Reducing food waste: Optimizing safety and sustainability
01 Dec 2020 | KHNI
Food waste is a major issue and is caused by elements including distribution limitations, food safety and quality issues, along with misconceptions over when food is spoiled. In this Kerry Health and Nutrition webinar, experts explore how industry can better address wastage while maintaining the high quality that consumers demand.
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Hello and welcome to today's nutrition insight webinar.
I trust that all of you tuning in from around the globe have been enjoying a lovely day so far.
I'm Catherine Durrell, and I will be your moderator on today's broadcast featuring experts from Ky Health and Nutrition Institute, which aims to share evidence on the science of healthier food.
I'm the platform editor of CNS Media, which is the publisher of The World of Food Ingredients, Food Ingredientsfirst.com, and NutritionInsight.com.
Before we get started, I'd like to let you all know that you can submit your questions through the Q&A engagement tool.
This presentation will also be available on demand on Food ingredientsfirst.com and NutritionInsight.com.
A link to this will be emailed to you.
Today's speakers will be Doctor Vivian Sheehan, Joseph Meyer, and Doctor Kathleen Glass.
Vivian is the global vice president of R&D in Kerry's applied health and nutrition sector.
He has responsibility for developing strategic technical platforms delivering incremental and radical innovation.
Her focus encompasses preservation, nutritional and fermentation derived ingredients.
The research outputs are leveraged across food, beverage, meat, supplement, and pharmaceutical end use markets.
Vivian is a graduate of University College Cork in Ireland.
There she acquired both a bachelor's degree in food science and a doctorate in microbiology.
Next we have Joseph, who is a global microbiology lead for Kerry, where he collaborates with teams across international Kerry manufacturing sites.
Having spent over 30 years active in the food industry, he brings expertise on microbiology and food safety systems and sanitation, quality, and R&D.
Previously, he's worked with leading CPGs including Kraft Heinz, Kellogg, and ConAgra Foods.
Much of his career has been spent working in areas of control of foodborne pathogens and continuous improvement of food safety systems, such as hazard analysis, Critical Control Point.
Last but not least, we have Kathy, who is the associate director of the Food Research Institute at University of Wisconsin-Madison.
He works with the food industry to to develop and validate formulation safe foods.
Her writing credentials include over 80 technical abstracts, 50 peer-reviewed publications, and 3 book chapters.
Cathy is also a regular instructor at workshops on Listeria control methods, preventative controls for human foods, and processed cheese, dairy, and meat safety.
She earned her doctorate of Food microbiology and Safety at the UW Madison, focusing on formulation safety of pasteurized processed cheese products.
Now that we're all introduced, I'd like to begin this webinar entitled Reducing Food Waste Optimizing Safety and Sustainability.
Presented by Carey Health and Nutrition Institute, this webinar will shine a light on one of the hottest topics of the moment, slashing food waste.
Today's consumers are growing more and more aware of the traces that their lifestyles are leading in the world around them.
This is impacting the food industry as people look more closely at where their meals are coming from and the footprint associated with them.
Addressing food waste can help improve the sustainability credentials of meals, as as being an economically smart move.
With a whopping 1/3 of food currently being wasted, the global economy is losing out on $940 billion.
Additionally, nearly 690 million people were chronically undernourished in 2019.
This figure is set to rise even more in 2020.
Against this backdrop, food waste is simply unacceptable.
However, protective ingredient solutions provide one way to extend product shelf life while enhancing their safety, thus helping achieve food waste reduction goals.
This can sometimes be tricky due to the differences between food type, stages in the manufacturing process or supply chain, and the need to conform to regulatory requirements.
This webinar will detail exactly where food is lost and wasted, and how this can be solved while maintaining food safety and quality.
Today's experts will also explore prevent prevention strategies against pathogenic contamination of food, and cast their predictions for the future of sustainable food.
I'd now like to hand over to Vivian.
Thank you, Catherine.
I'm excited today to connect the perspectives of Joe, Kathy, and I, when we discuss today's topic of reducing food waste, optimizing safety and sustainability.
