The future of sustainability: Vitafoods organizers emphasize human rights along the supply chain

18 Jul 2023 --- At this year’s Vitafoods Europe trade show, the event’s organizers introduced a new piece to help promote sustainability across the industry – the Sustainability Resource Center (SRC). The center included presentations and discussions on certifications, ingredient sourcing and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Additionally, the center was meant to act as a hub where producers, manufacturers and suppliers could connect and potentially realize sustainability solutions.

Nutrition Insight sits down with Heather Granato, Vitafoods’ VP of partnerships and sustainability, to see whether the new trade show addition was a success, understand the long-term sustainability goals of Vitafoods and identify why the event organizers find the topic important.

“When we look at Vitafoods and the nutraceutical community, what does that look like from a human rights (perspective) in the supply chain?” Granato asks. “Within Vitafoods as an event, we really have to focus on things like what are we doing about carpet and waste in our stands and how can we ensure that travel is optimized? How do we address things like scope 3 emissions?”

“We can look at even the UN SDGs and ask companies across our industry, ‘What could you do or which of these options resonates with you?’ By asking these questions, we can help provide information for suppliers, buyers and producers to make sustainable choices for a better supply chain.”

Grading the latest edition
Though Vitafoods did feature a sustainability hub toward the end of last year, Vitafoods Europe 2023 was the first time the Sustainability Resource Center (SRC) was featured.

Granato emphasizes that a main reason for this was to help implement a content program that could bring people together, promote thought leadership and allow more networking opportunities in the sustainability space. 

She further reveals that Vitafoods’ operations team collaborated with a new partner to create a product using entirely sustainable materials and the event organizers encouraged exhibitors to adopt more sustainable practices as well.

“We had two days of thought leadership sessions that consisted of morning sessions driven by our content team on topics like the EU Due Diligence Directive or innovative ingredients and how new ingredients are being developed.”

Topics also ranged from how best to use and source carob to whether there actually is such a thing as vegan collagen and, if so, how is it produced and what does that mean for the market?

“We had sessions from our content team and we had sessions that were presented by ingredient suppliers revealing their perspectives in terms of what they are doing. Corbion, for example, was debuting their omega made from algae as a more sustainable ingredient solution.”

Emphasizing equality
Another aspect of sustainability that Granato says Vitafoods wanted to emphasize this year is its intersection with equality, noting that sustainability is not “just zero hunger” or good health and wellbeing, but even things like gender equality. The SRC hosted several events to this end.

“We hosted the Women in Nutraceuticals event along with Novozymes as the sponsor for the gender equity networking reception at the end of day one, which really brought together folks who were interested in talking about the opportunities for gender equity in the industry,” Granato elaborates.

“On day two, the Naturally Proud Network hosted their first event outside of the US on LGBTQIA+ inclusion in the industry. We also presented the Women in Nutraceuticals and Gender Diversity in Leadership survey results at the Vitafoods’ Insight stage and we talked about gender equity in the women’s networking lunch.”

Looking to the future
Granato says that, though this year’s SRC was deemed a success, there will likely be a different setup next year. 

“We will continue to evolve the concept,” she explains. “There are things that worked really well and there were things that were a little more challenging. We certainly want to make it more accessible and easy for people to pop in and then pop back out.”’

She further added that Vitafoods want a heavier focus on sustainable solutions that are coming to market. 

“There are a lot of interesting ingredients being developed – whether through fermentation or through upcycling – and if you had those in a single location, companies could more easily find the ingredients they are looking for.”

“Vitafoods really serves and inspires our nutraceutical community to develop a global industry that is economically resilient, environmentally sound and better for people around the world,” Granato concludes. “Now that’s obviously a mission statement, but I really do believe that the way that we bring this community together inspires them – it’s collaborative.” 

By William Bradford Nichols