Food Matters Live: A Review
Last month, we made our annual trip to ExCel for the yearly Food Matters Live show – a trade show dedicated to exploring the latest trends and the ‘future of food’.
With six rooms jam packed all day with seminars; five different thought-provoking attractions; networking roundtables and more, Food Matters Live is establishing itself as more of a ‘destination’ than ever. This year also saw the inaugural Food Matters Summit, a conference pitching itself as ‘the first high-level, international gathering of its kind in London to address the key issues facing the global food and drink community, and how innovation and technology can help solve them’.
The exhibition itself didn’t disappoint either, with a hugely diverse range of exhibitors innovating in a range of different categories spanning ingredients, nutraceuticals, supplements, as well as of course food and drink. The exhibition had three key segments: innovative ingredients, a huge gathering of nutritional ingredient solutions; international innovations – diverse, exciting country pavilions from countries such as Korea and Wales; and UK future brands – a showcase of new and exciting start-up brands, assessed and chosen by an experienced industry buyer panel.
Plant-based was high on the agenda, as would be expected from one of the fastest-growing areas of grocery, with the show seeing a range of exhibitors showcasing plant-based innovation in areas from sports nutrition to meat-alternative technologies. Nutraceuticals was another area well represented, with a wide range of different innovative supplements and tonics on display.
Later on in the day, I was fortunate enough to take part in two of the brilliant panels taking place on the Future of Retail Trends stage. The first I spoke on was chaired by the brilliant Claire Brumby, where I shared the panel with Emma Amoscato, founder of Free From Farmhouse; Megan Gibbins, Special Diet Nutritionist at Chartwell’s Nutrition Team and Esther Pearson, General Manager at Clive’s Pies. We discussed important issues such as the use of the term Free From and whether it is overused, children’s Free From food, Free From food in Foodservice, as well as a wide range of other topics.
The second panel featured Morten Toft Bech, founder of Meatless Farm Co; Emily Keogh, Managing Director of Palm PR, and Nisha Menon, founder of Jack & Chill. With plant-based being so high on the show’s agenda, this was a brilliant topic to discuss. We covered issues such as how the industry has evolved over the years; whether or not there is a sustainability crisis looming for the industry (air-miles, soy deforestation, water usage) or whether it is simply a market in infancy; lab-grown meat and its ethics; and more.
If you would like to know how our expertise in category can help grow your FMCG business, get in touch. Alternatively, you can email Hamish Renton, managing director [email protected] or Roseanna, Food Marketing and Commercial consultant, [email protected].
You might be interested in…
- Watch Roseanna in action at Food Matters Live – Food Matters Live 2019 – Free From – FMCG – HRA Global
- We’re at Food Matters Live
- Speciality and Fine Foods Fair Review 2019
- HRA Global 2020 Trend Report
