PARMA (ITALPRESS) – After months of scouting and selection, Barilla has revealed the three winning companies of the seventh edition of Good Food Makers, a program aimed at innovative entities looking to contribute to the transformation of the food sector. Good Food Makers is Barilla’s open innovation initiative that engages startups and tech entities in solving real challenges across the food value chain. Each year, the program launches an international call to action, inviting innovative businesses to propose concrete solutions for making the food system more sustainable, safe, and technological. Good Food Makers aims to accelerate the adoption of emerging solutions and apply co-creation approaches in research areas that reflect a broader vision for food system transformation: from precision agriculture to ensure quality raw materials, to traceability through digital data; from the use of artificial intelligence and sustainable processing systems to develop innovative ingredients, to improving the quality and safety of industrial processes. The program also looks to create new consumer experiences, featuring connected packaging and products designed to meet emerging food trends.
The 2025 edition, organized in collaboration with Almacube (the innovation hub of the University of Bologna and Confindustria Emilia Area Centro), introduced the Good Food Makers – ECOSYSTEM format, aiming to create an open innovation ecosystem that includes partners and stakeholders from the Barilla supply chain. This year, the program received 288 applications from 41 countries across 5 continents, with a notable increase in Italian participation (24%, the highest ever recorded).
“Good Food Makers is not just an innovation program: it serves as a catalyst for discoveries and collaborations. Each year, we select concrete challenges that allow us to explore emerging technologies and models, accelerating the adoption of the most promising solutions. At the same time, we promote a more open and collaborative culture, capable of transforming how we approach innovation and positively influencing our teams’ daily operations while providing direct benefits to our partners and serving as a model for the supply chain,” said Claudia Berti, Head of Open Innovation at Barilla. “In this edition, we identified solutions capable of generating real impact on three crucial themes: the sustainability of farming practices, food safety, and the shopping experience.”
After a selection process that involved 33 finalists from around the world, Barilla chose three companies that best responded to the program’s innovation challenges.
The winning entities are: Feldklasse (Germany) – for the AgTech for Climate Resilience category in collaboration with Open Fields – which developed an innovative mechanical solution for the automated removal of weeds in basil fields, capable of reducing manual labor and enhancing the sustainability of crops destined for Barilla’s sauces and pesto.
XNEXT (Italy) – for the New Frontiers of Detection category in collaboration with Bizerba – which designed XSpectra®, a patented x-ray technology based on photon counting for real-time chemical-physical analysis of food products, able to detect anomalies invisible to traditional systems.
Vusion Group (Italy/France) – for the Best on Shelf category in collaboration with Conad Nord Ovest – which offers Captana, a monitoring system based on cameras and artificial intelligence to optimize product availability, reduce out-of-stock occurrences on shelves, and enhance the in-store shopping experience.
The three companies will now begin working closely with Barilla teams and supply chain partners, engaging in co-design activities and dedicated experiments, culminating in the Innovation Day scheduled for January 15, 2026.
Among the three selected entities is the Italian startup XNEXT, a pioneer in developing advanced inspection systems for the food industry. The company has created XSpectra, a patented x-ray technology that combines photonics, nuclear electronics, and artificial intelligence to conduct real-time chemical-physical analyses of food products. Unlike conventional x-ray systems, which rely on average signal intensity, XSpectra employs a “photon counting” technique: each photon is analyzed individually up to 1,024 energy levels, enabling the recognition of minimal differences in material composition. This approach allows for the identification of low-density contaminants, such as plastic and wood. The integration with deep learning algorithms and artificial intelligence also enables the system to recognize abnormal patterns and adapt to various formats and materials of products, increasing the efficiency of quality control. “Collaborating with Barilla through Good Food Makers is a unique opportunity for us to apply our technology in a context of industrial excellence,” states Bruno Garavelli, Chairman and CTO of XNEXT. “We share the same vision: to bring innovation and safety throughout the entire food supply chain, putting technology to work for quality and consumers.”
Reinforcing its position as a leader in the food sector, Barilla invested approximately €50 million in Research and Development in 2024. The new R&D headquarters is currently being renovated and enhanced. With a total area of 12,000 square meters and new laboratories, the new hub will concentrate all of Barilla Group’s technical expertise in Parma, significantly increasing Barilla’s capacity for research and innovation. This will involve increasingly working with interdisciplinary, international teams dedicated to individual projects, alongside ongoing collaborations with external startups selected through Good Food Makers.
– photo courtesy of Barilla press office –
(ITALPRESS).
