The food industry is facing some of the biggest challenges in history. How can we supply enough healthy food to a growing population in a way that is sustainable and trusted by the consumer?

Among industries, governments and societal organisations, awareness is growing that a shift is needed towards healthier, more-sustainable diets. In national and international agendas for research three important themes are prevalent in all these agendas: healthy nutrition, consumer engagement and sustainable food systems. These themes offer also offer tremendous business opportunities. Those who are early in marrying personalised products and services built on a deep understanding of consumer behaviour, for example, or in developing smart tools to support farmers in eco-friendly production have much to gain.

At TiFN, we believe only a holistic, systems approach can truly tackle the issues, challenging our largest system, our planet. Such an approach would focus on providing healthy nutrition tailored to peoples’ individual needs, based on ‘smart’ food production, within the boundaries of our one planet, yet producing sufficient nutrition to feed the global polulation. And, crucially, it would restore consumer engagement and trust: as a food manufacturer you can develop any product or technology you wish but, in the end, it is the consumer who decides to buy it or not.