Food Matters Live returned to London this week bringing together 800 exhibitors, 400 speakers and thousands of visitors from across the global food and drink sector. This year, we not only attended the event, but we also exhibited, gave a presentation in one of the many stages, and took note of the most interesting companies at the event.
Food Matters Live is dedicated to creating cross-sector connections focused on the future of food, drink and sustainable nutrition. From 20-22 November, the event provided a platform to share game-changing ideas, innovations and insights. The ambition was to encourage cross-sector debate and collaboration to change the future of food and drink, and the health of the planet for the better.
We had a stand, and we presented at the event. Our Business Development Manager, Stuart Coetzee, took the stage to show how technology can halve food waste and reduce costs in just a few clicks. “Reducing food waste come with a clear business case - measuring and monitoring waste can help companies reduce their environmental footprint and deliver significant cost savings. Winnow found that addressing food waste systematically and with the right tools can be transformative for foodservice businesses”. Said Stuart Coetzee.
In addition, we had the chance to listen to other engaging discussions, and take note of the new products that are helping businesses have a more efficient operation, and helping consumers have a healthier diet. In case you missed the event, we selected 4 of the most interesting companies to watch from Food Matters Live 2018.
Mimica created a innovative freshness indicators for all types of perishable products. Their first product, Mimica Touch, is a label that tells you exactly when food spoils. When the product has reached the end of its shelf life the gelatine-based gel that is present inside the label reacts to changes in the packaged food and temperature outside resulting in a molecular breakdown. The packaging then develops bumps, making it easier for consumers to see and feel if food is no longer safe. This way, Mimica allows consumers and industries to only throw food away when they are absolutely sure that the product is no longer suitable for consumption. This is important because currently, use-by-dates are simply an estimation of how long a product will last at a specific temperature. Mimica Touch reduces food waste and improves safety.
Nutrilicious combine both healthy nutrition and sustainability. They use a product that is normally wasted, pumpkin seeds, and turn them into healthy nutritional snacks for everyone. When explaining about their product, the founders Amit and Aadil, use the word “everyone” because a very common problem between both their families is an allergy to nuts. And, this was one of drives to the creation of their snacks. Basically, the snacks consist of crunchy pumpkin seeds coated in spices or Belgian chocolate. Believe it or not, pumpkin seeds are so high in protein, that their snacks have more protein percentage than a portion of chicken. It is unbelievable to think that such as nutritious product is normally wasted.
Rubies founder, Jenny, started reading about the problem of food waste after seeing the amount of discarded produce at markets across London. Fruits and vegetables often end up in the landfills because they simply don’t look perfect. This is equivalent to 1.3 billion tonnes of food worldwide every year. If we reduced this amount by just 1/4, there would be enough food to feed everybody on the planet.
The scale of the problem of food waste got Jenny thinking about what could be done with all this surplus produce. Armed with some family recipes and rescued produce she developed a range of relishes, ketchups and mayos . Today, Rubies in the Rubble’s products are solve in supermarkets and delis across the UK. All their products are made sustainably, from surplus ingredients that would otherwise go to waste.
The team at Sens, want to make insect eating the new normal. They believe that eating insects is the easiest way to rapidly improve the sustainability and quality of our diet. After reading the 2013 FAO document called Edible Insects, which summarized all research that has ever been done on insect eating, the founders saw that having an insect diet make sense from both social and economic points of view. Insects are an inexpensive and nutritious source of protein. With this vision, they founded SENS. They focus on insect flour, starting with cricket flour, and communicate the nutritional, sustainability, and ethical benefits it has while demonstrating how tasty it can be.
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