China is ramping up its efforts to move past the immense impacts COVID-19 has had on the country over the past three years, including removing all requirements for nucleic acid testing on frozen food imports and reducing tariffs.
New Zealand’s Opo Bio is seeking to help cultivated meat firms cut out a large portion of the initial legwork needed to procure and develop suitable cell lines, believing that this will take help encourage commercialisation and target the mainstream market.
The halal food and beverage sector in Thailand is ramping up its use of technology as a crucial tool to achieve ‘Halal Integrity’, and hopes to establish a halal blockchain platform within the next few years.
Cultivated meat pioneer Mosa Meat says it is still working to get full regulatory approvals to retail its cultivated meat in Singapore, despite the signing of a manufacturing agreement with Esco Aster for production in the Asian trade hub.
More studies are required before lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and bacteriocins can be commercialised as a natural alternative to antibiotics and chemical preservatives in meat, say researchers in India and Spain.
The Chinese government has launched strict draft standards to govern excessive food packaging in the country covering fruit, meat, egg and seafood products, allowing public comments on these until January 2023.
Australia has implemented more stringent regulations to govern imported retorted foods and beverages that contain meat, dairy or egg content, requiring an additional manufacturer’s declaration to be displayed prior to entry.
The cultivated products sector still has a long road ahead in many markets in terms of regulatory processes, but this thorough vetting will lay a strong foundation of food safety and quality that will eventually yield benefits in terms of consumer trust...
The New Zealand food and grocery sector has voiced wholehearted support for the government’s announcement of a new legislative bill addressing unfair competition in the local grocery sector, which was previously dominated by a duopoly of major retailers.
Plant-based brands need to slash salt levels by adopting a similar ‘reduce and replace’ strategy used by the sugar-sweetened beverage sector in order to ensure that consumers can reap health benefits of the trend, according to a nutrition expert.
Frozen foods, canned foods and bakery products have emerged as the most popular food categories amongst APAC consumers amidst rising inflation and food cost increases, driven by common themes of affordability, shelf-life and convenience.
Rising affluence is driving premiumisation and innovation in the meat sector in South East Asia (SEA), but there is still ample space for NPD, not least in the snacking category.
Getting the taste right in sodium-reduced food products remains the biggest barrier to overcome in reformulation efforts, according to industry experts.
If you’re making cultivated meat in a bioreactor instead of a living, breathing animal, and you want to introduce it to consumers for the first time, what’s the best launch vehicle? A chicken nugget or fillet, a thin beef steak, a high-value item such...
Rising awareness amongst Thai consumers regarding the potential unhealthy connotations associated with long expiry dates is a key factor driving up the demand for clean label food ingredients in the country, according to leading industry experts.
Cultivated meat pioneers GOOD Meat says that consumer awareness of such products is still relatively low in the Middle East, but that there is significant interest to purchase once they have been exposed to the concept.
The interest in cleaner and better-for-you snacks shown by big food and beverage brands, including Mondelez, Nestle and Vitasoy, is paving the way for a new specialised area of plant-based proteins to enter the market, namely the RuBisCo leaf protein.
Increasingly challenging consumer demands for products that can satisfy both taste and convenience needs are accelerating format and flavour innovation within the ready-to-cook (RTC) foods sector, according to Tyson’s APAC VP.
The Japanese government has implemented tighter regulations for organic food imports, with firms required to appoint specific personnel and use standard organic certification labels to avoid being rejected.
The ability to accurately convert consumer demands and preferences into real, technical product concepts remains a key challenge for the plant-based sector in the APAC region, according to industry experts at Roquette.
FNA DEEP DIVE: CULTIVATED MEAT & FERMENTATION TECH
Novel protein production technologies such as cultivated meat and precision fermentation are seeing consumer acceptance soar in APAC, but are still some way off achieving price parity for the everyday consumer due to challenges with regulations and scale.
Two US-based precision fermentation startups making real dairy ingredients using microbes instead of cows have announced significant developments as they gear up to launch next year in the emerging ‘animal-free dairy’ category.
Both indulgence and affordability are emerging as major APAC consumer demands for food and beverages today, leaving a manufacturers with a paradoxical challenge that can only be solved using innovation.
