Future Of Food: What Trends Are Shaping The Food And Beverage Industry?

The world of food is changing fast. Lab-grown meat is on the rise. This dumpling by itself cost about $200 to $300 to make. Dairy farming could be a thing of the past. And the world's largest food company is under pressure from smaller eco-savvy rivals. It's an opportunity that we don't want to miss. We'll be exploring all three topics in this episode of The Future of Food. The demand for meat globally continues to grow. Despite the fact that more and more plant-based alternatives have been released in the last few years. You may have heard about the dozens of companies testing lab-grown chicken and beef, hoping to break into the alternative meat market, which Barclays estimates could be worth $140 billion by 2029. But a Singapore-based startup is wading into crustaceans, catering for more diverse diets. Shiok Meat says it's the first company to grow shrimp and lobster in the lab. Most of the companies that have started in the last three to four years have concentrated on red and white meat, because that is what is consumed much more in the West. The company extracts cell samples, feeds them with nutrients, and then nurtures the stem cells into meat over four to six weeks. So all of the magic basically happens here. The proof of the so-called clean meat is in the taste. One of our reporters tried it out themselves. It just tastes like a regular dumpling. But it doesn't come cheap. And this dumpling by itself costs about $200 to $300 to make. 2.2 pounds of shrimp meat currently costs $5,000. 90% of our cost from that is actually this nutrient solution that you see everywhere. The company hopes that cost will be lowered by 100 times this year. Its eco-credentials may be appetising too. Land-based farming has long been known for its environmental impact, one of the selling points for alternative beef or poultry. Aquaculture is no different. It's been blamed for hits to mangroves and other ecosystems across Asia, and some farms have been criticised for overuse of antibiotics. Shrimp culture is one of the worst in terms of environmental effects. So by taking the pressure off these areas through basically artificial culturing, you're actually allowing them time to regenerate, or not to cause new areas to be damaged. So it's possible. It really can be a win-win. The thirst for alternative plant-based milks is growing in the United States. LA-based Calafia Farms is the third largest plant-based milk company. It's raised $225 million from global investors to bring plant power to supermarket shelves. Moala is a Texas-based banana milk maker and raised $8.3 million in November, while plant-based ice cream maker Eclipse Foods says it's gearing up for a new round of funding. Calafia Farms' CEO told Reuters the boom is partly down to interest in imitation meat, saying it's a kind of 2.0 for plant-based, launched with the success of Beyond Meat. The alternative milk category currently stands at $1.8 billion. Almond milk sales are on the up, but the biggest jump so far has been in oat milk, with sales rising over sevenfold in the past year alone. This comes as taste for cow milk declines, partly driven by health and environmental fears. Two of America's largest dairy producers filed for bankruptcy in the last two months, and annual cow milk sales have fallen $3 billion in the U.S. since 2015. Today we're announcing our ambition. Nestlé's CEO Mark Schneider has gone on an aggressive deal-making spree, setting his vision on premium products in fast-growing segments, such as pet food and coffee, while axing slower areas like processed meat and chocolate. Schneider has made more than 50 transactions and reviews since taking the helm in 2017, including the sale of Colcutt's brands Herta and Nestlé's U.S. ice cream business. This is all part of a mission to replace up to 10% of Nestlé's portfolio by the end of 2020, making room for the likes of the hipster blue-bottle coffee chain. And there's not just millennial tastes for kombucha and cold brew to consider, but a need for speed. The KitKat and Nescafe maker has pumped resources into internal accelerators to churn new products, such as plant-based burgers and the Rostelier coffee roaster. Yeah, we are very convinced that this trend is not efficient. For sure, Nestlé want to concentrate and further accelerate in this business because it's an opportunity that we don't want to miss. The group says it reduced the launch time of new products by 25% last year and had increased the number of launches by 30%. Schneider's recipe for Nestlé's future, it seems, is fast and furiously healthy.