Consumers demand transparency at EIT Food’s Next Bite, Palmyra Delivers

Consumers demand more honesty about where their food comes from, and transparency has become a cornerstone of trust. Yet, despite growing awareness, few agree on what “transparent” truly means—or how to deliver it effectively across the global food system.

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That’s exactly what EIT Food’s Next Bite 2025 addresses.

Held under the theme “Building the Future of Food Together,” this flagship event in Brussels brings together industry leaders, innovators, and policymakers to explore how collaboration and innovation can make Europe’s food system more sustainable, fair, and resilient.

One of this year’s central discussions focused on:

“Unlocking Transparency: What Food System Actors Can Learn from Consumers.”

Food System Resilience set the stage for transparency

Hosted on the Food System Resilience stage, this session introduced The Transparency Project, a new initiative from EIT Food’s Innovation Business Unit in collaboration with the Consumer Observatory.

The project connects pioneering SMEs with real consumer insights to help them design more effective innovations and communication strategies. The session also marked the official launch of the Consumer Observatory’s Transparency Report, presenting results from a large-scale European study on consumer attitudes toward transparency in food.

The findings revealed one key insight:

Consumers want transparency — but not complexity.

People want honest, accessible information they can understand and act on. They don’t just want claims of sustainability; they want clear, verifiable proof of how and why.

Palmyra’s perspective: making transparency work in the real world

For Palmyra, built by zenGate Global, this conversation is deeply relevant.

The company is building a traceability and compliance ecosystem that empowers producers — from rural cooperatives in Africa and Latin America to emerging food brands — to record and share trusted supply-chain data.

During the session, Sam Lambert, Co-Founder and Director of Product at zenGate Global, explained:

“Transparency is no longer optional. It’s becoming the entry ticket to global markets. But to make it work, technology must adapt to real-world conditions — including regions without reliable internet access.”

That reality drove Palmyra to build offline-first tools, ensuring data can be captured anywhere and securely synced to the blockchain later.

Lambert emphasized that the real challenge isn’t collecting data — it’s ensuring trust:

“We use biometrics, GPS location, and supervisor validation before data ever reaches the blockchain. Every record must be trusted, or transparency loses its meaning.”

From data to dialogue

Victor Hugo Leme, Head of Marketing at zenGate Global, added a crucial layer: communication.

“The challenge isn’t adding more data; it’s making it understandable. Many companies already have what they need but fail to share it in a way that connects.”

Sometimes, he noted, a 30-second honest story from a farmer builds more trust than a QR code ever could.

This mirrors insights from EIT Food’s Transparency Report: consumers value information, but they value clarity and human relevance even more.

Transparency must move beyond compliance and become a connection — transforming technical data into meaningful stories.

The next evolution of transparency

Lambert also shared Palmyra’s vision for what comes next.

The future of transparency lies in the convergence of blockchain, IoT, and AI.

As IoT devices become embedded across farms and factories, data can be captured automatically, reducing human error and bias. Blockchain ensures immutability and traceability, while AI unlocks predictive insights — from yield forecasting to risk pricing — strengthening food system resilience.

“We’ve already partnered with the University of Amsterdam to build AI models using honey supply-chain data,” Lambert shared.
“These tools help forecast yields and improve sustainability planning for producers and policymakers alike.”

Why Palmyra belongs at Next Bite

EIT Food’s Next Bite creates a rare space for cross-sector collaboration — where startups, regulators, and institutions meet to shape frameworks like the EU’s Green Claims Directive and emerging traceability standards.

For Palmyra, participation is strategic.

It ensures the voices of real-world producers are represented — especially those who benefit most from transparency but face the greatest adoption barriers.

It also reinforces a powerful idea:

Compliance can be a competitive advantage.

As Lambert put it:

“Compliance doesn’t have to be a headache. With the right tools, it becomes a strength — a way to prove integrity and build trust at every step.”

Compliance can also be connection

Transparency, at its core, is about trust.

The message from Next Bite was clear: transparency must work for everyone — not just those who can afford complexity.

By turning advanced traceability systems into simple tools for producers and honest stories for consumers, Palmyra is helping shape a more resilient, data-driven, and equitable food system.

Because in the end, the future of food isn’t only about what we eat.

It’s about how honestly we tell the story of where it comes from.