On the 21st of November 2023, we hosted our last Meetup of the year in our London FoodTech Hub, in partnership with Huckletree. We gathered FoodTech startups, investors, and experts to deep dive into the future of food, given the context of climate-change and growing population. We enjoyed sharing, learning, and enabling meaningful connections between like-minded people all working together to provide innovative solutions to make our food system more resilient and sustainable.

 

Check out all videos and pictures of the event here

The Future of Food 

While immediate dietary changes caused by climate change might not be around the corner, current trends in FoodTech show that many actors have already started to tackle food security challenges brought on by climate change. The latter and global food production share a complex relationship. Food production significantly contributes to climate change, while conversely, the impacts of climate change disrupt both the production and nutritional quality of our food. So what will happen in the future? How will we feed 10B people with nutritious food? Meeting the demand for food in a growing world while preserving our planet’s resources—how do we strike this crucial balance? These were some of the questions posed during our event – we sought to debunk the food of the future together and understand what all of this is about!

What is Climate-proof nutrition?

Climate-proof nutrition addresses both the environmental and nutritional challenges that will come about with the increasing population and our current food system dynamics. Weather-resilient solutions such as Cellular Agriculture, Precision Fermentation, Next-Gen Food, and Bio-engineered crops are aimed at safeguarding our existing food systems from the impacts of climate change. These solutions can significantly help to decrease the role food production plays in driving climate change while increasing our food security to feed our growing people. 

To showcase the quality of innovation and talent in the space, we invited some of the most exciting food tech entrepreneurs from the UK ecosystem working at the intersection of biology, nutrition, and emerging technologies (e.g AI, machine learning). 

The event

The evening kicked off with a brief introduction of the topic by Co-Founder & COO of Forward Fooding, Max Leveau. Next, the above-mentioned startups took the stage to present their companies and their technology solutions to a full room of attendees from the FoodTech British ecosystem: alternative proteins (Better Nature), precision fermentation (Eden Bio), cultivated fat (Hoxton Farms), growth media (Multus Bio), bioreactors (Cultzyme), and nutrition-enhanced foods (Modern Baker).

Presentations were followed by a panel discussion moderated by our very own Max Leveau and an open Q&A with our attendees.  

The evening wrapped up with a delicious networking session powered by Neat Burger, Better Nature Tempeh, WnWn FoodLabs, LowRise Beer and Nix&Kix drinks. 

Present and Future FoodTech Champions

Learn more about our speakers and their journey below: 

• Better Nature – Christopher Kong, CEO and co-founder

Chris is the CEO and Co-Founder of Better Nature- the UK’s leading tempeh brand and the world’s first food tech company leveraging tempeh mycelium fermentation to produce delicious, nutritious and all-natural plant-based proteins and ingredients. The mission of Better Nature is simple – to help people live healthier lives by taking tempeh, a plant-based protein that originated in Indonesia 300 years ago, into the mainstream.

Since its founding in early 2019, Better Nature has won six international food-tech competitions, published 4 WIPO patents, and has expanded outside of the UK into Germany with a listing in REWE – Germany’s 2nd largest retailer. In the UK, Better Nature is listed in over 800 retail locations nationwide in retailers such as TESCO, Planet Organic and Selfridges, and will soon launch nationwide with ASDA in January 2024. Better Nature is also a best-seller on Amazon UK and is the UK’s highest-rated tempeh brand according to its Trust pilot reviews.

Aside from his work at Better Nature, Chris is an avid cyclist and marathon runner. Last year he cycled the full length of the UK and ran the Paris Marathon earlier this year – all fueled by tempeh of course – to raise money for YUM, a charity based in Indonesia tackling infant malnutrition.

• Eden Bio – Rachel Shaw, CEO 

Dr Rachel Shaw is a co-founder and CEO of Eden Bio, a UK biotech start up using machine learning to revolutionise microorganism-based protein production through maximising protein productivity. Within a year of launching, Eden Bio raised £1M and successfully delivered on its first commercial contracts. Prior to leading Eden Bio, Rachel worked for the world’s largest independent funder of cancer research, bringing in and stewarding key partnerships, high-value donations worth up to £40M and representing the company for mass fundraising through a range of media, including live telethons. She also has an MBA essentials from LSE, a PhD from King’s College London and has published three books.

