Nutrimarketing CEO on meeting CO2 targets and the future of nutrition
In an exclusive interview with SIAL, Nutrimarketing’s Beatrice de Reynal shares her expert opinion on all things nutrition.
The CEO focuses particularly on meeting net zero targets on carbon emissions, and offers some insight into latest trends, as well as how food brands and consumers might play their part to reach these targets and become healthier in the process.
Listen to the full podcast #8 How does the Food Industry Tackle The Target of Net Zero?
Meeting Net Zero targets
Talking about meeting net zero carbon emissions targets and the perception of these issues by the consumer, de Reynal commented that around 74% of people believe carbon emissions are important, according to a poll by Nutrimarketing. However, there is “a huge difference between what we declare and what we actually do,” she adds.
The expert said that work would need to be done by manufacturers, to make choosing the planet-friendly option easier, including doing away with greenwashing, getting rid of “too many additives” and “fake ingredients”, and by innovating with new but “real ingredients”, to make plant-based foods tastier, and give them more of the “yum factor”.
Key trends and drivers
On the key trends influencing consumer behaviour and eating habits, de Reynal noted three main drivers for wanting to eat more healthily – environmental concerns, heart health and calorie content, and mental wellbeing.
“In studies conducted by Nutrimarketing, we’ve asked consumers what they are most concerned about or interested in,” she said. “Some are most interested in calorific content, and half said they were interested in heart health. And then also, following the pandemic, mental wellbeing is an important factor as we all suffer from stress and sleeping difficulties and so on.”
De Reynal added that digestive health was also important to 53% of people. “So here we’re talking about probiotic, symbiotic, post-biotic, ecetera,” she commented. “And then maybe most importantly, consumers are thinking more about improving their immune systems. Because of the pandemic we all want to be to be stronger against the infection and so on. We found that 64% of people want to have a better immune health.”
Future food habits
When asked about the future, and how food habits might change, the Nutrimarketing CEO said that habits would be hard to break.
“You learn how to be omnivorous when you’re small, and then it’s very difficult just to unlearn all of that,” she continued. “Therefore, it will probably take one or two generations for things to really shift. So, I guess that in the couple of years or decades coming, there will be more natural formula and I think that we will decrease the amount of additives use in food and of course we are we are going to go in a right way according to the to the environment.
“Today, there is too much fake product, greenwashing food on the market. But you know we have to go a little by little. And I guess that in 10 or 20 years, there will be a lot of additives out of the list.”
In conclusion, Nutrimarketing’s de Reynal said that ultimately the industry needs to find a way to achieve greater “food justice” in the world, if it is to solve the problems.
She said: “We need a system where we and have more justice in the food system – so a system that ensures no one is going hungry but that no one is overfed. We have to make the system more equitable, and recognise that yes, we need some meat and some milk for calcium, but also get better at sharing and being more generous with others.”
For more SIAL Corporate news, click here
Join us at SIAL Paris as exhibitor Join us at SIAL Paris as visitor
