Food Matters Live Podcast

What are the leading global food and agtech scenes? In this episode of Table Talk we join experts from the food and agtech investment community to shed some light on how countries are helping to support innovation and disruption and find out what is the secret to success.Joining host Stefan Gates are Christian Guba, Associate, Atlantic Foods Ivan Farneti, Co-Founder, Five Seasons Ventures and Nadav Berger, Founder & Managing Director, Peakbridge VC. Join the conversation to find out what different countries are doing to nurture food and agtech start-ups in this fascinating look at the future of food.About our panel Christian Guba, Associate, Atlantic FoodsChristian is an Investor with Atlantic Food Labs, an early-stage VC Fund & Venture Studio based in Berlin. Atlantic Food Labs invests in ambitious and mission-driven startups along the entire food value chain and has backed companies such as Gorillas, Formo, Mushlabs or Infarm. Christian gained a Master in Management from HHL Leipzig and before joining Atlantic Food Labs he worked with btov Partners, BCG Digital Ventures, and Google. Ivan Farneti, Co-Founder, Five Seasons VenturesIvan has been an active venture capital investor for the last 20 years and he is the co-founding Partner of Five Seasons Ventures, the first European venture fund fully focused on Foodtech.He is passionate about product and technology innovation aimed at solving big challenges in the food industry: from alternative sources of proteins, to functional foods, from new models of food distribution to the reduction of food waste. At Five Seasons he invested in gene editing company Tropic Biosciences, pet nutrition company Butternut Box and three more companies yet to be announced.His experience from previous venture funds in London, includes structuring venture investments, organisational and strategy development, setting up governance for growth and planning for successful exits. He was an early stage investor in Everbridge, Inc. (Nasdaq: EVBG), Tridion BV (acquired by SDL Plc), Gomez, Inc. (acquired by Compuware), Plazes AG (acquired by Nokia), among others.In his spare time he enjoys family life, cooking, fly fishing, and practicing karate and jiu jitsu with his son Adam Nadav Berger, Founder & Managing Director, Peakbridge VCComing from a Third generation food industrialist family , Nadav has actively built many companies specialising in food applications, marketing and distribution. In 2008, Nadav co-founded the food applications lab FoodLab. The innovative developments at FoodLab lead to founding FoodLab Capital, a premier seed fund. The successful portfolio includes DouxMatok, InnovoPro, NextFerm and SimpleOrder (exited).After that Nadav co-founded and is the managing Partner of PeakBridge, a fund manager managing NEWtrition (Nick's, TasteWise, Prenexus, UKKO..)– a series A+ Global fund for FoodTech and FoodSparks® – the 1st. European seed fund with collaboration with the EIT Food. Nadav holds a B.A in economics and political science from Tel Aviv University and an EMBA from Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management.

In this new series we get personal with the people behind the brands, with the debut episode focusing on Beau’s Gelato. We join Co-Founder and CEO Joseph Eyre to find out how two partners with no previous experience in the food industry, one with a background in nursing the other in finance, came to start an award winning plant-based gelato brand.We discuss what made them take the plunge and start a business in an industry that was so alien to them, what fuels their passion and what comes next as they scale their brand. Join the conversation on Table Talk.About Beau’s GelatoBeau’s Gelato was born out of our shared passion for travel, discovery and – most importantly – great food. Prior to setting up Beau’s we travelled extensively, searching high and low for vegan dishes that were good enough to write home about.Along the way, we were lucky enough to meet many incredible artisans doing amazing things with vegan ingredients. Inspired, we decided we would go back and craft our own contribution to the plant-based world: a fantastic vegan ice cream that everyone could indulge in and feel great about.At the time that we made our decision, the vegan wave was still very much in its infancy. In stark contrast to all the exciting and interesting plant-based foods that we tasted on our travels, the scant options and bland fare that was available to us back in the UK left us cold. We could see that vegan food was being grossly undersold – and wanted to do something about it. With backgrounds in nursing and finance, there was a huge learning curve for us to go through before we could make a product as good as those we’d sampled abroad. Keen to learn more, we reached out to the former owner of a highly successful vegan ice cream parlour which operated in New York, who helped us to refine our initial development and recipe research, as well as providing valuable commercial advice for starting out.From all of this emerged Beau’s Gelato: an authentic Italian-style ice cream made without any animal products. In keeping with the Italian heritage we learnt in Bologna, we created many of the classic household flavours that everyone knows and loves.Beau’s Gelato were the 2021 Food Matters Live Awards Plant Based Product of the Year winner.

