World Food Day 2025 and the role of EIC-backed food innovations

World Food Day 2025 uses the slogan Hand in Hand for Better Foods and a Better Future to call for global cooperation to transform agrifood systems. The European Innovation Council has been funding projects that aim to intervene at several pressure points in those systems. Three examples supported by EIC instruments are BioLaMer, RE-IMAGINE-CROPS and DIGI-TRUSTY. Each tackles a different set of problems that contribute to food insecurity, environmental damage and market inefficiencies. All three projects report progress at prototype or pilot level but important barriers remain before the reported advances can deliver large scale impact.

BioLaMer (Ireland) — an experimental fly larvae biorefinery to address food waste and petrochemical plastics

BioLaMer is an EIC Pathfinder project coordinated by Trinity College Dublin. The consortium frames its work against FAO figures that roughly one third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted. It also points to the exponential rise in petrochemical plastic production and the harm that fossil-based plastics inflict on marine ecosystems. The stated objective is dual. First the project explores a biological route to valorise food waste by using food-eating fly larvae as a feedstock. Second the consortium aims to convert larval biomass into biopolymers for packaging, thereby replacing at least some petrochemical plastics in marine-based supply chains.

During its final year BioLaMer reports several concrete milestones. The team designed and tested a larvae cultivation bioreactor and successfully produced larvae batches under the optimised growth conditions. The project also completed a primary sustainability assessment which identified key environmental and economic hotspots in the proposed biopolymer biorefinery. Outreach and dissemination were active with engagement at the National Manufacturing and Supply Chain Conference and Exhibition in Dublin in May 2025 and public and student engagement at the University of Bologna and the Ravenna campus in May and July 2025.

BioLaMer also highlights a parallel strand aimed at reducing food loss in marine-based value chains. That work seeks biotechnological preservation and packaging solutions targeted at seafood and algae products and at reducing cold-chain logistics impacts. The project points readers to the Horizon Europe database and its website for further details.

RE-IMAGINE-CROPS (Finland) — portable multimodal imaging for in-field crop physiology

RE-IMAGINE-CROPS is an EIC Pathfinder project coordinated by Euro-BioImaging ERIC. The project launched with a kickoff meeting on May 6 2025 and brings academic and industrial imaging expertise together with agricultural partners. Its stated purpose is to reduce ecological and economic losses from improper fertiliser use, in particular nitrogen overapplication, by giving field practitioners real-time, cellular-level insight into plant metabolic responses.

The project will attempt to deliver the first portable multimodal imaging tool for in-field monitoring. The consortium describes a combined system that pairs Positron Emission Tomography and Multiphoton Endoscopy to visualise metabolic and cellular processes. Partners include Euro-BioImaging ERIC, University of Turku, BF Educational, University of Teramo, Maastricht University, CNRS, LIGHTCORE, University of Lille and VRVis. The project is planned as a three-year effort to produce a mobile system that can detect plant responses to fertiliser and heat stress and thereby inform more targeted interventions.

RE-IMAGINE-CROPS highlights BF Educational as a partner for impact and dissemination. BF Educational will work alongside Euro-BioImaging ERIC to promote uptake across scientific and industrial stakeholders. The project promises a step change in in-field crop monitoring if it can translate laboratory sensitivity into rugged, farmer-friendly tools and resolve tracer, cost and regulatory issues.

DIGI-TRUSTY (France) — building food chain trust with a digital Food Confidence Platform

DIGI-TRUSTY was supported by the EIC Accelerator blended finance mechanism and led by Connecting Food, a Paris-based food tech company. The project focused on digital traceability across the supply chain and on enabling any actor from growers to consumers to access verifiable product histories. The platform concept centres on creating digital twin products that capture provenance, agricultural practice, logistics and compliance data.

By its reported July 2025 close DIGI-TRUSTY claims to have defined the building blocks for a Food Confidence Platform that uses blockchain for integrity, IoT for real-time tracking, and AI analytics for insights. Connecting Food says the platform can be deployed in three weeks and that it has integrated with Trace One to link Product Lifecycle Management functions with real-time traceability.

Connecting Food's announced partnership with Trace One aims to bridge specification and supplier management workflows with live traceability. The integrated solution is intended to provide a single digital record from concept to retail shelf and enhance supplier collaboration. The project also emphasises inclusion by aiming to enable smaller producers to participate in verified, data-driven value chains.

However claims about fast deployment and blockchain as a cure-all should be scrutinised. Integrating with existing PLM and ERP systems, training users, ensuring sensor and data reliability in the field, handling costs of IoT and connectivity, and addressing data ownership are non trivial steps. For smaller producers, hardware costs and onboarding capacity can be barriers even when platform deployment is rapid.

Comparative snapshot of the three projects

What these projects mean for EU food-tech policy and the path to scale

Taken together the three projects show how the EIC ecosystem supports interventions at different stages. Pathfinder grants back higher risk, exploratory research such as insect biorefineries and new imaging modalities. Accelerator blended finance backs nearer-to-market companies seeking to scale digital solutions. That layered approach is sensible but it does not remove the non-technical bottlenecks that will determine whether pilots deliver systemic change.

Common barriers include regulatory pathways, standards and certification, logistics and feedstock supply chains, capital intensity and operating costs, interoperability and data governance, and market acceptance. For BioLaMer regulatory acceptance for biopolymers derived from insect biomass and the logistics of collecting and sanitising food waste at scale are major practical questions. For RE-IMAGINE-CROPS the availability of safe plant tracers, instrument ruggedisation and the economics of on-farm deployment will decide adoption. For DIGI-TRUSTY integration with incumbent enterprise software, reliable sensor data, and equitable cost models for smallholders are decisive.

Policy steps that would help scale include clearer regulatory guidance for biological innovations, funding and procurement incentives for early adopters in food value chains, standards for interoperability and data sharing, and matched technical assistance for SMEs and cooperatives to lower onboarding costs. The European Green Deal, Farm to Fork policies and EU investment programmes create a policy landscape that can support these steps but coordinated execution will be needed.

Practical takeaways

Early-stage technical progress from EIC projects is encouraging. Yet the path from prototypes and pilot deployments to measurable reductions in waste, lower plastic use and farm level improvements is long. Continued public funding, private investment, standards work, and stakeholder engagement will be required. Observers should look beyond press statements to published life cycle assessments, field trial results, cost models, and third party validation before accepting broad impact claims.

For readers who want more information the projects are listed in the Horizon Europe database and have public web pages and newsletters. The material above is provided to inform discussion and should not be read as an official position of the European Commission.