Sanjeev Krishnan

This is a guest post by Sanjeev Krishnan, Chief Investment Officer and Managing Director at S2G Ventures

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a global health and economic crisis like none we have seen in our lifetime. In the food supply chain this has impacted employees that ensure that food is planted, harvested and processed, grocery shelves are stocked and food is available to all people. It takes a global village to feed the world, and we have seen selfless sacrifice and silent grit to ensure the continuity of our food system. Because, if our food supply breaks down, this pandemic may move from a crisis to a catastrophe.

Over the past several months several cracks have shown up in the food supply chain. The pandemic is challenging the nature of our global supply chain, stressing logistics networks and reinforcing the importance of labor. There are concerns about food nationalism, continued access to labor and redefining the nature of food security from global to national systems. While now is the time for urgent action – from government and private sector – there is a need for longer-term investments required for building a more innovative and resilient future food system.

Our team at S2G Ventures spent several months researching and monitoring COVID-19 and its implications to better understand these questions, keeping a close eye on the news cycle, conducting extensive desktop research and speaking with various experts across many fields. We spoke to epidemiologists, healthcare professionals, farmers, entrepreneurs, philanthropists and other investors to gather insights and develop our perspective on the implications of COVID-19 on the world of food and agriculture. We have compiled our finding into a report that explores the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic to the food and agriculture industry and identifies the areas of innovation critical to building a healthier and more sustainable food system.

As an investor in companies across all stages of the food system, we believe our role in the recovery is to ensure we build a more stable, resilient, sustainable and healthy system. We will continue to invest in entrepreneurs and innovations that are the catalysts for meaningful progress. Below, we offer a summary of our report, which can also be downloaded in full here.

Pandemics 101: A History of Recovery & Innovation

Taking a look back in time, the world suffered a deadly pandemic in 1918. The Spanish flu, whose origin is believed to be a farm outside of Kansas City, spread quickly across the globe. Although the world was not as connected, World War I was still ongoing, and troops were being shuttled between the United States and Europe. Between 1918 and 1919, the Spanish flu is believed to have infected nearly a third of the global population and killed between three and 20 percent of those who were infected. In the end it killed between 40 and 50 million people. In the years following the Spanish flu, there was a bright period of innovation that included the adoption of the Bell telephone and modern medicine. It was an event that helped shape the future.

Between the Spanish flu and today’s pandemic, there have been seven major epidemics or pandemics. Each varies in mortality, duration and contagion, but ultimately all come to an end. The economic recovery period that follows a pandemic-induced recession is generally different from traditional economic recessions. Pandemic-induced recession recoveries have generally seen a V-shaped recovery, while traditional recessions have varied between V-, U-, W-, and L-shaped recoveries. The global financial crisis of 2008 saw a L-shaped recovery. Typically, economic recessions have a longer duration and deeper economic consequences.

The coronavirus pandemic is unique among prior events. While many events have temporarily shut down regions, none have had the same global shutdown that we are currently facing today. So, despite being able to draw comparison and insights to learn from pandemic economics, the situation is different due to a staggering rise in globalization, digitalization across many sectors and the rise of fiat currencies. Pandemic economic history teaches us that one of the hallmarks is that innovation plays a critical role in the future normal that emerges. As professor Katherine A. Foss notes, “disease can permanently alter society, and often for the best by creating better practices and habits. Crisis sparks action and response.”

While the direct effect of COVID-19 is on the population – with infection rates, social distancing and shelter-in-place restrictions and continued operations of only essential businesses – there are significant implications across many industries. The second order consequences of coronavirus are reshaping industries, catalyzing innovation and encouraging resilience in business planning. Although the lasting impact on many industries is unknown, we see exciting innovation accelerating across automation, telemedicine, virtual reality and transparency systems (i.e., blockchain or similar technologies).

Everyone Eats – Pandemic Proof Demand, but Supply?

While the food and agriculture sectors are generally more resilient in bad economic situations, there are several sub sectors that rely heavily on in-person labor and are currently strained due to the unique social distancing pressures placed on businesses. One significant pressure point is meat processors. Several large meat companies have been forced to shutter processing facilities due to COVID-19 outbreaks. Smithfield had to shut down one of its pork processing facilities that supplied roughly 5 percent of the U.S. pork supply, while JBS had to close a Pennsylvania facility that processed beef. The second-order consequence of these closures is the farmer, who may be forced now to cull their herds of cattle and hogs. The strain on this pressure point affects not only the farmer, but also the consumer. Wendy’s felt the effects of this during this past week, when nearly one-fifth of all 1,043 locations ran out of beef.

While it will take an extended period of time to fully understand the implications of consumer purchasing data coming out of the pandemic – more specifically if the duration of the consumer behavior shift will be a ‘fad’ or ‘trend’ – certain areas of the market are seeing a quick adoption of trends that were previously accelerating. As slaughter-house closures have increased, plant-based meats sales have jumped 200 percent. Plant-based meats remain a small portion of the market, but this is a significant and notable demand signal from consumers.

Coronavirus is notably changing how consumers shop, prepare and consume food. Between 2009 and 2018, out-of-home eating rose from 50.1 percent to 54.4 percent of the market. Now, with social distancing limited the ability to eat at restaurants, many are turning to preparing food at home or ordering delivery or takeout. And, despite food being a resilient sector, the bifurcation between grocery and food service has become clear.

In the grocery store, private label market-share gains are poised to accelerate, as consumers tighten spending and look for value-focused alternatives. However, we expect consumers to prioritize a balance of value and better-for-you brands instead of a complete tradeoff to value, consistent with the consumer megatrend towards better-for-you products.

Taking a step back, and observing the broader food value chain, we observed three primary delivery vulnerabilities in the food system:

1. Agricultural inputs to farms (e.g., seeds, animal feed, fertilizer, et al.)

2. Farm products to processors, packagers, spot markets and export markets

3. Food to retail distribution

This is important, because the global food system relies on a just-in-time economy, where inventory levels are intentionally kept low. Meaning, that regardless if there is enough supply in existence, it may not be able to reach its proper destination if the supply chain is disrupted.