Healthy soil is full of living organisms that help to generate the nutrients crops need to grow. But many conventional farming practices inadvertently degrade soil health over time, which in turn can reduce crop yields. Regenerative Agriculture aims to capture carbon in soil and aboveground biomass, reversing current global trends of atmospheric accumulation. At the same time, it offers increased yields, resilience to climate instability, and higher health and vitality for farming and ranching communities.To explore regenerative agriculture and to find out the impact it could have on our environment, we once again, in partnership with Anglo American, join experts in the field to share their insight and experience. We speak to Ross Mitchell, Head of Agronomy and Technical Services, Anglo American Crop Nutrients and Paul Davey, seventh generation farmer and conservation agriculture contractor. Find out how we can regenerate our agriculture to improve sustainability in the future.About our panelRoss Mitchell, Head of Agronomy and Technical Services, Anglo American Crop NutrientsRoss runs a global agronomy team overseeing the development of POLY4 in support of the company’s commercial contracts. With over 30-years experience, Ross has a wide spectrum of knowledge of agricultural practices ranging from the research of nutrient and pesticide dynamics in soil to seed production.Before joining Anglo American, Ross specialised for eight years in sugar production – initially for large and smallholder farmers in China followed by large new farms in North Africa and the Indian subcontinent.Paul Davey, FarmerPaul Davey is a seventh generation farmer and conservation agriculture contractor. His wife manages their wholesale distribution and retail business which specialises in food, drinks and homeware made in Lincolnshire, UK. They run a shop in Lincoln which has an online home delivery service.The farm specialises in seed production growing cereals, oilseeds, grass seeds and pulses, including vining peas for Birds Eye. A lambing flock of Lleyn ewes is run in conjunction with the arable enterprises and the farm pursues a strategy of healthy soils producing heathy plants and healthy food.Paul was a finalist in the Soil Farmer of the Year competition 2019.

Intermittent fasting has been accepted for many years as a fast and effective way to lose weight, in fact Michael Moseley has published a number of best sellers on the 5:2 diet. However, a new and recently published study looks at the effects of fasting and lower energy intake in lean people. This podcast will explore the results of the study and what this means for our understanding of the success of intermittent fasting as a weight loss tool."Ultimately, fasting did result in weight loss in our experiment, so it is true to say that it was an effective approach in that regard," said James Betts, professor of metabolic physiology at the University of Bath in the United Kingdom and senior author of the new study. "However, we can confidently say it was not better than standard dieting in achieving that outcome and there were no other benefits specific to fasting within the context of our study."In this episode of Table Talk we speak to Professor James Betts to find out about the study, and what it means for our understanding of nutrition, weight loss and health. Join the conversation on Table Talk.About Professor James BettsJames Betts, Professor of Metabolic Physiology, University of Bath, Co-Director, Centre for Nutrition, Exercise & Metabolism, Chair of the Department for Health Research Ethics CommitteeJames is Professor of Metabolic Physiology at the University of Bath, where he is Co-Director of the Centre for Nutrition, Exercise & Metabolism and Chair of the Department for Health Research Ethics Committee. His research employs randomised controlled trials to study the effects of nutrition on metabolic regulation, the findings of which have been published in scientific papers in top-ranking scholarly journals. A particular focus of his work has been to examine the links between nutrient timing and human health, for which James was awarded the Nutrition Society Cuthbertson Medal at the Royal Society of Medicine for 'excellence in clinical nutrition and metabolism research'. James contributes widely within the University, having supervised many doctoral students through their research training; his integration of research into teaching was recognised by the University's Mary Tasker Award for excellence in teaching.

