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The Food Fight Podcast
A podcast series examining the biggest challenges facing the food system, and the innovations and entrepreneurs looking to solve them. We ask the questions everyone wants answered, so this is not one to miss! Sign up to our newsletter or contact us at: podcast@eitfood.eu for more information.
Episode 45: The impact of Covid-19 on consumer food habits and the Agrifood sector
Matt and Lukxmi are joined by consumer scientist Klaus Grunert from Aarhus University, who shares results from a recent study looking at the intriguing ways the pandemic has changed our eating habits. And Brij Sahi from SwissDeCode explains how his startup has pivoted in response to the pandemic to produce rapid DNA testing solutions to detect Covid-19 in food manufacturing units.
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Epsiode 44: Spotlight: BeYou on digital health
Abir Mehawej, Director and Co-Founder of BeYou, highlights how they are shaping the future of digital health with their personalised wellness platform.
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Episode 43: Bridging the skills gap
Are we doing enough to attract new talent and skills into the agrifood industry? Matt and Lukxmi are joined by Carl Edwards, Director Education & Public Engagement at LEAF (Linking Environment & Farming), serial entrepreneur Ykä Marjanen (Grainsense/Manna Insect), and EIT Food’s Professional Development Lead Barbara Mason, to discuss strategies for attracting more people into the exciting world of food and technology. Recorded as part of New Scientist Live’s Future of Food and Agriculture day.
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Episode 42: Spotlight: AgriFoodX on plastic alternatives
Graham Bonwick, Director of AgriFoodX, highlights how they are protecting the environment with their sustainable and biodegradable plastic alternatives made from agrifood by-products.
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Episode 41: Childhood nutrition and health: are we doing enough?
Dr Natalie Masento from University of Reading and Sarah Hickey from Guy's and St Thomas’ Charity join Matt and Lukxmi to discuss the current state of childhood nutrition in the UK and globally. They explore the impact of “food environments” and how physical and emotional surroundings can play a role in building positive habits. Natalie introduces 'See and Eat!’, a series of eBooks developed to get children interested in vegetables – and Sarah also shares how Guy's and St Thomas’ Charity is working with partners to reduce childhood obesity in London.
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Episode 40: Spotlight: Eagle Genomics on data science
Anthony Finbow, Chief Executive at Eagle Genomics, highlights how they are using data, technology and science to further understand the health and environmental impact of microbiomes.
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Episode 39: Spotlight: Freeze-em on insect farming
Yuval Gilad, Co-founder and CEO of Freeze-em, highlights the benefits of the black soldier fly and how their freezing technology is helping to grow the industry of insect protein production.
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Episode 38: The journey of an entrepreneur
Matt and Lukxmi meet three entrepreneurs from different EIT Food Business Creation programmes. Ying Shao, shares the story of Plantik Biosciences – a startup looking into new advancements into plant breeding. Lorenzo Conti introduces his company Crover, who have developed a robotic grain monitoring system. And Solveiga Pakštaitė talks about her journey as inventor of “Mimica Touch”, a product revolutionising smart food packaging.
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Episode 37: Spotlight: Trellis on food production efficiency
Head of Product at Trellis, Uri Rosenzweig, highlights how their AI technology makes data more transparent and accessible for the entire food supply chain.
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Episode 36: Insects in the food system: novelty or necessity?
This week bugs are on the table, as Matt and Lukxmi meet two entrepreneurs serving up insects in the hunt for alternative protein sources. Philipp Egli introduces Crick – a Swiss company producing crackers made from crickets – and Miha Pipan explains how his company, Better Origin, are using Black Soldier Fly larvae to convert agricultural waste into animal feed.
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Episode 35: Spotlight: Innovopro on chickpea potential
Taly Nechushtan, CEO at Innovopro, is committed to bringing their chickpea-based protein ingredients to the global food market in order to create sustainable and tasty food solutions.
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Episode 34: Has modern farming failed?
Ana Digón from Agricultura Regenerativa, and lay Englard, the co-founder of Trellis, join Matt and Lukxmi to discuss the sustainability issues of modern industrial farming. Ana, who represents a group of progressive farmers in Spain, shares the benefits of 'Regenerative Agriculture' a system promoting crop diversity and soil rehabilitation through natural methods. Ilay also shares his hopes for Trellis – a tech driven platform built to help farmers use data and AI – improving sustainability and profits along the way.
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Episode 33: Spotlight: Tastewise on understanding food trends
Director of Accounts and Sales at Tastewise, Laura Hoffman, describes how they are helping companies understand the latest culinary trends with their AI powered insights and real time data.
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Episode 32: Innovating through adversity
This week Matt is joined by EIT Food CEO Andy Zynga to meet two recipients of the new Covid-19 Bridge Fund, a €5.4m investment fund helping startups through the crisis. Fanny Rolet introduces Antofenol - a biotechnology company developing vine-wood extracts that can be used in place of chemical preservatives for food – and Françoise de Valera shares the story of Food Sourcing Specialists, a company tackling sustainability in the sports nutrition market.
