Ah, Estonia – the undisputed food capital of the world!
You may laugh, and we get it. Estonia doesn’t exactly top any charts when it comes to world-famous dishes.
But what it lacks in culinary renown, this country makes up for in innovation.
Good food starts with the ingredients, of course: A compact Northern European country, Estonia’s food industry reaps (pun intended) the benefits of fresh and often organic raw materials. A whopping 23% of the country’s farmland is organic, the third-highest percentage in the EU. In 2023, Estonia secured its third Michelin star, and Team Estonia made its successful debut in the Culinary Olympics in 2024. So the flavours are certainly there, and it’s no secret that some seriously good eats await in Estonia. But where the country truly shines is combining a passion for food with the nation’s other big love: technology.
Food production in Estonia is highly modernised and productive, driven by a skilled workforce and a tradition of knowledge-sharing. Estonia has a long history of food science innovation, including supplying space missions as early as 1962. Today, the country is emerging as a centre of expertise in food technology, thanks at least in part to close collaboration with its world-class IT industry. A new centre of excellence devoted to health and food technologies was recently established at the Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech) to boost cooperation between 40 research groups within the university and better liaise with external partners.
Noteworthy innovators are making headlines across (and adjacent to) the food industry. eAgronom, a climate tech company that helps farmers adopt sustainable practices for the health of their soils and the planet, recently raised €10 million to promote sustainable farming. YOOK, the Baltic countries’ first oat drink producer, combines the best Nordic organic oats with modern technology and has been winning awards left and right. Gelatex is making big moves in the cultured meat industry, and ÄIO is working on offsetting the negative environmental impacts of oil-based products by producing fats and oils sustainably.
A whole new meaning to “fast food”
Today’s food industry is a massive burden on the planet, with food production responsible for about 31% of total greenhouse gas emissions. But by 2050, we will need to produce 60% more food to feed a growing global population of 9.3 billion. Individual innovative products and solutions slowly trickling onto the market will not cut it.
Always looking for ways to make a bigger difference faster, Estonia is working on creating a clear pipeline and support process for food innovators – to guide them through the European regulatory framework so that innovation can get from lab to table sooner.
In Europe, bringing novel foods to the market and allowing tastings is an extremely time-consuming process, bogged down by miles of red tape. Even the most straightforward approval process is usually a two-year, two-million euro undertaking just to gain regulatory approval. And that’s the optimistic scenario.
To show how it’s done, Estonia held its first public novel food tasting earlier this year.
On the menu: Tempura-battered oyster mushrooms with BBQ sauce made using ÄIO’s yeast biomass, followed by Gelatex’s potato fibrous scaffold for cultured meat production. The tasting culminated with three desserts, all using ÄIO’s lipid-rich yeast biomass – chocolate chip cookies, muffins with buttercream, and eclairs filled with yeast cream.
The EU’s first public novel food tasting was organised in two and a half years. Estonia put this event together in roughly a month. With this kind of speed and agility driving innovation, the food world is Estonia’s oyster (mushroom with BBQ sauce made with planet-friendly yeast biomass).
These are just some examples of how Estonia is putting itself on the world map as a food tech hub. Read more and get in touch to talk about how you can be a part of the future of food.