The UN has described our degradation of soil being 'as important as climate change' yet soil is often overlooked when we talk about the threats to future generations. It's easy to degrade soil quickly, but not easy to repair the damage that is caused so what can be done to protect our precious resource for agriculture in the future? To find out we've assembled a panel of experts including Caroline Drummond, CEO, LEAF, Carl Edwards, Director of Education and Public Engagement, LEAF, and Dr Felicity Crotty, Lecturer in Soil Science, Royal Agricultural University. We'll discuss the scale of the challenge we face, what is happening now to raise awareness of the issues we're facing, and what we can do to fix our agriculture system. Join us for a fascinating and lively debate on Table Talk. About our panel Caroline Drummond, CEO, LEAF Caroline Drummond has been Chief Executive of LEAF since it started in 1991. After graduating in Agriculture she worked on farms in the UK and overseas before joining LEAF. She was awarded an MBE for services to the agricultural industry in 2009 and has a Doctor of Science honoris causa (Hon DSc) from Harper Adams University. Caroline is a CHAP Board member, a Nuffield Scholar and Honorary Fellow for the Society of the Environment. Carl Edwards – LEAF Education & Public Engagement Director Carl leads LEAF’s ambitious education and public engagement strategy that is enabling schools to enrich their curriculum and increase public understanding of our modern farming industry. Carl is ensuring that the agricultural industry listens to the voice of young people in shaping how we work with our future generation; being at the forefront of promoting an understanding of the Agricultural industry by teenagers, a long-overlooked audience. Previously, Carl was an Assistant Principal and completed his Master of Education degree at the University of Cambridge in 2014, which focused on improving literacy and attainment for Geography students at GCSE level. Carl was made a Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts in 2018 in light of his commitment to sustainability and creating opportunities for greater engagement between communities, farming and the countryside. Dr Felicity Crotty, Lecturer in Soil Science, Royal Agricultural University Dr Felicity Crotty has been researching soil biology and soil health for the last twelve years. Felicity joined the Royal Agricultural University as a Lecturer in Soil Science and Ecology in 2018. She is a soil ecologist working with the aim of promoting soil health and sustainable agriculture and is particularly interested in investigating how agricultural management effects soil quality, focusing on soil biology (earthworms, springtails, mites and nematodes), physics (compaction and water infiltration) and chemistry (N, P, K and other nutrients). Through combining her expertise in all three areas of soil science she is trying to disentangle the real impact different management strategies have on soil health and farming sustainably. Felicity has current projects investigating the use of AI to identify earthworm casts, using sensors to detect earthworm movements in the field and monetising soil health. Felicity previously worked as the Soil Scientist at the Allerton Project (Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust) working on the Sustainable Intensification Research Platform (SIP), SoilCare project (EU Horizon 2020), and Soil Biology & Soil Health Partnership (AHDB). Prior to this, she was a Post-doc at Aberystwyth University working on the PROSOIL and SUREROOT projects; she spent a year as a Post-Doc in Canada at Dalhousie University (Halifax) and Saskatchewan University (Saskatoon), experimenting on the fungal feeding channel within the soil food web. She obtained her PhD at Rothamsted Research (North Wyke) investigating the passage of carbon and nitrogen through the soil food web. 

