Food Tech Trends - Ela Madej Fifty Years (Aug 2019)

Global Trends
in Food Tech
Ela Madej
Founding Partner at Fifty Years

@elamadej@elamadej & @fiftyyearsvc

@elamadej
Technology
powered
@elamadej & @fiftyyearsvc

Our current food-related seminars:

16 NEAR-FUTURE
FOOD TECH TRENDS

1. Proteins dominate the discussion

“Protein” search volumes since 2004

2. Protein alternatives on the rise!

@elamadej
Source: Good Food Institute, 2018

Plant-based foods growing strong

Plant-based category $ sales:

Plant-based outpaces animal-based:

Plant-protein startups, a vibrant ecosystem:
Source: https://newprotein.org/

3. Plant-based meat alternatives breaking
into mainstream with the IPO of Beyond Meat

“ The Fourth of July has historically been one of the biggest
days for beer, hot dog and burger consumption, but a word of
caution to anchor brands: watch your back. (...) The food items
to see the highest increased sales this year will be
plant-based meat alternatives, which will surpass animal
protein products in terms of dollar sales growth, predicts
Nielsen. Last year, Americans spent $10m on fully cooked
plant-based meat alternatives (+19.4% compared to 2017)
and $315m on fresh plant-based meat alternatives.”
-- Nielsen sales data 2019 report via Food Navigator

Process innovation to further drop the cost

4. Plant-based dairy replacements already
established but growing strong

Plant-based milks are here to stay!

Plant-based milk purchase dynamics

And yet, there’s still much room to grow!

5. Cellular agriculture scale-up time

The core idea:

The product we are all waiting for :-)

A sea of opportunity remains:
@elamadej & @fiftyyearsvcSource: GFI.org

30 companies since 2012… and counting!

6. Protein from fungi

@elamadej

7. Even more protein... bugs, algae, bacteria!

8. Millennials move away from alcohol

Alcohol use going down, drastically:

Bev companies bet on non-alcoholic offering:

What are the alternatives?
▪ Zero or low-calorie non-active drinks for the adult palette: Lacroix,
bubbly kombucha, carbonated matcha-based drinks
▪ CBD-infused health & relaxation drinks on the rise (CBD =
non-psychoactive cannabinoid), though regulatory uncertainty remains;
legal in 13 U.S. states, illegal on a federal level, legal in Canada and
some European countries
▪ Cannabis/THC-infused drinks (psychoactive, significant legal risk)
▪ Cava bars popping up all over U.S.
▪ NEW: Euphorics - nootropics, stimulants, and antioxidants that mimic
the taste and function of alcohol without the downsides!

New kid on the block: EUPHORICS

Kin Spritz now also available in cans

9. Innovation in sweeteners (& more needed!)

“ The Consumer Good Forum found
in 2017 that 102 leading global
food companies (representing
$1.8T in aggregate sales) viewed
sugar as the No. 1 ingredient they
hoped to remove.

10. Fermentation goes mainstream

Fermentation as a manufacturing platform:

What is happening there?

Trends driving large-scale fermentation
● Developments in CRISPR and gene editing technologies
● Cost of sequencing and synthesis dropping, maturing ecosystem
of CROs, wet labs, cloud labs, and lab automation infrastructure
● Reuse of existing breweries, post-bioethanol plants, etc.
● Large-scale fermentation cost dropping making it economically
more viable to produce food this way
● End product is not genetically modified => much simpler
approval process + consumer acceptance

Geltor: food and beauty applications

Geltor: synbio direct-to-consumer

Other synbio food, bev, & ingredient makers:

11. “Proudly GMO”

“ “Scientific and regulatory agencies around the
world have repeatedly and consistently found
crops and foods improved through
biotechnology to be as safe as, if not safer
than those derived from any other method of
production.”
- a letter signed in 2016
by 110 Nobel Prize Laureates

Soylent's “no GMO shame” campaign:

Arctic Apple, a non-browning apple

New use-cases for the benefit of all:

12. Consumers demand less waste

Let’s produce less waste!
● “Zero waste” cultural movement going mainstream
● Supermarkets offering dry foods & detergents for bulk purchase.
● Stores charging for disposable bags
● Reusable food packaging
● Material innovations, new classes of actually green bioplastics
● Consumer-led movement to save good food, last-minute
purchasing apps
● Point of sale production of perishable produce (indoor farming
and in-store farming) to limit

Saving good food, one “ugly” fruit at a time:

No dessert until you eat your packaging!

