Marcos Fava Neves

Innovation agenda for food industry and retailers

By Marcos Fava Neves (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-05-25 13:19

In our last story, I addressed that a food chain is a complex organization, and showed how innovation is important to keep a food chain competitive, discussing the agenda for farmers and input supply companies, at the beginning of a chain. Now I will move forward in the chain discussing the innovation agenda for food industry and for retailers in order to attend our demanding consumers. Since the food industry is in close contact with consumers' needs and desires, it is where most innovation is taking place. Consumers' needs and desires have been changing in a faster pace.

The industry must offer to us a healthier food, food products that act on beauty and longevity, to promote consumers welfare, offering more than products (convenience, culture, joy, fun). Examples are the movement of "slow food" and "fun and food". The food industry also needs to attend to the environmental concerns by promoting product recycling and substitution, fitting to the "food miles" movement, and to attend to the social concerns by promoting inclusion, wealth distribution and fair trade.

Feeling the pressure for more environmental friendly, healthier, and distinguished products, the agro-food industry has invested in an extensive agenda of innovation, and I would list some points that should be on the day to day thinking of these companies…

Related readings:  Innovation in integrated food chains  The world of retailers brands  The global food consumer  Land for Free… Is This Possible for Chinese Food Companies?

To develop recyclable and biodegradable packaging materials towards environmental concerns of buyers is a major point. Consumers don't want to see all this non recyclable packages all over. Another point being stronger developed is innovation regarding conservation, for instance, in order to increase shelf-life of products and reduce lost (in fruits and vegetables, more than 30 percent is lost).

Food flavor improvement is one of the most important parts of research. There is also a continuous look for innovation in facilitating storage of products and the bundle of innovation that lead to the reduction of transportation costs. Food transport is a concern due to losses, costs and environment.

In other hand, there is the innovation in food industry to develop processes that require less water usage and the need to reduce losses and wastes. One way of doing it is through promoting the use of byproducts.