Anuga 2019: what did you miss?

11-Oct-2019 - Last updated on 14-Oct-2019 at 09:46 GMT

Anuga 2019 has been and gone, and as always, it’s the hub for food and drink innovation in Europe.

According to organisers, 7,590 companies from 106 countries took part in Anuga 2019 on an exhibition space covering 284,000m². These included 738 exhibitors from Germany and 6,852 exhibitors from abroad. Over 170,000 trade visitors from 201 countries attended Anuga 2019, a 3% year-on-year increase, 75% of these from overseas.

Gerald Böse, president and chief executive officer of Koelnmesse, the event organisers, expressed pleasure at how Anuga 2019 went. “The continual growth in the number of trade visitors and exhibitors confirms the excellent international standing of Anuga as the industry's most important business platform.

“This record result means we are continuing to write the success story of Anuga in its 100th anniversary year. No other event brings supply and demand together so effectively at such a high level of quality as here in Cologne. However, Anuga 2019 fulfilled the function as a window to the future more pronouncedly than ever as well. Strategic decisions for the entire food industry were discussed here, new solutions and concepts for the big challenges of the global food industry were presented too.”

Sustainability

Christoph Minhoff, chief executive director of the Federation of German Food and Drinks Industries (BVE), explained how sustainability was a major focus for this year’s show.

“The German food manufacturers were once again this year able to impressively demonstrate that they can already provide answers today as to how the future is going to taste. Here trends like ‘healthy and sustainable food’ are not only further establishing themselves, sustainability is actually taking on a new dimension among foodstuffs. If the politicians want to support the industry with this development, they have to solve the existing, conflicting goals between the reduction of packing, fighting food waste and food safety instead of dictating agreements.”

Anuga was also the launch-pad for some major meat-related unveilings. Check out our gallery of the meat and meat alternative products in the event’s innovation showcase. As well as new products, ABP launched new sustainable packaging while Kepak announced a major deal to export beef for the US burger market.

Roll on 2021.