Food sustains and nourishes us; it is the glue that binds families and whole nations together at mealtimes – each time we gather around the table, we honor the past, experience the present and prepare for the future. Beyond the kitchen, food also increasingly connects us to a global food network where the worlds of politics, economics, the environment, culture, and science come together. A web that is shaping and reshaping itself every day – demanding that we make the most of the planet’s resources so as to guarantee adequate nutrition for all.
See our full article here, co-authored by Valerio Nannini, CEO and founder of Nannini & Partners and Patrick Ferran, Co-President and Chief Sales Officer of NineSigma.
Key Challenges:
1. Healthy & Delicious Food: By leveraging the collective power of retailers, restaurants, schools and other providers, it should be possible to positively influence how food is produced and marketed, to make the processes of food production healthier as well as the food itself. Consider, for example, plant-based proteins that require far fewer natural resources in their production than their animal counterparts. Smart, creative food design can help protect the bio-economy.
2. Circular Economy – Upcycle Food and Its By-Products: Cities play a crucial role in designing-out food waste. Food supply and demand can be better synced, spoilage reduced due to improved storage, and products that are coming up to their best-before date, discounted. Meanwhile, food by-products can be converted into a wide array of valuable products.
3. Smart Packaging & Sustainability: Recycling packaging is not an option anymore, all players engaged in the value chain are completely reinventing how consumers will handle ingredients, pre-cooked food, or interact with the brand differently… And consumers will adopt brands who are taking care of sustainability while offering a true opportunity to enable “smart behaviors”.
While the challenge may seem overwhelming as a whole, focusing on one key piece could bring disproportionate benefits: the world’s great cities. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation estimates that by 2050, around 80% of all food will be consumed in urban conurbations. Today these metropoles tend to represent much of what is negative about the current food system, ultimate examples of the take-make-waste approach we have adopted over time. But by the same token, cities can and should be beacons of change, leading the way in a shift to a circular economy for food, where food ‘waste’ is upcycled and the production of food is centered around regeneration versus degradation of natural systems.
Open Food and Beverage Challenges on NineSights
HEALTH: Leveraging Pea Protein Properties in Beverages
PepsiCo seeks to incorporate pea protein concentrate into low pH beverages. Consumers are looking to peas as a promising protein source – they are rich in proteins which can be isolated to make pea protein concentrates (PPC). The goal of this project is to identify pea protein concentrates that are suitable for usage in low pH systems or to find technologies capable of processing PPC so that they may be used in low pH environments.
INNOVATION JOURNEY: Ohio Soybean Council Innovation Gallery
OSC was founded in 1991 to manage the Soybean Promotion and Research Program—more commonly known as the soybean checkoff—which collects funds from Ohio soybean farmers and invests those funds in ways that benefit the industry. Key activities include investing in soy-based product development and working to bring new soy-based products to market.
PACKAGING: Sustainable Packaging Materials for Fresh or Frozen Ready Meals
Fazer is releasing a new brand of plant-based ready meals by 2020. In an effort to support a circular economy, Fazer would like to use recyclable sustainable materials. They are seeking packaging alternatives using material that is plastic free or a fully recyclable plastic, able to work with low/high moisture content products and provide shelf life stability over a range of 1 week to 3 months.