Edible honey packages:

14. New wave of functional foods

Functional, health, and beauty foods
● No more popping boring pills! In the future we will enjoy our
supplements as functional foods and drinks: functional &
delicious sodas (Kin), fun chews, healthy candies, additives
in foods we already eat
● Food to prevent and slow down aging
● Nutriceuticals go mainstream
● Food as medicine, incl. prescribed by your MD -- bioactives
found in foods isolated to offset the negative effects of
foods

Big food companies want to make food that is
better for consumers while still yummy.

Brightseed: natural food additives offsetting
negative health effects of saturated fat & sugar

Medical Foods by GlycosBio

15. Robots are making your cake!

… and your muffins:

… and your pizza (SF-based Zume)

… and your burger (SF-based Creator)

… and your drink (Ratio in Shanghai)

Robots already debone and deskin your meat:

Robotics + ML driven quality control:
Chocolate
pomades

16. Indoor/vertical/robotic farms for
super-fresh foods all year round

Plenty’s indoor farm:

17. New shopping experiences

Trends in how consumers buy food & bev
● Omnichannel strategies for new brands: online + offline,
pop-ups, partnerships, celebrity collaborations, strong social
media presence
● Touchless and cashless shopping, Amazon stores, self-checkout
● Infrastructure development for same-day & same-hour delivery
● Meeting consumers where they are
● Raise of the “activist consumer” who wants their stores to share
their values… as long as it is convenient!

“Meet me where I go”

Rise of a value-driven consumer:

WHERE DOES THIS
TAKE US?

1. Personalized nutrition, now actually
personalized.

“YOU EAT WHAT YOU ARE”
● Crazy idea of our times: we are different, complex biological
machines yet we all eat a “standard diet”
● Tools allowing to test not just food allergy and food tolerance,
but food compatibility, i.e. what food is optimal for your genome,
microbiome, viome, proteome, etc.
● Continuous, non-invasive bio-markets tracking for optimal
metabolism (glucose, cortisol, ketones, etc)
● Sensors: heart rate variability, circadian rhythm, temperature, &
more

2. From “Food as medicine”
back to “Food IS medicine”

Food is (capital “M”) Medicine
● Prescription based eating in controlling health outcomes
● Insurance companies reimburse healthy ready-made diet plans
● Raise in medical diet plans approved by the FDA, same way
drugs and devices are approved now
● Food against inflammation, aging, cancer, even schizophrenia!
(possible microbiome link to some types)
● Finally enough data to run studies on herbal medicine
(Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda)

3. Digital food passports

We all have a digital food passport
● Allergy, blood pressure, sugar level, age, gender, weight, biome, genetic, and
personal goals data help guide is to only optimal choices, without relying on the
server’s knowledge
● Restaurants and cafeterias have access to our allergies for saver ordering
(“vegan + gluten free”)
● Used in kindergartens, schools, workplaces, by airlines to quietly share important
health data and goals to get better recommendations
● Also allow access to food preferences for a better dining experience (“do not like
garlic”)
● Possibility to design nutrition plans and goals that only allow us to order food
that is good for us. App will keep us in check with goals vs. reality.

@elamadej
Source: www.30minutedinnerparty.com
Etsy:
OnLoveandCoffee

4. Processed sugar is the new tobacco

5. Saturated fats are the new tobacco

6. Conventional meat is the new tobacco

7. Robots now actually everywhere!

Food factories look like automotive factories:

8. Abundant local water from MOFs

A prototype water harvester already built
https://news.berkeley.edu/2017/04/13/device-pulls-water-from-dry-air-powered-only-by-the-sun/

A prototype water harvester already built

10. We stop farming whole animals for food

“ With a greater knowledge of what are called
hormones, i.e., the chemical messengers in our
blood, it will be possible to control growth. We
shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole
chicken in order to eat the breast or wing, by
growing these parts separately under a
suitable medium.
-- Winston Churchill, Fifty Years Hence, 1931

@elamadej
Food is a $8T industry

@elamadej
Let’s get to work!

Food Tech Trends - Ela Madej Fifty Years (Aug 2019)

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