A new report from Tufts University has named Boston as a leading innovator in food technology. More than 130 companies exist in the greater Boston area that are revolutionizing the food industry through research and innovation.
As climate change and other factors disrupt the world's food supply, innovations within the food sector are becoming more and more critical. “Food tech is not the food. It’s not about inventing new foods. It’s about the technology—for example, automation, robotics, life sciences—that underpins what goes into creating a better food system,” said Katie Stebbins, executive director of the Food and Nutrition Innovation Institute (FNII) at Tufts.
With 138 food tech companies and more than 13,000 employees, Boston is the leading food tech city in the country. Between 2019 and 2022 there was more than $8 billion in capital investments in the city's food tech firms.
“There are a lot of reasons this city is a pillar of economic development in food tech,” said Fiorenzo Omenetto, professor of biomedical engineering at Tufts School of Engineering. “Boston is an incredibly research-oriented city with a very strong academic presence, a very strong entrepreneurial presence, and a very strong, very old, traditional industrial presence.”
The current methods of production and packaging of food account for nearly one-third of the global greenhouse gas emissions. That is why experts say that many of these food tech companies located in Boston, and elsewhere, are poised to solve real industry problems.
“Boston is a unique and powerful place. Not only do we have innovators and entrepreneurs, we also have undergraduate and graduate students who are saying, ‘I’m into food, I’m into agriculture, farming, and nutrition. I care about the Earth and I care about people. What can I do?’” said Isabella Citone, a researcher at Tufts Food & Nutrition Innovation Institute. “And what we’re saying with this report is, here is a place, an intersection, where, if you have the passion and the knowledge and the expertise, you can show up and make a mark.”