How the food industry can excel – hot takes from Future Food-Tech

The great and good food and drink innovators gathered this week for Future Food-Tech 2024 in London to celebrate and collaborate.

Along with a great line-up of expert speakers, exhibitors and table top discussions, FoodNavigator’s editorial team teased out the juiciest nuggets, insights and thoughts from delegates.

Here are the top three takeouts from the show.

Share to innovate: Nicholas Robinson, editorThe role of data sharing in the future success of not only food and drink NPD, but advances in food and drink sector technology, was a firm thread I pulled from this year’s Future Food-Tech event in London.

Businesses are rightly cautious – or perhaps more likely dismissive – of sharing data. Data has become the most valuable commodity across the entire value chain. Though it’s not much use if companies don’t utilise it, and even less powerful if it’s telling only part of a story.

It was NotCo CEO and founder Matias Muchnick who best and succinctly framed​ the argument for data sharing. “NPD is broken, I honestly believe that,” he told me over drinks at the show.

And why is innovation broken? Because most FMCG businesses can’t truly move beyond the last piece of innovation they’ve launched.

Often innovation is a variation of something already on the market or a revival of a past idea. Think to parts of the alcohol industry, with its reliance on flavour variations. The same can often be said for the confectionery, snacks and many other sectors – launch a new flavour, shape, texture, colour…

Admittedly, it’s a bold statement that’s not wholly true. But not quite untrue either.

There is previously unseen – real​ – innovation in this space. That was evident at scale during Future Food-Tech. But it’s very much kept within the sector. Consumers aren’t seeing it en masse and that means they’re not buying it.

“When was the last billion-dollar idea in food? It was decades ago,” Muchnick shrugged in answer to his own question, no doubt tired of repeating his arguments for stronger collaboration and shared data.

That’s the way forward, he argued. But food and drink businesses – especially the giants – need to not be so uptight about data sharing. Why? Because none of us are going to take giant steps forward without getting over these hesitancies and fears.

Read more: Alt meat’s slow progress: who’s to blame, government or business?​​Mycoprotein’s finished being quiet and about to raise its game​​Is food and drink innovation broken? Lessons in getting it right​​Putting health centre stage: Donna Eastlake, deputy editorI had a great time at Future Food-Tech this year. Seeing so many start-up businesses entering into the industry, with exciting new ideas was inspiring, particularly when it’s faced so many environmental and economic challenges in the past 12 months. But the real stand out trend for me was health and wellness.

From discussions on the latest research, showing how food and beverages affect the gut-brain axis, to a breakfast with Nestlé, dedicated to championing nutritious solutions for women’s health, the industry was all in on this emerging trend.

“There has been an explosion in research in this space over the last decade,” said Richard Day, vice president of Medical Affairs & Clinical Development at ADM, while speaking on the effects of diet on gut health.

What’s more, the industry is becoming aware that healthy food and beverage options need to be convenient.

“The food industry has a role to play in making healthier choices the default choice and the easier choice,” said Stacey Lockyer, senior nutrition scientist for The British Nutrition Foundation.

“It’s about making sure that health is the default,” agreed Lauren Woodley, group nutrition leader for Nomad Foods.

I’m looking forward to seeing what the next year holds for the food and beverage industry in the health and wellness space as this trend develops.

Read more: Future Food-Tech 2024: Exciting innovations from the show​​Innovation into the familiar: Augustus Bambridge-Sutton, senior reporterWhile, like previous Future Food-Tech events, this year focused on exciting new frontiers within food, we also saw companies start thinking about innovations as new ways to develop the familiar.

The cultivated meat sector, for example, is keen to emphasise that it is ​meat in the way people know it, just meat produced in a different, more sustainable way.

Fermentation start-ups are emphasising humanity’s long history of using fermentation in foods we have eaten for thousands of years. Even alternatives for raw materials are not wholly new: cocoa-reduced chocolate, one panellist pointed out, dates back to World War II, when cocoa rationing in the UK got people to think more creatively about chocolate ingredients.

In short, innovation does not need to be about creating something wholly unfamiliar; it can be about different, often more sustainable ways of giving people what they’ve already had for a long time.

Read more: Three hot start-ups designing and creating sector-challenging proteins​​