The allfoodexperts community is a partner for agri-food companies to address technical problems in production processes, the development of products, or the recruitment of specialised technicians.
So far it has bought together over 1,000 independent agri-food industry professionals worldwide and has published more than 60 open innovation challenges since 2013.
Addressing bigger challenges
Patrick Berry, chief evangelist, allfoodexperts told FoodProductionDaily, the community will soon move to an upgraded platform and start addressing bigger global food and beverage challenges.
“allfoodexperts continues investing in its strategic partnership with Imaginatik and will in the next few days be rolling out the latest platform features that Imaginatik offers,” he said.
“This will empower us to start tackling larger global issues such as waste in the food value chain, or water usage.”
Imaginatik provides consulting and software as a service platform for managing large-scale changes at enterprise organisations.
Rising concern over health
Peter Olsen, sales and service coordinator, added allfoodexperts has seen an increasing concern in the food and beverage sector on issues such as sustainability, food waste and health and wellness.
Many companies are looking for ideas to reformulate food products to reduce salt content, sugars and fats.
Also companies are reducing food waste along production lines and supply chains to produce food more efficiently, reducing environmental impact.
“Contributing to a healthier life for consumers is a great opportunity for the food and beverage industry,” said Olsen.
“However, food reformulation is a complicated task, as is reducing waste.
“We have a community of experts that can assist many companies with these kinds of challenges by improving their current products or developing new ones.”
Metallised pouch for meat production
allfoodexperts is currently looking for the development of packaging for meat.
A meat production company wants to develop a metallised pouch with a K-Style Bottom.
“We have published the technical characteristics of the packaging, which must ensure the shelf life of the product for nine months at temperatures up to 4°C,” added Olsen.
“Now we are helping the challenger to find an expert or a company that can develop this packaging.”
Emerging markets
Olsen added the community receives many requests from companies in emerging markets, such as Africa and Asia.
“They not only want to develop the same products with the same standards as big brands did in the past, but also innovative tailor-made for their own markets,” he said.
For example, allfoodexperts helped a food manufacturer in West Asia to solve a technical challenge.
They required a process to manufacture salted egg yolk liquid at a certain temperature.
The liquid needed to retain physical, chemical, functional and microbiological quality properties.
“We found a Danish expert who provided them with the technology,” he said.
“At allfoodexperts we believe small and medium sized companies will get access to knowledge and technologies, not just in emerging markets, but in Europe and the rest of the world.”
Growing into the future
“Over the following years we want to be the reference and largest food community in the agri-food value chain,” said Berry.
The continued investment in its partnership with Imaginatik means an important change in its service offering.
“We will be able not only to provide technology for specific challenges, but pro-actively collect useful ideas to address major challenges in food and beverage industry, and their R&D departments.” Berry added.