Last updated: 24-07-2026

Gerard Klein Essink: The Thought Leader Behind Europe's Hybrid Foods Movement

Hybrid foods sit at the meeting point of plant protein science, retail economics, and EU policy. Gerard Klein Essink has worked across all three for more than 30 years, which is why his name keeps surfacing wherever Europe's protein transition is actually being decided.

Who Is Gerard Klein Essink?

Gerard Klein Essink is the founder and CEO of FoodConNext Foundation and co-founder, with Jaap Harkema, of Hybrid Foods Europe. He built and led Bridge2Food from 2002 to 2022 — exiting successfully after two decades — and has since 2019 built a Global Research Ecosystem of 100+ member organisations and 300+ professionals worldwide.

Few commentators combine all of these roles — company builder, community builder, government advisor, EU project lead, report author, conference chair. That range is why FoodConNext frames him as a category-building voice rather than a single-issue expert. His full record is documented on the FoodConNext Foundation About page.

From Bridge2Food to FoodConNext: 30 Years of Community Building

Between 2002 and 2022, Gerard built Bridge2Food into an international plant-based foods and proteins community, bringing together more than 10,000 food innovators across 250+ summits, courses, and community meetings before his successful exit. FoodConNext Foundation now carries that model forward, currently facilitating a €3 billion investment platform and supporting over 90 innovation projects.

Since 2019, Gerard has served as strategic consultant to Protein Industries Canada, one of Canada's five Global Innovation Clusters, and a frequent speaker at its annual conferences. In the same period, he built the Global Research Ecosystem from scratch — chairing and speaking at over 300 ecosystem meetings. That scale of direct engagement produced a working principle that rarely shows up in reports: the value chain moves fastest not when a single breakthrough ingredient arrives, but when retailers, brands, and ingredient suppliers are already in the same room when it does. That principle is the design logic behind FoodConNext Foundation and Hybrid Foods Europe's own conference programme.

Open innovation runs through the same record. Since 2010, Gerard has built international networks in sports and active nutrition, health bars and grain snacks, and healthy ageing, working with Cambridge University and corporate innovation teams at IFF/DuPont, Campofrio, Avebe, GEA Westfalia, and other leading food companies.

Pulse Canada and GRDC: Translating Crop Science into Food Functionality

Gerard has consulted Pulse Canada on lentil opportunities for European food applications, and separately authored a report for Australia's Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) on the food-functionality and application needs of major Australian crops. Both engagements sit at the same gap: crop science and food formulation are usually assessed separately, and the connective work between the two is thin. In the Netherlands, he has advised the national government on protein innovation and authored multiple industry reports tracking the sector's growth since 2010.

That gap matters directly for European hybrid builders. Lentil and pulse functionality data from Canada, and crop-application research from Australia, feed the same ingredient decisions formulators are making now. Gerard's advisory record spans the exact crops — pea, faba bean, lentil, oat, sunflower — that anchor this report's own commodity roadmaps (see The Plant-Based Opportunity, FoodConNext Foundation, 2026).

Inside Brussels: From Metaphor to the Plant-Based Opportunity

Gerard has held project and work package leadership roles across a run of EU Horizon initiatives: Metaphor (2006), Prominent (2014, Bio-Based Industries), Plenitude (Bio-Based Industries), ProFuture, HealthFerm, and Giant Leaps. Most recently, he initiated, led, and authored the Plant-Based Opportunity report — a €3 billion innovation investment agenda for plant-based foods and proteins across Europe.

Giant Leaps alone carries a €10.3 million Horizon Europe grant across 35 partners in 17 countries, working to shift the EU's protein ratio from 60:40 animal-to-plant toward parity by 2030 (Giant Leaps, 2026). The Plant-Based Opportunity report is the first plant-based innovation report produced by and from the plant-based industry, protein industry, national associations, and NGOs together — a step from participating in EU research programmes to setting the investment agenda they respond to. Most consultants rotate through one or two EU-funded programmes; Gerard's run covers six, plus the report now shaping the seventh conversation.

2026: A Season on Europe's Biggest Protein Stages

June to October 2026 concentrate Gerard's public-facing work into a single season: the European Commission and European Parliament in June, Protéines France, then Hybrid Foods Europe in September and the Future of Protein Production in October — both in Amsterdam.