Indonesia has decided to push ahead with plans to tighten regulations governing imported processed foods by introducing a risk-based assessment system.
The scientific validation of ingredients and sensitive marketing strategies are key for brands to drive repeat purchases in Asia’s thriving healthy ageing category, according to an expert panel at our Growth Asia Summit 2022.
One-third of toddlers in Australia are consuming excess sodium in their daily diets, with experts stating the situation is so bad that simply reducing snack or discretionary foods intakes is insufficient.
Offering plant-based meat in a wider range of formats and targeting new demographics such as toddlers is key to attract new and loyal consumers, according to Kerry.
Regulatory pressure from Asian governments will drive food and beverage firms to use natural colours, with it rapidly becoming less of a trend and more of a necessity.
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is establishing Dubai’s first e-commerce pavilion on its platform with the backing of local trade authority Dubai Industries and Exports, urging Middle Eastern food firms to hop on board and boost exports to China and...
Indonesian food and beverage firms have been urged to accelerate their new product innovation and digital adaptation to keep up with consumer demands, especially with multiple post-COVID-19 challenges still dampening the local economy.
China has expanded efforts to eliminate excessive packaging with rules now covering more food categories, in addition to implementing a multi-ministerial governance system to regulate the supply chain.
Consumers in the Asia Pacific region will continue to be strongly driven by products with clean label and positive nutrition claims moving into the new year, with food and beverage brands also set to boost innovation to meet these demands.
Malaysian plant-based protein firm the Ultimeat Group plans to tailor its formulation and packaging to every market it intends to enter from 2023 to 2024.
The Japanese government has called on local food businesses and producers to co-operate more closely with local authorities and basic regional sustainability plans so the national Green Food System Strategy will hit its 2030 and 2050 targets.
Global flavours giant McCormick has revealed that product innovation with spicy flavours that can bring the heat is going to be key for snacking firms in Indonesia to achieve significant growth.
Like several Asian countries, Thailand is experiencing a greying population. While interest in healthy ageing is high, the level of innovation for this category of products remains relatively low.
Major food and beverage firms in Asia looking to make the transition to sustainable packaging have their work cut out, not only due to the widely-acknowledged climate challenges, but also hurdles in their current shelf life commitments and supply chain...
China’s plant-based and cultured meat market is getting increasingly competitive, but industry collaboration and product localisation are going to be crucial if it is to become more ‘relevant’ to consumers.
Flavour enhancement products today need to not only cater to consumers’ clean label demands, but also be made using clean energy if firms wish to capitalise on the current wellness and sustainability trends that are on the rise in the China and Middle...
Japan has set its sights on Vietnam as a potential major destination for its food exports and has set up a specialised export platform in the country to back existing and would-be traders.
Disease outbreaks, such as swine flu affecting pork quality and the COVID-19 pandemic hitting supply chains, have raised the profile of plant-based products among lower-income consumers in Thailand, according to a brand CEO.
Ireland is eyeing the South East Asian region as its next major dairy and meat export market, banking on its ability to offer guaranteed sustainability and high quality to capture consumers in the region.
Major Australian supermarkets have been urged to refocus their pricing, product and e-commerce strategies to fulfil consumer demands for affordable products and convenient shopping, as inflation rockets.
Food and beverage major CP Foods has identified the strengthening of its water management, food safety standards and healthy product innovation as key strategies to help the company with its business sustainability ambitions.
The expertise of global food corporations and VC firms is urgently needed to drive the Thai foodtech system and help build a regulatory framework for novel foods, while also offering more support to start-ups.
The long-term imperative driving meat alternatives is clear: We only have one planet, with a growing population and finite resources, and raising animals to feed them all just takes up too many of them, says Tom Mastrobuoni, chief investment officer at...
APAC Ministers responsible for food security have failed to reach an agreement to prohibit countries from imposing food export bans, as the region continues to battle economic and supply uncertainties resulting from the Russia-Ukraine war.
Tyson’s plant-based innovations are complementary and not competitors to its existing traditional meat products, claims its Vice President Commercial for APAC in the first part of our exclusive interview.
The New Zealand food and grocery sector has given a wholehearted welcome to the government’s latest move mandating major supermarkets to negotiate wholesale rates when selling groceries to their competitors.
