Imagine Food Tech BCC
10 DAY INNOVATION JOURNEY
FROM BARCELONA TO SAN SEBASTIAN
Imagine Food Tech BCC is a 10 day food tech innovation program designed to solve challenges of the food industry. The program was sponsored by Danone Waters, the Generalitat de Catalunya and a group of private FMCG investors.
10 talented entrepreneurs from different fields were selected to join an inspirational and work intensive journey to solve the sponsor’s challenges: Héloïse Vilaseca, Jon Aldalur, Lucho Domínguez, Roselyne Chane, Juan Manuel Umbert, Marcio Barradas, Luke Raskino, Pablo Bárcena, Gabriela Lendo and Sergi Arjona.
How can we improve water?
How can we support local farmers?
How to help food entrepreneurs to succeed?
Over the course of 10 days, the participants visited 9 innovation and research facilities between Barcelona and San Sebastian to learn about relevant technologies and trends for their projects. The teams received mentorship from industry experts and entrepreneurs from Europe and San Francisco and worked with design thinking facilitators on their projects.
The first stop at Valldaura sustainability labs, IAAC’s (Institute for advanced architecture of Catalonia) Vicente Guallart, Chief Architect at Barcelona City Council, showed the teams around the farmhouse from the XVIth century that is nowadays a fab lab for sustainability projects. At the world’s best restaurant, Celler de Can Roca in Girona, Jordi Roca explained his techniques for flavour development. At Món Sant Benet, Elies Sala showcased Fundació Alicia’s processes for innovation projects for the food industry and the visit of the enzymatic sustainable house Arqzyme in Vic showed the team how to use microorganisms to achieve clean water and air. At IRTA, the team learned about the difficulties of the agricultural system for small producers, at Rafa Pàmies greenhouses they learned about medicinal plants and their potential for new food products. At the journey’s destination in San Sebastian, the teams had the opportunity to work at the installations of the Basque Culinary Center and receive master classes from the BCC’s leadership team.
Uloop, Foodadore and La Finestra are the 3 solutions developed and prototyped and the final projects were presented at the Auditorium of the Basque Culinary Center on May 13th.
The full memorandum is available on Slideshare.