China, which provides a good example because it is further along in the lifecycle of the pandemic, has been suffering from this problem the last several months. Upstream and downstream logistics are a major challenge; at the ports there are thousands of frozen meat containers piling up because the trucking has effectively collapsed. Meanwhile, ports are running out of power, stoking fears that much of the food currently stored there will go bad. There is also an American company that makes immunization equipment for chicken that said their containers had been docked at Chinese ports for four weeks. Although China is doing its best to ensure that the grain planting season is not missed, the logistics of this supply chain are making it increasingly difficult.

The Future of Food – COVID-19 and Calories

While we continue to watch the situation, and the strain it is placing on the food system, we view the common thread that could bridge the existing system to the future as technology. Consumer purchasing behavior coupled with innovation may drive changes in market share and pressure existing players in the market. Although we have not seen COVID-19 create a new trend, we have seen several trends that were in motion pre-coronavirus further accelerated by the pandemic, including alternative protein, indoor agriculture, digitalization of agriculture and grocery and food as medicine.

Although animal agriculture remains a large and growing market, the pandemic has exposed challenges with the industries long production cycles, centralized production and limited processing facilities. It has allowed for faster consumer adoption of alternative proteins, including plant-based protein, fungi, algae and other biomass concepts including cellular meat. Notably, some of these technologies are further along than other, for example plant-based protein has been a trend for several years, while cellular meat remains in a research and development phase. We continue to believe that whatever the next generation of protein is, it will be driven by production speed, price and taste.

A second trend we believe is accelerating is food as an immunity. The convergence of food, science and technology may unlock this sector and usher in a new era in microbiome, functional ingredients, precision and personalized nutrition and medical foods. Prior to COVID-19, this was largely driven by nutrition-related disease, but the pandemic has exposed at-risk populations, with approximately 90 percent of hospitalized patients having one or more underlying condition, with the most common underlying condition being obesity.

Beyond specific trend acceleration, several themes emerge throughout this research that we believe may be catalyzed and emerge in a post-COVID-19 world. Digitalization will likely be driven by dis-intermediation to allow for new relationships with the consumer and to reduce risk throughout the supply chain. Decentralized food systems allow for the automation of local (alternative protein and produce) and the reshaping of complex perishable supply chains to reduce shrink and waste. They are also more omnichannel congruent as e-commerce, specifically online grocery, adoption accelerates. De-commoditization in the food supply chain, coupled with technologies that place deflationary pressure on the industry, may help catalyze breeding for attributes beyond yield (taste, protein content, et al), a return to polyculture farming and a shift from a strict focus on yield to profit per acre. Lastly, food as an immunity has the potential to bridge healthcare and food production and consumption for treatment of specific nutrition-related chronic lifestyle diseases, as well as change the future of brands to focus on unique, functional ingredients. a

Our full report, The Future of Food in the Age of COVID,  is available online.

_____________________________

Sanjeev Krishnan, Chief Investment Officer and Managing Director at S2G Ventures

Sanjeev has nearly 20 years of experience in sourcing, executing, managing and exiting venture and private equity investments, including a focus in agriculture and food companies. As Managing Director, Sanjeev is active in developing investments and managing portfolio companies including, serving on many portfolio company boards. His portfolio work ranges from genetics, crop protection, soil health, digital/IOT, crop insurance, merchandising, indoor agriculture, novel flavor and ingredients, new protein development, unique processors and brands that will feed this changing consumer.

He is passionate about the role of innovation, entrepreneurship, markets and system investing as a theory of change. Sanjeev has worked in the intersection of sustainability, technology and health in many regions, including Europe, Africa, Asia and North America.  He has invested over $500 mm in venture and growth stage firms throughout his career.

Sanjeev began investing as a co-founder of the life sciences practice of the IFC, the $99 billion private investment arm of the World Bank. His previous investment roles include CLSA Capital Partners, Global Environment Fund, World Bank Group’s IFC and JPMorgan. Sanjeev is a graduate of the London School of Economics and Political Science.

About S2G Ventures: S2G Ventures (Seed to Growth) is a multi-stage venture fund investing in food and agriculture. The fund’s mission is to catalyze innovation to meet consumer demands for healthy and sustainable food. S2G has identified sectors across the food system that are ripe for change, and is building a multi-stage portfolio including seed, venture and growth stage investments. Core areas of interest for S2G are agriculture, ingredients, infrastructure and logistics, IT and hardware, food safety and technology, retail and restaurants, and consumer brands. For more information about S2G, visit www.s2gventures.com or connect with us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

The post Pandemic Proof: S2G Ventures on Why Resilient, Sustainable and Healthy Food Systems are More Important Than Ever appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

Source: USDA

Every week we track the business, tech and investment trends in CPG, retail, restaurants, agriculture, cooking and health, so you don’t have to. Here are some of this week’s top headlines.

The USDA has released its long-awaited GMO labeling standards. The BE labels help regulate food marketing, not food safety or limiting technology. Coca-Cola’s Venturing and Emerging Brands (VEB) unit has led a $15 million investment in Iris Nova, the parent company of Dirty Lemon. Hippeas has closed an $8 million round as it prepares for nationwide expansion in Whole Foods and later convenient stores. Sir Kensington has ventured into spices, launching its first DTC platform.

After Blue Apron shares dropped below $1, the company’s latest comeback efforts relies on the dieters of WW, formerly Weight Watchers, to help its bottom line. US pharmaceutical company Merck has acquired digital livestock and animal health company Antelliq for $2.37 billion.

And to wrap up the year in innovation news, check out Eater’s compilation of Food Trends for 2019 and Biggest Food Technology Advances of 2018.

Check out our weekly round-up of last week’s top food startup, tech and innovation news below or peruse the full newsletter here.

_______________

1. Coca-Cola Leads $15M Investment in Dirty Lemon Parent Co. Iris Nova – BevNet

Along with its own brands, Iris Nova has allocated $1m to invest in other beverage brands this year. Dirty Lemon plans to open new retail stores in Manhattan, Chicago and Miami.

2. Merck Acquires Digital Livestock Tech Antelliq for $2.4B in Biggest Agtech Acquisition on Record – AgFunder

The move highlights the pharmaceutical company’s commitment to the animal health business.

