Oat milk anyone?
Technological innovation has changed our lives in so many ways. Every aspect of our day to day lives, from our culture to the way we work, has been influenced by the technology that was made to make it easier. The goods and services that we’re used to today are drastically different than those that were accessible even 20 years ago. The food industry has also seen a lot of small innovations in ways you may not realize with food technology. Healthier food becomes more accessible thanks to the technology that allows us to create larger quantities of healthier food. We can also transport food faster than we could before.
Food technology is creating rapid change in the many food industries worldwide. ArcticStartup is a media and events company based in Finland that’s heavily invested in the startup world. The company is focused on investing in innovative food technology. ArcticStartup wishes to make healthy food easily accessible to a wider audience. They aim to do this by focusing on how innovation can change how we interact with food.
What Do We Mean By Food Technology?
What does food technology innovation look like? “Obviously meat and milk replacements are trending, so I believe there will be some big winners in that space [in the future] but it will take time,” said Jan Ameri, the Chief Innovation Officer of ArcticStartup. “Same with personalized food which will be big but will take long time as we need real-time analysis (of blood, urine, etc) cost to go down to pennies, so that’s dependent on biotech industry development,” he explained.
Somewhat personalized services are already popping up, though. Subscriptions like Hello Fresh and Blue Apron make it easy to customize and order fresh meals to be delivered directly to your door. There are a huge variety of choices, from all-vegan to kosher. The next step in this is to take personalization even further and cater to each individual customer’s health needs. Meals can eventually be premade or pre-packaged to contain all of the nutrients you need specifically for your body.
Burger Innovation
That’s not to say that food technology innovations will get rid of guilty pleasure foods, though. “Comfort foods will sell as humanity has issues and we want that bit of escapism where food plays a part alongside Netflix. If it’s direct to consumer, you can make great margins. As healthy options increase their share, double-bacon-extra cheese [foods] will keep selling to the masses so we will see the “unhealthy hits” too,” says Ameri. We may see healthier versions of our favorite comfort foods become more accessible. Just take a look at how many startup companies are beginning to offer affordable things like burgers made with fresher ingredients.
Food technology plays a huge role in our everyday lives without our realizing. ArcticStartup aims to hone in on those innovations. By investing in promising technology they will hopefully make it a little bit easier to access better foods. The company has a variety of events around Finland such as Tonic18 and their flagship conference, Arctic 15. The latter of which may be seen in other countries sometime next year.