The UK Government has committed to going 'net zero' by 2050. In practice this means getting rid of as many emissions as we produce. This can be achieved through removing harmful emissions as much as possible and in the instances where we still rely on fossil fuels, offsetting the emissions we produce. In the second of a series of podcasts focused on net zero, we rejoin the Food and Drink Federation to hear about the roadmap they've published that shows the food and drink industry could hit net zero by 2050, and find out how this will impact manufacturers.Joining host Stefan Gates once again is Emma Piercy, Head of Climate Change & Energy Policy - FDF, and this time we also speak to Matt Loose, Chief Executive & Founder, Canopy Consulting. Join us to hear the scope of the challenge ahead, how it creates opportunities for food brands, and what the government needs to do to help support food and drink brands on their journey to net zero. About our guestsEmma Piercy, Head of Climate Change & Energy Policy - FDFEmma joined FDF in October 2019 to lead the Food and Drink Federation’s work programme in Climate Change and Energy. With the UK’s target of net zero by 2050, Emma is currently focused on decarbonising heat in the manufacturing process, to feed into Government’s forthcoming Energy White Paper and Heat Decarbonisation Roadmap.Before joining FDF, Emma held a number of policy and regulation roles in the energy sector covering: RWE AG; RWE Npower Cogen; Elexon; Sustainable Energy Association; First Utility (now Shell Energy) and National Grid Gas.Matt Loose, Chief Executive & Founder, Canopy ConsultingMatt helps clients make bold strategic decisions to transform sustainability outcomes. He helps organisations set inspiring sustainability ambitions and guides teams on the path to implement. He helps organisations engage and communicate with stakeholders to scale impacts.Matt has advised leading organisations and multistakeholder initiatives across sectors to design, engage with and implement strategies to transform outcomes on the most urgent sustainability issues. Previously Matt was Senior Director at SustainAbility and a co-owner of Stratos. He’s worked in sustainability for Johnson Matthey and Ernst & Young. He’s a member of ACCA’s Global Sustainability Forum.

The traditional foods we love often have regional differences that make them unique. For example, the cheddar cheese you buy from your local supermarket may have a completely different flavour profile from the one you’d find in a sandwich in a pub in Ireland. These subtle differences can greatly impact our enjoyment of food, and flavour experts are applying this knowledge to create innovative and delicious plant-based dairy to meet a growing consumer demand. Joining us to explain how are the experts from Edlong, a global flavour house with offices around the world. With over 100 years of experience in the dairy market, and over four decades of plant-based dairy expertise, they’re perfectly positioned to explain how regional nuances and flavours can affect our enjoyment of plant-based dairy products. We’ll discuss all aspects of plant-based cheese, and host Stefan Gates gets the chance to sample some of the products and flavours they’ve developed. Join the conversation on Table Talk. About our guests Julie Drainville, Sensory Manager Julie Drainville leads all sensory functions for Edlong globally, maintaining a trained employee panel for sensory testing, and also collaborating with applications scientists and customers to run testing to meet project needs. Julie has an extensive background in food science including over 14 years in the sensory field, a degree from Purdue University in Foods, Nutrition and Business/Dietetics, a Master of Science in Nutrition Education from Rosalind Franklin University, and completion of the UC Davis Applied Sensory and Consumer Science Certificate Program. Laura Enriquez, Master Scientist. Strategic Applications Laura Enriquez is adept at understanding customer needs and applying her 30+ years of extensive technical expertise in food science to develop solutions to formulation challenges, increase the speed of product development and shorten the sales cycle to customers. She works closely with customers in the U.S., Latin America and Europe and works with and mentors the applications team in tailoring customer-specific applications to deliver value, cost savings and create great tasting food. Laura has a degree from Universidad Iberoamericana (Mexico City) in Food Science and Nutrition. Rick Schultz, Master Flavorist, Strategic Product Development Rick is a highly accomplished Master Flavorist responsible for leading all aspects of new flavor development, dairy flavor technology and innovation at Edlong. With over 40 years of industry experience, Rick’s areas of focus include enzyme and culture technology, encapsulation and delivery systems, flavor cost optimization, flavor performance analysis, masking and mouthfeel. Rick previously held technical roles at Kraft Foods, John Sexton and Miles Laboratories.

