A Close Encounter with the Food Industry
ANUGA and CIAA
The invitation to attend a conference
under the motto “Innovation in
the Food Industry”, co-organised by
the Confederation of the Food and
Drink Industries of the EU (CIAA)
and the German federation for food
law and food science and the
German food industry federation
(BLL-BVE), sounded interesting. So
I went to Cologne/Germany on 14
October, where during the ANGUA,
a food fair with over 160 000 visitors
and 6000 exhibitors from around 100
different countries, the CIAA event
was taking place.
Of course, CIAA, the voice of the
EU food and drink industry at the
level of European and International
Institutions, is not a body dealing
with vegetarian issues. But since this
industry is the largest manufacturing
industry in Europe with 14% of
industrial production (600 billion
Euro), 3 million employees and 26
000 companies, exporting more than
45 billion Euro of foodstuffs to
world markets, it is of importance
also for vegetarians to hear what
managers are interested in and aiming
for.
When I finally found my way
through a very irritating labyrinth of
halls and corridors, I listened to
Corinne Goenee from the consultant
company Innovaction, who
explained how increased consumer
interest in health, nutritional balance,
sustainability, well-being, convenience
and taste is leading to new food
products, and that growing demand
for “low carb…”, “free from…”, “all
natural” brings about improved
products, for example much
increased purity (of critical importance
for allergy sufferers).
The Executive Director of the
European Food Safety Authority
(EFSA), Geoffrey Podger, explained
the role of the recently created
Authority, an independent body to
ensure food safety. He reported on
the present status of work and future
projects. In the light of recent BSE
and other food scares, EFSA's role is
to prevent such scandals in the
future.
Etienne Magnien, Acting Director
for Biotechnology, Agriculture and
Food from the European
Commission, DG Research, assured
the audience that food quality and
safety (also in connection with foodrelated
diseases and allergies),
health, traceability, production methods,
analysis of ingredients, and
environmental issues are important
topics on the agenda of the European
Commission. He said that the emerging
new food production, biotechnology
tools, and genomic research
demanded bringing together all
stakeholders in order to develop a
long term vision across the board
and create suitable strategies and
action plans.
In his closing remarks, the CIAA
Director General Raymond Destin
stressed the fact that consumer
behaviour forces industry to be innovative,
and by that confirming the
importance of everyone's shopping
habits. So keep asking for that
cheese without rennet ....
After the conference I had a look
around ANUGA and spent hours
going through some of the many
halls. Well, what I saw was really
quite depressing: Among the thousands
of exhibitors were only three
companies offering vegetarian goods
– lonely pebbles in an ocean of meatbased
foodstuffs and assorted tools:
machines to cut, roast, boil, grill,
barbecue and exhibit the dead bodies
of a whole zoo of different animals –
or parts of them.
One would think that when visiting
one of the most important food
fairs in the world, there would be an
abundance of menu choices, even for
vegetarians. But no such luck: I
found nothing to eat. The company
stands only offered snacks to their
own customers, cafeterias were
extremely overcrowded and the
restaurants served only “delicacies”,
such as roast suckling calves etc. At
three o'clock I left, frustrated and
hungry. So my recommendation for
future ANUGA visitors would be to
take a packed lunch and leave all
squeamishness at home.
Herma Caelen
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