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food Marketing - Technology 4/2023

food Marketing & Technology is the international magazine for executives and specialists in the food industry.

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Ingredients<br />

IFT FIRST Focuses on the Future of Food<br />

by Donna Berry<br />

Pandemic, natural disasters, inflation<br />

and war, these are just some of the<br />

global crises that have impeded<br />

progress across the <strong>food</strong> science<br />

community at a time when new<br />

solutions are most needed to feed<br />

the growing global population. These<br />

challenges were addressed at IFT<br />

FIRST, the annual meeting of the<br />

Institute of Food Technologists (IFT),<br />

a nonprofit scientific organization<br />

committed to advancing the science<br />

of <strong>food</strong> and its application across the<br />

global <strong>food</strong> system, which was held<br />

on July 16 to 19, <strong>2023</strong>, in Chicago,<br />

Illinois.<br />

IFT FIRST means Food Improved by<br />

Research, Science and <strong>Technology</strong>.<br />

It is IFT’s response to the<br />

transformative nature of the global<br />

<strong>food</strong> system. This year’s theme<br />

“Innovation in a Time of Crisis: Can<br />

We Future-Proof the Food System?”<br />

was the focus of this year’s scientific<br />

program and exposition.<br />

“Our global <strong>food</strong> supply is facing<br />

new challenges that require new<br />

solutions,” said Christie Tarantino-<br />

Dean, chief executive officer of IFT.<br />

“Our top global <strong>food</strong>-science leaders<br />

recognize this and are guiding the<br />

technology and innovation movement<br />

that is driving our <strong>food</strong> systems<br />

forward today.”<br />

The opening keynote address<br />

on “Embedding Innovation into<br />

Everyone’s DNA” was delivered<br />

by Duncan Wardle, former head of<br />

innovation and creativity at Disney.<br />

His words set the stage for the event.<br />

“Don’t let ‘no, because’ be the first<br />

words out of your mouth,” said<br />

Wardle. “When a team member<br />

presents a new idea, respond ‘yes,<br />

and’ in order to encourage innovation.<br />

“You can program AI to paint the Mona<br />

Lisa, and it might be able to recreate<br />

it perfectly stroke by stroke, but it’d<br />

be incredibly difficult to program a<br />

machine to possess the curiosity<br />

and creativity that prompted Da<br />

Vinci to paint her in the first place,”<br />

according to Wardle. “While AI may<br />

one day replicate the core human<br />

traits, I don’t believe it’s coming<br />

anytime soon. The next decade<br />

belongs to those of us who can tap<br />

into our creativity, our intuition, our<br />

curiosity and our imagination, and<br />

leverage these uniquely human skills<br />

to disrupt and innovate the next wave<br />

of incredible discoveries.”<br />

One such discovery is on the fasttrack<br />

within ingredient technology.<br />

It’s the upcycling of side streams of<br />

<strong>food</strong> manufacturing into valuable,<br />

edible products.<br />

“Agricultural and <strong>food</strong> processing<br />

by-products, such as fruit and<br />

vegetable skins, pulp, seeds and<br />

stems can be defined as low-value<br />

or scrap materials, written off in<br />

the manufacturing plant ledgers,<br />

Senior couple jogging_©BAZA Production_shutterstock_1629522379 source BENEO<br />

<strong>food</strong> <strong>Marketing</strong> & <strong>Technology</strong> • August <strong>2023</strong><br />

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