Challenge 2: The Flowers Gourmet Hackathon (SOI-110)

Edible flowers have become the latest food fashion, making this niche market very challenging. We eat with the eyes as much as we do with other senses, and flowers can make a simple meal extraordinary. The uses of edible flowers are numerous: they can add flavour, colour, and fragrance to our cooking. In addition, several flowers have nutritional, antioxidant and antimicrobial properties. Although producers and points of sale (supermarkets, street markets, online) are increasing and some flowers have been used in cooking all over the world for thousands of years (artichokes, courgette flowers, etc.), edible flowers are unknown to most consumers.

Flowers Gourmet: enjoy the beauty of flowers on the dinner plate

Increase the use of flowers in human nutrition as ingredients in the preparation of dishes and drinks or with innovative food processes, and increase sales of edible flowers at the supermarket. The challenge must consider the technological and cultural aspects of eating edible flowers.

Wednesday January 18, 2023 – Watch

The company, which is the market leader in Italy, currently produces and sells almost exclusively to HORECA. The market share related to food retailers is limited and mainly concentrated in the Easter period (salad with flowers). The expectation is to increase the knowledge of consumers about the consumption and use of flowers as ingredients to prepare food and raise the volume of the sales at the supermarket by 50% after the challenge.

Assessment: three Fields of Play and one complete project