Sustainable Foods Summit To Be Held in June

LONDONIn-depth discussions on sustainable ingredients, marketing developments and consumer behavior will be featured in the 5th European edition of the Sustainable Foods Summit, to be held June 6-7 at the Mövenpick Hotel in Amsterdam.

The summit will discuss methods to lower the environmental footprint of food and beverage products. The two-day program will be comprised of four sessions, featuring presentations by top industry leaders.

The Sustainable Ingredients session will address the pressure food and beverage companies face to innovate, explaining how sustainable raw materials can spur innovation, while reducing environmental impacts of finished products. Bob Quinn, founder and president of Kamut International, will discuss the use of ancient grains in modern processed foods.

Monique Simmonds, head of innovations unit at Kew Royal Botanical Gardens, will present a paper on natural sweeteners, highlight emerging natural sweeteners for food and beverage applications. Agropalma and GreenPalm will address the sustainability issues concerning vegetable oils. Other papers will feature novel ingredients, sustainable marine ingredients and the social impacts of sustainable sourcing.

Various papers will discuss the social aspect of sustainability in the opening session, Sustainability Best-Practices. In it, dimensions of the social pillar of sustainability will be outlined. Kevin Cheung, CEO of Foodcycle, will explain how his enterprise has made food waste a driver of positive change and address social issues of youth development and food poverty.

A paper on sustainable food cities will emphasize the role of sustainable food systems to help alleviate the environmental, economic and social issues in urban areas. Tom Andrews from the Soil Association will cover how public-private partnerships can help build local food systems. In light of the recent horse meat scandal, vulnerabilities in food supply chains and methods to minimize food fraud will also be covered.

In the Marketing Developments session, challenges and methods of marketing sustainable foods will be debated. Veronica Rubio from BSCI will explain challenges retailers face in balancing environmental-social issues, as well as building transparent supply chains. A leading European food retailer will talk about selecting and marketing sustainable food products. Henk Gerbers from Vion Foods will explain how organic brands can compete with large conventional brands.

The final session, Consumer Behavior, discusses methods to encourage sustainability at the consumer level. Martin Plumberg from brands and values will share lifecycle analysis on the environmental footprint of food and beverages. A research agency will present its findings on consumer motives to buy sustainable foods and the British Retail Consortium will highlight ways to encourage responsible purchasing and consumption. Simran Sethi, environmentalist and sustainability strategist, will discuss the psychology of green consumerism.

The Sustainable Foods Summit is organized by Organic Monitor. Its aim is to explore new horizons for eco-labels and sustainability in the food industry by discussing key industry issues in a high level forum.