While Cathy, Joe, and I have different backgrounds and experiences, one thing to all of us is that we're food microbiologists.
So we're going to, to look at these topics today through a microbiology lens.
Taking a look at the challenges food waste presents in addition to exploring relatively novel product categories of, of the plant-based meat alternatives borne out in part by a desire for more sustainable products.
And then finally we'll discuss the impact ingredient interventions have on extending shelf life, ensuring food safety, and really ultimately helping in the overall goal of reducing food waste.
So moving on to our next slide.
Striking the right balance between evolving consumer demands and food producer capabilities is key.
Consumers want great tasting food at affordable prices, formulated with recognizable ingredients.
And products that retain their quality attributes over an extended and also convenient shelf life.
And I think the global pandemic has resulted in an increased appreciation of the importance of a stable food supply chain and the increasing need to minimize food waste.
And this is really driving consumers to seek more sustainable, environmentally friendly offerings.
And then on the other side, while meeting those consumer desires, food producers must try to differentiate from their competitors, remain profitable, comply with regulations.
Navigate a food supply chain that has become more complex due to an increase in the variety of foodstuffs and also the longer distances between the source and the consumption points as a result of market globalization.
And all the time they're striving to achieve these goals without compromising on food quality or food safety to ensure repeat purchase.
And the question is, can, can we have it all?
There's a very disturbing global paradox between the increasing amount of edible food that is lost throughout the supply chain, and also the scarcity of the food resulting in hundreds of millions of people suffering from malnutrition.
Food waste is clearly a major issue that has environmental, economic, as as social and ethical implications.
1 in every 9 people goes to bed hungry each night, and being hungry means more than just missing a meal.
It's, it's a debilitating crisis.
And next, if we consider the environmental impact of food waste.
If you had to name the biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions, you'd probably guess the world's economic powerhouses like the US and China, and you'd be right.
But there's another culprit that might surprise you.
And that's food waste.
Food waste generates a staggering 3.3 billion tons of greenhouse gasses annually, making food wastage the top third emitter after the US and China.
And lastly, considering the economic impact of food waste.
Each year we waste 1.3 billion tons of food, while 1 in 9 people are malnourished, costing, costing us approximately 2 to 3% of GDP, which is over $2 trillion a year in, in lost productivity.
So overall, there's an urgent need to prevent and reduce the amount of food waste in order to improve the resource efficiency of the supply chain, facilitate access to food, and overall reduce hunger.
Another important consideration is that food loss, losses and waste vary considerably from one region to another.
Overall, the industrialized countries undoubtedly waste the most food, and food waste can occur at various stages in the supply chain.
So if we consider emerging markets, waste occurs mainly in the food production and processing phase.
With over 40% of waste occurring, while in the more industrialized countries, the opposite applies.
Excess waste occurs at the retail and consumer levels.
In industrialized countries, it's mainly waste is mainly occurring in the final stage where the when the food is reaching the consumer.
And in Europe and North America, a consumer wastes on average 95 to 115 kg per year, while in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, waste per consumer stops at at 6 to 11 kg per year.
So clearly the amount of food wasted is staggering if you consider that 1/3 of food produced is lost, and waste spans the supply chain with the highest share of losses attributable to consumer wastage in industrialized countries.
55% of total waste generated is generated from people throwing it away at home, unfinished dishes in restaurants, overcooking, etc.
And a material amount of waste also occurs in the production and processing and retail steps.
So we need to address why this waste is occurring, educate on available interventions to help eliminate it, and continue to innovate to address the challenges.
What we consume not only has consequences for our health and -being, but it also affects the future of our planet.
It's estimated that the food sector is responsible for up to 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
And most conversations about food waste turn to waste if you think about the number of tons of food that go to the dump each year.
But waste doesn't take into account any of the negative inputs or outputs from the life cycle of food production.
It treats 1 pound of a vegetable the same as 1 pound of red meat, which we all need to understand they're not.
Meat production requires far more energy and resources.
