10 minute read
Alternative food processing technologies
Professor Anet Režek Jambrak, from the Faculty of Food Technology and
Biotechnology at the University of Zagreb, Croatia Her main area of expertise lies in advanced thermal and nonthermal food processing techniques (ultrasound, microwaves, high pressure processing, pulsed electric fields, plasma, AOP).
Professor Anet Režek Jambrak,
Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology at the University of Zagreb, Croatia
“The aim of using alternative food processing technologies is to achieve the desired inactivation of microorganisms, reduce energy consumption, optimise time-consuming processes, and satisfy consumer requests. Nowadays, one of the biggest challenges is to scale up the readiness level of these novel technologies to an industrial level. The food industry should also focus on zero-waste processing, waste management and the sustainability of food packaging.”
“While thermal techniques have been used for decades, high-temperature processing can be responsible for the deterioration of nutritive, functional, and organoleptic properties. Therefore, several nonthermal techniques had been evaluated for their potential in food preservation. So far, only high-pressure processing has satisfied requirements in terms of microbial inactivation, when used alone in food preservation. The use of other nonthermal processing techniques is industrially viable only in combination with moderate heating, to ensure the required food preservation effect.”
“Nonthermal technologies are sustainable if we use them to reduce or reuse food waste. It is very important here to perform life cycle assessments (LCAs), to confirm their sustainability. Novel nonthermal and improved thermal processing techniques can offer more efficient energy consumption and quality and impact positively on food quality.”
“At DIL in Germany, the energy balance and LCA of pulsed electric fields and high-pressure processing technologies were recently compared to conventional thermal processing applied to the preservation of tomato and watermelon juices. At the pilot scale, both pulsed electric field and high-pressure processing technologies presented lower energy consumption expressed per litre of juice. At DIL, they are also producing pulsed electric field equipment in pre-treatments of potato to reduce oil consumption, and to speed up the frying process.”
Visit Fi Global Insights to read the full interview with Professor Anet Režek Jambrak https://bit ly/food-production-sustainability
Packaging beyond plastic
The food and beverage sector's reliance on plastic packaging is acknowledged as problematic, even though it provides the ability to protect products from contamination and degradation throughout the supply chain
According to the Center for International Environment Law, 99% of plastic is made from chemicals sourced from fossil fuels, and demand for plastic packaging is driving controversial extraction techniques, such as hydraulic fracturing (fracking) Moreover, plastic waste is a massive global problem Each year, up to 12 7 million tonnes of plastic enters oceans 59
Manufacturers are driving packaging innovations by laying down targets on virgin PET use and promoting circular resource use For example, PepsiCo's target is to reduce virgin plastic content across its beverage business by 25% by 2025; 60 and Coca Cola aims for every plastic bottle to contain at least 50% recycled plastic by 2030 61
One significant innovation is enhanced recycling, such as the process developed by Ioniqua Technologies that breaks down the components of plastics that would not normally be recycled (such as bottles retrieved from the sea), strips out the impurities from lower grade materials, and reconstructs the remaining, pure components into food grade materials 62
New, compostable alternatives to plastic packaging are also emerging For example, Italian start-up Qwarzo, the winner of Fi Europe 2019 Startup Innovation Challenge63, created a nanotechnology sol-gel that can be applied to paper to form a thin, flexible, inert layer of silica dioxide that renders it water-proof and grease proof The material, which is compostable and recyclable, can be used for wrapping or shaped using injection moulding into solid packaging, caps, or even cutlery 64
Source: Fi Europe 2019 Startup Innovation Challenge, interview with Italian start-up Qwarzo
Greening transport and logistics
Transport and logistics can account for a big share of manufacturers' environmental impact because their activities are often dispersed across a large geographical area, to be close to input sources and ensure market coverage
The UK's Food and Drink Federation has published a 10-point checklist to encourage fleet operators to adopt more sustainable practices 65 These include prioritising transportation by train or ship wherever possible
General Mills, for example, combines shipments for Green Giant Sweetcorn, Old El Paso, and Nature Valley, all of which are manufactured in south west France or northern Spain, sending them by sea from the Port of Bilbao to Liverpool 66