3. Amsterdam: Takeaway Buys Delivery Hero’s German Division for $1B – Skift Table

Takeaway’s orders will double to 47m, with expected cost synergies to exceed 60m euros by 2020.

4. Blue Apron Links With Dieters in Comeback Effort – Wall Street Journal

After shares fell below $1, the company entered a partnership with WW Inc, formerly known as Weight Watchers, giving it access to millions of customers interested in healthy eating.

5. Hippeas Closes $8M Round, Expects to Hit Profitability in 2019 – Nosh

Venture group CAVU led the round. In January, the line will enter Whole Foods nationwide and later enter the convenience channel with a test in 7-Eleven.

6. Sir Kensington’s Launches Spice Line, Tests D2C Sales – Nosh

The spice kits are sold through a microsite, where the company will release a different set each month.

7. Here’s a First Look at the Label That Must Appear on All GMO Foods by 2022 – New Food Economy

The “bioengineered” label will soon be a familiar sight, but the government’s criteria for foods that can evade the label are already causing confusion and controversy.

8. Merck Acquires Digital Livestock Tech Antelliq for $2.4B in Biggest Agtech Acquisition on Record – AgFunder

The move highlights the pharmaceutical company’s commitment to the animal health business.

9. Was 2018 the Year of the Influential Sustainable Consumer? – Nielsen

Americans spent $128.5m on sustainable fast-moving consumer goods — a 20% growth in product sales.

10. The Biggest Food Technology Advances of 2018 – Eater

Automated delivery vehicles, robot cooks and servers, and new ways to experience flavor and meet daily nutritional standards will soon be the status quo.

11. Literally Every Single Food Trend Predicted to Take Over 2019 – Eater

A compendium of every prediction about food, restaurants and dining culture for 2019.

12. Women, Women of Color & Gender Non-Conforming Innovator Database

We created this open-source list to increase representation, support and investment in women, women of color & gender-nonconforming innovators in food. Join the list & help us spread the word using #womxninfood

Our newsletter is the absolute easiest way to stay on top of the emerging sector, so sign up for it today and never miss the latest food tech and innovation news and trends, Already signed up? Share the love with your friends and colleagues!

The post USDA Releases GMO Label, Coca-Cola Invests $15M in Dirty Lemon Parent Co + More appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

Every week we track the business, tech and investment trends in CPG, retail, restaurants, agriculture, cooking and health, so you don’t have to. Last week’s top news centered around the challenges retail companies and food kits are facing when it comes to profitability and growth. Blue Apron, the most successful meal kit company to date, delayed an IPO last year due to heavy spending on customer acquisitions. Whole Foods continues to struggle with competition from other grocers that sell organic items at cheaper prices. Try The World, an exotic foods subscription service catering to millennials, doubled its revenue in 2016.

Check out our weekly round-up of last week’s top food startup, tech and innovation news below or peruse the full newsletter here.

Our newsletter is the absolute easiest way to stay on top of the emerging sector, so sign up for it today and never miss the latest food tech and innovation news and trends, Already signed up? Share the love with your friends and colleagues!

_______________

1. How Office Catering Startup Ox Verte Bootstrapped Its Way to Profitability

Founder Jessie Gould shares her top takeaways of launching a food startup without investors.

2. This Edible Water is How You’ll Drink in the Future – Fast Company

A new “water bottle” called the Ooho is a gelatinous sphere filled with water. The edible sphere is made from food ingredients, but can also be composted if you choose not to digest it.

3. How a Gourmet Food and Snack Startup Catering to Millennials Doubled Its Revenue – Forbes

Try The World, an exotic snacks subscription service has acquired competitor Hamptons Lane for an undisclosed amount. Founders Kat Vorotova and David Foult say the evolution of the American palate has helped revenue jump from $7M in 2015 to $14M in 2016.

4. Inside Blue Apron’s Meal Kit Machine – Bloomberg

Blue Apron is the most successful meal delivery company to date, but it’s spending heavily to acquire and keep customers.

5. An On-Demand Delivery Startup Has Started Selling Healthy Fast Food Out of a Former McDonald’s – Business Insider

Paleo meal delivery service Mealmade has converted a former McDonald’s into its new headquarters. The front of house will soon serve as a dining area where customers can enjoy quick and healthy meals.

6. The Winner of the Meal Kit Market Won’t be a Meal Kit Company After All– Tech Crunch

Meal kit companies are facing an onslaught of competition from newcomers and big food companies. To stay profitable, they need to diversity their offerings.

7. If Nutrition Labels Looked Like This, Your Attempts to Quit Sugar Might Actually Work – Quartz

If nutrition labels were designed to visualize ingredient proportions, it would likely be easier to avoid sugary foods. An ad campaign from a German consumer interest group shows how much sugar is used in foods like Nutella.

8. Millennials Drive Specialty Food Sales to New Heights – FoodDive

The specialty food industry ate up $127B of sales in 2016, up 15% from 2015. More people are buying specialty products online, especially millennials, with direct-to-consumer and third-party e-commerce accounting for 36% of all sales.

9. Whole Foods’ Organic Problem—Shoppers Naturally Prefer Cheaper Options – Quartz

Now that conventional grocery stores offer organic options at competitive prices, Whole Foods is struggling to keep customers.

10. Where in the World is this Food From? Traceability Initiatives Let Consumers Know – FoodDive

Responding to consumer demand for traceability, manufacturers like Hershey’s are developing digital solutions that give people more information about what goes into their food.

Our newsletter is the absolute easiest way to stay on top of the emerging sector, so sign up for it today and never miss the latest food tech and innovation news and trends, Already signed up? Share the love with your friends and colleagues!

The post Inside Blue Apron, Millennials Drive up Specialty Food Sales + More Top News appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

FoodBytes! is coming back to New York City in June! Food, food tech and agtech startups from around the world are encouraged to apply pitch to hundreds of executives, investors and industry leaders on Thursday, June 15 at SECOND Floor.

FoodBytes! will select 10 companies to give a 3.5-minute pitch and 10 companies to give a 60-second pitch. Since FoodBytes! launched in February 2015, more than 1,000 companies from over 30 countries have applied to pitch to 1,400 attendees.
 

