Think-and-do tank the Ministry of Future Affairs is preparing to host a policy roundtable to discuss a brief titled Closing the European Food Innovation Gap! A Framework for a Pan-European Regulatory Sandbox for Emerging Foods.
The event will take place at the European Parliament in Brussels on November 12 between 13:00 and 15:00. It will be hosted in collaboration with Future Affairs Consulting and Enterprise Estonia.
The roundtable will feature insights from food innovation leaders on how Europe can scale up food biomanufacturing and safeguard its global competitiveness. Representatives from Solar Foods, Verley, GEA, InvestNL, CPT Capital, Astanor, and the Ministry of Regional Affairs and Agriculture, Estonia, will be among the speakers.
Topics will include the funding required by startups to scale food biomanufacturing in the EU, including the type of public-funding instruments that are needed to unlock private funding. The event will also discuss how the EU can create a regulatory landscape that supports innovation in emerging foods without compromising on food safety.
“China benefits from our inaction”
Finally, the event will feature an exclusive presentation on the creation of a pan-European regulatory sandbox. The strategic brief will provide a framework for collaboration between countries, which could enable the creation of a coordinated sandbox to remove bottlenecks and improve the efficiency of the EU’s market approval process.
The roundtable will be hosted by Members of European Parliament Hildegard Bentele, Pascal Canfin, and Eero Heinäluoma, and moderated by Euractiv’s Sofia Sanchez Manzanaro.
The Ministry of Future Affairs notes that some global superpowers are already investing heavily in food biomanufacturing, particularly China. In contrast, regulatory hurdles and funding shortfalls in the EU are reportedly causing many food biomanufacturing companies to move abroad.
“We can no longer afford to fund European innovators, only to lose them due to an unpredictable regulatory approval process that does not meet its timelines,” said Anna Handschuh, Managing Director of the Ministry of Future Affairs. “This only further strengthens the geopolitical power and competitiveness of China and the US with the companies we build in Europe. Member states that wish to support and benefit from the growth market of food biomanufacturing should be able to collaborate when setting up regulatory sandboxes for novel foods. China benefits from our inaction when it comes to sustainable biotechnologies made in the EU, such as emerging foods.”
