Announcement of PhD Course in Innovation Towards Plant-Based Consumption

30/08/2018 12:28

There is now a new emerging market for innovation: the market for healthy and sustainable foods and plant-based products. Consumers from different segments are interested in acquiring foods that make a difference. There is a new demand appearing, particularly for plant-based products. According to the most recent report by Supermarket chain COOP, in 2017 8.2% of Danes (about 465,000 people) halved their meat consumption, a growth from barely 3,8% in 2010, and about 20% of their customers practice at least one “meat-free” day every week . There is hence a growth in the demand for plant-based foods.

The demand for Plant-Based foods has increased exponentially in the past few years. As Danone has done with Alpro, and Orkla with Naturli, large companies are acquiring or developing a “sustainable” branch. It is therefore possible to assume that e.g. Arla Foods would diversify into plant-based drinks within the coming 5 years. The ingredients sector will also have to consider diversification towards plant-based ingredients (e.g. proteins) due to the demand by emerging consumer groups like vegans and flexitarians. And last but not least, the huge Danish meat sector will have to address specifically the opposition and social media pressure of e.g. animal rights activists, and navigate in an environment of very low consumer trust (please refer to the MSc thesis by ME Hansen, 2017).

According to FoodNavigator, the number of flexitarians is rising (those who choose to eat less meat mainly for sustainability reasons), calling for alternative proteins. Plant-based proteins (soy, pulses, etc.) and insects are now hot topics in product development. The same source suggests that according to www.visiongain.com the meat substitutes market reached a value of 3.57 billion Euros in 2016 . Even some former meat companies are making now vegetarian food.

Therefore, this course is timely since it touches a hot topic, which is relevant to society, industry and consumers in general. It is relevant to the field of Food Science in that it brings forth the current commitments towards healthier and more sustainable food systems and will constitute a platform for discussion of the output of UCPH participation at the next version of World Food Summit 2018, and is inscribed in the strategy Gastronomy 2025 of Danish Ministry of Food & Environment.

Mais informações: https://phdcourses.ku.dk/DetailKursus.aspx?id=104689&sitepath=NAT