Food Ingredients Industry – Pandemic View by Daniel Hickey

The Food Industry has performed well during the Pandemic with the availability of products on supermarket shelves being maintained at high levels.  There have been many difficulties to be overcome but the industry has shown an ability to rise to the challenges we have faced and overcome them.  Unfortunately, there has been a marked reduction in the level of new products launched over the past twelve months which for innovative companies like AllinAll has been disappointing.

Over the past ten to twenty years the food sector has seen much concentration on making food stuffs healthier.  Ingredient companies such as AllinAll have revised ingredient formulations to allow food makers produce food stuffs with for example reduced levels of salt and sugar without damaging the shelf life and sensory attributes of the end products. There has also been a move to more natural ingredients as they are seen as being healthier, clean labelling has become particularly important.

Twenty years or more ago there was a small minority of consumers advocating a vegetarian lifestyle.  This movement was mainly centred around animal rights and whether humans ought to feel entitled to use animals as a food source.  While those calling for this change were at times vociferous the market demand for vegetarian products was very small.  So there was a niche in the market but there was not really a market in the niche.  Consequently very little shelf space in supermarkets was devoted to vegetarian products.

I feel things are very different today from twenty years ago.  The push for a reduction in the use of meat proteins is now part of the worldwide movement of making all aspects of our lifestyle more sustainable.  As growing vegetable proteins are far less demanding on the resources of our planet than the production of animal protein they are seen as being able to play a vital role in the save our planet movement.   For this reason, the forces behind this change are far more powerful than the movements to use less meat twenty years ago and so likely to have a much greater influence on what we eat. More recent market research studies suggest that nearly 23% of the Europeans are flexitarian, quite a game changer, which further accentuates the demand for ingredient solutions in this area.

AllinAll has been very active in the development of products that cater for both Meat-Free (Vegetarian & Vegan) and Flexitarian (reduced meat interests).  At FIE in 2019 AllinAll launched its “chicken” vegan nugget that had no chicken but instead protein from a vegetable source which received widespread interest.   Despite the marked reduction in new product launches that took place in 2020 AllinAll working with its customers successfully introduced to the market a Flexitarian Range which has received widespread consumer interest.  This is a trend we see as growing in the next few years.

I feel that society increasingly will see vegetable proteins playing a vital part in our efforts to save the planet, facilitating a more sustainable environment.  For this reason, the move away from animal proteins will be far more potent than it was twenty or more years ago.  AllinAll is proud of the work and success we have had in developing ingredient solutions that enable our customers play an active role in meeting these demands for foodstuffs that are sustainable, nourishing, and tasty.