If we consider water, it takes about 34 gallons of water to grow 1 pound of broccoli, and in contrast, over 1800 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef.
And that's 54 times more water for the same 1 pound of food.
And it turns out that all the different costs of food waste, whether measured in terms of water, the economy, the environment, or animal welfare, they really vary greatly by the type of food that is discarded.
If you look at this graphic, the carbon intensive foods are those higher on the, on the food chain where the animal-based food products are.
And around a higher percentage of fresh foods such as fruits and vegetables are wasted each year, roughly 20% of meat and dairy, and 35% of fish is wasted globally.
And if we address some of this wastage, harness this food, keeping it in the supply chain, it would enable us to feed millions more people while also preventing a lot of environmental damage.
And to reiterate my point, to fight food waste effectively, we need to focus on the types of foods that are wasted instead of just the amount wasted.
So let's now consider the evolving market trend that is plant-based proteins as an alternative to animal proteins.
The increasing popularity of plant-based foods is driving a revolution.
Plant-based is no longer just for vegans or vegetarians.
So let's consider both the, the opportunities and challenges that this brings.
Plant-based foods is a theory a very attractive and vibrant market, experiencing double digit growth.
And globally, it's projected to be a $72 billion market by 2027 with meat and dairy alternatives being the two fastest growth categories.
And in order to realize a more sustainable diet leveraging plant versus animal proteins, I'm now going to hand you over to my colleague Joe, who's going to compare and contrast some food safety risks between both of the risks, both of these product groups.
OK thanks Vivian.
You know, as Vivian pointed out, there definitely is a, a tremendous opportunity to help reduce food waste when it comes to, the consumer and the retail distribution chain, so.
When people always ask microbiologists questions, they tend to complain because microbiologists like to answer everything by saying either it depends or it's complicated.
Today we're gonna try not to say it that way and try not to answer that way to do a little bit of a simplified comparison we're gonna focus on comparison of burger type products, so, an animal protein based burger versus maybe a plant protein based burger to help, simplify some of the comparison.
So what are some of the sources of the microorganisms that could either raise food safety concerns and issues or could be the cause of spoilage for some of those materials we can kind of look at three different areas of some of the sources of the issues.
One of those areas.
Is the raw materials.
One would be environmental contaminants from the manufacturing environment and then we'll say a couple of words about maybe consumer handling and cooking that may be a little bit of a complicating factor from time to time.
So if we look at the raw materials themselves, if we look at animal protein versus plant protein, they both come from agricultural sources, you know, the, the, or or origination of the materials is going to be the farm and the field.
There are some differences in processing, but the raw materials themselves generally, if we look at some of the major concerns for pathogens, we would be looking at the spore forming pathogens such as Clostridium botulinum or Clostridium perfringens, or we would be looking at vegetative pathogens such as salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes, or hemorrhagic E.
Coli such as E.
Coli 15787.
Since both the animal protein and plant protein are coming in from agricultural sources and coming in from the fields, both of those, raw materials can quite often bring in, those same groups of microorganisms that we'd be concerned about when we look at spoilage, again, we're gonna see a lot of similarities, but we might see a few differences as because of differences in processing of those materials.
But the main groups of spoilage organisms that we would be looking at for both animal proteins and plant proteins, would either be pseudomonas if the materials are packaged and distributed in an anaerobic type pack packaging, so no modified atmosphere packaging.
If those same materials are distributed to consumers in a modified atmosphere type packaging, we're really looking at anaerobic conditions.
So we're looking at a large family of organisms, the family Aterobacteria ACA, or potentially the lactic acid group of bacteria.
When we do the comparison from the manufacturing environment.
Again, the manufacturing environment has the opportunity for both animal protein and plant protein to be a source of vegetative pathogens such as salmonella or Listeria monocytogenes, and the manufacturing environment can also be a source of some of those spoilage organisms such as the Anobacteriacea family or again lactic acid bacteria.
Some of the manufacturing facilities, you know, actually could be shared.
We can have facilities that are making both animal-based animal protein-based materials and plant protein-based materials.
