Grassa, the Dutch foodtech company turning grass into high-value ingredients, has won the Transition Award 2026 in the Food category. The award was presented by Change Inc. and advisory firm nlmtd at the Transition2026 event in Amsterdam on 23 June, where an independent expert jury selected the winners from 135 entries across the Netherlands. Chief Commercial Officer Suzanne van den Eshof accepted the award on behalf of the team.
The Transition Awards recognise projects that move beyond ambition to deliver tangible environmental, social and governance impact, with a particular emphasis on collaboration and scalability. In the Food category, the jury singled out Grassa for an approach that addresses two structural problems at once.
Through biorefinery, Grassa presses, heats and filters grass to extract high-quality plant proteins, prebiotic sugars and minerals. Because cows no longer need to process those proteins through their own digestion, nitrogen emissions fall by around 30 percent, while the fibre-rich grass that remains can be fed back to livestock as roughage. The isolated proteins, in turn, serve as ingredients for both animal and human nutrition. As Suzanne van den Eshof noted, grass can replace imported soy as a protein source. At scale, that points to a way of reducing the Dutch manure surplus and the country’s reliance on imported soy in a single move.
For BVP, the recognition confirms a conviction we backed early, that the grass beneath our feet is one of the most underused resources in the European protein system, and that biorefinery is the technology to unlock it. Grassa pairs a clear environmental case with a clear commercial one, which is exactly the combination we look for across our Agrifood portfolio.
Grassa was nominated alongside a strong field of food innovators, including Anthesis Group, Ruuts, The Flower Farm, Seaweedland, Nedmag and Vegan Fisherman. The depth of that shortlist says a great deal about the momentum behind the Dutch food transition.
Our congratulations go to Suzanne and the entire Grassa team, and to everyone working to build a food system that is both better and within reach.