Selected pitch companies have the opportunity to:

• Pitch to an audience of executives, investors, industry leaders and entrepreneurs
• Have dedicated display space to showcase your product or service
• Be in the running to win the People’s Choice, Judges’ Choice or Highly Commended Award
• Take part in an invite-only session of networking and mentorship with industry experts and the FoodBytes! judges on Wednesday, June 14. Check out our highlight video of our FoodBytes! Boulder mentorship day HERE

APPLICATION DEADLINE: 11:59 PM ET on Sunday, April 23.

Other Ways to Get Involved

Interested in attending rather than pitching? Not to worry, you’ll receive an email as soon as early bird tickets go on sale. Want to discuss partnership or sponsorship opportunities? Are you a journalist or blogger interested in covering FoodBytes! NYC? We’d love to hear from you, so please get in touch with us.

FoodBytes! is Coming to Austin, TX!

After NYC, our next stop is Austin in September, and we’re on the hunt for the perfect venue. Know any you think would be a good fit? Reply to this email with leads and help us crowdsource our FoodBytes! Austin home. Or apply to pitch in Austin HERE.

The post Food Tech & AgTech Startups – Last Week to Apply to Pitch at FoodBytes! NYC! appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

Guest post by Mary Beth Albright, food attorney and food writer. The views expressed here are solely those of the author and do not reflect the views of Food+Tech Connect.

Every Independence Day, I think about what kind of a revolution I want to start. Call it a Mid-Year’s Resolution. Something about the tales of American forefathers’ creativity, courage, and conviction leads me to search for a better use of my free time than the occasional (OK, subscription to) US Weekly.

This year I’ve written a series of articles for National Geographic on the future of food and technology, and the ways mind-blowing tech innovations will change how we eat. I guess everything old is new again, because even a cursory glance at history reveals that mind-blowing tech innovations just changed how we eat—the industrial revolution, home electricity, people flocking to cities rather than agricultural communities, transportation (cars, then planes), and processed foods all seismically altered humans’ eating patterns from millennia prior.

The past century has been nothing but technology’s disruption of dining.

The most dramatically different contemporary component though, is that many of the 9 billion people who will populate the planet by 2050 won’t know how to perform the basic function that got us to 9 billion people: cook. The sourcing responsibilities that used to fall on individuals back when local gathering was the only option—because we didn’t have mass transportation to deliver food from California to Delaware—now falls increasingly on large organizations and companies: restaurants, food services, schools and companies. Technology can help organizations committed to sustainability and responsibility through methods like chef-farmer speed dating that efficiently connects restaurants with ingredients and QR-coded fish for traceability and identification, for example.

So this Independence Day, I’m thinking of a revolution in the relationships between good food advocates and technology advocates. Of course, many people involved in food tech are passionate about food. But the good food movement (including agriculture, distribution, chefs, etc,) has its own culture and body of specialized knowledge, just as technology developers do. Getting the groups to engage is vitally important to craft a sustainable dining system.

Continuing to engage food and technology groups together will encourage development of new ways to feed 9 billion well and sustainably, ways that actually improve life and don’t cause tech fatigue for people who just want to eat.

Ultimately food technology can’t serve just the elite, particularly in dining, because the food system’s issues are so much greater. Smartphones have crossed socioeconomic barriers globally, becoming a tool to reach many people who have limited access to other technologies or services of civil society.

In my professions as both a food writer and a food attorney in Washington, DC, I have one foot in the world of chefs with rare ingredients and the other in public health concerns over limited access to any ingredients. Technology folks who design high-end apps for fine dining do the same when they engage in social entrepreneurism. And some technologies have dual purpose—the $200 food scanner that shows ripeness and sweetness of produce could incite its own revolution if a scan of an area with low food-access shows that produce is definitively inferior to produce in wealthier areas.

Technology for its own sake, and avoiding technology for nostalgia’s sake, are both romantic grave-digging, and both are traps for food advocates and tech advocates. Let’s start a food-tech revolution of people who listen to and evangelize for each other. In creating food technology that is ever more relevant to the everyday lives of the increasing number of people who eat but don’t cook, the planet can’t afford to be dogmatic about food.

Hacking Dining is online conversation exploring how we might use technology and design to hack a better future for dining. Join the conversation between June 2-30, and share your ideas in the comments, on Twitter using #hackdining, Facebook, LinkedIn or Tumblr.

________________

Mary Beth Albright is a food attorney and food writer who has held positions at the US Surgeon General’s Office, at the law firm of Williams & Connolly, and as a restaurant critic. Mary Beth has created several food literacy programs and is a Food Network alum who is a regular contributor on radio and television. Her blog, hosted by National Geographic, focuses on food culture, technology, and politics in our rapidly advancing world and her boutique firm Albright Law provides legal and communication services for food-related clients.

The post Why We Need a Food Tech Revolution appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

I had the opportunity to sit down with the company’s co-founder and CEO Santiago Merea at the Future of Food Hackathon and Forum to discuss how customer feedback has helped shape the product, as well as his company’s fundraising challenges and broader quantified cooking goals.

The post Orange Chef CEO on the Future of Quantified Cooking [Video] appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

Guest post by Tim West, co-producer of the Future of Food Hackathon. 

Why would a tire company care about food? Over 100 years ago, Michelin saw the need to drive to restaurants as an opportunity to sell more tires, so it created a set of guides for the top hotels and restaurants. Today, the Michelin Guide is the most influential culinary rating in the world. And while tires may not be considered a typical food technology, this outside the box thinking demonstrates the ways in which food supports many seemingly unrelated industries.

Zagat, another of the well known restaurant guides (acquired by Google in 2011), recently announced it’s 30 Under 30 list for 2013 – which I am honored to be on- and broke the mold by including social media managers and food entrepreneurs on the list. This move by San Francisco Bay Area editor Meesha Halm makes it clear that Zagat is shifting its view on the importance of technology in an increasingly digital era.

This weekend I will co-produce the Future of Food Hackathon in San Francisco, California, which aims to stimulate growth in the world of food technology. The event is preceded by the first Food Hackathon which took place in April and resulted in 5 winning teams. The grand prize winner, Vibrantly has already landed in the Apple iTunes Store. The Future of Food Hackathon will be paired with the Future of Food Forum. The keynote for the forum will be delivered by managing partner of Physic Ventures and Republic of Tea founder, William Rosenzweig. Other notable attendees include representatives from the Culinary Institute of America, The Institute for the Future and Food+Tech Connect founder and CEO, Danielle Gould.

