-based proteins, while PLANTOMYC is developing hybrid meat analogues that combine plant proteins with mycelium grown from circular feedstocks.  

EPIC-SHIFT, involving 20 partner organisations, takes a broader systems perspective, helping accelerate protein transition pathways by connecting actors across the agrifood ecosystem. 

These projects matter not only because of the technologies they develop, but because they help test the wider conditions needed for scaling: consumer acceptance, industrial partnerships, supply-chain integration and commercial viability. Their findings feed directly into policy briefs, including the EU Protein Strategy, investment strategies, and product development.

At the same time, consumer insights help reduce go‑to‑market risk and design policies which encourage consumer acceptance. EIT Food’s Consumer Observatory research on alternative proteins and sustainable meat alternatives highlights the importance of taste, affordability, familiarity and transparency in shaping consumer behaviour.  

Based on consumers’ feedback, researchers developed the ideal scenario: choices in balance. By 2035, people can choose from a wider range of sustainable proteins that are affordable, appealing and trusted: from improved plant-based foods to cultivated and fermentation-derived products, all supported by clear labelling and more resilient farming systems.(6) 

Consumers are looking for food that fits naturally into their lives, values and routines. This insight matters because systemic change only happens when innovation becomes accessible and mainstream. 

The future of protein diversification will emerge through connected systems that strengthen Europe’s economy, resilience and health. 

Across Europe, the early signs of this transition are already visible. EIT Food’s ecosystem is already demonstrating visible, measurable, and scalable impact: 

• commercialised products with quantified climate and health benefits 
• startups raising capital and entering new markets 
• farmers diversifying into protein crops 
• policymakers using evidence to shape decisions 
• a growing talent base equipped with the skills needed for transition 

What scaling protein diversification looks like is a steady alignment of thousands of decisions across the food system stating with the farmer choosing to plant fava beans for the first time, the entrepreneur refining a new ingredient, and the policymaker shaping the regulatory environment that will determine whether these innovations thrive.  
When the farmer knows there is a market for new protein crops, startups can access infrastructure and investment and evidence informs policies, the system begins to move together. 

This is the future EIT Food is helping build: in the field, in the lab and in the rooms where Europe’s food future is being shaped, helping create a food system where diverse proteins are part of everyday life across Europe. 

References: 

1. GFI: State of the European alternative protein research ecosystem: funding and publications - GFI Europe
2. EIT Food Foresight Study on the Future of Protein in Europe: Foresight-Study-on-the-Future-Protein-in-Europe_EIT-Food_Protein-Diversification.pdf
3. EIT Food Innovation Impact Report: https://www.eitfood.eu/private/EIT-Food-Innovation-Impact-Report.pdf
4. GFI: State of the European alternative protein research ecosystem: funding and publications - GFI Europe
5. EPIC SHIFT: EU Novel Food Applicants’ Experiences: A Special Interview on Insights from a New Report • Epic Shift
6. EIT Food Consumer Observatory report “Consumer Perceptions of Proteins and Future Scenarios for Alternative Proteins”: EIT Food Consumer Observatory’s Consumer Perceptions of Proteins for the Future and Future Scenarios for Alternative Proteins reports. - EIT Food