A taste of what's to come

By Dr Trevor Davis, Global Subject Expert, NPDI in Consumer Products, IBM

As technological advances increase in sophistication and consumers demand food that combines health benefits with authenticity and sustainability, we will see the evolution of smarter foods.

“...the public are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of the sustainability implications of their food choices.”
-Dr Trevor Davis, Global Subject Expert, NPDI in Consumer Products, IBM

The use of technology is essential to create an increasingly instrumented, interconnected and intelligent food chain. For example, using sensing and tracing technologies such as radio frequency identification and barcodes will enhance visibility as food moves through complex processing steps, lowering waste and confirming provenance.

Bringing intelligence to the food chain also means supporting marketing claims through capturing, leveraging and sharing standardised data and integrated information on the functional properties of products. Hence the expression, "an apple a day keeps the doctor away," embodies two major trends in the future of food: the notion of a product that is at the same time authentic (traceable from ‘the farm to the fork’) and natural, yet also having health giving, functional properties in the same way as one might think of a medicine.

Much of what we eat today is simply a development of what nature has provided for us in the past. Historically, mankind has worked towards improving agricultural yields and controlling pests rather than understanding the impact of foodstuffs on human biology. Until the late 20th Century, changes in food consumption were driven by farmers and food processors. They re-formulated older recipes and experimented with selective breeding of crops and animals in order to provide alternative food options.

However, in recent years these practices are being overtaken by new techniques. These techniques involve genetic modification to develop plants and animals with more desirable traits, enabling better agricultural productivity and increased beneficial effects of consumption. Genetic modification also offers the prospect of a reduction in pesticides and hormones in the food supply chain; not wholly natural cultivation, but a step towards those principles.

Genomics isn’t the only game in town, however. There is currently a rapid growth in the appliance of biological and nutritional sciences (and related disciplines such as bioinformatics) to foodstuffs. During the 1980s the Japanese coined the phrase 'functional food' to describe products that could claim health benefits on their labels. Making these claims requires evidence-based science rather than marketing spin. The functional food (and related nutraceutical) market is expected to exceed $100bn this year, and so is a key focus for many R&D departments of food and beverage companies.

There have already been scientific and commercial successes with fibre and vitamin enrichment of cereals, omega-3 and 6 fatty acids in spreads, energy boosting formulations in sports drinks and probiotics in dairy products to aid digestive health. Even small improvements driven by scientific claims can have a big impact: within one year of reaching the US market, Campbell’s Reduced Sodium Soup exceeded $100m in sales.

Science isn’t the only driver for functional products. Consumers are more aware of the role of diet in health, appearance and wellness. For many years low-fat and low-sugar alternatives sufficed, but today’s ‘omni-consumers’ have access to more information and are more demanding. This is particularly true in the wealthier markets with aging populations where foods that promote longevity and vitality are viewed as part of a preventative health regime and a means to delay the broader effects of ageing. This can mean natural ingredients with newly proven functionality, as well as the latest molecular engineering output. Products in the development pipeline even include ‘cosmeceuticals’ that will improve your hair and skin condition from the inside out.

There is still a degree of scepticism about such marketing claims and this has led to the establishment of numerous specialist centres such the UK’s first Research Centre dedicated to Functional Foods at Oxford Brookes University. The services offered to the food industry show the direction that the leaders are taking: measurement of metabolic rate, analysis of blood glucose and lipids such as cholesterol, monitoring of hormones such as insulin, and provision of a wide range of exotic technologies for measuring sensory responses and examining food structures with electron microscopy. All of this is a far cry from the familiar chemistry laboratories of the 20th Century food scientist.

Added to which, the public are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of the sustainability implications of their food choices. Support for NGOs such as the Rainforest Alliance is based on a growing realisation that the current model for food production, distribution and consumption is not sustainable. For example, based on current population trends, there will be a definite requirement to increase the food supply 70-100 percent by 2050. Agriculture is already the largest human use of water and occupies an estimated 69 percent of total landmass. Issues such as climate change and drought, volatile energy prices, arable land limitations and the diversion of land for biofuels are increasing pressure for greener alternatives.

The hysteria over what has been commonly described as 'GM foods' is well documented – the public view of these ‘frankenfoods’ has typically been less than positive. It may be, however, that the widespread concern over sustainability issues may lead to a less strident opposition to these foods as the public comes to understand the benefits of Genetically Modified Organisms. For example, a USDA-ARS, Mars, and IBM joint project is currently sequencing and analysing the cacoa genome. The aim is to produce a cacoa tree that can thrive in soil that has been depleted of nutrients, drought or water shortages. These trees will protect the livelihood of small farmers in the Americas and Africa and at the same time enable Mars to achieve fully sustainable production by 2020.

Sustainability concerns are also fuelling the rise in fair trade as a global movement and the myriad of certification schemes such as the Marine Stewardship Council and Protected Harvest. Recently there has been a dramatic rise in long-distance, cross-border trade in food: in the US, imports account for nearly 60 percent of the fruit and vegetables consumed, and 75 percent of the seafood. The impact of food miles on carbon emissions is significant, and despite complex regulations, inspection regimes do not prevent food scares occurring, some with tragic consequences on a vast scale. Is it any wonder that consumer desire for more local, ethical and authentic approaches to food production also continues to grow?

The global organic food market is a one indicator of consumer preference for authenticity and that market alone grew to over $50bn in 2008. However, beyond the requirement for organic food, consumers are seeking a clear understanding of provenance (with full traceability and safety control), limited quantities of artificial additives, humane animal husbandry and traditional farming methods. Chain retailers such as Marks & Spencer include the name of the farmer or grower on labels as well as the specific UK county the food was produced in. Some producers, such as Capricorn Cheeses in Somerset even put the picture of named goats on their produce to re-enforce authenticity. RFID tags and sophisticated analytics are making all of this easier.

So where is this taking us? The twin trends of natural ingredients and increasing use of biotechnology and nutritional science will deliver more and more antioxidant fighting goji berry snack bars and pomegranate drinks, marshmallows that prevent wrinkles, and chocolates that make you smarter. You can be sure that those products will be fully traceable and sustainable as well. But this is only the start, as companies explore the potential for foods tailored to individuals and able to mitigate specific diseases. This combination of the old wisdom of healing herbs and the new science seems set to deliver a new era of smarter food for smarter consumers.