NOVOLYZE

Their core work

Novolyze is a French food safety technology SME that develops digital solutions to reduce the risk of foodborne illnesses in food production. They specialize in food process validation and monitoring, combining microbiome science with digital tools to help food manufacturers ensure product safety and quality. Their work spans from plant-based protein processing to broader food safety systems, positioning them at the intersection of food science and digital innovation.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Novolyze's early H2020 involvement (2015) centered on plant-based ingredients and alternative protein sources, contributing to research on underutilised species like quinoa and legumes. By 2019-2020, their focus shifted decisively toward food safety digitization and microbiome-based quality assurance, culminating in their largest project as coordinator. This evolution reflects a company that moved from ingredient-level research toward building digital platforms for food safety management.

Novolyze is moving toward becoming a digital food safety platform company, combining microbiome science with software to serve food manufacturers at scale.

How they like to work

Novolyze operates as both a contributor and a project leader — they coordinated their most recent and largest project (Novo, EUR 747K) while participating in two larger consortia earlier. With 48 unique partners across 20 countries from just 3 projects, they are comfortable working in large, diverse European consortia. Their progression from participant to coordinator suggests growing confidence and ambition in EU-funded research.

Despite only three projects, Novolyze has built a broad network of 48 partners across 20 countries, indicating involvement in large multi-national consortia. Their reach is pan-European with no narrow geographic concentration.

What sets them apart

Novolyze occupies a distinctive niche as a food safety SME that bridges microbiology with digital technology. While many food science organizations focus on either lab-based research or software, Novolyze combines both — understanding food pathogens and contamination at a molecular level while building digital tools to manage those risks in production environments. Their SME Phase 2 funding for FoodSafetyGuardian signals EU-validated commercial potential in this space.

Highlights from their portfolio

• Novo
  Their flagship as coordinator — an SME Phase 2 project with EUR 747K to develop FoodSafetyGuardian, a digital platform for reducing foodborne illness risk.
• MASTER
  Large-scale microbiome research initiative connecting food science with sustainability, giving Novolyze access to frontier microbiome knowledge for food applications.
• PROTEIN2FOOD
  Early participation in a major plant-protein project, showing Novolyze's roots in food ingredient science before their pivot to digital safety tools.