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Episode 31: Spotlight: Orbisk on food waste technology
Orbisk CEO, Olaf van der Veen, explains how their smart camera and AI technology can reduce food waste in the hospitality sector by providing detailed insights into the quantity and type of food being thrown away.
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Episode 30: Does food need to be packaged?
Archana Jagannathan (Senior Director Sustainable Packaging at PepsiCo) and Daphna Nissenbaum (Co-Founder of compostable packaging company TIPA) join Matt and Lukxmi to talk about the latest innovations in food packaging – and why now is the time to fight the plastic packaging crisis.
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Episode 29: Spotlight: Prolupin on plant proteins
CEO of Prolupin, Malte Stampe, highlights the versatility of lupin and how the plant can be made into a healthy and sustainable alternative protein.
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Episode 28: Waste Not, Want Not
Food historian Dr Annie Gray and sustainable restauranteur Alice Gilsenan (of Nature London) join Matt and Lukxmi to talk about ways to avoid food waste. They explore whether tips and tricks from the past can help us solve food waste issues today – featuring kimchi, pigswill, and meal planners.
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Episode 27: Spotlight: Urban Crop Solutions on vertical farming
Founder of Urban Crop Solutions, Maarten Vandecruys, highlights how they are pioneering technologies for state of the art indoor farming systems
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Episode 26: The most extreme places to grow food
Have you ever thought about growing food in the subzero temperatures of the arctic tundra, or even in space, on a space station or on a far away planet? This week Matt and Lukxmi meet Benjamin Vidmar (founder of Polar Permaculture Solutions) and Angelo Vermeulen (Co-Founder of SEADS - Space Ecologies Art & Design) to talk about farming in "the extreme” and why it’s such an important area of study.
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Episode 25: The Big Takeaway
Matt and Lukxmi look back at some of the most poignant moments from series 1 of the Food Fight podcast. From improving diets to reducing food waste – they discuss the encouraging progress that’s being made to fix some of the food system’s biggest problems... and where work still desperately needs to be done.
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Episode 24: Spotlight: Agricolus on smart farming
Federica Bordoni, Business Developer at Agricolus, explains how they are pushing the boundaries of smart agriculture by creating a cloud platform to support and optimise the work of farmers across the globe.
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Episode 23: Food in crisis: is the food system resilient enough?
Matt and Lukxmi are joined by Professor Chris Elliott OBE from Queens University Belfast (Founder of the Institute for Global Food Security), alongside Food Unfolded journalist Silvia Lazzaris. They discuss the current fragility of the global food system, how businesses are evolving through Covid-19, and the technology providing the solutions.
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Episode 22: Wasteless on saving perishable food.
David Kat, the Vice President of Business Development at Wasteless, discusses how they are helping food retailers and suppliers reduce food waste through their AI-powered dynamic pricing.
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Episode 21: How to build a purpose-driven food company
Matt Eastland is joined by Mark Cuddigan, the CEO of organic baby food brand Ella’s Kitchen, alongside Solveiga Pakštaitė, the founder of Mimica – a startup fighting food waste with temperature reactive labels. They explain why they put values before profit, and why every food business should be driven by the desire to do good in the world.
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Episode 20: Spotlight: Banabooms on reducing food waste
Inna Zhuravlova introduces Banabooms, a start up created out of EIT’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Project, who are giving new life to surplus bananas by turning them into a sustainable breakfast cereal for all to enjoy.
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Episode 19: Is our food safe?
From allergens to food fraud, knowing what's in our food and understanding the ingredients is more important than ever. In this episode Matt and Lukxmi are joined by Brij Sahi, who introduces SwissDeCode, a company pioneering the use of portable DNA testing. Jaed Khan also shares the story of FoodMaestro – a company helping to answer the question “can I eat this” by building apps and retail solutions that help to navigate dietary needs. (This episode was recorded prior to the Covid-19 outbreak.)
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Episode 18: Spotlight: Aleph Farms on cultivated meat.
Aleph Farms CEO and Co-Founder, Didier Toubia, discusses how they are shaping the future by taking cells from a real cow and replicating them outside of the animal to grow slaughter-free meat
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Episode 17: Is sugar the new tobacco?
This week Matt is joined by Annick Verween to host a panel discussing what the food sector is doing to reduce sugar consumption, in response to growing health concerns. Recorded live at EIT Food’s Venture Summit in Lisbon, guests include Tom Simmons (Founder of Stem) and Ilan Samish (Founder of Amai Proteins) who have pioneered novel ingredients that can replace sugar, both its sweetness and structure. Karine Delafaye also explains how the world-renowned food company Danone are also championing the movement, with their own Sugar & Sweetness acceleration project.
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Episode 16: Spotlight: Natural Machines on Printing Food
Alba Martin introduces Natural Machines - a company who have created a 3D food printing appliance called Foodini, which enables consumers to eat healthier, lower their food waste, and personalise the food they print.
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Episode 15: Can we trust the food we eat?
