Rutgers University’s Food Innovation Center, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, along with Middlesex County, held their first annual NJ FoodTech 2023 Conference at the Rutgers College Avenue Student Center in June.
The conference was designed to help promote the growth of New Jersey’s food technology sector by building awareness of its strength in food innovation, leading to business retention, and attraction of business opportunities.
Keynote speaker, Lou Cooperhouse, founder, president & CEO of BlueNalu, presented “Food for Thought: Food Industry Trends.”
“Our inaugural FoodTech event was a tremendous success with an incredible variety of speakers and panels allowing for incredible network opportunities,” said Nolan Lewin, executive director, Food Innovation Center.
A packed room of food and beverage companies, investors, academics, start-ups, entrepreneurs, and food innovation leaders came together to share their insights, discuss opportunities, and identify future partners.
A variety of experts also presented on industry trends, indoor vertical farming, and the state of the market, which was followed by dynamic panel discussions on innovative sustainability, funding through private equity, food manufacturing survey results and plenty of networking throughout the day.
The next FoodTech event is cheduled for June 2024.
About the Food Innovation Center at Rutgers University
The Food Innovation Center at Rutgers University (FIC) is a unique food business incubator and accelerator that is a unit of the Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station (NJAES). The Center supports established early stage entrepreneurs and existing food companies from concept to commercialization. Combining years of industry expertise and the advanced technologies offered by Rutgers, we provide business, marketing, food safety, product design and scale up expertise within FDA and USDA certified facilities to help companies successfully build and grow their business.