Other tips from FDF concern reducing the impact of road haulage where it cannot be avoided, such as for small loads and the final stage of a journey. How a vehicle is loaded, how it is driven, and how it is maintained can all make a difference, as can use of modern vehicles that comply with the latest EU emissions standards and run on alternative fuel
Britvic is one company that set out to green its road fleet, aiming for 10% electric and alternative vehicles by 2020; by 2019 it had already reached 18%, with 30% of new vehicle orders for hybrid vehicles Average CO2 emissions across Britvic's fleet are now 103g/km.67
Off-site - or rather, between sites - optimising distribution routes contributes to emissions reduction Telematics and tracking can recommend the best routes during a journey, while software can preemptively create the shortest connections between goods and customers, saving distance, costs and CO2. Südzucker uses software to optimise distribution between its 25+ factories and refineries, warehouses, and delivery destinations 68
According to a white paper by Coca Cola Europe and Cranfield University, big data, block chain, and the Internet of Things enable tighter operations and resource savings, revolutionizing quality assurance and efficiency.69 For instance, Coca Cola Europe established an Automated Storage and Retrieval Warehouse at its Sidcup site in the UK, resulting in a reduction of 10,000 road miles (16,093 km) per year and 3,800 tonnes of CO2
Is consumers’ perception of sustainability shifting as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak?
Julian Mellentin is the founder of New Nutrition Business, expert consultancy services to ingredient and branded product companies on all aspects related to nutrition and health since 1995
Julian Mellentin, Founder, New Nutrition Business
“Consumers will be prioritising health and hygiene for a while and that in the next 12 months is where the focus of your efforts should be. But for the longer term sustainability is an unavoidable must-do and should be equal on your agenda, if not now, then certainly 18 months from now. If today you prioritise it above hygiene and health, you are not aligning yourself with most consumers’ priorities and you may come to regret such a decision.”
“Covid-19 has mostly accelerated trends that were already there. For example, from direct-to-consumer (D2C) business to the growing consumer interest in provenance and more local products and ingredients, this change has been gathering pace since about 2008. Even the biggest companies have embraced it, with giants like Danone marketing products with locally-sourced ingredients, such as its Fruits d’Ici (translation: Fruits from here) yoghurt brand. For many consumers locally-sourced – or some other clear provenance – means sustainable and a ‘provenance’ strategy is one way to deliver sustainability now and also address consumer concerns.”
“Everyone who cares about the environment wants to see an end to disposable coffee cups – and more people were taking their own refillable mugs to the coffee shop. But in early March, as coronavirus was gaining momentum, Starbucks suspended the use of personal cups and tumblers at its stores around the world to help prevent the spread of coronavirus. And thus we were reminded that safety and protection are two of the functions of consumer goods packaging. Getting rid of it to save the planet may not be as easy as we think. Consumers want less plastic packaging – but they also want to feel secure. For the next 18 months many people (maybe most) will prioritise the second over the first.”
“Many retailers have already taken swift action to eliminate the contamination risks that they and consumers see in self-serve. For example, in the US, Stop & Shop has eliminated all self-serve stations. My Mochi Ice Cream, America’s biggest brand of Japanese-style ice cream, has launched single-serve ice cream balls ‘packaged individually for optimal quality and freshness, while ensuring food safety’. The new plastic, single-serve pack will appear in what was the self-serve freezer, where the company previously retailed unpackaged ice cream balls for consumers to selfselect with tongs.”
Source: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mymo-mochi-ice-cream-introduces-individual-singleserve-packs-in-retailers-nationwide-301043894.html
“Post-crisis, some retailers and manufacturers may have to think about additional or different protective packaging products. While still keen to lessen the environmental impact of packaging, some consumers will put personal health first. Rather than do-it-yourself, bring-your-own container programs, we may instead see the application in many categories of containers – just as glass milk bottles have long been used for home delivery reusable - that are supplied by the retailer or the brand-owner, returned by the consumers and sanitised for reuse by the vendor.”