The event will take place on November 16th-17th at the Tagged headquarters and will be followed by an after-party at TCHO New America Chocolate on Pier 17. Tagged is the fifth largest social network, with over 300 million users. TCHO is pioneering the application of technology to chocolate production. Additional support comes from Yummly, which is building a digital kitchen platform and boasts the #1 free recipe app on iTunes.

The hack will kick off with participants sharing their ideas on Saturday morning and will be followed by a 30 hour marathon of hacking – rapid prototyping of hardware and software solutions to challenges in our food system. Hackers will present their hacks in the finals and judges will decide who cuts the mustard. The Future of Food Forum, which will be held on Sunday afternoon, boasts some of the world’s leading food and tech experts and includes topics like the future of food tech trends. Appetizers and cocktails will be served at the after party hosted by San Francisco’s famous Stag Dining Group. We expect no couch potatoes at the event.

Food+Tech Connect will be live streaming from the event, so stay tuned.

The post What to Expect at This Weekend’s Future of Food Hackathon & Forum appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

There are many organizations working to reduce food waste through efforts like food banks, composting, and meal planning. And over the past few years, a number of technologies have emerged to reduce food waste across the supply chain. From restaurant waste tracking to leftover swapping, the following 6 technologies are working to disrupt food waste and decrease the amount of food thrown into landfills.

LeftoverSwap

Perhaps one of the more unique, and highly controversial, new technologies combatting food waste is LeftoverSwap, an online marketplace for leftovers. The iOS app allows users to post a picture and description of their unwanted leftovers on its listing database. Other users in the same geographic region can then trade or simply take the remaining food. Users arrange a mutually agreed upon delivery method. There are a lot of potential health hazards in taking food from unpermitted strangers. However, co-founder Dan Newman tells NPR that the exchange is all about trust, similar to Couchsurfing.

LeanPath 

One of the original players in the waste tracking field, LeanPath offers an automated system for restaurants, universities, hospitals, and other food service organizations. Its integrated scale and touch screen device allow users to easily record the amount, food type, location, loss reason, and other information about the food being discarded. Kitchen staff can record the information in less than 10 seconds, immediately prior to disposal. The data is uploaded to a reporting dashboard where it can be analyzed to find sources of waste. LeanPath goes one step further and offers training and coaching to translate the data into actionable steps. There are a variety of customizable rental and purchase options available, with the most basic starting at $199 per month. Its list of customers include ARAMARK Healthcare, MGM Resorts, Sodexo, and the University of California. Around 150 of LeanPath’s clients have reduced food waste by up to 80 percent after installing the system, co-founder Andrew Shakman told Modern Farmer last month.

FoodStar

Supermarkets lose  an estimated $15 billion annually in fruit and vegetable losses alone. A significant portion of fresh food from farms never even reaches the grocery store because it has cosmetic imperfections, does not meet the grocer’s size specifications, or is already too ripe. That is where FoodStar steps in. The platform organizes and alerts shoppers of flash sales or deep discounts at their local grocery store on imperfect or already ripe produce. Users can sign up for text or email notifications on FoodStar’s website and receive alerts detailing available products, time, and location of sales. These sales are of financial benefit to both consumers and businesses. Additionally, when the flash sales end any produce that doesn’t find a shopping cart is diverted from landfills to compost facilities.

Love Food Hate Waste

Love Food Hate Waste was launched by nonprofit organization WRAP in 2007 to help reduce food waste in the UK. Earlier this year they created a free iOS and Android app that helps users plan, shop, cook and make the most of leftovers. It includes a variety of recipes and tips for utilizing forgotten and leftover food to create new dishes. Samsung has recently partnered with the campaign to raise awareness and combat food waste by educating consumers about storing and organizing food in a more efficient way.

222 Million Tons

 For the many home cooks that struggle to use all of their groceries before they go bad, 222 Million Tons meal planning iPad app offers a compelling solution. The app allows users to create menus and shopping lists based on their household size. The aim is to optimize planning, while still providing enough variety in their home-cooked meals. The app gets its name from the amount of food wasted every year in industrialized nations according to a 2011 UN study. 

Wise Up on Waste

Capitalizing on the adage of “knowledge is power,” Wise Up on Waste allows restaurants to track and measure how, when, and where waste is produced. Created by Unilever Food Solutions, the free app—available on iOS, Android, and web-enabled devices—makes it simple for chefs to track the type of waste—spoilage, preparation, or customer plate waste—by meal on a per day and per cover basis. The performance data is then compiled and sent to users by email along with industry comparisons to help them identify cost saving opportunities. Wise Up on Waste also contains a plethora of useful information and tips to help chefs utilize this data and reduce waste.

The post Waste Not, Want Not: 6 Technologies to Reduce Food Waste appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

Counting your calories may become much easier thanks to The Orange Chef’s new quantified cooking products. The company will soon be releasing Prep Pad, a digital scale that calculates nutritional information in real-time, and Countertop, an accompanying iOS app that presents the information and lets you set goals. Designed for health-conscious home cooks, and riding the wave of the quantified self movement, it provides users with nutritional information about their meals – calories, protein, carbohydrates, and fat content – similar to the information you’d find on the nutritional label of any packaged good.

The device is sleek and beautiful. It does not display any weight data, making it look more like a cutting board than a digital scale. “It’s less about weight, and it’s more about you,” Orange Chef director of communications Michael Tankenoff tells me.

Users place meal ingredients, one at a time, on the scale, and then Prep Pad sends the weight to the Countertop via Bluetooth. Users must then go into the app to identify the ingredient, which can be done through manual selection on their screen, voice command or by scanning the barcode. Once the ingredients are identified, the app calculates the meal’s health profile, leveraging Nutritionix’s database of over 300,000 ingredients, which includes packaged products and large chain restaurant food.

Users can then make adjustments to the ingredient amounts to achieve a better nutrient mix based on their health goals. Countertop compares your meal with suggested protein, carb, and fat levels based on USDA guidelines, and also calculates an overall “balance score” out of 100, with higher numbers representing more balanced meals.

