FoodNavigator Investigates: From AI to UPF
The food and beverage industry is exciting, innovative and absolutely essential. It’s impacted by everything from the environment to artificial intelligence, making it extremely complex. Which is where FoodNavigator comes in. Our extensive ‘watch’ series delves deeper into each of the most important subjects affecting the industry today.
Do you have a burning question about the food and beverage industry? Or even about a particular brand? Is there a subject you want FoodNavigator to investigate? Get in touch and tell us your thoughts. Because, if it matters to you, it matters to us.
Table of contents
AI watch
Cultivated meat and seafood watch
EUDR watch
Gut health watch
Plant-based watch
UPF watch
AI watch
While some fear artificial intelligence spells the end of humanity, others back its potential for positive disruption. How’s this playing out in food and drink? We bring you the latest…
Mitigating the risk of extinction from artificial intelligence should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.
This is the perspective of non-profit Center for AI Safety, backed up by executives at OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Bill Gates.
But not all working with AI are as concerned about a potential doomsday scenario. In the food industry, the technology is being leveraged to optimise inefficiencies across almost all areas, from agriculture through to new product development, food safety and even retail.
If used wisely, AI holds real promise to create positive disruption. How are food and beverage makers leaning into algorithms and machine learning?
Cultivated meat and seafood watch
Cultivated meat, despite only being on the market in one country (Singapore), is on the rise.
Cultivated meat, or cultured meat, is meat grown by culturing animal cells. It aims to produce a lower environmental impact than that of animal agriculture, as well as a more authentic taste than plant-based meat.
We've seen a range of cultivated meat products, to the normal such as chicken, to the slightly unconventional such as eels, to the wildly unorthodox such as mammoth.
EUDR watch
The EUDR deadline is now just months away, yet many suppliers and manufacturers remain unprepared for the changes. We’re cutting through the noise to bring you the latest on this complex new law.
The 30 December deadline, for implementation of the European Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), looms large on the horizon and in the minds of suppliers and manufacturers of the seven affected commodities.
From that day onwards, all beef, soy, cocoa, coffee, rubber, palm oil and wood products, imported into the European Union (EU), must be sourced from sustainable sources. Furthermore, suppliers and manufacturers must obtain certification to ensure the origin of the commodity and prove compliance.
However, while many support the new law and its aim to cut deforestation, the EU has also seen huge opposition from suppliers, manufacturers and even governments. Why? The scale of the task and lack of support.
We look at all the ways EUDR is impacting the food and beverage industry as the deadline approaches.
Gut health watch
The gut health trend is on the up and up, with consumer interest continuing to grow. So, how is the food and beverage industry serving this unstoppable trend? We bring you the latest…
The gut health trend, and by extension the gut health industry, has undergone an astronomic rise over the past decade.
Where once upon a time, the gut was a subject discussed solely by dieticians and doctors, now it is the part of the common vernacular and fuels a billion-dollar industry worldwide. We look at all the ways the gut health phenomena is impacting the food and beverage industry as it continues to grow and evolve.
Plant-based watch
The plant-based industry has faced some serious difficulties in recent years. So, what’s next for animal-free foods and beverages. We bring you the latest…
Whether for animal welfare, environmental, or health and wellbeing reasons, consumer interest in plant-based eating has been on an upwards trajectory since it first rose to prominence around a decade ago. What was once considered the lifestyle choice of the few has grown so significantly in popularity that it is now very much considered mainstream.
And while the plant-based sector has experienced challenges, including affordability and negative links to ultra-processing methods, it has continued to evolve and grow, weathering the storms and proving it’s very much here to stay. In fact, there are now an estimated 79 million vegans worldwide and, according to market intelligence firm, Statista, the global vegan food market has reached a value of 24.6 billion USD.
We look at all the ways plant-based eating is impacting the food and beverage industry as it continues to develop over time.
UPF watch
Ultra-processed food is making headlines. In our rolling coverage of UPF, we unpack the good, the bad, and the confusion around this classification of products. Here’s the latest…
If you haven’t heard of ultra-processed food, you’re likely in the minority. UPF has made a splash in the media of late, with researchers linking the classification of packaged food products to poor health outcomes.
But the more we delve into the ultra-processed topic, the more complex it becomes. Proponents of food processing argue it’s not as simple as splitting whole foods into the ‘good’ category, and ultra-processed food into the ‘bad’.
Critics, on the other hand, say that ultra-processing directly feeds into Big Food’s strategy of how best to turn a profit.
If that sounds complicated, you’re not alone. Amongst consumers, confusion around UPF is at an all-time high, meaning that even if they want to avoid ultra-processed food altogether, they may not know how.
Surely baked beans aren’t UPF? Oh yes, they are…
