After months of scouting and selection, Barilla has announced the three winning companies of the seventh edition of Good Food Makers, the program for innovative companies that want to contribute to the transformation of the agri-food sector.

Good Food Makers is Barilla's open innovation program that engages startups and tech companies in solving real challenges along the food value chain. Each year, the program launches an international call to action, inviting innovative companies to propose concrete solutions to make the food system more sustainable, safe, and technologically advanced.

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 – Ecostystem formula, with the aim of creating an open innovation ecosystem involving partners and stakeholders across the Barilla supply chain. This year, the program attracted 288 applications from 41 countries across five continents, with significant growth in Italian participation (24%, the highest ever). “Good Food Makers is not just an innovation program: it is a catalyst for discovery and collaboration. 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 foster a more open and collaborative culture, capable of transforming the way we approach innovation and positively influencing the daily activities of our teams, while now also directly benefiting our partners and setting an example for the supply chain,” stated Claudia Berti , Head of Open Innovation at Barilla. “This year, we've identified solutions capable of generating a real impact on three crucial themes: sustainable cultivation practices, food safety, and the shopping experience.”

After a selection process involving 33 finalists from around the world, Barilla identified three companies that best responded to the program's innovation challenges. The winning companies are:

- Feldklasse (Germany) – for the AgTech for Climate Resilience category in collaboration with Open Fields – which has developed an innovative mechanical solution for the automated removal of weeds in basil fields, capable of reducing manual labor and improving the sustainability of crops destined for Barilla 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 the real-time chemical-physical analysis of food products, capable of identifying 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 cases on shelves and improve the in-store shopping experience.

The three companies will now begin working side by side with Barilla teams and supply chain partners, engaging in co-design activities and dedicated experiments, culminating in Innovation Day scheduled for January 15, 2026.

Among the three selected companies is the Italian startup Xnext, a pioneer in the development of advanced inspection systems for the food industry. The company has developed XSpectra, a patented x-ray technology that combines photonics, nuclear electronics, and artificial intelligence to perform real-time chemical and physical analyses of food products. Unlike conventional x-ray systems, which rely on average signal intensity, XSpectra uses photon counting: each photon is individually analyzed at up to 1,024 energy levels, allowing it to recognize minute differences in material composition. This approach allows for the identification of low-density contaminants, such as plastic and wood. Integration with deep learning and artificial intelligence algorithms also allows the system to recognize anomalous patterns and adapt to different product formats and materials, increasing the efficiency of quality controls.

"Collaborating with Barilla through Good Food Makers is a unique opportunity for us to apply our technology in an industry of excellence," says 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 at the service of quality and consumers."