Some meat plants and some dairy plants may actually be producing both of those types of goods.
So if we dig a little deeper, let's look at some of the other attributes that a typical, you know, burger would have if it were made from animal protein or a plant based protein.
You know, when you look at this profile of the protein source for an animal-based burger could be poultry, pork, or beef.
Typically for plant-based, it may be pea protein or soy protein.
The way some of those materials are processed or animal based protein in the US anyway, most of these.
Materials may go through some type of a carcass wash, so they may have an organic acid applied to them to help reduce some of the microbial load, but that's not always the case and in fact in Europe and many other areas of the world, carcass washes would not be common organic washes, acid washes would not be common when we look at processing for plant-based proteins, a lot of those materials are gonna go through some type of an extrusion process.
That extrusion process, you know, may be considered a dry extrusion or maybe to be doing a wet extrusion where we're injecting steam right into the, , product stream, you know, those processes will have an impact and actually it's a great opportunity when we talk about plant-based proteins because those processes typically will do quite a bit to reduce either the presence of the vegetative pathogens like salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes.
Or do quite a bit to reduce the presence of spoilage organisms that may come in with those raw materials.
So depending on the extent of that extrusion process or type of extrusion process they can greatly limit or completely eliminate some of the microbial risk.
When we look at a comparison of pH ranges again, both animal protein and plant protein products are generally in that neutral pH range, so from a microbial perspective, not a lot that's gonna inhibit or prevent growth there, water activity again, these products are typically very high in moisture, very high water activity.
When we talk about salt in this instance, we're comparing sodium levels you might find.
They're gonna be fairly comparable.
What you will see with plant-based proteins is you might see higher levels of, of sodium that would be brought in potentially through things like flavorings, or other ingredients that are added to the plant-based systems that points out one of the areas of opportunity.
You know, if we're bringing in flavorings or other materials into the plant-based systems, that's an opportunity to potentially incorporate materials that might help further reduce the potential for pathogens to grow or reduce the potential for spoilage organisms to grow.
That's a point of opportunity when we talk about, fat content, you know, really they're, they're both fairly similar, the refrigerated shelf life of the products.
In North America 14 to 21 days.
In the UK 18 to 15 days for animal proteins.
Plant proteins typically are in that 15 to 20 day range, so fairly similar again there may be some differences based on whether or not, people are using modified atmosphere packaging.
When we look at that packaging in the US anyway, most of the animal protein products that would be those patties or burgers do not use modified atmosphere packaging.
There may be a few that would, do modified atmosphere packaging in the UK or in Europe for protein animal protein based patties.
Most of the plant protein based materials would be in some type of a modified atmosphere packaging.
We just touch on the regulatory environment a little bit.
Animal-based proteins typically are gonna fall under USDA regulation in the US or EFSA in Europe.
When we look at the plant-based proteins, it's gonna be FDA in the US, but it's still gonna be EFSA in, the European Union.
OK, let's move quickly to some of the handling statements that you might expect to see for safe handling of these products when we talk about animal protein burgers based burgers or patties or plant protein based burgers or patties in the US, the USDA FSIS does require.
A standard safe handling instructions for raw meat or partially cooked meat or poultry products.
There's a very standardized communication to consumers on how they should handle those materials to ensure that they are cooking them to eliminate the vegetative pathogens that could be present.
If we look at that, what you would typically see on some of the plant protein based burgers or patties, they again typically do have some type of cooking instructions for consumers and they do typically try and provide guidance to the consumers so that those products would be sufficiently cooked so that they could eliminate vegetative pathogens.
The things to point out here that really for animal proteins, at least in some countries, you know, there are standardized labeling requirements in all countries, but in some countries, plant-based proteins, there really is no standard and you know the requirements are a little bit more of gray areas, even though the food safety risks might be similar.
So that does point potentially to another area of opportunity, some of the plant protein-based products, because they do go through things like an extrusion process that does have the potential to eliminate vegetative vegetative pathogens like Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes.