This week we’ve got trust issues. Matt & Lukxmi are joined by Anthony Warner (The Angry Chef) and Liesbet Vranken (from the KU Leuven University in Belgium) to discuss who we can trust in the food system to give us reputable information about the food we're eating. From farmers to food packaging, social media influencers to health food shops – they shed some light on who to trust, and who to take with a pinch of salt.
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Episode 14: Spotlight: GrainSense on ensuring crop quality
Edvard Krogius introduces GrainSense – a company that has developed a handheld tool to help farmers analyse the quality of grains in the field. He explains how the production of higher quality grain proteins, could play a key role in creating a more profitable and sustainable food supply.
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Episode 13: Is technology protecting or exploiting our seas and oceans?
Matt and Lukxmi are joined by Thor Sigfusson (Founder of the Iceland Ocean Cluster), Hordur Kristinsson (Chief Science & Innovation Officer at Matis) and Isabel Hoffmann (CEO & Founder of startup Tellspec) – to discuss whether technology is protecting, or indeed exploiting our seas and fish stocks? This episode was recorded live at the YFood London Food Tech Week in May 2019.
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Episode 12: Spotlight: NapiFeryn on sustainable protein
NapiFeryn’s CEO, Magdalena Kozłowska, highlights the pressing need to feed an increasing world population and how her startup is delivering a sustainable solution in the form of protein from rapeseed.
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Episode 11: What’s the beef with alternative protein?
Whether you’re a meat eater, vegan, or vegetarian, the role of protein in our diet is something we all need to think about. In the food industry it’s widely accepted that ‘alternative proteins’ will play an important role in creating a more sustainable food system – but what exactly are they, and should we all be eating them? To answer these questions Matt and Lukxmi meet Roberta Iley from Forum for the Future's Protein Challenge 2040, and Jim Laird, CEO of 3F Bio, a startup developing alternative proteins through fermentation.
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Episode 10: Spotlight: Stem on sugar replacement
Tom Simmons introduces Stem – a company working to develop natural plant-based sugar substitutes to help manufacturers reduce the sugar content of physical food products such as those in bakery, confectionery, and snack segments.
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Episode 9: Is there value in food waste?
44% of bread baked around the world is never eaten – but for Toast Ale, this is an opportunity. Matt and Lukxmi meet Rob Wilson, "Chief Toaster" at Toast Ale, to hear how the brewery is creating delicious beer from crusts that would have otherwise ended up in the bin. They are also joined by Linda Grieder, founder of RethinkResource, to discuss how the food industry can do more to divert waste and side streams, by putting them to good use (and making money along the way).
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Episode 8: Spotlight: Tipa on disrupting plastic packaging’
Tipa's CEO, Daphna Nissenbaum discusses why plastic has dominated the packaging industry and how they are tackling the plastic problem through their sustainable alternative.
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Episode 7: Can we really influence consumers to make healthier food choices?
Matt and Lukxmi are joined by Danielle Nierenberg (co-founder of Food Tank), Ignace De Nollin (MD of SmartWithFood) and chef, nutritionist and food activist Bela Gil – to discuss how we can influence consumers to make healthier food choices. This episode was recorded live at Seeds & Chips Food Innovation Summit in Milan in May 2019.
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Episode 6: Spotlight: FoodParing on making sustainability tasty
FoodPairing co-founder, Bernard Lahousse, explains how his company is combining flavour science with data science – to create new exciting pairings that are tasty, healthy and sustainable.
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Episode 5: Should producers be responsible for making food healthy?
Matt and Lukxmi present a podcast recorded live at Seeds & Chips Food Innovation Summit in Milan in May 2019. Joined by Alexandre Bastos (Director of Science & Technology for the Flavours division of Givaudan), Eshchar Ben-Shitrit (Founder of Redefine Meat) and Lorena Savani (EIT Food Innovation Programme Manager) they ask the question “Should producers be responsible for making food healthy?”
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Episode 4: Spotlight: RethinkResource on creating value from food waste
Linda Grieder introduces RethinkResource, a company looking at ways that food waste and side streams can be turned into profit. She also explains how RethinkResource's new platform – Circado – is working to connect industries to make the most out of food waste opportunities.
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Episode 3: How do we clean up all the food waste?
According to UN research, one-third of all food produced is wasted. In this episode Matt and Lukxmi meet with Tessa Clarke (founder of food-sharing platform OLIO) and Veerle Carlier (R&D and Innovation manager at food retailer Colruyt) to discuss strategies for tackling the problem.
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Episode 2: Spotlight: 3F BIO on alternative protein
Protein is a vital component of any healthy diet – but with a rising global demand how can we scale production without destroying the planet along the way? Jim Laird introduces 3F Bio, a company focusing on meat alternatives that taste just as good.
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Episode 1: Can we really feed 10 billion people by 2050?
Listen to our launch episode of The Food Fight podcast as Professor Corinna Hawkes, Director of the Centre for Food Policy of City University London, and Stephane Durand from Queen’s University Belfast, give their views and perspectives on the huge challenges facing our food system.
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