EIGHT KEY
OUTCOMES
FOR FOOD & BEVERAGE
Eight key outcomes have been identified at the 2018 executive
Sustainable Food Summits in Amsterdam and Singapore.
NZ FOODtechnology shares an overview of what they are:
1Proteins crisis in Asia - in
his opening keynote, Green
Common founder David Yeung
says the Asian food industry is facing
a sustainability crisis. The growing
population and changes in food
consumption are putting a strain on
protein production systems. Livestock
products generate about 15%
of all greenhouse gases and take
up two-thirds of agricultural land.
There are 1.5 billion cows on the
planet, generating 5.5 billion tonnes
of carbon dioxide - this is more than
all the carbon emissions of the UK,
Canada, Brazil, Australia, Germany,
Italy, France, Spain, Japan and
South Korea combined.
Pork is the most widely eaten meat
in the world, especially in Asia. China
houses almost half the global pig
population, with roughly 723 million
pigs reared for meat consumption.
Intensive pork production brings
environmental and health repercussions.
Ben McCarron presented
latest research from Asia Research
and Engagement, showing that
meat and seafood consumption in
Asia is projected to rise by 78%
between 2018 and 2050. The increase
will require an additional 7.1
24 NOVEMBER 2018
million km2 land area, 1 billion m3
water per annum, 39,000 tonnes of
antibiotics per annum, and generate
an additional 5.4 billion tonnes of
carbon dioxide per annum.
2 Potential of clean meat –
Israeli’s Supermeat co-founder
Shir Friedman believes
the future is with clean meat:
cellular meat grown in refineries.
She says clean meat overcomes
ethical issues concerning rearing
and slaughtering animals, whilst
providing consumers identical meat
products. After commercialisation,
her company is looking to license
its cultured meat technology to
conventional meat processors.
3 Address packaging impacts
- Food and beverage companies
are under pressure
to reduce their packaging footprint
because of growing awareness of
plastic pollution. Plastic pollution is
a major environmental issue in Asia;
Indonesia is the second largest
plastic polluter to the ocean. According
to Evoware, 90% of plastic
goes into the ocean with 70% of
that coming from food & beverage
packaging. A quarter of Indonesian
fish is now contaminated with
plastic.
EkoPlaza, the Dutch organic food
retail chain, has introduced plastic
free aisles in its stores. Chief
executive Erik Does says “the idea
behind the world’s first plastic-free
supermarket aisle was to show
what is possible. We do not want
packaging-free food, but plastic-free
packaging.” EkoPlaza is introducing
a plastic-free logo on its private
label products.
4Innovative packaging solutions
- At the summits, several
examples have been given
of plastic-free packaging. The Dutch
company EOSTA has introduced
‘natural branding’ laser marking for
its organic fruit and vegetables. The
move has saved 6.3 million plastic
packaging units, 88 tonnes of
plastic, and 396 tonnes of carbon
emissions.
Futamura is providing cellulose
based biolaminates for food
and beverage applications.
Its biolaminates have the same performance
as plastic films, but are
According to sales and marketing
manager Andy Sweetman, the
green packaging materials provide
greater consumer engagement and
positive PR. He gave the examples
of an organic tea company
that says the new material helped
raise sales by 64%. Innovation is
also occurring in Asia; Evoware is
making seaweed-based packaging
for foods, beverages and related
products. As well as biodegradable,
some of
the packaging is edible.
5Need for creativity - Organisations
are encouraged to be
creative in finding solutions
to sustainability challenges. Josenea
Bio founder Jesus Cia showed
what is possible when you ‘think
outside the box’. The social enterprise
has set up an organic farm in
biodegradable and compostable. Continued on page 26 >>>