For the third time, Lidl and StartLife have collaborated on the Lidl Future Goods. From June 30^th, ten sustainable food products from mission-driven startups can be found in Lidl stores across the Netherlands. Lidl provides startups with their first retail experience while striving to make their product selection more sustainable, affordable, and available to all.

Lidl helps small companies to kick-off successfully by sharing valuable knowledge and experiences. Simultaneously, Lidl learns from the startups’ motivation and courage in developing their products dedicated to a more sustainable food system. StartLife has scouted and screened food startups that are in line with this mission and the motivations behind the Future Goods.

Affordable Exposure to Large Audience

Entering a large-scale production phase can be very challenging, in particular for startups – especially when it comes to maintaining consistent quality and meeting food (safety) regulations. From StartLife’s perspective, we are convinced that Lidl’s Future Goods initiative offers innovative food startups a great chance to build up ‘retail experience’ alongside valuable lessons. At the same time, it helps Lidl to investigate the (Dutch) consumer’s appetite for new food products with a sustainability impact.

Lidl Future Goods 2022 Selection

After a yearlong of preparations, StartLife and Lidl have collaboratively selected 10 different Future Goods to enter the shelves at Lidl:

• Little Hoppers, meatballs made from crickets,
• GRO Krupi Chips & Oyster mushroom Burgers, made from Dutch mushrooms,
• Cupplement Coffee, fully biodegradable coffee capsules,
• Cultcha Kombucha, green tea-based drink in two flavors,
• Pacha de Cacao Juice, made from coffee pulp side-stream,
• Willicroft Greek White & Young Dutch, plant-based cheese alternative made in the Netherlands.

Now…rush off and make your way to your nearest Lidl store in the Netherlands to get your own taste of the future of food!

p.s. Stay up to date with the latest news about and for agrifoodtech startups, scale-ups and more via StartLife’s Linkedin or Twitter account and/or via the StartLife newsletter (8x a year).

For the second year in a row Lidl and StartLife co-organize the Lidl Future Goods Week. From July 9th you will find six sustainable food products from promising startups in all Lidl stores in the Netherlands. With this initiative Lidl provides food startups the opportunity to get their first retail experience, whilst Lidl works on its mission to make sustainable products available to and affordable for a large audience at the same time.

Sharing knowledge

Lidl feels it is important to use their knowledge and experience to help small companies kick-off successfully. At the same time Lidl learns from the startups, who show courage and vigor by developing their own product. As one of Europe’s leading agrifood accelerators StartLife is involved in the Lidl Future Goods Week by scouting and screening food startups that develop products contributing to the sustainability of our food chain. Erik van den Hoogen, senior purchasing manager at Lidl, explains: “StartLife knows which concepts are disruptive and solid and how Lidl can help attain an even more efficient and sustainable food production”.

From 100 to 1000s consumers

Producing and selling a large number of products at consistent quality that meets all food (safety) regulations is a daunting challenge, in particular for startups. At StartLife we feel that the Future Goods Week offers startups an excellent chance to build up ‘retail experience’ and learn valuable lessons. Caroline Bijkerk, global partnership manager at StartLife, elaborates: “With support from StartLife and Lidl experts the startups get the change to scale their production from hundreds to thousands consumers with products that meet all requirements. This is an unique opportunity for the startups to hit the shelves and start making a true impact”.

Lidl’s Future Goods Selection

From eleven startups that were given the opportunity to pitch their products at Lidl’s Headquarters in the Netherlands the following six Future Goods products made it to the shelves at Lidl.

• Farmer&Foodie burger, a plant-based burger made from side stream materials like tomato and mushrooms,
• BrewBar, a bar made from brewers’ spent grains,
• Little Hoppers, mini sausage rolls filled with crickets,
• SauerCrowd, fermented vegetables with gut-friendly lactic acid bacteria,
• This is Not Parmesan, plant-based cheese made in the Netherlands,
• JOAN, tea grown in the Netherlands.