08.10.10
Lonza, Basel, Switzerland, recently held a Nutrition 2030 workshop, designed to exchange and share ideas from international organizations, NGOs and academia. The workshop polled some of the nutrition industry’s leaders to discuss the relationship of food and health, and develop a vision for the long-term future of the food industry.
The group analyzed potential future nutritional megatrends, while working together to identify potentially disruptive factors the food sector may face. Continued efforts to fight malnutrition and deficiencies in developing areas were a topic of interest, as was the potential to prevent diseases through affordable fortified nutrition and optimized diet. A discussion about the influence of foods on immune function was conducted, as were similar talks on the brain health and gut health markets. Each market was deemed in need of broad industrial-academic partnerships, as the challenges are too big for single companies or institutions to face. Additional topics included:
• The balance between conventional and GMO-based food and nutrients in local food sourcing and markets;
• The young, as a dynamic market segment that cannot be forgotten due to constant focus on the aging population, women and babies;
• New approaches to waste as a resource for food production;
• Developments in diagnostics and testing, and their influence on nutrition and food production;
• Land use and the acceptance of genetically modified crops;
• Expected stricter rules for health related claims on nutritional products;
• The “omics” sciences: genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and, one day, epigenetics, and how they may influence the way we choose food in the future;
• Biotechnology and agrotechnology as important technological drivers to quantitatively and qualitatively secure food supplies.
The group analyzed potential future nutritional megatrends, while working together to identify potentially disruptive factors the food sector may face. Continued efforts to fight malnutrition and deficiencies in developing areas were a topic of interest, as was the potential to prevent diseases through affordable fortified nutrition and optimized diet. A discussion about the influence of foods on immune function was conducted, as were similar talks on the brain health and gut health markets. Each market was deemed in need of broad industrial-academic partnerships, as the challenges are too big for single companies or institutions to face. Additional topics included:
• The balance between conventional and GMO-based food and nutrients in local food sourcing and markets;
• The young, as a dynamic market segment that cannot be forgotten due to constant focus on the aging population, women and babies;
• New approaches to waste as a resource for food production;
• Developments in diagnostics and testing, and their influence on nutrition and food production;
• Land use and the acceptance of genetically modified crops;
• Expected stricter rules for health related claims on nutritional products;
• The “omics” sciences: genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and, one day, epigenetics, and how they may influence the way we choose food in the future;
• Biotechnology and agrotechnology as important technological drivers to quantitatively and qualitatively secure food supplies.