As the year draws to a close, FoodBev is kicking off its retrospective on the past 12 months in the global food and beverage industry with the eight best video interviews published on FoodBev.com in the past year. From major industry leaders talking about sustainability and nutrition issues to exciting start-ups exhibiting their products for the first time, we’ve seen a lot throughout 2018 and have given platforms to important voices.
Here is our selection of some of the best interviews published on FoodBev.com this year.
Cans are the packaging of choice for premiumisation…
At BrauBeviale 2018, FoodBev’s Alex Clere spoke with Olivier Goffin – vice-president of beers, wines and spirits for Gebo Cermex – who said that cans are becoming the packaging option of choice for beverage brands placing greater importance on premiumisation. Cans offer a unique 360° experience in terms of branding and, as craft considerations grow, consumers are changing their perception of cans and other packaging formats.
In some parts of the word, the tendency towards bottled beer or canned beer can be radically different, even between neighbouring countries: take Thailand, which traditionally has opted for bottles, and Vietnam, where the can is the preferred option.
See the interview in full here…
…but cartons are ready to swoop in and steal share
At Anuga FoodTec in March, Tetra Recart vice-president Anders Lindgren spoke about the company’s carton offering and how it intends to use its sustainability credentials to steal share from metal cans. Lindgren believes that one of the most promising signs has been the reaction of small- and medium-sized can makers, many of which are approaching Tetra Recart at shows like Anuga FoodTec to explore how they can move forward. Some conversations even follow the lines of ‘I know the can is dead, let’s talk’, Lindgren says.
‘Gut-friendly’ ancient grains
Gut health is a big issue, and will continue to play a starring role next year. At Health Ingredients Europe 2018, FoodBev’s Martin White spoke to Malte Schottmayer from Goodmills Innovation about the company’s range of gut-friendly ancient grains.
As well as discussing the digestive benefits of 2ab Wheat, which the company originally unveiled at last year’s show, Schottmayer unveiled the company’s latest ancient grain ingredients, RutinX and the White Gold wholegrain concentrate.
DSM and Mixfit on developing more personalised nutrition
One of the most fascinating relationships of the year was that between DSM and Mixfit, who have worked closely together to think about improving personalised nutrition for everybody. With targeted functionality in the food and beverage industry, the problem is that manufacturers rarely think beyond demographics – age groups, need states, genders. But Mixfit has developed a pioneering in-home drinks dispenser that gives consumers a daily beverage full of all the vitamins and minerals that consumers need – facilitated by DSM functional ingredients – based on a nutrition profile uploaded from their wearable fitness device.
FoodBev spoke with DSM’s Maria Pavlidou and Mixfit’s Marco Iotti at Vitafoods Europe in May, before DSM extended its relationship with the US-based company by acquiring a 50% stake in July.
Pavlidou said: “We’re so excited about Mixfit. It’s a company that DSM invested in; it’s a start-up. They’re working on this really innovative machine that will be able to deliver personalised beverages at home that contain the nutrients that your body is missing.”
Flavour and functionality at the drop of a cube
At SIAL Paris 2018 – always a hotbed of innovation – we spoke with Olivia Jazwinski, account manager for Waterdrop Microdrink, which are small cubes in different flavours that can be dropped into plain water to release various functional benefits.
Jazwinski explained: “We want to encourage people to shift away from sugary, bottled beverages, and really get more into the consciousness of drinking more water, living healthily, and using natural fruit and plant extracts instead of artificial aromas to drink more water.
“As we are a young company, we really had great networking abilities here at SIAL. We hope that within the next weeks and months we will find someone to help us enter more European markets – everything beside Austria, Germany, and Denmark.”
Beer that you can see being poured
Back at BrauBeviale, MISA’s Alexandra Mayer and Michael Mayer talked us through a different type of innovation: a helictical glass beer tower that can withstand 110kg of brute force and holds exactly half a litre of beer in its glass tubing (designed for Bavarian beer steins) hygienically and attractively. The Taptube is all about offering consumers in premium bars and taprooms an experience when their beer is poured. And, as we know that consumers are increasingly interested in what goes into their beer, the tower takes it that one step further by showing them what comes out of the tap. The transparent nature of it is reinforced by glass handles that fix to the top of the tower, and can be filled with ingredients such as hops.
Alexandra Mayer said: “For the breweries, it’s an image thing so they can present their product in a really nice way. For sure this is not a mass product; you can use it for very special locations, so the customers who are interested, they really pick it for their special restaurants, bars and showrooms.”
A natural, fresh approach to tea
At Food Matters Live 2018, Harriet Jachec spoke with Andrew Walker, founder of Tea Rex, about the brand’s natural approach to tea products.
Naturalness, and freshness, are currently seen as significant consumer trends for both food and beverages – and Walker said that Tea Rex has utilised this in order to enhance the flavour profile of its products.
“If you dry anything, you lose the flavour and any natural goodness that was contained within it,” Walker said. “With fresh ingredients, you get all the benefits of the flavour, but you also get natural vitamin C, the soluble fibres, and the goodness contained in a slice of lemon in hot water.”
A new way of creating cold brew coffee
At Vitafoods Asia 2018, Jules Scully spoke to Julian Lee, international sales manager at Nextbio, about the benefits of cold brew coffee for the foodservice industry as well as for final product manufacturers. Using a unique grinding system, the firm crushes coffee beans at a low temperature which is said to minimise the loss of taste and aroma, while a high concentration rate strengthens the flavour.
“What we specialise in is the way we grind the coffee bean into a perfect shape,” he said. “If you grind it too fine, then the water gets stuck and it doesn’t go through the filter. If the powder is too big or in the wrong shape, the water goes through so quickly and it doesn’t contain that much flavour and taste of coffee,” Lee said. “So, we designed the perfect shape of the fine grind of coffee so that it gives the best taste.”
© FoodBev Media Ltd 2024