Blockchain to stop food fraud, sugar reduction technology targets fruit juices

07 April 2023 — In industry news this week, Better Juice completed its pilot trials to reduce simple sugars in natural berry and other fruit juices, while Schouten Europe introduced its “revolutionary” plant-based egg white. Meanwhile, food fraud is tackled with blockchain technology to ensure full traceability and transparency information is encoded into QR codes.

In short: The company is moving
Aleph Farms joined the United Nations Global Compact, a voluntary leadership platform for the development, implementation and disclosure of responsible business practices. As a participant in the UN Global Compact, Aleph Farms will publish an annual Communication on Progress (COP) to demonstrate the company’s ongoing commitment to responsible business conduct that supports broader societal goals.

Accenture, Microsoft and Unilever completed one of the largest and most complex cloud migrations in the consumer goods industry. The migration has helped Unilever become a cloud-only business. It has helped ensure robust, secure and optimized processes for Unilever and provides a platform to drive innovation and growth. With Azure as its primary cloud platform, Unilever will be able to accelerate product launches, improve customer service and improve operational efficiency.

Max food released a global dairy update, revealing that near-term fundamentals remain but should improve later in the year as world trade picks up again and milk production slows. The biggest dampener on the market remains the EU, which gives the outlook a double edge. The EU sector is sending signals that prolong weak commodity prices. While EU processors continue to Schouten Europe launched a plant-based egg white.encourage their farmers to produce more milk (even though prices are falling), high dairy prices cause households to consume less dairy—directly as cheese and butterfat, but also in food categories that use dairy ingredients. High inflation will persist through 2023, while rising interest rates will further damage spending.

The German Crespel & Deiters Group entered the American market with a newly founded subsidiary: Crespel & Deiters Food USA. The offer includes a number of self-produced non-GMO functional wheat-based ingredients and use-oriented production expertise from Loryma, the group’s food specialist. In this way, they want to help producers respond to the growing demand for sustainable plant-based products as authentic meat alternatives. With its founding US subsidiary in Chicago, Illinois, Crespel & Deiters Group makes its functional wheat-based ingredients available to industrial customers in North America.

Israel-based food technology startup Better juice completed its series of pilot trials to reduce simple sugars in natural berry and other fruit juices. In partnership with GEA Group, Better Juice hosted several prominent forest fruit juice producers from the EU, USA, Australia and Brazil to give their brands a sugar reduction makeover using their sugar reduction technology. The tests were carried out at the pilot unit established last year in GEA’s innovation center in Ahaus, Germany. During the trials, while preserving their distinctive flavors and textures, the team reduced the simple sugar content by 30% and 50% across forest fruit juices, including strawberry, cherry and blueberry.

UNISOT seeks to combat fraud with its Digital Product Passport (DPP), which utilizes blockchain technology to ensure full traceability and transparency information is encoded into QR codes on food, allowing producers to prove the product’s provenance. DPPs will allow manufacturers and customers to see comprehensive product information, such as raw materials, components, production sites, cold chain integrity, accreditation, certifications and carbon footprints, to recycling waste, across the supply chain. The solution aims to ease pressure on already strained food chains and revive consumer confidence, which has been tested by greenwashing allegations.

In short: Highlights for sustainability
The Marine Conservation Society reviewed 186 seafood environmental ratings, with 20 seafood ratings moving to the “Fish to Avoid” list and only 15 seafood ratings joining the green-rated “Best Choice” list with this season’s rating update. North East Atlantic mackerel have moved on to the amber list, having been on the charity’s green list since before 2011. Mackerel stocks have previously been large enough to support fishing. But in recent years, the population has been in steady decline. A yellow rating means that there is a need for improvements – in this case better management to end overfishing of the stock. Various states catch mackerel, including Norway, Iceland, the UK and the EU.

In short: Launcher
Schouten Europe, a maker of plant-based meat and fish alternatives, launched its latest innovation: a plant-based egg white, which the company says looks and tastes like animal chicken egg white. With increasing consumer demand for sustainable and ethical food options, Schouten has developed the unique plant-based egg white that provides the same nutritional benefits as real chicken egg protein without harming animals or the environment. The product is also suitable for people with an egg allergy.TissenBioFarm participates in the Samsung Welstory TechUP+ program to accelerate the mass production of cultured meat. (Photo: TissenBioFarm)

In short: Other highlights
TissenBioFarm, a South Korean cultured meat startup, has been selected for the Samsung Welstory TechUP+ program. a foodservice and distribution arm of the Samsung Group. TissenBioFarm is a food technology startup that started out of a tissue engineering laboratory from Postech, Korea’s premier research university. It has developed environmentally friendly and high-quality cultured meat using biotechnology and engineering expertise. It has attracted attention by offering solutions that have overcome the industry’s technical limitations, such as mass production, whole cuts, meat texture and marbling. It has developed technology to mass produce whole cut cultured meat with realistic bullets.

Around 1.23 billion people were employed in the world’s agri-food systems in 2019, and more than three times that number, or nearly half of the world’s population, live in households linked to agri-food systems, according to new research from United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Of these 1.23 billion people, 857 million worked in primary agricultural production, while 375 million worked in the off-farm segments of agri-food systems. The new figures, the first systematic and documented global estimate of their kind, derive from various sources and include the widespread use of part-time or seasonal work in the sector. The figures also refer to agricultural food systems rather than agricultural sectors, reflecting the growing importance of off-farm activities in feeding the world’s population, currently 8 billion and growing.

By Elizabeth Green

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