Over 5,000 Food and Beverages Professionals to Gather in Bilbao

Bilbao, Spain, June 6, 2021 / TRAVELINDEX / Food 4 Future and Expo Food Tech 2021 will reunite in Bilbao 5,000 food and beverages industry leaders, coming from more than 20 countries. The event will take place in the Basquian city of Bilbao from June 15th to 17th at the BEC-Bilbao Exhibition Centre. “Food 4 Future is an event specially designed for the industry, with the support of more than 170 global business organizations from different countries, in order to help companies and top leaders to face the upcoming challenges of the next decade for the food chain” stated Albert Planas, CEO of Food 4 Future, during the press conference at the BEC-Bilbao Exhibition Centre. “The foodtech industry is strategic for Western countries, and here we have a great opportunity to lead the revolution in the sector,” he concluded.

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“This event is a great opportunity for the Bilbao Exhibition Center and for the whole region” said Arantxa Tapia, Councillor of Economic Development, Sustainability and Environment of the Basque Government; who remarked that the Basque Country “has positioned itself at an international level as a reference for gastronomy and that it is time to take this advantage to boost innovation and digitalization of the food industry”.

The Basque government also pointed out that in addition to the huge gastronomy potential, the Basque Country offers innovation within the entire food value chain, with representation of entities such as Neiker in agritech research, AZTI on foodtech and the Basque Culinary Centre in the gastronomic side; as well as the Southern headquarters of EIT Food, the food cluster or HAZI.

Food 4 Future is also supported by the Bilbao City Council. Xabier Ochandiano, Councillor for Economic Development, Trade and Employment of the Bilbao City Council highlighted that “Food 4 Future-Expofoodtech 2021 will be the reactivation of the professional events sector in Bilbao after long time with no congress activity. Events like this one, which will reunite referents of the food and beverage industry in our city, give us again an international dimension of Bilbao as a city that retains and promotes talent, as well as showing how innovative and committed to Industry 4.0 is”.

Food 4 Future, co-organized by NEBEXT and AZTI, will count with more than 200 exhibiting firms that will be presenting their most innovative solutions, equipment, technology and projects; along with 280 international experts in biotechnology, food science and safety, digitalization, Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, Automation and Robotics.

Among all firms and innovative startups, EIT Food is one of the Food 4 Future strategic partner, the Europe’s leading food innovation initiative, working to make the food system more sustainable, healthy and trusted. “We support and believe in initiatives that connect all the stakeholders of the agri-food sector. Focusing on innovation and the creation of new ideas and projects is part of our DNA. We will provide Food 4 Future with a global and European vision, and we will represent the link between consumers and the market. In addition, the collaboration between the EIT Food Innovation Forum and F4F will present the trends that will transform the sector in the coming years and the latest news from targeted nutrition ”, pointed out Begoña Pérez Villarreal, EIT Food CLC South Managing Director.

i-Tokyo University of Japan, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Sigma, Bonduelle, Coca-Cola or Danone will present their industrial transformation projects in Bilbao

During three days the event is gathering 300 international speakers and more than 56 conferences to show the key drivers to face the current challenges within the food industry. An agenda that will be focused around 3 main topics: digitalization, sustainability and healthy food.

Professor Adrian David Cheok, a member of the Order of Australia and professor at i-Tokyo University in Japan, will discuss how to successfully address the digitalization of the food and beverage industry. Cheok is specialized in research on multisensory Internet communication and human-computer interfaces.

Pere Puigdomènech, research professor at Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) at the Centro de Investigación en Agrigenómica (CRAG), will address sustainability in current business models. This expert is specialized in plant molecular biology, as well as in the field of safety when it comes to consumption of transgenic vegetables.

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Another key topic in Food 4 Future will be healthy eating, where José María Ordovás, professor at Tufts University, specialized in nutrition and one of the pioneers and world’s leading specialists in nutrigenetics and nutrigenomics will be one of the top speakers, as well as Dipika Matthias, director of The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

In conclusion, exhibitions, panels and case studies on digitalization, the search for new business models, efficiency of the entire value chain, sustainability or product innovation are some of the many activities that will take place at BEC during this first three-day edition. In addition, the Food 4 Future agenda will be completed with an exhibition of technological solutions related to industry automation, robotics, food packaging and food processing technology, as well as Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, IIOT, Cybersecurity, or Cloud.