Global Food Tech Awards 2025: Innovation shines in Americas heat as finalists announced

Hydrosome Labs – a Chicago-based start-up that uses a natural, chemical-free microbubble process to enhance fermentation performance – has taken the top spot in the first heat of the Global Food Tech Awards 2025. This innovative food tech start-up has developed a groundbreaking technology utilizing ultrafine bubbles and nanobubbles to improve precision fermentation capacity and accelerate cell growth.

The awards, which are organized by FoodNavigator, aim to spotlight innovation and excellence in the food tech ecosystem across three regions – the Americas, EMEA and APAC – with the ultimate goal of celebrating solutions that could shape the future of food and drive food tech innovation.

High-impact innovation

The Americas heat attracted a strong field of entries, which were assessed by a panel of five expert judges:

• Sara Eckhouse, executive director at FoodShot Global
• Bill Aimutis, co-director & chief operating officer at the Bezos Center for Sustainable Protein
• Elizabeth Crawford, senior editor at FoodNavigator
• Jane Lee, global leader in strategic innovation at Cargill
• Steven Finn, co-managing partner at Siddhi Capital

From a strong field of submissions, the judges shortlisted ten finalists and from this cohort, named two impressive runners-up and one overall winner who won the opportunity to pitch to industry leaders and investors on stage at the Future Food-Tech event in San Francisco on March 13.

Hydrosome Labs topped the scoring across all five key criteria: scalability, sustainability, novelty, market opportunity and the all-important X factor with the judges describing its innovation as impressively simple, scalable with wide-ranging potential applications.

Also read → Watch: Hydrosomes Labs on their ground-breaking precision fermentation technology

“Hydrosomes seems like a key enabling technology for lots of other innovations,” said judge Sara Eckhouse, executive director at FoodShot Global.

Bill Aimutis, co-director & chief operating officer at the Bezos Center for Sustainable Protein, agreed: “Technology to create nano-sized carbonated water is not novel but its use in precision fermentation could be interesting if it can demonstrate faster fermentation times and end-product production.”

Runners up: Careit and Marine Biologics

Two runners-up were celebrated for their impressive entries, too.

Careit, a food donation and rescue software platform, was applauded for its impact on reducing food waste by simplifying how businesses and institutions can donate surplus goods directly to local nonprofits. The platform effectively serves as a food surplus marketplace, connecting donors with recipients efficiently.

Judge Jane Lee praised the firm’s clever cross-sector application of pharmaceutical molecule discovery processes to food. Meanwhile, Steven Finn suggested the company could unlock even more potential by integrating write-offs for donating businesses to cover logistics costs.

Also named runner-up was Marine Biologics, a company using fermentation and cheminformatics to transform seaweed into a programmable biomass that can be used as a clean ingredient in food and beverages. Its innovative approach aims to enhance the nutritional profile of products while improving texture and taste.

Judges were intrigued by the company’s Macrolink system and its cross-industry potential. Sara Eckhouse said she was impressed but raised an important point about how processing might impact nutritional value – a question Marine Biologics is already working to address.

Announcing the Americas heat finalists

Alongside the winner and runners up, the judges also recognised these seven food-tech startups for their ground-breaking approaches to food and ag tech:

AQUA Cultured Foods The world’s first fish-free seafood made using fermentation, focusing on food texture improvement and taste enhancement.

Better Juice A patented technology that reduces sugars in fruit juice by converting them into non-digestible fibres, addressing the growing demand for sugar reduction in beverages.

DProtein A tasteless, odourless alternative protein made via yeast fermentation – with no plants or animals involved.

Future Biome Using AI and fungi to create prebiotics that support gut health and inflammation reduction through diet.

Kresko RNAtech Unleashing the power of dietary RNAs to enhance cellular and metabolic health.

RegenCrops AI Helping farmers unlock higher prices and carbon credits with AI-driven sustainability certification.

Soiltech Wireless Smart hardware and software that connects growers and processors to reduce food waste.

Along with our winners and runners up, these innovations will compete with their counterparts in APAC and EMEA for the chance to be crowned The Global Food Tech Awards 2025 world champion in December.