Food Innovation and Regeneration

From Farm to Fork, it is critical today to help sustainable food companies to have a comprehensive understanding of the fundamental principles and advancements in food industry. Accelerating innovation means learning how to build a food system that produces healthy, sustainable food for all. Achieving innovation in global food systems requires an understanding of food chemistry, flavor, and processing. This module will introduce the complex interactions between food components, their transformations during processing, and their impact on sensory properties and human health. The course provides insights into developing functional foods and dietary guidelines for improved well-being and disease prevention.

This module offers a comprehensive examination on strategies and frameworks that foster innovation within organizations. How to practically apply an ecosystem approach that embraces diversity and prosperity? From Stage and Gate to Systems Thinking. This module introduces how to solve problems, but more importantly, how to identify opportunities and dynamics in an innovation process; learn how to manage it by leveraging user-centered analysis, co-creation techniques, and scientific and lean procedures of food development. The course explores with practical examples in the food industry, the application of design thinking, agile, stage-gate and lean startup as prominent methodologies for innovation.  The course also examines the role of organizational culture in fostering innovation. The course emphasizes the importance of creating an innovation-friendly culture that encourages experimentation, embraces failure as a learning opportunity, and rewards entrepreneurial behavior. Participants will be equipped with practical tools and frameworks to drive innovation within organizations and navigate the challenges of a rapidly changing business environment.

How is it possible to build bridges between countries and bring more sustainable practices into the food industry through “innovative and educating products” that can change food behaviors? This module will focus on food trends and new scenarios (new food production, 4.0 technologies applied to the food industry, new food culture, and identity as drivers of innovation).

The course begins by investigating the Maillard reaction and its effects on flavor, color, and potentially harmful compounds in food processing. Participants will learn how to optimize processing conditions to enhance flavor while minimizing negative substances. Participants will then examine the impact of various food processing techniques on nutritional quality. They will learn about thermal processing’s effects on nutrient bioavailability and preservation of bioactive compounds. The course emphasizes innovative approaches to maintain nutritional value while ensuring food safety. Sensory analysis and flavor perception are explored in the subsequent segment. Participants will gain knowledge of advanced techniques used to assess sensory properties like aroma, taste, and texture. They will understand the factors influencing flavor perception and learn to develop consumer-friendly food products.

In this module, students will examine how organizations can leverage external knowledge, collaborations, and partnerships to enhance innovation. The course emphasizes the importance of creating an open and collaborative culture that fosters cross-sector collaborations and embraces external ideas as a means of driving innovation. Although companies have understood that they need to take action toward being more sustainable, they sometimes make decisions that only consider the environmental perspective while foregoing other aspects. How can we implement an integral ecological approach as a framework for development, therefore systemically approaching sustainability and creating a model that is going to be resilient and inclusive? This module will focus on integral ecology and collaboration, start-up ecosystem and open innovation, and strategic product and service development.

Integral ecology means realizing the deep interconnectedness of political, economic, human, environmental, social, and cultural pillars, which is unfortunately often lacking in many large companies’ approaches to sustainability. A strategy to take care of the food system cannot ignore an important transformative factor, largely independent of governmental and institutional actions: a change in mindset, which can only come from spreading a broader awareness about food. This module focuses on regeneration, starting with the soil: regenerating the Earth must be a process and mindset that takes time, the time of nature’s cycles. It is a circle that begins with individuals returning the value of beauty to society and the economy. People and communities are expanding their vision beyond what we need today and tomorrow to what we need 20 years from now. This replaces quick fixes with completely dismantling our thinking to rebuild a more future-oriented mindset.

This module will explore key concepts and methodologies to understand and anticipate future food landscapes, analyze emerging trends, and develop sustainable strategies for the food industry. The course begins with an introduction to foresight methodologies and tools used to anticipate future scenarios in the food sector. Students will gain practical skills in scenario planning and trend analysis, enabling them to assess and respond to future challenges and opportunities. The exploration of food trends forms a significant component of the course. Students will examine the driving forces behind food trends, including shifting consumer preferences, technological advancements, and sustainability concerns. Through case studies and analysis, students will learn to identify and evaluate emerging trends, enabling them to make informed decisions in the evolving food industry.

An essential focus of the course is on regeneration scenarios for the food industry. Students will study innovative strategies to promote sustainable food production, circular economies, and regenerative agriculture. By considering environmental, social, and economic factors, students will learn to develop scenarios that balance sustainability and economic viability. They will possess the skills to anticipate and respond to emerging trends, assess their impact on the food industry, and develop sustainable and regenerative strategies for a future-oriented food system.

Prosperity thinking is a methodological approach to designing a world that fulfills all its beings’ needs within the planet’s ecological means. This concept goes beyond the more traditional design thinking approach by putting the planet at the center. Prosperity thinking aims to enable the design of a better food system starting from a shared, inclusive idea of prosperity that encompasses not only economic growth but also social and environmental well-being. Prosperity Thinking means that we can only thrive, as well as our economy or business if the planet thrives. This module focuses on Prosperity Thinking methodology for future food systems, Future Thinking and Foresight for regeneration, Values Thinking, and food behaviors. In this module, participants will become familiar with the approach that goes beyond user-centered design to designing for human- and planet-centered growth.

