Estonia's innovation agency, Accelerate Estonia, has announced plans to organize a public tasting event for novel food products during the region's startup and tech event, Latitude59. Claimed to be the first event of its kind in Europe, it will feature dishes prepared using novel ingredients from food tech startups ÄIO and Gelatex.

Chef Johannes Hõimoja will prepare meals using ÄIO's brewed alternative fats and Gelatex’s 3D scaffolding solutions to highlight the usages of these novel ingredients. ÄIO develops its fats and oils using industry byproducts as replacements for palm oil, coconut oil, and animal fats. Meanwhile, Gelatex uses advanced technology called halo spinning to develop 3D scaffolds for cultivated meat, ensuring an appropriate texture and mouthfeel. 

Analyst QuickTake: Cell-cultured meat company Meatable has already held the first approved cultivated meat tasting event in the EU, made possible by the Netherlands’ decision in July 2023 to greenlight cultivated meat tasting. The novel foods and cell-cultured meat industries are closely intertwined due to technologies used and sharing a similar framework. Partnerships and events like this can help to create cross-industry synergies and advance the alternative foods sector.