Get new ideas during Food Innovation Camp 2024

10 June 2024

Food start-ups and decision-makers in retail and hospitality sectors come together on June 17, 2024

This year’s Food Innovation Camp (FIC) will open its doors on June 17, 2024 in the Chamber of Commerce. More than 90 food start-ups and trade visitors are expected to attend the annual meet. The highlights include various keynote speakers offering food for thought, speed dating with mentors in the scene and the FIC Show Kitchen. Emphasis is on "Food & Fitness" and "Combating Food Waste" in 2024.

Agenda of Food Innovation Camp 2024

World boxing champion Natalie Zimmermann and former German national football players Timo Hildebrand and Marcell Jansen will discuss the importance of a healthy diet for professional athletes. Visitors can also get active in the Food & Fitness Lounge. Anna Boss of Too Good To Go and TV food expert Sebastian Lege will share their successful strategies for saving food during the "Plate Instead of Bin" panel. This panel will be moderated by Lena Bücker, Co-Managing Director of Impact Hub Hamburg & Weciety e.V. Later, and in another panel entitled "Clean Eating", nutritionist Dr Matthias Riedl, TV chef Christian Rach and Renate Künast, Member of the German Parliament (Bündnis 90/Die Grüne), will discuss good products with only a few ingredients.

Ralf Dümmel, a shareholder of the DS Group and a well-known investor on VOX TV’s "The Lion’s Den Show” for founders, will judge the "Dein Newcomer 2024" contest. Three of 60 food start-ups who submitted their entries have reached the final and will pitch for the top spot. Speed dating events include more than 400 talks between 120 mentors, retailers and investors and food start-ups.

Hamburg as a key food centre

The agenda will also highlight the latest trends and innovations especially from Hamburg as a food centre. Christine Siegemund’s Foodlab is now an important meeting point for the scene and she will be joined on a panel by Annika Schröder, Managing Director of Foodactive, Sebastian Rakers, founder and Managing Director of Blue Seafood, and Nils Rupp of Cremer Sustainable Nutrition. The food industry, retail and the entire value chain are undergoing structural change. Awareness of nutrition is growing in line with demands on regional products and food production. Given this backdrop, Hamburg is lending its support to the food industry in multifaceted ways with e.g., the Food Cluster, the Future Food Campus and the Open Mouth Food Festival among other initiatives.
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