Some of the largest ingredients companies are leading the way with food and drink innovations that will feed the future. In this special edition of the Table Talk podcast we look back to conversations we've had with Cargill, Gelita, Givaudan and Ÿnsect to find out how they're developing the flavours to support consumer trends.Find out why insect protein could be the future of sports nutrition, how e-sports athletes are gaining an edge through supplements, how umami can be harnessed to improve flavour and what challenges still need to be conquered in order to expand the world of dairy alternatives as host Stefan Gates joins the leading names from the ingredients world.About our guestsAntoine Hubert, Chairman & CEO, Ÿnsect Antoine is Ÿnsect’s Chairman and CEO. He also leads the cooperative insect industry association, the International Platform of Insects for Food and Feed (IPIFF) and is Board Member of Protéine France consortium and LFD. Prior to co-founding Ÿnsect, Antoine worked on scientific projects in environmental risk assessment, biomass and plastics recycling. He is an agronomy engineer graduate from AgroCampus-Ouest and AgroParisTech. Together with Alexis, he co-founded NPO WORGAMIC and the company ORGANEO.Franziska Dolle, Gelita Franziska Dolle (M.Sc.) is a nutritional scientist and an expert for collagen peptides, who is always focused on and passionate about empowering people to improve their nutritional and active lifestyle. Her goal is to implement population-wide health promotion concepts and effective measures for disease prevention. In pursuit of this goal, she examined the importance of protein intake to prevent sarcopenia – the muscle loss in the elderly. For the last five years Franziska has co-created and implemented innovative lifestyle nutrition products with Bioactive Collagen Peptides®. In “The White Tissue” guide from GELITA she presents the new role of proteins in Sports Nutrition. At GELITA AG Germany Franziska Dolle is Product & Account Manager Health & Nutrition. In this role she is in charge of New Business Development and Global Product Management for the brands BODYBALANCE®, FORTIBONE® and CURADERM®. As Account Manager she is responsible for sales of GELITA’s collagen peptides in Northern Europe and Germany.Nicole Oelhafen, Senior Project Manager for Consumer Sensory Insights EAME, Givaudan Nicole joined Givaudan in 2004 as Sensory Panel Leader; in 2015 she became Consumer Sensory Project Manager for EAME. She helps to translate consumer insights into actionable concepts and solutions, bringing the voice of the consumer into the heart of the business. She holds a Master’s Degree in Social Sciences and German Literature & Linguistics from the University of Zurich. Outside of work she enjoys spending time with her family, hiking, cooking, and exploring nature. She is based in the Givaudan Zürich Innovation Center in Switzerland.Matthias Bourdeau, Marketing Manager Texturizers, Cargill Starches, Sweeteners and Texturizers Europe Working for the Nielsen Company and other research agencies, Matthias gained over 10 years of experience in consulting packaged food and beverage manufacturers across Europe and Africa on marketing their products in retail. Since joining Cargill’s Starches, Sweeteners and Specialties Business Marketing team three years ago, he supports new product launches and drives marketing campaigns, with a specific focus on dairy alternatives and meat alternatives. He is passionate about consumer research and market positioning. Matthias is based in Belgium and is a proud new dad.

