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How do you think storytelling will influence the food ingredients
industry in the future? What type of stories are
emerging?
It’s not going to go away. It will be even more important in
the future, and right now a key driver is the enormous boom
in the number of small, entrepreneurial and niche brands
that often produce and sell locally and do an excellent job
of telling a story. The growing presence of these brands
in mainstream retail will only encourage larger players to
consider storytelling as a key selling proposition.
In foodservice or in the alcoholic drinks category,
consumers are accustomed to seeing information about
how a dish or a product was created, the processes and
flavor-enhancing techniques used. Bringing this degree of
storytelling to wider food markets could offer new ways to
create added value and new pillars for flourishing innovation.
We are seeing, and will see more, stories related to local
ingredients, or locally-grown/processed ingredients, “real” or
“purposeful” food ingredients, less processed ingredients,
and the provenance of ingredients. In short, a focus on the
positives, not the negatives.