Asia Pacific is set to undergo a revolution in the food industry, driven by factors such as a rising middle class, changing consumer patterns towards healthier options as well as the increasing scarcity of arable land due to climate change.
To combat the challenges posed by these different factors, Food Industry Asia (“FIA”) was founded in 2010 by a group of leading food and beverage companies to develop a unified voice for the industry in Asia. Building on the principles of sound science and public-private partnership, members are focused on ensuring food safety, regional development and the responsible promotion of balanced diets and healthy lifestyles.
However, recognising the need to accelerate transformation in Asia Pacific’s fast-growing market, FIA launched the inaugural FIA Food for the Future Summit (“the Summit”) on April 26th to focus on innovation in the food industry. Adopting a multi-stakeholder approach, it has brought together the giants of the fast-moving consumer goods (“FMCG”) industry like Danone and Coca-Cola, along with small-and-medium-sized enterprises (“SMEs”), start-ups, investors as well as government organisations and academia to explore innovation at every step of the value chain and facilitate the exchange of ideas.
Here are our two biggest takeaways from the event :
I. Consumer-First FoodTech
Whilst FoodTech has generally been developed to focus on current food challenges such as malnutrition and sustainability, there needs to be a pivot in how that relates to the end-consumers eating the food.
As shared by Ricky Lin of Life3 Biotech, a startup specialised in the development of meat-free protein alternatives, taste is a key aspect of the Asian food experience. He emphasised that if people do not like the taste of the food, no one will eat it even if they know it is beneficial for them.
FoodTech companies thus face the tough challenge of developing a balance of tasty yet nutritious food in order to onboard customers with these new food concepts.
A great success case is Alchemy Foodtech. The startup took two years of research and development (“R&D”) to ensure that 5ibrePlus™ – their patent-pending technology designed to lower the glycaemic index (“GI”) of traditionally high GI refined carbohydrates – did not significantly impact the taste, texture and appearance when used to fortify regular white jasmine rice. In doing so, Alchemy Foodtech has managed to offer consumers a healthier alternative without requiring that consumers undergo the big behavioural change that is a shift from white rice to brown rice.
Beyond the taste aspect, consumers are also hesitant to try alternative foods due to uncertainty about the underlying technologies used in creating these new types of food.
This has prompted companies like lab-grown meat startup Integriculture to launch projects like Shojinmeat – a project which uses do-it-yourself kits for high school students to begin culturing animal meat cells in the comfort of their own homes with just sugar and protein-rich sports drinks.
Shojinmeat’s Meat Culture Incubator made with easy-to-buy materials and ingredients.
By offering this level of radical transparency and ease of cultivation, consumers can plainly see how their food is developed and thus are more assured and comfortable with these new food technologies. Such developments also emphasise the importance of FoodTech companies developing a message which resonates with the end-consumer rather than focusing on the technologies used to develop their food innovation as the underlying technology is simply a means to an end.
II. Collaborative Development to Transform the Food Industry
Asia’s food industry also faces challenges in innovating due to factors such as the high cost of R&D, limited access to food technologies and expertise as well as regulatory issues.
Hence, to combat these challenges in Singapore, FoodInnovate was launched at the Summit. Led by Enterprise Singapore, it is aimed at helping local food companies adapt to industry disruption, tapping on expertise from the broader food ecosystem such as the knowledge of larger corporations and food science experts.
However FoodInnovate also intends go beyond just knowledge development by offering shared infrastructure for organisations to experiment; lowering the costs of R&D for new food innovations. Besides the development of new shared facilities, FoodInnovate aims to support institutions and corporates such as the Nestlé Quality Assurance Centre of Singapore (“NQAC”) – which provides analytical services for product testing – to share excess machinery capacity.
Singapore is also positioning itself as a base for agri-food startups, by creating an environment where government regulations support innovation and by building platforms for the cross-pollination of ideas.
Sophie’s Kitchen is a startup focused on the development of soy-free and gluten-free plant-based seafood.
For example, US-based Sophie’s Kitchen – a startup focused on the development of plant-based seafood – is working with the National University of Singapore (“NUS”) to explore the potential of new plant-based proteins which enables them to expand their capabilities in the manufacture of soy-free and gluten-free seafood.
Another strategy for collaborative development by FoodInnovate involves the creation of consortiums to drive innovation themes. These mirror the multi-stakeholder approach adopted by FIA by acting as platforms for co-innovation, idea and demand generation amongst companies, academia and government agencies.
An area of focus is on food waste valorisation; which aims to transform biological waste into useful materials.
FoodInnovate’s co-innovation strategy involves the use of multi-stakeholder consortiums to drive innovation themes.
In a study done by researchers from Nanyang Technological University (“NTU”) and NUS on the biomedical uses of fish scale collagen, they showed that fish scale-derived collagen could be easily obtained at low cost. Around 200mg of fish-scale collagen could be extracted from one or two fish, with the extraction process costing just US$3, compared to around US$150 for 100mg of collagen extracted from cattle or pigs. Besides the obvious cost benefit, the adoption of collagen from non-mammalian sources could also overcome the various biological and cultural issues traditionally associated with collagen from cattle and pigs.
Curious to learn more about other similar developments in Asia?
Check out our 3 Trends Reshaping FMCG in Asia to see what FMCG companies are doing to win in Asia’s fast-growing market or understand more about corporate collaboration between Grow Asia, Unilever, MUFG and Bayer from the inaugural Grow Asia Hackathon.