Experts believe future food innovation must create win-win situation for all stakeholders

experts-believe-future-food-innovation-must-create-win-win-situation-for-all-stakeholders

The panelists spoke about the forward-looking innovative ways to create a win-win situation for all the stakeholders in the food business

Discussing the forthcoming trends in the area of food processing and innovation, the panelists of the webinar on the topic ‘Exploring the Era of Food innovation: Trends in Food Processing Ecosystem’, voiced various points to create a win-win situation for all, right from increasingly making the agribusiness more viable for the farmers through secondary agriculture i.e. Food processing, to finding more innovative ways to help the citizens of the world combat nutrition-related diseases like malnutrition, obesity, etc.

FICCI under its Centre for Nutritional Excellence organised the sixth webinar of its series of webinar on “Future of Nutrition – Exploring the Health and Wellness benefits in the Food Ingredients ecosystem” on 18 December.

Moderated by Rajendra Dobiyal, Director – Scientific & Regulatory Affairs (India and South West Asia), Coca Cola India, the panelists of the discussion included Dr Suman Khanuja, Former Director – CIHAP (CSIR) Lucknow; Varun Deshpande, MD, Good Food Institute India (GFI); Sridhar NB, Senior Business Development Manager, Rice Fortification, DSM; Mihir Joshi, Marketing Manager – South Asia, DuPont Nutrition & Lifesciences, and Abhinav Srivastava, Head – Regulatory Policy & Intelligence, Amway.

Kickstarting the discussion, Dobiyal highlighted that to date a large number of people are still malnourished, while there are some children still faced with obesity as worrisome morbidity. Children and their lifestyle being more indoors and sedentary currently, there is a change in food habits that are also being seen. Urging that Food scientists, markets and regulators have the task to make the diet of the children more nutritious Dobiyal sought the panelists’ reactions to how to safeguard nutrition and also farmers’ welfare through food processing and new-age innovation is the need of the hour.

Dr Khanuja pointed out that during the Green Revolution, we as humans shied away from consuming nutrient-rich crops and made rice and wheat our staples, where slowly nutrition-related diseases stemmed from. One must not look at food just as a production system but must look at the ABC of it, with ABC standing for Agriculture, Biology and Chemistry, he opined. He viewed that the nutrient-rich crops were slowly making it back and gaining prominence now. “FFOODS translating to Functional Foods is the way forward,” he added.

Deshpande spoke about the importance of alternative protein space given that the current animal protein farming leads to increased carbon footprint and adverse impact on the environment and climate change. “It is indeed the need of the hour given the sustainability aspect. As we build back from the pandemic, we need to know how to look at our foods and make them more cruelty-free, sustainable and profitable. Here is where alternative protein comes into play. There is a cadre of experts looking at the space. It is still nascent as of now in the country but has a lot of potential moving forward. We need much more multi-stakeholder collaboration for it is an obligation and opportunity to create a healthy and just environment.”

Talking about the importance of biofortification of staples to help the masses combat malnutrition, NB said, “To fortify staples is the most convenient way to help plug a deficiency present in the masses. We did quite a bit of innovation in what kind of nutrients could be added to the 5 main staples. Rice fortification is a post harvesting fortification. We at DSM ensure that the fortified kernels must cook like rice and taste like rice given to have wider public acceptance. In India, 98 million pounds of rice is consumed. FSSAI has done a good job to see how rice fortification can be pushed and communicated to the citizens of the country. It has ensured that the information is disseminated in more than 14 languages through various media.”

Joshi expressed, “One of the key things is to bring out products faster by having close collaborations. We are doing a lot of great work for our customers through GFI, which is helping us as big corporations too. We all know – taste and organoleptic are important for the consumers. Consumers are looking at more of in-home convenience that out of home convenience now. Also, the talk of the town is health. From the consumers’ side, all of them want good health but they lack the measures to find ways to maintain good health. We as a food ecosystem need to educate them about the same.”

Speaking about the importance of supplementation in the wake of the pandemic, Srivastava said, “We combine best of nature and the best of science. Malnourishment and obesity and micronutrient deficiency and now with Covid and after Covid, these have grown manifold. Due to this nutrition is taking a centre stage. As a nutraceutical industry, we are looking at formulating and giving the consumers the dietary solutions that they need. The entire landscape is about deficiency, but moving forward we need to look at the efficiency model and health policies should look at supplementation and fortification to overcome the issue of vitamin deficiency. An ounce of prevention is worth the pound of cure.”

Speaking about how the innovation will help benefit farmers, Dr Khanuja opined that the customer is not looking at only what the marketers are describing as the ‘healthy factor’ in their products. “When someone said food is medicine, it did not mean it must taste like it. When we say organoleptic, it is not just the taste, but the look, smell, colour and then the texture of the food. A series of sensorial things to accept the food formula. That works for the science and in turn the farmers. If we say nutraceutical crops, it will be great to hear from farmers that they are farmers of proteins, antioxidants, Omega 3 fatty acids. When the industry trends show us demand for such micronutrients, we start looking at bringing back the crops which are rich in micronutrients. Pseudocereals – Amaranth, etc., are some good examples of these crops. Bio horticulture – Fruits and vegetable consumption has been ignored. Kokum is known to manage weight very well. Why can’t we have a tea of pomegranate which has high immunity boosting micronutrients? It is time where through tech, we can put the ongoing controversy to rest by allowing the farmers to process nutrient-rich foods and be succesful entrepreneurs instead of them demanding MSP. We must look at creating a value chain for buck wheat, chia, and encourage our farmers to grow these kinds of crops.”

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