621: Why the UK is a leader in global flavours

624: Clean label, bold taste - the innovation realities of making natural work at scale

Consumers say they want natural. But do they want it enough to accept a less vibrant colour, a shorter shelf life, or a higher price? And when regulation forces the change anyway, how do you bring consumers with you when they weren't asking for it in the first place? Clean label means something very different to a Michelin-trained chef building a fermented meat alternative from scratch, to a bakery NPD manager reformulating existing lines away from artificial colours, to a global consumer science director at one of the world's largest confectionery companies navigating the cocoa crisis.  What all three have in common is the same uncomfortable truth: natural is harder, less stable, more expensive and less forgiving than artificial - and the consumer rarely gives you credit for it unless you tell them. In this episode of the Food Matters Live podcast, recorded at our London Olympia event, our expert panel dives into the world of clean label, from the practical realities of moving from artificial to natural colours, allergen considerations, shelf life constraints, and why consumers may accept a dimmer colour once you explain the reason. If this has whet your appetite for next year’s Food Matters Live events - you can already register your interest to partner with us in London and Rotterdam. Just head to foodmatterslive.com [http://foodmatterslive.com/]

623: Fibremaxxing: Why reformulating for fibre is harder than it looks

Only 4% of UK adults meet the recommended 30 grams of fibre per day. The average intake is 16 grams, which is barely half the target. And this isn't a new problem. It's been consistent for years, across every age group and demographic, with no sign of closing. What makes that statistic more troubling is what sits behind it: most people don't even know what the recommendation is.  In this episode of the Food Matters Live podcast, recorded at our London Olympia event, a panel of specialists look at the fibre gap from every angle: policy, science, product development, supply chain and consumer behaviour. We hear from a nutrition researcher from the Danish Agriculture and Food Council, who explains how Denmark's Whole Grain Partnership drove consumption to 63 grams within four years. And we learn why fibre reformulation is technically more complex than it looks. If this has whet your appetite for next year’s Food Matters Live events - you can already register your interest to partner with us in London and Rotterdam. Just head to foodmatterslive.com [http://foodmatterslive.com/]

622: What a Michelin chef saw that the food industry didn't

A chilli con carne for four people carries a carbon footprint of 6kg. The same meal, made with upcycled sunflower protein and plant-based seasoning, comes in at seventy grams.  In this episode of the Food Matters Live podcast, recorded at our London Olympia event, Frank Lantz describes how he came to food innovation from Michelin-trained fine dining. His view is that the food industry is sitting at one of its biggest inflection points in a century, that the conversation about how we grow, cook and eat is overdue, and that chefs who understand flavour from the inside out are better placed than most to solve for it. He talks about the moment he decided to step out of restaurant kitchens and into food innovation, why organic is a proof of concept rather than a marketing badge, and why he believes the brands that make the most sustainable products, without asking the consumer to sacrifice anything, will be the ones that win. If this has whet your appetite for next year’s Food Matters Live events - you can already register your interest to partner with us in London and Rotterdam. Just head to foodmatterslive.com [http://foodmatterslive.com/]

621: Why the UK is a leader in global flavours

Salted caramel spent roughly 50 years travelling from a Parisian chocolatier to a British supermarket staple. Nduja took a decade. Kimchi felt like an overnight success, but it wasn't. So when a flavour trend lands on a developer's radar, how do you know whether you're early, right on time, or already too late? The answer, our expert panel suggests, is rarely found in data alone. It lives in the gap between what a trend tracker can tell you and what a developer's gut tells them. And knowing how to triangulate the two is one of the most underrated skills in food innovation. In this episode of the Food Matters Live podcast, recorded at our London Olympia event, we explore how both a major retailer and a multi-brand manufacturer approach the now, next and future framework for flavour trend tracking. Our panel debates the cuisines that have genuinely crossed over and the ones that are still waiting. And they dig into the tension between authenticity and accessibility, the power of the silent ingredient, and why calling something a tortilla instead of a Spanish omelette can be the difference between a product that flies and one that sits. If this has whet your appetite for next year’s Food Matters Live events - you can already register your interest to partner with us in London and Rotterdam. Just head to foodmatterslive.com [http://foodmatterslive.com/]

620: Soy, salmon and sidestreams - where the protein industry is heading

Global demand for protein has been rising for sixty years and shows no sign of stopping. But the way we're producing it is running into hard limits, environmental, ethical and economic, at exactly the moment that consumers have decided protein is the most important thing on the label. So where does that leave manufacturers, retailers and innovators trying to navigate a market that wants more protein, cheaper, more sustainably, and still delicious? In this episode of the Food Matters Live podcast, recorded at our London Olympia event, three experts try to answer that question. They discuss overgrazing, marine over-exploitation, and the opportunity in novel proteins. They also talk about how constraints on animal protein are opening a window for plant-based innovation that the industry hasn't had before. And they discuss the future of soy protein, all with one thing front of mind - the products produced need to be attractive to consumers. If this has whet your appetite for next year’s Food Matters Live events - you can already register your interest to partner with us in London and Rotterdam. Just head to foodmatterslive.com [http://foodmatterslive.com/]