Compiling all of the ingredients at the start and quantifying nutritional information one-at-a-time may seem daunting to time-management obsessed chefs and home cooks, but Tankenoff says “these additional minutes before one’s meal is ready are worth the informational output.” Rather than reducing time in the kitchen, the Countertop app seeks to enable users to make wiser meal choices and better track eating habits, he says. Apart from health-conscious home cooks, this technology could have larger implications for food service providers with nutrition-sensitive clientele, such as schools, geriatric facilities, and health-conscious restaurants.

The Prep Pad was funded through a Kickstarter campaign launched in May, with 500 pre-ordered units at $149.95 each and an expected delivery in November. The company has also received inquiries from retailers expressing interest in the product, Tankenoff says. The company plans to enhance the software so that the app becomes more of a culinary instructor, allowing the cook to input what they want to prepare and then the software would dictate how much of each ingredient to add. Further down the road, the company seeks to leverage technology to improve other stalwart cooking tools to create a more connected kitchen. “We’re going to look at cornerstones of the kitchen environment and see how we can improve them in a subtle way by using technology to enhance the process,” says Tankenoff.

This is The Orange Chef’s second series of kitchen tech products. It’s first, an iPad protector called Chef Sleeve, launched two years ago and was followed by dishwasher safe iPad stands.

The post Prep Pad Aims to Redefine Calorie Counting appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

From payments to ordering to engagement, the restaurant industry is seeing its fair share of food tech innovation. Much of the innovation seems to be targeted towards large chains who are often earlier adopters of technology, but this innovation foreshadows what could be around the corner for small quick service restaurants (QSR). We decided to take a look at one of the technology companies that’s raised a lot of money to make waves in the restaurant space.

Founded by computer graphic and 3-D animation pioneer Paul Sidlo in 2002, EMN8 offers a selection of customized digital meal ordering and customer engagement services for QSRs. Through online and mobile meal ordering systems, digital kiosks, and call centers, restaurants can update menus universally, suggest add-ons at the point of purchase to increase the average bill per customer, and potentially reduce staff costs by introducing digital menus. EMN8’s technology also lets restaurants track purchase histories so customers can easily reorder previous menu favorites. All of its services create robust data that restaurants can use to analyze customer preferences.

As we noted in our monthly Food Tech Media Startup Funding roundup, in June, ENM8 announced it had acquired Snapfinger, an online and mobile ordering platform for casual dining restaurants. Snapfinger’s latest tool allows in-store diners to open tickets in the restaurant’s point-of-sale (POS) system with their personal mobile devices, which give restaurants more customer data regarding dine-in and take-out meal preferences. Additionally, such technology could reduce service times for customers. The company also announced it had raised $50 million in growth funding, lead by Bass Associates and Allegis Capital, to make the acquisition.

EMN8 was already a major player among the crowded meal-ordering space, working with restaurant giants like Burger King, Domino’s Pizza, Jack in the Box, and Yum! along with smaller chains such as Sizzler and The Counter. By acquiring Snapfinger, ENM8 now provides its services to an increased share of the QSR and casual dining segment. “We really understand the challenges that multi-unit restaurant chains face, including how to balance corporate- and franchise-level initiatives,” says EMN8’s Chief Marketing Officer Hope Neiman in an interview with Food+Tech Connect.

Like MenuDrive and RRT, EMN8 can integrate with the vast majority of POS systems, such as Micros, Radiant, and PAR. What sets the company apart, however, is its ability to act as the sole interface with customers across all channels—web, mobile, in-store, and telephone. “EMN8 helps our clients develop more integrated customer relationship models so that all of their communications are focused no matter which service or platform that customer came through,” says Neiman. This unified touchpoint between the restaurant and customer aims to increase revenue and encourage repeat customer transaction. As such, EMN8 is seeing a lot of interest in its loyalty and offer engines from clients.

Digital ordering accounts for a growing percentage of sales for some companies who have already embraced the technology, representing approximately a third of all Domino’s US orders, for example. Restaurant startups like Sweetgreen are also embracing mobile payment apps and seeing significant adoption and engagement. Ultimately, EMN8 seeks to revolutionize the restaurant industry landscape through further technological enhancements in the mobile payment arena and improved customer engagement models. “I think there’s a big shift in a lot of the technology for ordering really becoming very impactful for guests,” says Nieman.

The post EMN8 Ups Its Digital Ordering and Engagement Game appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

As we’ve written about in the past, technology will be key to tracing and monitoring the safety of our food supply. The following infographic, created by food safety device company CheckIt, illustrates some current food safety concerns, rates of foodborne illness and how mobile devices can improve food safety monitoring. Yes, it is an advertisement for the company, but we feel the data is compelling enough to make it worth sharing.

Food for thought: What if health department inspections considered comprehensive, year-long data rather than just sporadic in-person inspections? Imagine the impact consistent, error-free data could have on food service operations, diners, inspectors and our overall public health.

Benefits of Wireless Food Safety Monitoring

The post Infographic of the Week: How Tech Could Revolutionize Food Safety Monitoring appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

Photo Credit: Business Insider

If you’re looking to break into the food tech space or to develop a niche beat, this internship is for you!

Food+Tech Connect, a fast-growing media company focused on the intersection of food, health, technology and innovation, is currently hiring full- and part-time unpaid editorial interns to work out of our NYC office. Interns will get a crash course in the food tech space, lots of writing and event production experience and exposure to industry leaders.

Responsibilities:
• Participate in editorial calendar strategy sessions and creative meetings
• Work with our small editorial team to produce relevant, engaging content on multiple platforms
• Work with the Food+Tech Connect team to help grow our social media presence
• Assist with market research
• Help with basic office admin work
• Support team with event planning and production

Requirements:
• Writing experience (published clips and/or personal blog)
• Experience with WordPress
• Interest in the intersection of food and technology
• Meticulous editor with acute attention to detail
• Excellent communication skills across the board
• Interested in and engaged with social media, like Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr Google+ and Reddit
• Excellent collaborator and direction follower
• Comfortable with startup life: working long hours when necessary and generally being on call to provide support

To Apply:
Please send writing samples, resume, cover letter and references to nina[at]foodtechconnect[dot]com with the subject line “Food+Tech Connect Editorial Intern.”