You know there may be some more flexibility with the plant-based proteins as far as what the expectation would be for cooking, you know, it does open up a window of opportunity where you can customize those cooking instructions or prep instructions a little bit more to drive towards quality of the, the, , the eating experience for the consumer if I don't have to worry about safety and cooking for safety.
There is a little bit of a caveat or a caution there when the consumer is faced with very similar looking products.
Very similar packaging, very similar appearing products, you know, it can be very, very, confusing for the consumer to have to decide which ones are being cooked for safety or which ones are being cooked for quality.
So that's just a little bit of a watch out if we do try and tap into some of that flexibility around maybe consumer cooking instructions for some of the plant based proteins.
And with that I'm gonna turn it over to Kathy to dig a little bit deeper into some of the other strategies we might use.
Thank you, Jill.
When developing strategies to reduce food waste, a major priority to address is the issue of the shelf life of foods, particularly at the consumer end.
The shelf life of foods can take different forms.
There are the scentory attributes for quality and freshness, such as flavor and color, versus spoilage related to microbial growth.
The strategies that are needed to address the two types of shelf life will vary greatly, with greater complexity associated with controlling the microbial issues.
When controlling food safety and food spoilage microbes, although they use similar approaches, managing one set of microbes does not guarantee control of the others.
So for many food companies, the best before dates are used to designate the end of optimal quality.
In contrast, some of the use by dates are set using data from what we call microbial challenge studies.
These are laboratory studies that purposely add the target microbe to the food and then determine under what conditions the microbial load grows to unacceptable levels.
These studies are for specific storage temperatures for given food products.
But they helped the manufacturer determine how long the product would be safe if it were inadvertently contaminated with a pathogen.
In our experience, the use by dates tend to be more strict than the best before dates.
A food might still appear to be edible, in other words, not grossly spoiled, at the end of the use-by date.
As a result, the meaning of the two dates can be confusing to the consumer.
Manufacturers are the ones that are responsible for determining the best before and the use by dates on the packages, and there's no regulatory definitions or requirements for either.
In my own refrigerator, I found an unopened package of pepperoni with a prepare or freeze-by date.
I personally know that this product is safe beyond that date because the fermentation and the drying will make that product actually shelf stable.
Once it is opened, however, the oxidative rancidity may overwhelm the flavor, and I'm going to want to toss it out.
In other foods such as my yogurt, it has a date stamp, but it does not define if it is a use by or best before.
So I use that date simply as a guide for how long and it may have been in my refrigerator and whether or not I should use it soon and before another unopened package.
But I know that if I consumed it beyond that date, I will be perfectly fine.
As you can see from the figure on the right, there are many different types of consumers ranging from the very strict followers of the use by dates to those who don't read dates at all.
Personally, I tend to fit into the category of advice seekers along with a 25% of my fellow consumers who usually follow the use by and best before date marking.
But as an experienced food scientist, I can use my own judgment whether a food is potentially a food safety risk or if the food might just taste off.
Most consumers don't have that luxury.
Several of my friends would be considered to be strict followers of code dates, meaning that they will never eat anything past the use by or even the best before dates.
These individuals, which also include 44% of the UK consumers surveyed, will discard potentially safe and unspoiled foods because they don't know what those dates actually mean.
On the other hand, I am concerned about those who fall into the rough guide or self-reliant category.
Those are the consumers who more likely will rely on odor and appearance to determine whether they will consume the food regardless of the date marking.
While these individuals are less likely to waste food that is not spoiled, they do have a greater risk of consuming foods where the use-by date may be a limit for microbial safety.
So what can we do to extend both shelf life and improve safety so we can reduce waste but still keep our consumers safe?
This is where we need a deep understanding of microbial populations, both spoilage and pathogenic, as Joe mentioned, while raw materials of both animal-based and plant-based proteins may have similar types of microbes as a whole, there are differences in diversity and predominance of individual species that can affect shelf life and ultimately safety.
The processing, such as cooking versus the wet hot extrusion or sous vide processes kill most microbes, but there are some resistant bacteria, both spoilage and disease causing, that can survive and be present in the finished food.
