Givaudan has launched MISTA, a new innovation platform for the food industry. More encompassing than an incubator or accelerator, MISTA is an optimiser, enabling start-ups and established corporations to optimise ideas, products, people and investments.

Located in San Francisco, MISTA will open its physical premises in early 2019. With an extensive 7,000 square feet (650m²) of space, the MISTA Optimisation Center (MOC) will provide access to a product development facility, equipment for pasteurisation and fermentation, experts providing market and leadership development strategies, as well as input from world renowned culinary and food scientists.

“MISTA, which means ‘tasty morsel’ in Sanskrit, is all about the creation of a new business model focused on product innovation and development for the food industry,” explains Scott May, vice president of innovation at Givaudan and Head of MISTA, “with the intention and capabilities to create the future of food.”

From alternative protein, to health and well-being and biotechnology, MISTA helps companies develop new ways of thinking, leading to innovative solutions to the constant challenges in the ever-changing Food and Beverage industry. MISTA can also help companies, both large and small, with scale up, distribution, building a team and searching for partners.

“Today’s food systems are so complex, and the challenges so large that no single company can address them alone, and that’s where the concept of MISTA really comes to life,” adds Scott.

Joining Givaudan as Founding Members of MISTA are Danone, Mars Inc. and Ingredion Inc. as well as a number of strategic partners with world class capabilities from across the food industry, creating an integrated innovation platform.

The MISTA team plans to target twenty start-ups to bring into MISTA’s hyper-connected platform within the first year, with roughly ten of those start-ups located on premises at its headquarters in San Francisco, USA.

MISTA is one of a number of initiatives being launched by Givaudan aimed at building a more collaborative and inclusive approach to innovation with new types of partners – part of the Partnering for Shared Success pillar of Givaudan’s 2020 strategy of ‘Responsible growth. Shared success.’