“A replacement for plastic will need to provide the same security and shelf-life as plastic – while also scoring well on sustainability. In premium markets there has already been a small shift back towards glass (in liquid milk for example) and we can expect that to continue. In the mass market plastics – even single-use plastic cups – with their re-assuring sense of protection will continue to hold sway for some time yet.”
“Consumers’ attitude to food safety has changed with the COVID-19 outbreak - playing things safe with familiar brands rather than taking a risk on new things, packaged rather than loose goods. Recently, safety was not an opportunity in developed markets, since consumers simply took is as a ‘given’ – a guaranteed, unthought-of aspect of their food supply – from the 1930s onwards. But in Asia (and particularly China, where there is a long history of food safety scandals, and little faith in domestically produced food) safety was always an important consumer reassurance and selling point.”
“In the West a small but not insignificant percentage of consumers will be paying more attention to safety. Transparency in the supply chain - communicating where you source your ingredients, from, whom you source them, where you make your products – was an existing trend which will become more valuable for consumers.”
Sources
1 https://population.un.org/wpp/Publications/Files/WPP2019_Highlights.pdf 2 https://www.ipcc.ch/assessment-report/ar5/ 3 https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/ 4 https://www.fooddrinkeurope.eu/news/press-release/fooddrinkeuropes-orientation-paper-on-sustainable-food-systems/ 5 https://www.ipcc.ch/assessment-report/ar5/ 6 https://www.kearney.com/consumer-retail/article/?/a/when-consumers-go-vegan-how-much-meat-will-be-left-on-the-table-foragribusiness7 https://wickedhealthyfood.com/2019/02/21/launch-of-good-catch-fish-free-tuna/ 8 https://agfundernews.com/this-plant-based-meat-startup-4-7-million-in-seed-funding.html 9 https://www.ojah.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Press-release-Ojah-BV-announces-the-launch-of-The-World’s-First-Vegan-Ribs.pdf 10 https://www.novameat.com/ 11 https://www.givaudan.com/media/trade-media/2019/givaudan-unveils-breakthrough-masking-solutions-for-seven-proteins 12 https://www.roquette.com/media-center/press-center/20191202-plant-based-proteins 13 https://www.foodbev.com/news/denmark-invests-in-microalgae-research-as-sustainable-protein-source/ 14 https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2019/07/04/Start-up-champions-new-mushroom-protein-for-unprocessed-meat-substitute 15 https://www.suikerunie.com/suikerunienews/suiker-unie-to-produce-protein-from-plant-leaves/54 16 https://medicalnewsbulletin.com/could-the-mankai-duckweed-plant-be-the-new-superfood/ 17 https://mycorena.com/ 18 Fi Global Insights, How sustainable are meat alternatives? https://insights.figlobal.com/sustainability/how-sustainable-are-meatalternatives 19 Fi Global Insights, How sustainable are meat alternatives? https://insights.figlobal.com/sustainability/how-sustainable-are-meatalternatives 20 Fi Global Insights, How sustainable are meat alternatives? https://insights.figlobal.com/sustainability/how-sustainable-are-meatalternatives 21 Fi Global Insights, How sustainable are meat alternatives? https://insights.figlobal.com/sustainability/how-sustainable-are-meatalternatives 22 https://www.mosameat.com/our-story 23 https://www.aleph-farms.com 24 https://www.meatable.com/ 25 https://www.highersteaks.com/ 26 https://shiokmeats.com/ 27 https://www.kearney.com/consumer-retail/article/?