• Multus Biotechnology – Cai Linton, Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer

Cai Linton has an MEng in Molecular Bioengineering from Imperial College London and combines technical knowledge in tissue engineering and data science with management experience. His motivation to create a sustainable future using biotechnology led him to co-found Multus to shorten routes to market and lower entry barriers in the cultivated meat industry. Multus creates the key ingredients for the affordable scale-up of cellular agriculture. The company’s growth media formulations and ingredients are the building blocks of cellular agriculture and enable the affordable at-scale production of real animal products, including meat, dairy, leather, and more, using cells instead of animals.

• Hoxton Farms – Ed Steele, Co-founder 

Ed is a mathematician by training, who has spent his career using machine learning to optimise processes in industries spanning genetics, finance and legal tech. At the beginning of 2020 he joined up with nursery school friend and molecular biologist, Max, to found Hoxton Farms. Hoxton Farms are growing real animal fat – without the animals. They are cultivating a deliciously fatty future to make meat alternatives which perform like the real thing!

• Cultzyme – Juan Garzon Vela, Co-founder & CEO 

Juan has been a researcher at CSIC-CFM, a technology centre where he has carried out research in the field of physics applied to materials (soft matter), to obtain hypercrystalline cellulose from by-products of the food industry through the programming of microorganisms by precision fermentation, for application as coatings in electronics and biocomposites. His concern for driving change in different social problems such as degenerative diseases, pollution by production or the impact of food led him to co-found CULTZYME. A company based on hardware and software, focused on driving biotechnological innovation through its multipurpose smart bioreactors.

• Modern Baker Superloaf – Melissa Sharp and Leo Campbell, Co-Founders 

Prior to co-founding Modern Baker, Melissa was Operations Director for an Oxford-based learning and development consultancy. Her decision to switch careers and pursue a purpose-driven mission came about following a revelatory encounter with the snack trolley on a chemo ward. Today she is the face of Modern Baker, and the team’s radar for health and nutrition trends across the complex social media ecosystem.

Leo has assisted at the inception of many business start-ups during his career, the bulk based around the advertising industry and its epochal shift towards digital. His decision to change tack and co-found Modern Baker with Melissa came after experiencing a personal tragedy. This event brought an acceptance of vulnerability that proved the catalyst for fundamental change.

Neither has a formal background in science. In the face of obstructive, decades-old food science orthodoxy, this has proved a key strength. Too much legacy thinking hampers the innovation required to tackle one of humanity’s most pressing challenges – the consequences of poor diet – head-on.

What began as a determination to make the supermarket loaf, aka ‘the world’s favorite UPF’, good for us has evolved into a far wider mission.

Panel discussion with speakers and open Q&A

Throughout the session, the panelists provided valuable insights into fostering consumer acceptance of novel foods and upcoming alternative proteins such as cultivated meat and insect-based. Additionally, they shed light on the regulatory landscape governing the commercialization of cellular agriculture and novel food in general, not only in the UK but also in key global markets. They also discussed the key scalability challenges some of them are facing, before finally sharing their entrepreneurial journeys with the audience, and in particular what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur and the key learnings gathered along the journey.

Thank you!

At Forward Fooding, we are incredibly proud to have hosted these great pack of inspiring founders and FoodTech experts at our London FoodTech Innovation Hub. 

A big thanks to our partner-in-crime Huckletree for hosting us as we keep fostering London’s FoodTech community together. 

A huge thanks to all our speakers for taking the time to share their insights with our attendees and inspire other entrepreneurs. And, last but clearly not least, thank you to all the participants who made this event so amazing and interesting. The incredible entrepreneurial talent who came together during this occasion is a testament to the vibrant FoodTech community that the UK has to offer.

Want to learn more about AgriFoodTech? Forward Fooding is the world’s first collaborative platform for FoodTech Data Intelligence and Corporate Startup Collaboration.  

To learn more visit: forwardfooding.com or contact us at info@forwardfooding.com.