Singapore Science Park Turns Geneo Into a Future Food Lab
Singapore Science Park is converting a corner of its Geneo development into a three day food laboratory, with start ups, researchers and the public sharing the same space. Flavours of Tomorrow, now in its third year, runs from the fifth to the seventh of next month at The Canopy, opening daily from 10am to 5pm.
The event is jointly organised by CapitaLand's Singapore Science Park and Innovate 360, the local agri food accelerator with its own facilities and venture fund. Organisers describe it as a placemaking exercise as much as a trade show, since the point is to move research out of laboratories and into a space the public can walk through.
But the anchor of the programme is a competition. The Global Agrifood Innovation Championship makes its debut across the first two days, with 30 start ups pitching for up to S$15,000 in cash prizes and access to an investment pool of about S$1 million that has been aggregated from investors judging the event.
Mr Chew Peet Mun, managing director of investment and development at CapitaLand Development Singapore, said the park has long been home to companies at the forefront of science and technology, and that the vision for its rejuvenation goes beyond providing space for research and business.
Mr Sean Mak, chief operating officer of Innovate 360, framed the championship around a single test, whether good ideas can scale and whether they can scale sustainably. He said the event puts promising founders in front of the investors and corporates who can help them grow.
And the start ups reflect how wide the sector has become. Agrifreeze is pitching food preservation technology, Enfarm Agritech is working on AI assisted farming, and AmaranthLabs is developing plant based ingredients, spanning preservation, smart agriculture and sustainable ingredients.
The judging panel mixes investment and industry. Victor Chen, founder and chief executive of Foodland Ventures, sits on the panel, alongside Aline Mor, head of research and development in Singapore for Nestle, and Norio Asahara, regional research and development director at Glico Asia Pacific.
Visitors get five experiential rooms built around fermentation, vertical farming, alternative proteins, insect protein and cultivated meat. The rooms are run with Fogo Fungi, Cremer Sustainable Foods, Papitto Gelato working with Chef Ezekiel Tan, and Insect Yumz, with scheduled tastings from different brands across the three days.
But the public programme goes beyond the laboratory. A retail marketplace carries at least ten brands including Qrunchi Granola, VEME, BeanGo and Snacka Dee, and four cooking demonstrations on the final day show how future food ingredients can be used in ordinary home cooking, led by Chef Ezekiel Tan and Chef Joyce of Wakamama.
There is also entertainment, with DJ sets on the first two afternoons and live music on the last day, which suggests the organisers want footfall rather than a closed industry gathering. The release does not say whether entry is free or whether visitors need to register in advance.
One detail is inconsistent, since the festival page on the event site lists the run as the first two days while the release and the championship schedule both give three. What the release does not supply is the investment outcome, since the size of the pool depends on what the judging investors commit rather than a fund already raised. The championship is therefore a shop window for founders rather than a guaranteed cheque.
Flavours of Tomorrow runs from the fifth to the seventh of next month at The Canopy at Geneo, 1 Science Park Drive
The Global Agrifood Innovation Championship debuts with 30 start ups and up to S$15,000 in cash prizes
Start ups compete for access to an investment pool of about S$1 million aggregated from judging investors
Five experience rooms cover fermentation, vertical farming, alternative proteins, insect protein and cultivated meat
The release does not say whether entry is free or whether visitors must register
Source: Flavours of Tomorrow
