Special Show Ingredients: Sustainability Talk

At this year's special Ingredients area, visitors can not only discover numerous exciting new ingredients and flavours, but also talk to innovative start-ups that, for example, cultivate cocoa butter in the laboratory, produce healthy salt from plants or use beer pomace to produce cocoa alternatives.

Diana Drewes from the future agency Haute Innovation will talk to SMEY, BetaSalt and Endless Food about the social megatrends of sustainability and health after a brief introduction to the special Ingredients area. 

SMEY is a TechBio company based in Paris with a development laboratory in Munich that combines AI and precision fermentation to produce cultured oils and fats for confectionery. The product portfolio includes cultured cocoa butter and palm oil-free functional oils. 

The Berlin start-up Plantsalt uses salt-tolerant plants such as samphire and algae as the starting material for its BetaSalt. With up to 50 per cent less sodium compared to conventional salt, it is designed to help reduce daily sodium consumption. It is enriched with 12 essential minerals and is said to intensify the flavour of dishes with unami notes.

The Danish start-up ‘Endless Food’ uses resources such as spent grains, cocoa shells and leftover oat pulp from other food processing industries for its product THIC (This isn't Chocolate). Thanks to specially developed fermentation technology, the flavour of the upcycled mash is modified so that the product comes very close to the taste of cocoa. In future, THIC can be used as a chocolate substitute for ice creams or baked goods.

The Sustainability Talk is a great opportunity to find out more about the history and future plans of the food start-ups.