He presented at the European Commission on 25 June at the Giant Leaps final conference, and briefed the European Parliament on plant proteins on 24 June — a pairing that reflects the EU's own protein strategy discussions through 2026. At Hybrid Foods Europe, 14–16 September at Van der Valk Zuidas, Amsterdam, he presents on the market opportunity for plant-based foods in Europe — on the stage of the conference he co-founded. His advisory reach extends into the boardroom as well: he currently holds advisory board positions at the True Animal Protein Price Coalition and the World Agriculture Forum, with past board roles at Konscious Foods and International Development Enterprises (iDE). Gerard has received over 100 international speaking invitations across the global value chain in the past 20 years, from IFT and the governments of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Finland, France, and Singapore (A*STAR) to Euvepro, Plant-Based Foods Europe, EIT Food, Wageningen University, AOCS, and Donau Soja. He can be booked for presentations through FoodConNext Foundation.

That sequence means policy signals from Brussels reach the Hybrid Foods Europe programme within weeks, not the usual year-long lag between EU strategy publication and retail-floor relevance.

Why Hybrid Foods Needs This Kind of Thought Leadership

Hybrid foods require someone fluent in crop science, retail category management, and EU regulation at the same time, because a hybrid product fails if any one of those three misfires. Plant-based specialists alone miss the retail margin conversation; retail specialists alone miss ingredient functionality; policy specialists alone miss both. Gerard's combined record is what lets Hybrid Foods Europe run all three conversations in one Amsterdam room.

Table: Gerard Klein Essink's Advisory and Ecosystem Roles at a Glance

Take-Home Messages

Commercial:

• A 2002–2022 Bridge2Food track record with a successful exit, plus FoodConNext's 100+ member ecosystem, shortcuts the usual due-diligence cycle on new hybrid ingredient partners.

• Parallel mandates in Canada (Protein Industries Canada, Pulse Canada) and Australia (GRDC) put European teams one call from two major pulse and grain economies.

• The Plant-Based Opportunity report maps where €3 billion of European innovation investment is being argued for — useful intelligence for anyone deciding where to place R&D budget.

• September's Hybrid Foods Europe is the only 2026 touchpoint where this network converges in one room; Gerard also presents there on the European plant-based market opportunity.

  
  

Technical:

• Gerard's Horizon Europe record tracks onto today's hybrid meat, dairy, and fish reformulation challenges, from functionality to allergenicity assessment.

• The GRDC report connects Australian crop breeding traits to food-application performance — relevant to sunflower and pulse sourcing.

• Pulse Canada's lentil work maps a European entry point for a crop under-used relative to pea and soy.

• His open-innovation work with Cambridge University and teams at IFF/DuPont, Avebe, and GEA Westfalia connects academic protein science to industrial process reality — the same bridge hybrid formulators need.

  
  

Verdict & Next Step

Europe's protein transition has no shortage of commentators. It has very few people who have built and exited a 20-year industry community, sat inside six Horizon Europe programmes, briefed the European Parliament, advised two national grain and pulse industries, and authored the sector's €3 billion investment agenda — then translated all of it into a retail-floor conversation. Gerard Klein Essink is one of them, and Hybrid Foods Europe is where that view gets put to direct use.

The programme convenes retailers, brand owners, ingredient buyers, and R&D leaders across the hybrid food value chain at Van der Valk Zuidas, Amsterdam, 14–16 September 2026. Registration before 21 August saves up to €300, and this scale of cross-sector access does not repeat until next year's cycle. Register for Hybrid Foods Europe to meet Gerard and the wider FoodConNext community in person.

About FoodConNext Foundation

At FoodConNext Foundation, we believe that the future of food lies at the intersection of innovation, sustainability, and global collaboration. Our foundation is dedicated to accelerating the transition toward more resilient and responsible food systems by connecting key stakeholders across the agri-food ecosystem.

Our Mission

FoodConNext Foundation exists to bridge gaps in the global food system — bringing together entrepreneurs, researchers, policymakers, and investors to co-create solutions that address some of the world's most pressing challenges, including food security, sustainability, and nutrition.