Challenge

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Our food system is broken. As agriculture is destroying biodiversity and is responsible for ¼ of the CO2. As ⅓ of the food we produce goes to waste. As 820 million people go to bed with hunger, 2 bn people are lacking in micronutrients. As on the other side 650 million people are obese, we must conclude that our food system is broken. The food system should take care of us, the farmers, the planet. While in the past bad food, loaded with cheap sugar and fat,  was good business. The current hidden cost of the broken food system on health and ecology is 12 trillion $ per year, growing to 16 trillion. To give an idea of the magnitude of the hidden cost; 16 trillion $ equals the annual gross domestic product of China. 

 

The food industry is a complex value chain and slow in taking strong measures. It only acts upon consumer behavioural changes. (ref. Plant-based food revolution). Therefore we believe that real change in the food system will only occur by people consciously changing their daily food intake. Knowing which foods are good for the planet, healthy and tasty is a complex matter. That’s the real problem. 

 

Smart recommendation systems (personal cooking assistant) play a central role to assist people in making the right choices. 

 

Unfortunately, today’s recommendation technology does not work for food. Recommenders that combine both sustainability, health and flavor criteria are non-existing. This is where Foodpairing® comes in.

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Solution
 

FlavorID®, a universal flavor passport to identify the food that you like. 
Foodpairing builds recommendation technology capturing the flavor preferences of consumers into a flavorID. This data enables smarter recommendations that can power a range of applications from lifestyle to health. From retail and  e-commerce to smart kitchen. 
Additional the consumer flavor preference data is leveraged by the food industry to develop the next gen healthy products; matching consumer preferences and reducing food waste by avoiding non successful product launches. 

 

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Impact

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‘Eat different, eat personal’ is a positive vision on how the relationship between people and food will evolve towards new eating experiences embraced by digital services. 

 

Example: Diabetes type 2

When a diabetes patient is diagnosed, a doctor provides caloric and macronutrient recommendations but such recommendations are abstract to the average individual.

 

Foodpairing can teach patients to gradually remove certain foods from their diets and replace them with better, healthier choices through the creation of new, personalized and creative recipes. These recipes will take patient metrics into consideration, thereby serving as a self-teaching tool for patients.

 

Currently, at Foodpairing an EU-funded  validation pilot is ongoing supporting families struggling with obesity.

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Market Opportunities

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• Global Recommendation Engine Market = €3.9B by 2022 (CAGR 40%).

• Market for eHealth = €5.8 trillion.

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Foodpairing has received funding as part of STOP (Science and Technology in childhood Obesity Policy - http://www.stopchildobesity.eu), under the EU Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, grant agreement No 774548.