E T H I C S I N F O O D
SUSTAINABLE
FOODS SUMMIT KEY
OUTCOMES
Amsterdam’s Sustainable Foods Summit aimed to explore new
horizons for eco-labels and sustainability in the food industry.
Some of the key outcomes of this 11th European edition are…
facing the food industry. Her
company is ramping up production in
order to meet surging demand.
New technologies changing the
face of retail. Toby Pickard from IGD
outlined the implications of digital
trends on the grocery industry. Giving
examples, he showed how retailers
are having to adapt their physical
stores and provide new delivery
mechanisms. The future maybe with
staff-less stores (Amazon Go), drone
deliveries (JD.com), and direct-tofridge
deliveries (Walmart).
Ethical egg labelling scheme
takes off. It is estimated that up
to 6 billion male chicks are culled
each year because they are the
wrong gender. Martijn Haarman
from Seleggt gave details of its new
identification technique that prevents
the hatching of male eggs. Eggs
that remain after using the technique
are labelled ‘Respeggt’ and are
currently available in Rewe and
Penny retailers in Germany. In June,
the German Federal Administrative
Court supported the new technique
to prevent the death of male chicks.
Array of green packaging
materials. There is growing
investment into sustainable
packaging materials, with some
new plastic alternatives presented
at the summit. Agrana is creating
thermoplastic starch from plant
sugars; the material is used to make
compostable packaging for fruits and
vegetables.
Markus Kainer, ceo of the Austrian
firm VPZ, showed how it is taking
cellulose from wood to make
PackNatur, which is used in net
packaging. Futamura is also making
cellulose-based biopolymers to
make compostable packaging. Its
NatureFlex material is now used
in a range of food and beverage
products.
Going plastic-free. There was a call
to go plastic-free by Frankie Gillard
from A Plastic Planet. According
to her organisation, over 6.3 billion
tonnes of plastic waste has been
produced since the 1950s and
only 9% has been recycled. It is
encouraging more retailers to follow
EkoPlaza and Thornton Budgens
and develop plastic-free aisles. Its
new Plastic Free Trust mark is given
to products and packaging that meet
its criteria.
Rising market share
of sustainable foods.
Adoption rates of ethical
labelling schemes continue
to rise, with over a quarter of all
coffee and cocoa now produced
according to third party sustainability
schemes. Amarjit Sahota, founder of
Ecovia Intelligence (event organiser)
showed that organic is the dominant
ethical label, with sales surpassing
US$100 billion in 2018. A concern
is the proliferating number of ethical
labelling schemes could dampen
consumer demand.
Economic risks of climate change.
Tobias Bandel from Soil & More
explained how climate change is
affecting soil fertility and crop yields.
He called for farmers to reduce
economic risks by building farmsystem
resilience via crop rotation
and diversity, green manure and
crops, and biomass recycling.
Re-directing food waste. Food
waste is a major sustainability issue,
with an estimated one third of all
food produced going to waste. Al
Overton from Planet Organic showed
how the retail chain has attained zero
waste (edible food) status. It donates
surplus food to the Olio Food Waste
Heroes programme. In 2018, Planet
Organic donated 11 tonnes of food
from its seven stores, helping to
provide 55,000 meals to people in
need.
Adding social value in supply
chains. Sustainability schemes like
Fairtrade and UTZ Certified have
improved farmer conditions, but
have done little to improve poverty
levels, according to Julia Gause
from FairAfric. The company is
‘de-colonising’ supply chains for
chocolate by producing in Ghana.
The company says making organic
chocolate in the West African country
generates five times higher income
for producers than sourcing cocoa
alone.
Getting a flavour for plant-based
foods. The global market for plantbased
foods is projected to reach
USD 5.2 billion in 2020. Givaudan
research shows that 52% of
consumers stay in the plant-based
category because of taste. The
flavourings firm calls for companies
to take a targeted approach when
developing products for the diverse
consumer groups that now consume
plant-based foods.
Power of plant proteins. Heather
Mills, public figure and founder of
V-Bites, believes the food industry
is at the cusp of a plant-based
revolution. In her closing keynote,
she said such foods provided many
solutions to sustainability problems
26 AUGUST 2019
/(JD.com
