Founded by the Vevey-based Nestlé multinational, the Alimentarium is a food museum. It holds a permanent exhibition on the theme: “cooking, buying, eating and digesting”. It broaches diverse topics, such as the transformation of food by cooking, food safety, major distribution, small-scale and industrial production or the metabolism of digestion. Food professionals are regularly invited to answer the visitors' questions.

The Alimentarium gives preference to temporary interactive exhibitions, particularly cooking workshops. Its cafeteria proposes dishes in line with the exhibitions presented.

The Alimentarium also describes the history of Nestlé, which was founded by Henri Nestlé in 1867, a pharmacist who invented baby powder milk. Nestlé first made itself a name with dairy products and chocolate.