More About the Company:
Through news, analysis and research, Food+Tech Connect helps people identify and understand market needs, emerging technologies and successful business models. Through events, we connect the leading thinkers and doers from the worlds of food, agriculture, health and technology.

The post Food+Tech Connect is Seeking Editorial Interns appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

Calling hackers from far and wide! National Day of Civic Hacking is taking place in cities across the nation this weekend (June 1-2). “The event will bring together citizens, software developers, and entrepreneurs from all over the country to collaboratively create, build, and invent new solutions using publicly-released data, code and technology to solve challenges relevant to our neighborhoods, our cities, our states and our country,” reads the website. Learn about all of  the nation-wide hacking opportunities here. Check out some exciting food tech-related challenges and events below:

Title: Backyard Poultry Farmer
Description: Create a Backyard Poultry Farmer app with the objective of getting individuals and households back into agriculture through backyard chickens
Contributed By:  U.S. Department of Agriculture – USDA Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS)

Title: Farmers Market Directory
Description: Creation of mobile applications to enhance the Farmers Market experience and make trips easier by using USDA’s Farmers Market Directory
Contributed By: U.S. Department of Agriculture – USDA

Title: Improve Healthcare
Description: HHS proposes 5 diverse projects aimed at improving healthcare: 1) build a common directory of community resources, 2) visualize/explore hospital charges data, 3) create downloadable healthdata.gov catalogue, 4) facilitate home visits that promote healthy families 5) secure survey collection
 Contributed By: Department of Health and Human Services – HHS

Title: EPA Safe Drinking Water App Challenge
Description: Develop an application that helps citizens locate their drinking water system, discover any historical or pending violations, and understand any potential health effects associated with potential violations.
Contributed By: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency – EPA

Title: The Hack For Food
Description: Code for Asheville is planning a food hackaton in conjunction with national partners and the Buncombe County Food Policy Council. Members of the tech community and the general community will come together to “hack” the issue of food availability and security.

Title: CityCamp Palo Alto
Description: A free and fun family event with a focus on hands-on activities such as a hackathon and makerspaces; software engineers, makers, artists, speakers, community members, visitors, and City officials will gather to explore a variety of ways to build innovative solutions to support the future of Palo Alto.

Title: ATX Hackathon for Change 2013
Description: The Food Lab is participating in the ATX Hackathon for Change and will be leading a Mapathon as one part of the weekend’s events. By creating a highly granular map of the Austin area that includes both mobile datasets (i.e. food distribution trucks) and fixed data points (i.e. restaurants), the Mapathon will be both innovative and a civic service.

Title: National Day of Civic Hacking- Burlington, Vermont
Description: A group of Vermonters from various professional backgrounds dedicated to the common goal of using technology to solve public problems has come together to hack solutions for “healthy communities.” Challenges presented will help solve problems in the following areas: Arts, Culture and Music, Economic Development, Food Systems, Education & Workforce Technologies, Healthcare Technologies, Clean Energy and Transportation and Emergency Preparedness & Public Health.

Title: Hack for Change- Montgomery County, MD
Description: The Montgomery County event will bring together techies, entrepreneurs, do-gooders, activists and others from across the region to collaborate and envision tools using publicly-released data. County leaders will pitch a variety of ideas to participants for their consideration. Topics may include: water quality apps, food recovery tools, transit data visualizations, and more.

The post Join National Day of Civic Hacking! appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

Photo Credit: miltedflower

Every year, Food+Tech Connect looks at the trends that are transforming the future of how food is produced, sold and consumed. We always pay particular attention to Phil Lempert’s, CEO of The Lempert Report and author of SupermarketGuru.com, foresights. This year, Lempert’s predictions touch on many of the topics we’ve covered over the past year like food waste, transparency, health and wellness and protein consumption. Lempert also points to the terrible drought of 2012 as a direct cause of increasing food prices and predicts that consumers will use technology to reduce waste and make smarter purchasing decisions.

Below is a summary and analysis of a few of his ideas for the coming year. Quotes below come from Lempert’s summary on Supermarket News. Read his trend predictions in full here and here.

Trend #1 – Sustainability: We Stop Wasting Food

“The National Resource Defense Council estimates 40% of food goes uneaten each month in the United States. Not surprisingly, the Eco Pulse Survey from the Shelton Group reports 39% of Americans feel the most ‘green guilt’ for wasting food, almost double the number who feel guilty about not recycling.”

Earlier this year, we reported on how food is lost at each step in the supply chain, illustrating facts about the costs of food waste through data-packed infographics. We’re seeing large food companies and entrepreneurs developing technological solutions to improve efficiency and minimize waste, as described by  NRDC in this report.

Two innovative waste reduction projects we followed this year were Halfsies, a social initiative giving restaurant diners the ability to eat a half portion of their meal and donate part of the plate’s cost to a charity, and Sian’s Plan, a new meal planning tool. Given rising food prices, coupled with the significant cost saving potential outline in the NRDC report for manufacturers, restaurants and consumers, we expect there will be even greater attention on food waste reduction technologies in 2013.

Trend #3 – The Boomer Reality of Diabetes, High Blood Pressure and Heart Disease

“Studies by the NPD Group show that nutrition and healthy eating habits are top meal-planning priorities for Baby Boomers…Boomers will focus on their intake of antioxidants as they continue their search for the fountain of youth. Boomers will control more than half the dollars spent on grocery foods by 2015, look for more heart-healthy antioxidant-rich foods including oily fish such as salmon, as well as green tea, sweet potatoes, dark leafy greens, popcorn, berries and whole grains to take over supermarket shelves.”

We couldn’t agree more with this prediction. A staggering two-thirds of adults and one-third of children in the United States are overweight or obese. Earlier this year, the Institute of Medicine reported that obesity-related illness treatments cost an estimated $190.2 billion annually  and cost businesses $4.3 billion in losses as a result of obesity-related absenteeism. Food Marketing Institute and Prevention Magazine’s annual “Shopping For Health” annual survey also indicates that consumers are increasingly looking for healthier food options.

