Summit Review

“There is an urgent need for mankind to adopt alternative proteins on a huge scale. Quorn Foods alone cannot feed the world – it is going to take dozens if not hundred of companies like ours.

There is a huge and important opportunity for new partnerships and opportunities to accelerate innovation and collaboration.”

Marco Bertacca, CEO, QUORN FOODS

“It’s a great time to be in this space because we can make a change and we have to make change. There is a revolution going on right now. Everybody is joining arms in this fight.”

Sean O’Sullivan, General Managing Partner, SOSV

“Ultimately the technology we are scaling can be deployed in any region, in any climate, any season, day or night, rain or shine and that’s one of the advantages of going over to a process that is making the core ingredients for food and ultimately making that food with a process that uses our carbon negative fermentation. The scalability is significant and we’re looking to get to 10 billion people by 2050.”

Lisa Dyson, CEO, AIR PROTEIN

“The advantage of cell culture is that we have a better chance of getting something that appeals to the mainstream consumer on the whole cuts level. Cell culture has the potential to become nutritionally identical in a much easier fashion”

Michael Selden, Co-Founder and CEO, FINLESS FOODS

“We have to feel a connection to a story and story telling is a powerful tool we have as marketers. At Nature’s Fynd, we have a very unique story. We leverage our story both with our investors as well as consumers. There are four aspects to our story that really resonate: naturality, healthiness, sustainability and versatility.”

Karuna Rawal, CMO, NATURE’S FYND

Umiami was crowned the winner

“We saw a fantastic array of entries for the Quorn Innovation Challenge and getting to a short-list certainly wasn’t easy. Umiami’s idea stood out due to their focus on technical solutions that address the key consumer-innovation challenges around whole cuts. We look forward to collaborating with Umiami to truly delight consumers.”

Simone Sheehan, Head of Consumer and Sensory Science, QUORN FOODS

NotCo was crowned the winner

“NotCo demonstrated its strong understanding of consumers’ expectations, combined with an innovative technology to unlock the potential of nature. By using artificial intelligence, it brings gastronomy into a new era. We are thrilled to move forward together with our customers in the quest for exciting new gastronomic experiences.”

Jeremy Burks, EVP, ROQUETTE

“If you bring the best capabilities together, you can move mountains. This whole notion of collaboration is critical. We are excited about this space, the consumer is taking us there and the pandemic has accelerated the trend.”

Rene Lammers, EVP and Chief R&D Officer, PEPSICO

“We need partners, it takes a village and we wouldn’t be here without the partners that we have. Ingredion has been a big part of the equation, so I encourage everyone, whether you are starting out or growing your company to work with partners such as Ingredion because they know how to support you along the way.”

Mike Natale, Global Leader of Plant Based Proteins, INGREDION

“Speed to market is critical. Many start-ups have the challenge that after they raise funds they waste time trying to find a place they could operate in and making it fit for purpose. Time is gold at this stage. As stakeholders in the ecosystem we have a role and an opportunity to put infrastructure in place that will catalyze some of these innovations.”

Geraldine Goh, Director, Enterprise Development Group, TEMASEK

“When entering a new retailer or food service partner, curating the experience is absolutely necessary. Offering a tasting experience is critical to acceptance and understanding the plant-based space that can still represent seafood in taste and texture. We’re only scratching the surface of what’s possible.”

Chad Sarno, Co-Founder and Chief Culinary Officer, GOOD CATCH

“We are creating the next generation of seafood without the environmental and ethical consequences. Our plant-based seafood honors the ocean and doesn’t take anything away from it.”

Jacek Prus, Founder and CEO, KULEANA

“Whether you’re talking about lentils, yellow peas, chickpeas you’ve got to think holistically about the supply chain in order to create the opportunities and then collaborate carefully and closely with CPGs and downstream companies who are marketing the products to customers. If we cant get to scale with some of these new and really exciting  possible ingredient solutions we will be held back on the full potential that exists in the category.”

Matt Crisp, CEO, BENSON HILL

“It is our belief that when you get the science of formulation right, get the microstructure from plant-proteins absolutely right and when you marry this with great chefmanship for wonderful recipes and when you democratize through big brands we will see even more explosive growth in the plant-based ice cream market.”

Matt Close, EVP Global Ice Cream, UNILEVER

“We went into this thinking this was a food-tech venture, talking about science and technology but ultimately we realized people don’t want to eat tech. Chefs are really important in guiding the craftmanship, knowing what people want to eat and putting their stamp of approval on the fact that this is something that tastes good.”

Sorosh Tavakoli, Co-Founder and CEO, STOCKELD DREAMERY

“We’re on a mission to show what good can look like for fermentation. I can see continued innovation and there’s going to be a breadth of sources of protein within the market to draw upon.”

Andrew Spicer, Founder and CEO, ALGENUITY

“From a personal perspective I am more than willing to do anything that will accelerate the availability and competitiveness of plant-based foods across the board.”

Pat Brown, Founder and CEO, IMPOSSIBLE FOODS

“The future of food is here and it is evolving at a very rapid pace. The global food system needs to reinvent itself.”

Lily Trager, Director of Impact Investing, MORGAN STANLEY

“There’s a secondary company I’ve been very involved in, it’s not in the cultured meat field, but it’s something that’s really going to help cultured meat, plant-based meat and a lot of other food companies to bring their products to the world. I am super excited about the company, but right now it’s in stealth mode, so I can’t name it.”

Uma Valeti, Founder and CEO, UPSIDE FOODS

“It is really challenging to provide a food system that everyone wants to consume when you are in a closed system. We have to make sure that with what we are providing for the crew, they can find what they want to eat. Food needs to be easy and quick to eat in a micro-gravity environment.”

Grace Douglas, Lead Scientist – Advanced Food Technology, NASA

Join us online next time at Future Food-Tech on September 30 – October 1 , or in London if you can.

Get in touch if you would like to help shape the content and be involved as a speaker, partner or exhibitor.

Contact Oliver Katz, Conference Producer, Future Food-Tech Series