Food Innovation - what’s on the menu
By Vivienne and Poornima, Co-Founders of Plantier
Last week we had the pleasure of attending several events at the Oikos’ Copenhagen Green Week 2019. (Oikos is a student-driven organisation for sustainability in economics and management). The closing event was an inspiring panel debate on food innovation with industry leaders from Chr. Hansen, Naturli’, Agro Business Park, Slow Food CPH and Danish Centre for Food and Agriculture. Whilst the general awareness and media hype is more recent, the food industry has been developing innovative solutions for some time. The need to address the increasing global demands on food is unquestionable, so what are the trends in food innovation that are enabling change?
Sustainability firmly on the agenda
As soon as we entered the CBS foyer, there was the instantly recognisable sea of coloured squares that make up the UN Sustainability Development Goals. It became very clear that they are at the heart of organisational strategy. With a focus on everyone collaborating to create a better, more sustainable future for all, the SD goals provide a blueprint of the targets that need to be achieved. Depending on the nature of the business, there may be a focus on one or more of goals.
Chr. Hansen shared the three Sustainability Development Goals they have at their core. They can report with confidence that 82% of their 3000 product lines meet with their selected goals.
Goal 2 - Zero Hunger - Terrifyingly, globally there are one in nine people who are undernourished, in numbers that is 815 million. This poor nutrition accounts for 45% of deaths in children under five.
Goal 3 - Good Health and Well-Being - Ensuring healthy lives and promoting the well-being at all ages is essential to sustainable development.
Goal 12 - Responsible Consumption and Production - Every year, approximately one third of all food produced is wasted during the course of the supply chain; from harvesting, through to transportation and also at the end, by either the consumer or retailer.
It has been reported that 93% of the world’s largest 250 companies are reporting on sustainability, reflecting the importance they place on it. Whilst this encouraging news, we all have a responsibility, whatever our role as: individual, family member, student, employee, business owner, leader etc, to be mindful of our actions and the combined impact they have.
Mindset Change
“Take the animal out of the equation”
Underlying many of the issues concerning food sustainability lies mindset change, what many are calling the next big ‘paradigm shift’ - a key message that many of the speakers stressed upon. Consumers have the power to make choices that have less of a negative impact on the environment. The CEO of Danish plant-based food manufacturer Naturli’, Henrik Lund, shared that their minced plant-based mince had a 19% lower carbon footprint (from field to finished product) than its beef counterpart. They have similar data for their plant-based butter and milk range. Henrik also shared that in Denmark, 51% of consumers want to eat less meat and companies like Naturli’ need to ensure that their products are tasty, and easy to cook. “Vegan, vegetarian - we embrace them. But we want to embrace the mainstream consumers” he said.
An interesting question was raised by a member of the audience, wanting to understand the focus that Naturli’ placed on producing plant-based versions of animal products. This is an interesting perspective, and one that purist plant-based advocates would also raise, as their focus is on embracing plants in their simplest, most natural form. The answer given was equally challenging. Over the last 50+ years, the (particularly) Western diet has changed to include significantly more animal produce and processed food. To say that reducing meat and dairy intake is going to be very challenging for many is an understatement, as consumers adjust their purchasing and cooking habits, as well their mindset on where their protein, calcium and iron etc are coming from. For want of a better analogy, the Naturli’ product range effectively offers a nicotine patch, providing familiarity instead of going cold-turkey. Their focus is very much on providing plant-based options for mainstream consumers who are wanting to make a change. This vision isn’t just a dream, data shows that only 12% of their plant-based mince is purchased by vegans or vegetarians. The 88% of meat-eating consumers purchasing the product are looking for a meat substitute, and this is what has driven a 5% market share gain in plant-based meat-alternatives from animal-based minced meat.
Education is the key enabler of this mindset change. Niels Halberg from the Danish Centre for Food and Agriculture called on the younger generation of Millennials and Gen-Z to really enable this shift in mindset about food consumption. With young people like Greta Thunberg calling on real action to tackle sustainability issues, there is hope that habits and behaviours will change as a result of the increasing education and awareness amongst the young.
Enabling and empowering
“the choice you make has an impact...paradigm shift from animal protein to plant protein”
To enable food innovation, Agro Business Park provide support to SMEs and larger organisations in the form of “Innovation, Incubation and Investment”. As representative Heidi Dyrholm explained, they “take ideas and make them become real”. Every September, food entrepreneurs have the opportunity to pitch their ideas to gain one or more of the following much needed factors for success: funding, partners, network. Every year the event offers an opportunity to win one of three prizes of 50.000dkk.
Jannie Vestergaard from Slow Food CPH, where the focus is on good, clean, fair food, identified three mega trends. These trends are, and will continue to impact food innovation and the empowerment of the consumer in relation to them:
Transparency - food manufacturers have a duty to clearly label food with all the information the consumer needs to make an informed decision on whether or not to purchase a product. We, as consumers have a duty to read these labels and to purchase responsibly produced and sustainable foods. Consumers have the power to make a difference through purchasing behaviours.
Health - the role of education plays a big part in the paradigm shift, from animal to more plant-based foods. This is also closely linked to the need for consumers to pay attention to food labelling.
Digitalisation (mobile and AI) - whilst this trend was particularly discussed, it is worth noting that in parallel to the paradigm shift, we are in the midst of the digital revolution. For example, in an article written by The Independent last year, titled ‘The surprising reason why veganism is now mainstream’, a correlation was drawn by between the rise in Google searches for ‘veganism’ and the rise in usage of social platform Instagram. The internet and particularly social media and apps, provide a wealth of opportunity to educate, engage, collaborate and innovate.
Perfect storm
Neils Halberg from the Danish Centre for Food and Agiculture talked about the environmental food crisis, in what he called “the perfect storm”. With a rapidly growing population more food is and will be required, this coupled with an increasing global middle class, is placing an unprecedented demand for meat production. The wealth of evidence of the impact that the consumption of animal based products has on both the environment and health demonstrates the need for rapid change. For generations, many nations have used food pyramids to advise populations on how to eat a balance diet. In light of new advice from the WHO and UN to adopt the ‘planetary diet’, reducing animal-based products and increasing plant-based produce, Niels called on the food industry to create a food pyramid for food sustainability.
take action - now
As the Dean of Education of CBS, Gregor Halff emphasized in his opening address at the event, we all have a duty to the larger community and environment - individuals, organisations and governments. This duty was a sentiment echoed by every speaker. The resounding message from the presentations and the panel debate is the need to take action now, not tomorrow or next week. To do this we need to work together, across nations and across generations. Engagement requires education, to raise awareness of the need to change our eating and purchasing behaviours, as well as the practical application of how.
If you know of a restaurant, caterer or organisation wanting to know more about awareness and application of adopting a more plant-based diet, please get in touch. We would love to understand more and discuss how we could work together.