A number of startups launched new products to meet this growing demand for healthier food choices. Some of the companies we reported on this year include:

• Massive Health launched the Eatery, an iPhone app that helps users track and analyze their eating patterns to better understand their strengths, weaknesses and the best places to make changes in their diet. In just 5 months, users from 50 countries contributed over 7.68 million food ratings
• Nutritionix launched a suite of tools that allow restaurants and food brands to organize and publish their nutritional data. They also announced plans to release an API for developers. At the time of our interview, the company had over 150 developers on their API waiting list.
• Maya Design launched Maya Food Oasis, a virtual grocery marketplace to improve access to healthy and affordable food in food deserts. Sanofi Aventis provided the company with funding after they presented at the Health Data Initiative. Sanofi is also committed to supporting the next generation of diabetes prevention and management technologies, while also reinvigorating their business model, through its Data Design Diabetes competition.

Trend #4 – The Economy: The New Proteins

“The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates the cost of both beef and chicken will increase by at least 5% due to the 2012 drought and declining supply. A major shift is anticipated in the nation’s protein food s

medieval furniture plans

upply away from meat-based proteins and shifting to meatless proteins like eggs, nut butters, tofu, beans, legumes, with an increase in awareness and consumption of vegetarian and vegan meals.”

With tech investors like Vinod Khosla and Biz Stone betting on fake meat, we agree that the dialogue about consuming new proteins will flourish in 2013. But during our online conversation “Hacking Meat,” we found it’s not all about substitutes. Recipe development startup Foodpairing is seeing a growing interest among chefs to develop dishes that incorporate more vegetables and smaller servings of better meat, without compromising flavor and satisfaction.

Similarly, Cookstr’s Kara Rota sees technology as critical to reducing meat consumption, but not “ in the form of in vitro meat.” She advocates for using technology to provide home cooks recipes that emphasize quality over quantity. And Haven Bourque of HavenBMedia invites “meat lovers to sit at the table with committed vegans and dream up farm-fresh, seasonal meals that anyone would enthusiastically eat.”

There is also growing demand for sustainably and humanely raised meat, but farmers and chefs face significant barriers to making these kinds of operations economically sustainable. Following the success of Hack//Meat, you can be sure to expect more conversation and events to help help support the development of technologies that can address some of these challenges.

Trend #8 – Mobile the Next Generation: Tests for Allergens, Ripening Produce, Organics, and Start Cooking Your Meals

“The newest wave of technology includes smartphones that network with kitchen appliances and allow consumers to do everything from checking how much milk they have left in the refrigerator, to turning the oven on from another room. The next generation of mobile apps may determine if fruits and vegetables are ripe, if refrigerated and frozen foods have been kept at the correct temperature farm to freezer, and even test for foodborne bacteria.”

We also believe mobile and sensor technologies will reshape the way consumers interact with and purchase food. We are particularly excited about some of the innovative technologies retailers, technologists and researchers are developing that bridge the digital and physical worlds. Three of the more interesting projects we covered include:

• Peapod created a virtual store in a Chicago transit station, lining the walls with product images and QR codes. Customers could, theoretically, order items while they waited for a train.
• Lapka launched a “personal environment monitor” device and app that allows you to test the “organicity of your food.
• An interactive cheese, meat & fish counter designed by German interaction design students provides customers with detailed product, origin and recipe information for food items.

Read about more of the R&D projects we covered this year here.

Trend #10 – Transparency: Who is making our food?

“2013 will be a transitional year as on-package claims proliferate and confuse. Look as supermarkets take on the role of gatekeeper and actually demand proof and transparency of claims before they will permit products to be sold on their shelves. Consumers are reading labels selecting their foods more holistically based on all the ‘food factors’ including taste, ingredients, source and nutritional composition, as well as who is making their food.”

In 2012, consumer distrust of food grew as reports of “pink slime,” antibiotic overuse in animals and arsenic in rice made their way across the Internet. California’s Proposition 37 fueled a growing debate about food labeling, and even though the proposition was not passed, the debate will likely continue into 2013.

A number of startups and NGOs developed mobile apps to help meet growing consumer demand for information about what's in their food. For example,  Fooducate launched a GMO app to help consumers determine which foods are made with GMO ingredients; Real Time Farms launched the FixAntibiotics Food Finder to help consumers find meat raised without antibiotics; and Center for Science in the Public Interest  launched Chemical Cuisine to help people understand additives in our food. Additionally, NRDC launched the Label Lookup iPhone app.

But without public databases available with data about GMO use, for example, companies like Fooducate are only able to offer a level of probability that a product contains GMO ingredients. This is not ideal for the consumer, and it's certainly not ideal for manufacturers. But there are glimmers of hope. This year, Kraft and Nestle opened up their recipe and ingredient data. And while these are just small first steps, we hope it’s an increasing trend that will give rise to new applications that improve transparency and the customer experience.

What are your trend predictions for 2013? Let us know in the comments section below, and we will feature your ideas in our weekly newsletter read by the top food and technology investors, executives and startups.

We will also inviting the individuals with the best responses to contribute a guest post on the topic of their choice to Food+Tech Connect.

The post 2013 Food Trends Favor the Tech Savvy Consumer appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

The National Restaurant Association conducted a survey of professional chefs and members of the American Culinary Federation on predicted food trends for restaurants in 2013. Almost 2,000 chefs were asked to rank 198 items based on popularity in the food industry. Among the questions, the topics of technology, health and food cost were addressed – all with an emphasis on environmental sustainability.

The top-ranking trends for the coming year are encouraging indicators that sustainability is top of mind for ma

ny chefs. Within the first ten items, mindful protein choices appear three times, highlighting the importance of local sourcing (#1), lesser used cuts of meat (#6) and sustainable seafood (#9). Similarly, an emphasis on locally grown and sourced ingredients is seen throughout the top twenty; the phrase “hyper-local sourcing” (#7) suggests that more restaurants will be hosting their own gardens in 2013.

Health and nutrition, especially for children, is a notable theme throughout the report. “Healthful kids’ meals” ranks in third place; “children’s nutrition” in fifth%3

The post Health, Sustainability & Tech Top NRA’s 2013 Restaurant Trends appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.