Think of your own kitchen.
How are your counters, cutting boards, knives?
And hands cleaned, will determine how safe the foods are that you prepare.
Industry is no different.
The processing equipment and the production facilities must be cleaned and sanitized to reduce the potential that there are sites where spoilage microbes and pathogens can find safe haven.
As the equipment runs and air is flowing, the microbes in the environment can find their way onto the product before packaging.
Then once inside the package, they can have the opportunity to grow some even under cold storage conditions such as Listeria.
This is where technologies such as modified atmosphere or more frequently making adjustments to product formulations can add another hurdle to inhibit the microbes from growing.
In general, there are two driving factors that keep microbes from growing, that is, the amount of acid which is designated by pH, and the available water in a food designated by AW or available water.
The lower of either of these factors, the more stressful it is for the microbes and the slower the growth.
And the slower the growth, the longer the shelf life.
Now we can go to the extremes for either factors to prevent certain bacteria from growing and essentially make the food shelf stable.
For example, carbonated beverages will have a pH of far less than 4.6, so microbes won't grow.
Beef jerky will have a water activity of far less than 0.92.
Once again, microbes won't grow.
However, if we stick with those extremes, we limit our food choices and product innovation.
Though many foods have a pH of greater than 5.6 or high moisture content, so the water activity is greater than 0.95, an example would be meats and other plant-based proteins or other perishable foods.
These foods will require strict refrigeration or canning or freezing.
So when we want to extend shelf life to those upper values, we might actually have to look at other strategies to help keep those microbes from growing.
In these cases, we can enhance food safety and reduce spoilage by adding synthetic or clean label antimicrobial ingredients.
We have decades of safe use of synthetic antimicrobials such as potassium lactate and sorbic acid.
However, consumers are increasingly looking for ingredients that are recognizable.
These are ingredients that have come to be known by the food industry as clean label.
Now salt would fit into both classifications.
It has been used for thousands of years to preserve foods and is a common staple in household pantries.
As we look for alternatives to other synthetic preservatives, we find that many of the active compounds can also be found in natural sources.
So natural fermentation processes can yield a variety of organic acids such as lactic acid, such as what is found in salami and yogurt, or propionic acid, such as what is found in Swiss style cheeses, or acetic acid and vinegar.
Now these acids can be neutralized so they won't lower the pH of the food, but they can still provide protection against microbial growth and spoilage.
Now fruit and spice extracts can also be natural sources of mold inhibitors or bioflavonoids and phenols that help reduce bacterial growth.
But at the same time, while these ingredients are promising, which ingredient that is best solution for a given application and at what addition level is not always straightforward.
There are variations in activity between similar sounding products from different suppliers, and because these are the results of natural fermentations and extracts from plants, there might actually be variation in activity between lots of a given ingredient.
So it is extremely important that your product development team makes connections with suppliers who understand the solutions to achieve the intended outcome.
Also, this is not an all-inclusive list.
Keep in mind that technology continues to evolve, and new and improved clean label solutions may be in our future.
I want to leave you with just one example of how adding a small amount of a clean label ingredient can improve microbial safety of a food product.
As Joe mentioned, Listeria is a disease causing bacteria that has been a top priority in the food industry for the past 35 years.
It is challenging because it can grow in refrigerated foods where other bacteria won't grow.
This slide is an example of a meat analog with a high moisture and a high pH and obviously good growth conditions for bacteria.
Our threshold for safe versus unsafe is where the Listeria growth breaks through that 3 log mark which is identified by that red dotted line.
The top blue line going up shows the Listeria can exceed that limit of within 1 week's storage at 4 °C, which is considered proper refrigeration.
And it continues to grow for the duration of the one month refrigerated storage.
But by adding only 0.5% of vinegar powder designated by the lower green line, there is no increase of Listeria for 33 days.
With using this type of research as our evidence, the manufacturer can now mark the use by date for at least one month compared to only one week without the clean label ingredient.
