It’s been a busy year for the FoodBev team – from discovering the latest innovations to covering shows across the globe – and along the way we’ve spoken to all sorts of interesting characters and organisations from major household names to start-ups with grand ideas of being the next big thing.
Here’s a collection of our favourite podcasts from the past year.
Paul Lederer, who once worked for Innocent Drinks, saw success in 2015 with his birch water brand Tåpped and it is this brand that has helped to forge a new beverage category. Paul told Claire Phoenix of how he came to launch in this sector.
You can listen to the interview here.
Darren Wood spoke with Aneesh Bhasin of Hipcask as it looks to develop India’s first smartphone spirit and wine app that looks to tailor consumer’s purchasing habits depending on their individual tastes.
Tetra Pak held a sustainability roundtable to discuss progress with renewable and recyclable cartons and caps. Claire Phoenix went along to interview the company’s environmental directors. Sustainability communications director Irene Gedeon talked about how cartons protect people, the planet and their futures – with no need for refrigeration or preservatives.
Global product manager of environmental innovations Omer Emran explained how 75% of a carton is renewable paperboard with 25% the aluminium and polymer protective layers. Vice-president environment Mario Abreu explained how Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-compliant cartons have increased in popularity from the first pack sold in 2007 to 185 billion FSC packs sold in 2015.
And finally, Christina Chester, product director for the carton gable top, talked us through progress with the world’s first fully renewable carton, which launched a year ago in Finland with Valio.
As part of our three-part series on key issues surrounding packaging, Darren Wood spoke with Daphna Nissenbaum of TIPA Corp, which makes sustainable compostable packaging; Dr Gail Barnes, a technical expert on sustainability; Menashe Hazarie of Plastopil, which is a specialist in creating flexible packaging solutions; and David Wilson of Optima, the creator of manufacturing and processing machines for the packaging sector. In this podcast, they set out to answer issues about sustainability.
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It is projected that, by the year 2050, nearly 80% of the earth’s population will reside in urban centres and that, in the meantime, we’ll see the human population increase by about 3 billion people.
Darren Wood spoke with urban agriculture consultant Henry Gordon Smith about vertical farming and ways to solve the problem.
Consumers are becoming more health-conscious and this is leading to an increase in the popularity of natural, low-fat, low-sugar foods. As such, food and drink brands are looking for ways to reduce their product’s sugar content without the use of artificial sweeteners. Jessica Gay spoke with nutrition expert Sharon Palmer, who’s known as the plant-powered dietitian.
Harry Harrison and Josh Bentham met over five years ago while working for Lego; bonding over a love of charity work, the two then decided to enter the edible insect market and discover the main psychological barriers stopping people in the West eating insects. Harry and Josh explained to Darren Wood that, while doing their research into setting up Mophagy, they realised that the infrastructure in Europe wasn’t in place to support the market.
You can listen to this interview here.
Founded in 2012, Natural Machines is a company leading the 3D printing revolution in food. It’s recently launched Foodini, a 3D food printer that looks to change our vision of home cooking. Foodini is an Internet of Things (IoT) kitchen appliance that uses fresh ingredients, which the user prepares at home, to create meals and elaborate edible creations. Jess Gay spoke with Natural Machine’s co-founder, Lynette Kucsma.
As part of our three-episode series on start-ups, Darren Wood spoke with three professionals from various sectors of the food and beverage industry about key issues surrounding start-up companies.
Food and beverage accelerators can be useful to entrepreneurs who are looking to move their start-ups forward. In addition to mentorship and training, many accelerators will offer funding, co-working space, and introductions to angels and venture capitalists that are looking to fund businesses. As part of our three-episode series on start-ups, Darren Wood spoke with Andrew Ive, the managing director of Food X; Tara Mei of Kitchen Table Project; and Simon Lacey of Grocery Accelerator. They talked about the role of accelerators with new businesses and what is being looked for in a start-up.
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