[00:01.8]
Bonjour everyone and welcome back to my 30 day podcast challenge. Today I want to share with you a true story, something that really happens to me. And I always enjoy sharing this story because it just shows how sometimes bad the, the food industry can be.
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So, basically I've been told that I was crazy and it was impossible to work additive. So let's set the scene, shall we? I was, a Hen do of one of my friends and we were, most of us were food scientists. Right?
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So as always in the food scientist word is who has the biggest balls. And even though it was only women, it was all about, oh, yes, I work at this food industry, I work at these food industry.
[01:00.8]
So who works in the biggest corporate and how much they, just go through the ladder and things like that. So then that was my turn to present a little bit what I do. So when I started to say that I was an independent consultant, I left my employer, who was Mcvities at the time, and I wanted to help, smaller food and drink businesses with their project development and flavours.
[01:30.9]
Their first answer was, "you're already a consultant?". "I thought consultant would need to have 30 to 40 years of experience". And I was like, no, you don't. You don't. You can be a consultant or coach or anything like that with the experience that you have.
[01:51.9]
As long as you have more experience than your client and you bring something and you keep on doing your research and keep on doing your refresher, your trainings and keep on learning. I don't see why you need to wait 40 years working in the food industry to finally become a consultant.
[02:11.2]
But that was not the point. The point was when I started to say that most of my clients, which is still true, most of my clients want to create better product. Everyone is fed up with the food industry, having the UPF scandal coming out more and more.
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Most of my clients want to do something that is good for the planet and good for the people. Meaning is more and more Clean Label product without any additives is something that is much more natural with much less ingredient.
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Try as much as possible as finding more natural process and not having something that is overly and overly and overly processed. They are also some part of my customers that don't want to use sugar, for example, they want to use something that is less processed, and feel a little bit more natural even though everything has to be processed way or another.
[03:11.7]
But some people use coconut sugar instead. Some people like stevia, some people don't. So it's all finding all of these alternatives, ingredients rather than just the conventional and the cheap ones. And when I starting to say that to the food scientists, believe it or not, they looked at me like I was crazy and they say that, "say, no, you should say no to these customers".
[03:33.8]
"You can't work without additives". And I just look at them. I don't think you can understand why is it to be a consultant and tell me if I should say yes or no to these customers. But also that was something so wrong in the food industry because as a food scientist I've been told all of these amazing additives, which one to pick.
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There are hundreds and hundreds, even maybe thousands of different additives and they all have either one or multiple ways to use them. You can use them for, being a ph regulator, for improving texture, for being emulsifier.
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Sometimes they do multiple jobs. They are, yes, incredible and very easy to use. Some of them are indeed very cheap because you can replace eggs with starch, for example. You can replace the real ingredients. Buy something that is much, much cheaper.
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And having this mentality of saying "no, this is impossible", is completely the opposite of what research and development and food science is all about. And I say to them, and I say to all of my clients, I may not guarantee 100% that you won't use food additives.
[04:51.1]
Sometimes you have to, like I'm working on a plant based barista milk for a client and there is no other way of using ph regulators. When you add something, some proteins to a very acidic coffee, they curddle.
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You can definitely see it looks like minis crumble eggs. There is no other way. It's just a matter of this type of protein can't handle, acidic ph and there's nothing you can do about it. And sometimes you can't find a natural alternative.
[05:26.7]
I've tried Bicarbonate soda and just to see, I was like, I'm gonna try. And then you end up having a latte that is obviously fizzy and tastes very much like a baking powder or anything like that. So not the best, but at least I tried.
[05:42.1]
So my point is the food industry is broken in this way because we have been taught so many times as food scientists, you have to use additives because of shelf life, because of this, because of that, because it's amazing for texture and it's cheaper than eggs and it's cheaper than chocolate and it's cheaper than flours.
[06:01.1]
And it's just so because there are alternatives you can do without additives, you need to have much more research and you need as a food or drink brand to educate your consumers in terms of you're going to have a different shelf life, the color is not going to be the same as any other product that you can find on the market.
[06:24.6]
It is an education and it will take time, for the consumer sometimes to have the balance between convenience and having something that is much better for their health, much better for the planet. But if they love you, if they love your brand, they will do the change and these are your target consumers.
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If they are your target consumer, they will do this commitment, they will do this commitment then rather than go to the supermarket, they will find you online, they will do this online for you and your product because this product are so much better than whatever they can find on the, on their supermarket.
[07:06.1]
This is the end of our first episode. I wanted to share with you this true story that happens to me and I just wanted to say that this is completely, completely wrong. And if you're a food, and drink brand that wants to create this kind of very natural, with less processed food and don't use additives or allergens or anything that you want, something that is much more clean label, you can, you may have to compromise, but you can do not listen to any other food scientists, product development agencies that just say no, you can't, you just have to find the right partner.
[07:50.8]
That would take time. It would take time and more resources to find the best solution for you. But this is possible. Do not give up on your dream. If it's something that you really want to create, you can.