Being able to “connect the dots” to design and innovate food processes, systems, and products. How do we harness creativity and technology to address today’s agribusiness challenges? How can we generate cultural and social innovation through design? This module introduces the Design method applied to the world of food and agriculture, where the designer is increasingly involved in re-designing the value chain of food systems. This module analyzes transdisciplinary and successful case studies on food and design, using the Empathy-Systems Thinking Mindset and toolkit for the Food Sector. The course delves into sustainable food production and waste valorization. Participants will discover strategies to reduce food waste, optimize resource utilization, and promote eco-friendly practices in the food industry. The course emphasizes the value of utilizing food by-products and waste streams to establish a circular economy model.

Living Labs are dynamic spaces where we host innovators and people who want to test their ideas and interact with the broader community. Smart Week program, the so-called Boot Camp, will be organized in Pollica Living Lab. The Boot Camp is based on an experiential learning approach that allows participants to engage in a based-workshop environment comprised of live experiences, challenges, prototyping exercises, teamwork-based innovation challenges, mentorship sessions, and inspirational talks presented by visionary food entrepreneurs, policymakers, innovators, and thought leaders. Held in the historic Princes Capano Castle and home of the Mediterranean Diet Study Center “Angelo Vassallo”, Pollica Living Lab espouses the protection of gastronomic pleasure and defense of biodiversity, pride for one’s own identity, and awareness of the continuous exchange between cultures, love for the sea, and roots firmly planted in the earth. The Mediterranean Diet is the perfect example of respecting the landscape, the territory, the community, and the economy, combining creativity with resilience and adaptation. It symbolizes eating together, connecting with the social and natural environments, respecting natural cycles, and promoting healthy diets, lifestyles, and well-being. The Mediterranean Diet should be proposed for its systemic approach, forward-looking mindset, and for the whole range of values that make it so sustainable: resilience, inclusivity, conviviality, and community.

This course specifically targets the executives of modern businesses who confront the growing consumers’ expectations regarding the economic, societal, and environmental impact of their organizations. By utilizing contemporary, economics-based models of firms and markets, a diverse range of strategic real-world scenarios are examined. Students will gain the knowledge and skills to effectively identify and select a superior competitive position, establish and maintain a competitive advantage, and create an organizational context that facilitates the successful implementation of their chosen strategy. Moreover, they will be introduced to analytical tools that support them in making strategic decisions. Extensive research has definitively shown that the creation of innovative business models yields the highest return on investment for fostering innovation and this course provides effective frameworks to validate any high level corporate strategy and product diversification.

The major part of the EU and national food law is structured around the concept of food safety and the legal principles aiming at guaranteeing a reliable risk assessment and an effective risk management. Apart from the food-related issues of quality and intellectual property, the most important “building materials” of the food law are acts establishing the legal principles of food safety, and the administrative procedures and business processes concerning the food safety and the crisis management in that field. More, the entire harmonized regulation concerning the circulation of food in the internal market actually stems from the need to get over national legislations and obstacles driven by food safety concerns; and aims at making it work by harmonizing the safety rules and requirements.
The objective of this course is to give participants the tools to fully understand all the mechanisms above.

The “Route to Market Strategies” course is a dynamic and interactive program designed to empower professionals with the knowledge and skills needed to successfully navigate the complexities of bringing products and services to market. This comprehensive program, divided into four engaging lessons, will feature top professionals as guest speakers, sharing their own business cases to illuminate key topics.

The course aims to provide the right tools and competences needed to become a change maker in organizations going through both the soft and hard skills needed to lead change in organizations. In particular the course will delve into organizational change and how innovation and change can be properly communicated and introduced in organizations, considering the following topics: what is organizational change and why it is so difficult to change (sources of change and sources of resistance to change); how to communicate change (the role of perception, visual management and feedback); how to become a change maker (how to learn a new pattern, the emotional side of change and facilitating change); collaborative innovation at work; team emotional intelligence and how to increase social capital; a scientific approach to change.

The course aims to provide students with an introduction on how to measure sustainability in organizations. Specifically we will highlight how the agri-food sector could benefit from a proper implementation of sustainability measurement processes and practices. The course will have an “hands-on” approach, rooted in Life Cycle Thinking, and developed in accordance with the EU main regulatory frameworks. Students will receive the necessary knowledge for setting up a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for a product, a process or an organization. The course will provide a solid theoretical introduction and but also practical activities which will allow students to deal with the main critical aspects of the LCA methodology (e.g. conceptual model definition, interpretation of results) and acquire a first practical experience of these tools.

In this module, participants will be introduced to Sensory Marketing, gaining specific knowledge and tools to interpret and predict market choices. Starting with the product development process through the lens of sensory marketing, employing techniques such as Conjoint Analysis (mind genomics) and Slope Analysis to shape food innovations in their early stages, you will decipher the factors behind market preferences.

Exploring the sensory approach, participants will learn the complexities of developing detailed sensory profiles using Quantitative Descriptive Analysis. In addition, the module will cover the skills of determining sensory and consumer shelf life.