Six projects will be part of the first BFFood consolidation call

Business Factory Food (BFFood), the Galician food sector accelerator promoted by the Xunta de Galicia and managed by the Galician Food Cluster (Clusaga), has announced the six projects that will benefit from its consolidation program.

Following an evaluation and selection process conducted entirely online due to COVID-19, the BFFood Selection Committee has highlighted the innovation and technology of the selected projects to address the challenges of the food industry in the areas of digitalization and automation, sustainability, development of new products and interaction with clients and consumers, as well as to strengthen the sector’s resilience to emergency situations arising from pandemics, such as the one caused by the coronavirus.

All of them will access the comprehensive and specialized support program of twelve months’ duration with mentoring, training, coaching, technical services, infrastructure and resources specifically designed for their field of development, as well as financing through a participating loan from Xesgalicia, which could entail a capitalization option of up to a maximum of €250,000.

The six projects, all from Galicia, have been selected from a total of 27 applications, and four of them join the BFFood consolidation program after having gone through the acceleration program during the first edition held in 2019.

This new program of the BFFood accelerator, which is part of the StartIN Galicia platform, has the support and collaboration of the Xunta de Galicia, through Igape, GAIN and Xesgalicia, as well as the tractor companies Bodegas Martín Códax, Cafés Candelas, Calvo, CAPSA FOOD (Larsa), Clavo Food Factory, Cooperativas Lácteas Unidas (CLUN), Congalsa, Galacteum, Gadisa, Kiwi Atlántico, Quescrem, Nueva Pescanova, Torre de Núñez and Viña Costeira.

These are the projects that will be consolidated in BFFood

Essence Food. This initiative, presented from Pontevedra, was part of the first edition of the BFFood acceleration program and responds to the challenge of waste valorization. It works on the development of new food products from surplus and/or food waste from production, transforming them into new high-added-value food products aimed at personalizing consumer needs. Rubén Hidalgo, director of CAPSA V.I.D.A. at CAPSA FOOD (Larsa), will serve as mentor for this project during its time in the consolidation program.

Monkey Markets. This project, from A Coruña and accelerated in the first edition of BFFood, is based on a B2B online tool that facilitates European food sector producers’ sales in China and Chinese importers’ purchases in Europe. This innovative solution in marketing processes responds to the challenge of commercialization and interaction with clients and consumers. Through the use of big data, analytics, web scraping, business intelligence and metasearch engine technologies, it provides an organized, comprehensive and specific method to facilitate internationalization in Asian markets. Rosana Domínguez, marketing director of Quescrem, was the mentor of this initiative during its time in the acceleration program and will continue now in the consolidation program alongside Mónica Cascallar, innovation director of Congalsa, and Pablo Gómez, director of the dairy division of CLUN.

Muutech food monitoring platform. This initiative, from Pontevedra and accelerated in the first BFFood program, offers a response to the digitalization and automation challenge through a monitoring platform that allows data collection from any source, aggregating and analyzing them in real time. With all this, it establishes alerts based on historical data and automated actions that enable food industry companies to optimize their processes and costs, making informed decisions in an agile manner. José Carlos Vila, general director of Kiwi Atlántico, will be responsible for mentoring this project during its time in the consolidation program.

Machine learning platform developed by TripleAlpha that allows replicating any physical manufacturing plant and optimizing processes through prediction and prescription algorithms based on advanced analytics and machine learning techniques. This project from A Coruña, which was part of the first BFFood acceleration program, seeks to respond to the digital twin challenge in the food sector. Ángel Pereira, chief innovation officer of Galacteum, will be responsible for its mentoring.

Refix – Atlantic Sea Water is a natural, refreshing and restorative beverage made with natural ingredients and manufactured with seawater extracted from an area protected by the Natura 2000 network on the Costa da Morte. This project from A Coruña, which responds to the challenge of developing a new product in the food and beverage industry, will be mentored by Antonio Cortés, director of corporate social responsibility at Gadisa.

Sensesbit. This solution, developed by TasteLab, a spin-off of the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela at the Lugo Campus, consists of a highly customizable sensory analysis software by type of client and food sector with which companies can perform a reliable organoleptic analysis that allows them to save on trial-and-error by taking the consumer into account. It represents a clear innovation in the usual processes of commercialization and interaction with clients and consumers. Juanjo De la Cerda, Corporate Director of R&D and Quality of the Nueva Pescanova Group, will mentor this initiative.