Symrise partners with KitchenTown Berlin to help shape sustainable food system

Symrise has partnered with foodtech innovation network KitchenTown Berlin to support food start-ups in shaping a sustainable food system.

KitchenTown is a global innovation platform set up to positively impact the food system with a focus on the development, commercialisation and launch of impact driven and transformational food products.

Founded originally in 2014 in San Francisco, KitchenTown opened in Berlin in 2019.

As part of its network, KitchenTown creates an active global community of food entrepreneurs and innovators to support one another and create a new sustainable food system.

Under the new partnership, KitchenTown will provide the infrastructure and network in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) with Symrise offering its guidance to the start-ups.

Symrise will also make use of KitchenTown’s lab and production facilities to enable collaboration and co-creation between its taste experts, entrepreneurs and customers – the manufacturers of food and beverage products.

Through KitchenTown’s accelerator programme, start-ups can apply for funding and venture development giving them access to its Berlin facility in addition to support from its expert network to help with initial product concept, testing, scaling and market fit.

Heinrich Schaper, president of flavour at Symrise, said: “We have entered the innovation network to ideate, create, and grow new food and beverage ideas in the smartest way possible.

“KitchenTown Berlin is a great partner for agile development projects. At Symrise we regard collaboration in open eco-systems and strategic partnerships as important enablers for long-term business success. It is our pleasure to connect our customers and taste industry experts with innovators and thought leaders, while accelerating their innovation cycle.”

In May last year, Symrise invested and formed a strategic partnership with Califormulations, a platform designed to deliver end-to-end beverage innovation to consumer packaged goods companies and their brands.

Last year, Symrise made a series of facility investments including adding extraction capabilities for vanilla and botanicals to its Teterboro site, opening its first applications labs in Nigeria, and expanding its flavours encapsulation plant in Branchburg, New Jersey.