Think about how this can help reduce the potential for discarding foods by extending the shelf life, but also simultaneously help keep our consumers safe.
Now I want to hand this back to Vivian.
Thank you, Cathy, and, and thank you, Joe, for those great insights.
If we can again consider the opening question of can we have it all, I would say we, we really must balance consumer and food producer aspirations because the consequences are grave if we don't act to address food waste.
We must adapt our habits to achieve a more sustainable lifestyle.
I recently heard the statement that the 2020s is the decade to deliver, and it's the decade to deliver on ambitious actions to accelerate delivery of sustainable solutions to the world's most challenging problems.
So we can do it, but the reality is that we're not there yet.
Consumers are reluctant to compromise on quality, and clearly food safety isn't imperative as it should be.
So what we can, so what I suppose can we do to achieve this balance?
And firstly, I would say more education is needed to focus, to focus consumers and food producers on why it's so important to live a more sustainable life.
We need consistent, clear messaging to ensure it resonates.
Understanding the differences between use by and best before dates is a relatively simplistic but important step, as Kathy outlined, so that food is not discarded prematurely.
Also, awareness of the carbon footprint of the foods we're eating is something people should consider as they make purchase decisions.
Similarly, education on innovations, innovative solutions coming to market and ingredients people can formulate with upfront to extend the shelf life in a manner that will meet these consumer desires for a clean label ingredient label declaration, leveraging recognizable ingredients is also important in in limiting food waste.
In a product like a plant-based meat alternative, which is a relatively novel product category like Joe spoke to, working with an expert partner to help identify risks, so the optimal recipe formulation is designed upfront to ensure food safety and minimize waste, waste is, is really imperative to enhance commercial success and also speed to market.
And finally, the magnitude of the food waste crisis underscores the need to continue to strive for audacious innovation, to identify solutions with the ultimate goal of achieving a circular system that closes the loop by designing waste out from the start.
And we wanted to end this, webinar with an inspirational quote from Sir David Attenborough, and it's also somewhat of a call to action.
We are at a unique stage in our history.
Never before have we had such an awareness of what we are doing to the planet, and never before have we had the power to do something about that.
Surely we all have a responsibility to care for our blue planet.
The future of humanity and indeed all life on Earth now depends on us.
Thank you.
Thank you very much for that presentation and that inspirational end to it.
I'm sure that all of our listeners have really had a lot to learn.
This is Catherine Durrell from Nutrition Insight and Food Ingredients First once again.
It's now time for a Q&A session with the speakers.
I can see that a lot of our listeners have sent in some great questions, so to get started, here's one asking, what advice would you give in terms of embedding sustainability into product design?
I think this might be one for Vivian.
Thanks, Catherine.
The way you design a product can greatly affect its environmental impact.
So I think it's important from the onset to clarify and, and calibrate on success criteria.
What aspects of sustainability are you looking to enhance?
Is it less water usage?
Is it more environmentally friendly packaging, etc.
So really clarifying on, on what you're with the formulating with the end in mind, I suppose.
And then also leveraging a cross-functional team of experts, getting perspectives from R&D, business development, marketing, operations, and regulatory, and innovating through a -defined structured processes is also important.
So to embed sustainability it's important to design products considering possible future regulatory demands and also evolving consumer preferences.
If we consider COVID as an example, I suppose it's led consumers to feel more vulnerable and, and they're seeking to incorporate healthier foods into their diets as a means to support longer term health.
And this has really resulted in people leveraging more nutrition in their products like probiotics and immunity ingredients, and this isn't a fad, it's a trend and it's going to continue.
So how can people consider environmental and and environmental and social implications of the the recipes that they're formulating?
I think people should be striving for products that have a long shelf life, maybe are ambient storage if possible using environmentally friendly packaging, because all these steps will help to reduce incurred costs with products and by and also eliminating maybe refrigeration during storage and transportation.
And then I suppose facilitating success by allowing sufficient time to assess the challenges and exploring different innovative solutions and permutations.
I think they're all important as you look to embed sustainability into product, product innovation and product design.