One year ago Table Talk Podcast host Stefan Gates sat down with members of the food industry and the UK government to hear about the new strategy that was intended to tackle a growing obesity epidemic in the country. One year on, what impact have the measures had, what will be adapted for the future, and is the strategy working?Joining us to dissect the benefits of the UK obesity strategy, and to find out what further changes will be needed if we’re to become a healthier country in the future, are Dr. Jennifer Dixon, CEO, Health Foundation and Anna Tayler, Executive Director, Food Foundation. Join us for a fascinating and lively discussion to see where we’re going wrong in our efforts to improve our health and wellbeing.About our guestsDr Jennifer Dixon, CEO, Health FoundationDr Jennifer Dixon joined the Health Foundation as Chief Executive in October 2013. Jennifer was Chief Executive of the Nuffield Trust from 2008 to 2013. Prior to this, she was Director of Policy at The King’s Fund and was the policy advisor to the Chief Executive of the National Health Service between 1998 and 2000. Jennifer has undertaken research and written widely on health care reform both in the UK and internationally.Originally trained in medicine, Jennifer practised mainly paediatric medicine, prior to a career in policy analysis. She has a Master’s in public health and a PhD in health services research from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. In 1990– 91, Jennifer was a Harkness Fellow in New York.Jennifer has served as a Board member on several national regulatory bodies: the Health Care Commission 2004–2009; the Audit Commission 2003–2012; and the Care Quality Commission 2013–2016. She has led two national inquiries for government: on the setting up of published ratings of quality of NHS and social care providers in England (2013); and on the setting up of ratings for general practices (2015). She was also a member of the Parliamentary Review Panel for the Welsh AssemblyGovernment advising on the future strategy for the NHS and social care in Wales (2017–2018).In 2009, Jennifer was elected a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, and in 2019 was elected as a fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. She was awarded a CBE for services to public health in 2013, and a Doctor of Science from Bristol University in 2016. She has held visiting professorships at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, the London School of Economics, and Imperial College Business School.Anna Taylor, Executive Director, Food FoundationAnna joined the Food Foundation as its first Executive Director at the beginning of June 2015 after 5 years at the Department for International Development. At DFID Anna led the policy team on nutrition and supported the delivery of the UK’s global commitments to tackle undernutrition. Before joining DFID Anna worked for a number of international organisations including Save the Children and UNICEF and has been at the forefront of international leadership on nutrition for several years and supporting programmes in a wide range of contexts in Africa and South Asia. Anna has also worked for the UK Department of Health. In 2014 she was awarded an OBE for her work to address the global burden of undernutrition. She did a MSc in Human Nutrition at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 1994. In May 2017 Anna became a member of the London Food Board to advise the Mayor of London and the GLA on the food matters that affect Londoners. She is a Board member for the Emergency Nutrition Network, the International Food Policy Research Institute based in Washington DC, Veg Power and Biteback 2030. She is currently serving as Chief Independent Adviser to Henry Dimbleby for the development of the National Food Strategy.

Do you understand what the various health claims on food packaging actually mean for your nutrition? If not, you’re not alone. Food health claims can be confusing to shoppers and manufacturers alike, with regulations muddying the waters and consumers in different countries being skeptical around the claims brands make. How can the health claims on food be simplified, in a way that is transparent and understandable for everyone?Joining host Stefan Gates this week is Professor of Sociolinguistics, Rodney Jones from the University of Reading. Funded by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, Rodney is the lead of the Health Claims Unpacked project, which is looking at how language around health claims can be improved to make them more appealing and understandable. Why do Italian consumers prefer to buy products with no health claims, why do some manufacturers in France simply not bother to use them, and how do linguistics affect our impression of the benefits of the food we eat? Join the conversation on Table Talk to find out. About Professor Rodney JonesRodney Jones, Professor of Sociolinguistics, Head of Department, University of ReadingRodney's main areas of interest are discourse analysis, interactional sociolinguistics, and language and digital media. He is particularly interested in how digital media affect the way people conduct social interactions and manage social identities.For the past two decades he has been involved with the late Professor Ron Scollon and other colleagues in developing an approach to discourse called mediated discourse analysis, the principles of which are laid out in his 2005 book with Sigrid Norris Discourse in Action: Introducing mediated discourse analysis.He has applied this approach to a range of contexts including health and risk communication, classroom discourse, professional communication, computer mediated communication, and language and creativity. Rodney has authored/edited twelve books and over fifty journal articles and book chapters.