Food for thought at global food trend seminars
International food and beverage commentator Professor David Hughes provided plenty of food for thought when he spoke about Global Food Trends in Manjimup and Mandurah on 8-9 March.
The department’s Food Industry Innovation project was pleased to host both seminars, in partnership with Peel Development Commission for the Mandurah event.
London-based Professor Hughes, or ‘Dr Food’ as he is known by his blog followers, spoke about global food industry trends, food packaging, production and consumer trends.
Attendees heard timely, relevant insights about the international food landscape including consumers’ growing interest in the supply chain and the source of ingredients.
“Consumers don’t want any ingredients you can’t pronounce,” Professor Hughes said. “There is global demand for food products with few, simple, natural ingredients which is a big positive for farmers.” He said consumers wanted shorter, transparent supply chains with provenance and interesting stories about the producers.
He also highlighted the importance of understanding export markets. Whereas chicken breast meat is highly desirable for many Australian consumers, chicken breast is not favoured in many Asian markets and is actually exported for use in cat food. In Asian markets, there is strong preference for other parts of the chicken for food.
According to Professor Hughes, traditional meat companies have to define ‘protein’ much wider. He used examples of a pea protein cheeseburger, Quorn brand non-meat sausages, TerraVia’s algal protein and Mars and Snickers ‘protein’ bars. Even insects like crickets and maggots are being farmed for protein for intensive feeding of livestock.
Professor Hughes said there were huge opportunities for growth in Western Australia, but also huge challenges in terms of accessing international markets and being competitive and profitable.
He said there was growth in global demand for plant-based protein such as pulses, lentils and pea protein, as well as specialty food ingredients like high fibre, Omega-3 canola, low gluten or gluten free.
“There needs to be a collective vision for these opportunities to become a reality in WA – an environment where there are food clusters and people work together collaboratively and share their knowledge,” he said.
The Mandurah event also featured guest speaker Associate Professor Christopher Vas from Murdoch University’s Singapore Centre for Research in Innovation, Productivity and Technology who spoke on agrifood security trends and the growth of Smart Urban Farms such as vertical farms and plant factories.
“WA needs to invest in technology if we want to be competitive,” Associate Professor Vas said. “The value-add has to start happening. Opportunities are there and we need to take advantage of it. Urban farms will only add more support systems to traditional farming.”
The Food Industry Innovation project is made possible by Royalties for Regions investment.