Thank you very much, Vivian.
I actually have another question here directed at you.
One of our listeners wants to know how would you approach the transition from chemicals to clean label ingredients to enhance consumer appeal.
OK, so I think if, if someone is looking to maybe replace a chemical preservative with a clean label alternative, the first step is to really assess the biological risk of the product.
And Cathy spoke about this at length, whereby you're looking to evaluate the raw materials, the processing environment, the packaging, what is the desired shelf life, how will that product be stored, so that you can really through all this assessment, understand the predominant risks, be it spoilage and pathogens.
And then select the most suitable ingredient that's going to conform with your label preferences, be compliant from a regulatory perspective.
And then I think clearly you're gonna have to qualify it in a manner that Cathy talked about doing inoculated challenge studies or shelf life studies, but then also assessing the flavor implication of, of the product and optimizing and refining that as needed.
So I think really it's, it's considering the, the five ors.
Are you looking to remove ingredients, reduce?
Are you repositioning a product maybe from a refrigerated case to ambient storage?
Are you replacing ingredients or are you really reinventing something and, and working with a trusted partner who can help accelerate your, your aspirations with respect to cleaning up your label declaration?
Thank you very much.
My next question looks like it might be one for Kathy.
One of our listeners wants to know, how can you qualify safety as meat alternative products?
The procedures to validate the safety of the meat alternative products are very similar to any other food which Vivian just described.
It's really important for you to really understand all the parts and the risks of a particular food product and work with the food safety expert.
So we need to understand that food, composition, the ingredients, the potential use and the shelf life, and then actually run those validations.
Studies, you may also need to do a validation of lethality.
Most of these cases, if you're looking at use of disease causing bacteria, these are going to have to be dedicated in what we call a biosafety level 2 laboratory, which there are commercial labs as as university labs are able to help out with this.
At the University of Wisconsin Madison, we have several of these, including those with processing equipment.
So we can validate the lethality, we can validate the growth inhibition, but sometimes pieces of equipment we don't have at the university level, and they may be equipment that has to be done in your particular facility.
In that case, we have to identify what might be a good surrogate in other.
Or it's something that can be used as a substitute that won't be a disease causing because you don't want to have that into your processing facility.
This still does take a lot of time and the more information that the manufacturer can provide the food safety expert, the more efficient the results can be.
And we want this to last the test of time, so, a good trusting relationship is really important.
Great, thank you very much.
Now you were all speaking about fresh animal versus plant protein characteristics, so one of our listeners is wondering what about plant-based processed meats?
Can we expect them to have a similar shelf life to animal protein counterparts?
I think this might be one for Joe to take over.
Sure, I can try and, tackle that one can.
When we start to shift the processed meat products versus some of the raw meat products and we can compare those two comparable animal or plant protein based products, you know, we're gonna see a lot of the same thing we saw with the patties.
When you look simply look at some of the characteristics of the products, you look at things like moisture content or water activity, you look at things like fat levels and some of those, you know, they appear to be very similar.
The microorganisms, you know, would view them as fairly similar and again, quite often they're going to be manufactured in similar type facilities with similar type environments.
Some of the differences that you might run into though when you look at some of the flavors and colors that are involved with certain processed meat products, you know, it might be a little bit more difficult to get those stabilized for the same length of time as you could in an animal-based protein product.
Cathy brought up a couple of good comparisons with and the examples of controlling Listeria.
You know, in an animal protein based product like a hot dog, you know, we are typically using things like lactates or diacetates, chemical compounds that can provide some inhibition of the pathogens or nitrite for clostridium botulinum, in the plant-based products there are opportunities to find.
Natural, materials, flavors or things we can add that, as Kathy pointed out, do act somewhat similar to that along with bringing in flavor stability and some of those other things.
So the microbes, the microbes tend to look at things, you know, fairly similar because they're fairly similar similar when you look at some of their characteristics, but we can use very different strategies to try and tackle, ways to, get to the shelf life that we want to.
Great, thank you so much.
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