Top four ways that companies are driving change for good

This month, big changes are happening at FoodBev. We’re delighted to announce a brand new magazine – called simply FoodBev magazine – that will combine all of our print offerings in the food, beverage and dairy sectors. One magazine, one go-to place for all of the biggest news and trends.

To celebrate, here’s four ways that companies have been driving change in their areas of the food industry.

Dash Water

Dash Water is a newly launched brand of healthy drinks, made from the “wonky” fruit and vegetables that would ordinarily be wasted or rejected by supermarkets.

The brand, which has a strong focus on provenance and impressive health credentials, will be featured in the very first issue of the new FoodBev magazine in October. For this and more exclusive content, make sure you’re subscribed for FoodBev magazine.

Dash Water aren’t the only company doing something different with unwanted fruit and veg. Food retailer Pod launched a range of juices made with wonky fruit in June, and last year Swedish supermarket Coop Sweden said that it would start selling “ugly” produce.

Starbucks and One Water

The coffee goliath has just announced that it will be rolling out its partnership with ethical water brand One Water into five new European countries, meaning that the water it offers in over 700 stores will be supporting a good cause.

The One Brand uses its profits to fund water projects in the world’s poorest communities and has raised over £14 million to date, transforming the lives of over 3 million of the world’s most vulnerable individuals. This includes £200,000 raised as a result of its collaboration with Starbucks in the UK over the past three years.

Charities like One Water are playing an important role in helping to re-invest profit from the food and drink industry in community projects in the developing world.

Fishing companies

In May, a group of more than a dozen companies with interests in the fishing industry committed to not sourcing cod or haddock from parts of the Barents and Norwegian Seas, amid concerns that melting Arctic ice caps could allow companies to turn vulnerable marine habitats into new fishing grounds.

Any action to reduce the impact of commercial fishing may be somewhat retrospective, but this valuable step from the likes of Tesco, Young’s and McDonald’s will help to limit the spread of detrimental fishing and protect marine environments in the Arctic Circle.

Brands that can say their fish is sustainable, line caught, and even – in the case of Okains Bay Seafood from New Zealand – in keeping with Māori culture, will manage to attract positive attention and incremental sales from increasingly conscious consumers.

Arla

There’s little doubt that dairy farmers are among the industry’s most under-pressure producers, hit by falling consumption of dairy milk and increasing price pressures. But companies like Arla, the Danish dairy cooperative, are at the heart of a slow but important counter-culture.

In July, it announced that it would release a branded range of semi-skimmed and whole milk that allows consumers to pay a £0.25 premium, shared out between the cooperative’s farmer-owners in Europe and the UK. It had already developed a similar own-label range for supermarket Morrisons.

And the past couple of months have seen improving fortunes for dairy farmers in both Europe and North America. In July, the European Commission outlined details of €500 million’s worth of extra funding for farmers in the face of “ongoing market difficulties”, followed by the USDA’s decision in the US to embark on a $20 million programme of cheese “bailouts”, designed to reduce a level of surplus that had reached three-decade highs. In the past few weeks, there have also been signs of milk prices bouncing back after 18 months of decline – first from Arla, then from FrieslandCampina and today Müller.

Want to receive more features like this? Find out more about FoodBev magazine here.