Success stories

Cheese in a new dress
With the "Heidi-flower cheese" the Swiss cheese market has a new innovation since summer 2009. Orange-yellow marigolds and blue cornflowers turn the cut surface of a mountain cheese (a Grison semi-hard cheese with herbs) into a flowering mountain meadow. On the shelves of major retailers this attractive and unusual appearance attract the interest of the widest possible clientele.

Improving food quality with new information technologies
For SMEs in the agriculture and food industry, quality management is an important task and requires a large amount of manpower and high investment in training. In a joint research project three pilot companies have developed specific solutions  for their targeted specific problems to improve their quality control with the application of new information technologies.

Wine casks - now made in Switzerland
Oak trees are generally considered to be of secondary importance in Switzerland. In recent years their potential has not really been harnessed. Wine lovers, however, do still appreciate their worth: wine that has been fermented in casks, small oak barrels able to hold 225-228 liters, is highly sought after. Until now, Swiss wine producers have imported all of these casks from France. However, as a part of a CTI project, researchers at the Changins School of Engineering, a department of the University of Applied Sciences of Western Switzerland, together with experts from a range of fields, worked to develop Swiss-made casks. The good news is that since winter 2007 it has been possible to enjoy Swiss wine that is branded 'Terroir chêne'

Bio-caviar from the foot of the Lötschberg
Caviar is traditionally associated with Russia or Iran. Now, however, Switzerland is also able to compete. While drilling the Lötschberg base tunnel, miners came upon warm water ideal for breeding the Siberian sturgeon. In a project funded by CTI, Tropenhaus Frutingen Plc, a start-up company, together with researchers from the University of Bern, tested wether this species of fish was actually able to thrive in mountain water. The imported fish are now fully grown and commercial production of the first two to three tonnes of caviar from the Bernese Oberland is imminent.

Charlotte or Lady Felicia?
All potatoes cook differently. Some prove mealy, others remain firm. Even potatoes of the same variety cook differently, which is why the cooking instructions on packaging are often of little use to consumers. In a project funded by CTI, researchers at the Swiss college of Agriculture investigated key factors influencing the cooking properties of potatoes: their starch content and genotype. It will soon be possible for bags of potatoes to do exactly what they say on the label.