/a/when-consumers-go-vegan-how-much-meat-will-be-left-on-the-table-foragribusiness28 https://www.rethinkx.com/press-release/2019/9/16/new-report-major-disruption-in-food-and-agriculture-in-next-decade 29 https://solarfoods.fi/solein/ 30 https://solarfoods.fi/our-news/solar-foods-go-to-market-execution-begins/ 31 https://www.airprotein.com/press-release 32 https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev-food-032818-121204 33 https://equi-nom.com/ 34 https://www.foodnavigator-latam.com/Article/2020/02/06/Novel-and-natural-food-coloring-developed-from-fungi-by-Silicon-Valleystart-up 35 https://crispr.corteva.com/ 36 https://calyxt.com/ 37 https://www.mpg.de/13761643/scientists-call-for-modernization-of-the-european-genetic-engineering-law 38 http://www.fao.org/food-loss-and-food-waste/en/ 39 https://caffeink.net/ 40 https://www.kaffebueno.com/ 41 https://coffeecherryco.com/ 42 https://www.planetarians.com/ 43 http://www.agraalimentation.fr/eit-food-acceleration-network-annonce-ses-laur-ats-2019-art455213-2.html 44 https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2020/02/06/Healy-leverages-cocoa-shells-for-natural-sugar-reduction 45 https://www.riseproducts.co/about 46 https://www.fumiingredients.com/ 47 https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/862957 48 https://www.kattegatcentret.dk/files/AlgeCenterDanmark/Folder_RegionMidt_2013_EN_red.pdf 49 https://www.vttresearch.com/en/news-and-ideas/food-40-vtt-leads-way-era-smart-food-production
50 https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/news/pressreleases/2016/september/new-ai-driven-cleaning-system-could-save-food-manufacturers100m-a-year.aspx 51 https://coca-colahellenic.com/Campaigns/AnnualReport2018/assets/pdf/Coca-Cola%20HBC%202018_IAR_p26-62_15Mar2019.pdf 52 https://www.unilever.com/news/news-and-features/Feature-article/2014/ben-and-jerrys-turns-ice-cream-into-energy.html; http:// crreport.kelloggcompany.com/conserving-natural-resources 53 https://www.veoliawatertechnologies.com/en/case-studies/mars 54 http://www.fdfscotland.org.uk/sfdf/five-fold-2014-kelloggs.aspx 55 https://www.unilever.com/news/news-and-features/Feature-article/2019/we-now-use-100-per-cent-renewable-electricity-across-fivecontinents.html 56 https://www.mars.com/news-and-stories/press-releases/mars-tackles-climate-change 57 https://www.generalmills.com/en/News/NewsReleases/Library/2019/April/Wind-power-agreement 58 http://crreport.kelloggcompany.com/conserving-natural-resources 59 https://www.ciel.org/reports/plastic-health-the-hidden-costs-of-a-plastic-planet-may-2019/ 60 https://www.pepsico.com/news/press-release/pepsico-accelerates-plastic-waste-reduction-efforts09132019 61 https://www.coca-colacompany.com/au/news/world-without-waste-coca-cola-progress 62 https://www.coca-cola.eu/news/marine-bottle/ 63 Fi Europe 2019 Startup Innovation Challenge in Category: Most Innovative Process, Technology or Service Supporting F&B Industry
Winner: https://insights.figlobal.com/start-ups/interview-qwarzo-fi-global-startup-innovation-challenge-2019 64 https://www.qwarzo.com/ 65 http://www.fdf.org.uk/transport_efficiency.aspx 66 https://www.supplychaindigital.com/company/general-mills 67 http://www.fdf.org.uk/ambition2025-britvic-transport.aspx 68 https://www.suedzucker.de/en/company/sustainability/planet/logistics 69 https://www.cokecce.co.uk/system/file_resources/401/CCE_Cranfield_Sustainable_Manufacturing_for_Future_March_2016_Final_
Version.pdf; https://www.themanufacturer.com/articles/supply-chain-optimisation-through-automated-warehousing/
The information provided here was compiled with due care and up to date to the best of our knowledge on publication.
