Food Matters Live Podcast

615: Food Historian Annie Gray and PepsiCo's Rob Lowery on trends, health and the modern consumer

Recorded live on stage at Food Matters Live, at London's Olympia London, this is the session that opened the whole event, and it set the tone perfectly. Food historian Annie Gray and Rob Lowery, VP of Marketing at PepsiCo UK, Ireland and Europe, sit down for a wide-ranging fireside conversation on where consumer food culture has come from, where it's heading, and how to tell the difference between a genuine trend and a flash in the pan. They cover how the health concerns driving food choices today, from protein to gut health, are less new than we think, and what that tells us about what's likely to stick Why personalised nutrition is still accelerating, and what GLP-1 medications are doing to consumer habits and food industry priorities And how fragmented eating patterns, demographic shifts, and the rise of remote working are reshaping the occasions food is designed around Find out about upcoming events at foodmatterslive.com [https://foodmatterslive.com/].

614: 'Food tech Is the new fintech' - and other things we heard in the NPD Discovery Zone

In this episode of the Food Matters Live podcast, we explore the NPD Discovery Zone at Food Matters Live in London's Olympia. It's the section of the show floor where the next generation of food ingredients and technology is being shown for the first time.  Through four conversations with four companies, we try to answer one question: where will the food of the future actually come from? We learn about turning CO₂ directly into food ingredients, recovering high-protein, high-fibre ingredients from the side-stream of the brewing industry, an automated harvester that recovers broccoli stems left in the field after harvest, and we meet the people behind a food lifecycle management software that brings NPD, finance, and technical teams onto one platform from concept to launch.  Food Matters Live brings together the food and drink industry's brightest minds across innovation, sustainability, health, and technology. Find out more and register for upcoming events on our website.

613: Food Matters Live London 2026: The conversations shaping what we eat

Recorded live on the floor of Food Matters Live at Olympia, London, this episode is a snapshot of the conversations happening right now across the food industry. We catch up with speakers fresh from the stage or on their stand at the event: a food historian making the case for forgotten ingredients, a Michelin-starred chef turning industrial waste into meal kits, a consumer researcher on why flavour will always win, and two researchers pushing back on the way we talk about ultra-processed food. We hear from food historian Annie Grey on what sourdough bread actually tells us about class, why 'authenticity' is a dirty word in food marketing, and the forgotten British ingredients that deserve a comeback Frank Lantz, Michelin-starred chef and founder of Uhhmami on the waste he witnessed in professional kitchens, and why upcycled sunflower protein might be one of the most practical sustainability solutions on the market right now And researchers Chris Bryant and Jules Griffin debate UPF. Food Matters Live brings together the food and drink industry's brightest minds across innovation, sustainability, health, and technology. Find out more and register for upcoming events on our website.

612: Sustainable food production - how the industry is making progress

in this episode, we’re bringing together four of the most compelling talks from our archive, each focused on a different aspect of the same issue - sustainability in food production. We hear about a breathing cultivation system that captures carbon dioxide from any industrial source and converts it directly into microalgae-based food ingredients. We get into the science of upcycling food, that’s ingredients that would otherwise leave the food system entirely, given a second life in something people actually buy and eat. And we get into the detail of the food industry's net zero targets, what they are and how to get there. it’s clear there’s still work to do across the whole food chain. None of this is solved. But all of it is moving, and faster than the headlines often suggest.

611: GLP-1: The science, the data, the long-term picture

This episode brings together four conversations on the topic of GLP-1 the science, the market data, the human impact, and the long-term strategic picture. We hear from scientists, market strategists, clinicians and food innovators on what GLP-1 actually means for the food industry, and what it means for the people eating differently because of it. Some market data suggests households on GLP-1 medications are spending 6% less on food overall. The consumer segment using these drugs in the UK is already roughly the same size as the vegan and vegetarian market. How the food industry responds to this disruptive influence remains an open question, although serious moves are already being made.