Businesses collaborating with students

Examples of businesses collaborating with students

Planteslagterne (Plant butchers)

Since the summer of 2018, Planteslagterne—a company located in the old meatpacking district in Copenhagen—has worked to make it easier and more accessible for consumers to eat more vegetables. The company has participated as a business case in the National Food Institute's course 'Entrepreneurship in Food and Bio Engineering'. Taking part in the course provided the business owners with a fresh look at their business concept.

“As an entrepreneur, who is buried in the everyday perspe

ctives of the company, it is always good to get a fresh pair of eyes on the business. It was very interesting to hear which values relating to our end product the students felt we should emphasize in our communications with our customers, and how they compared with our own ideas. It was a real eye-opener and it was healthy to be challenged by someone other than our usual mentors,” Emil Andersen, CEO of Planteslagterne says.

Pure Kefir Crystals

Founder of the company ’Pure Kefir Crystals’, Maryianne Dinesen, has received great help from students at DTU to develop her product, water kefir. The product has been analyzed to determine the content of bacteria, vitamins and minerals, helping Maryianne Dinesen to document the content of probiotic bacteria and nutrients.

“Collaborating with the National Food Institute has allowed me to determine exactly what my product contains. Having had four students and a senior researcher analyze my product thoroughly has given me a completely different product understanding. At the same time I have established a huge network within the food industry, which I would have never been able to if I hadn’t collaborated with the researchers,” Maryianne Dinesen says.

Homemate

Homemate is a business based on a take away concept that provides consumers with an opportunity to buy healthy and quick dinners. By now, the company has opened a number of stores in Copenhagen. The food comes in aluminium containers with all the ingredients for a single meal. Homemate has benefited greatly from the internship collaborations with the National Food Institute.

“Internship collaborations with the National Food Institute have led to cool, professional insights and a valuable optimization of our cooling processes. A change that can we can both measure and taste,” Simon Sheard, director of business development at Homemate, says.