Nicole Astra: Welcome to Talking Plant Protein, my guest today is Sonia Huppert with IFF, who is continuing to reimagine protein. Sonia, welcome to the show.

Sonia Huppert: Welcome, thanks a lot for inviting me. Really nice to be with you today.

Nicole Astra: Let's start today with flexitarian. Tell me what you make of that term, is it too simple?

Sonia Huppert: Extremely good question I will say. Because from what we are hearing, and when we do social listening the term flexitarian is, I would say overlooked, or I could even say probably misunderstood in some cases and overused in many and many different type of way. And very often also, this term is associated with meat lovers, which is not really the case. Because a flexitarian is basically a person who has primarily a vegetarian type of diet, but will from time to time, eat meat or fish.

            And interestingly, earlier this year we ran a large global consumer survey zooming into, I will say this word of flexitarian and the aim for us was to find out what it will take to make plant-based meat alternative a regular part of the diet. Really, I can say replacing meat as well as basically really be center of the plate. And I could almost say without surprise, we saw that flexitarian is not one type of consumer. Within the flexitarian, there's a lot of different type of consumer with different type of needs and the needs are even evolving along, in fact, today. So pretty interesting.

            And the other finding that we had with that, when morals of the consumer are on the [inaudible 00:02:04] journey, less interest they have in mimicking, which really mean that it's a beginning flexitarian start by being I could say curious and replacing some of their foods with I will say mimicking type of product. But when they mature, they expect new type of eating experience. So really interesting. And the last survey that we did revealed that no more than 10% of European requests, in fact mimicking. So not, I will say so much. Really interesting.

Nicole Astra: Do you think that flexitarian or even the meat lover, do you think they're the audience for all the innovation in this industry?

Sonia Huppert: In fact the real, I could say meat lovers will be probably the hardest one to transfer into a plant-based diet. So the flexitarian who perhaps will now turn to call them could be the reducers are definitively, I will say a very good impact target for the industry in fact, today. Because they are more and more in fact consumers turning into this reducing impact type of diet and those are definitely the target.

Nicole Astra: I haven't heard it phrased that way, but you're right. It really is reducing the amount of meat intake. So I love the way you put that because that's our goal. What do you think are some of the barriers to getting people to try plant-based foods that seems so much easier than getting them to incorporate it into their diet? How do we cross over?

Sonia Huppert: Yeah. To cross over to this how to make this it's really worth investigating, what are they really looking for? And that's where, in fact, when you see that in this population, there's not more than 10% of those consumer that are interested in mimicking. We are really investigating how to create new things and how to go beyond mimicking. And that's what I will talk about at the show at the end of the month.

Nicole Astra: Yes. Future Food-Tech, who's known for their education and collaboration. You're going to be speaking there on plant-based Greenfield and moving beyond mimicking on September 30th. Tell us what we can expect.

Sonia Huppert: Yeah. So Design from Greenfield, I know that people are not always getting what we mean I could say with this, but when we talk about that, it's about exploring the territory beyond mimicking. Really is very open shield that could be explored between I will say 100% sure vegetable diet to basically a meat type in backup of diet. So really exploring that going. I would side zooms on I could see mimicking which again, as I have explained is not, or what most of the consumer are looking at. So it's really about, I could say leaving the [inaudible 00:05:16] the exactly same things as the animal product, but really going to transform the food and the beverage to create new taste and texture and just new, I will say eating occasion, eating experience that a lot of consumers are looking for.

            And what we're seeing also with that, and that's where there is in my view, a really nice link with health because when you go on the beyond mimicking when you start to design, you could put nutrition and health, as I could say, part of the design from the beginning instead of trying, I will say to improve afterwards. So it's also, I could say a really good opportunity on that one and in our view a way to make plant-based part of, I will say every day meal for the consumers.

Nicole Astra: So the consumer certainly drive all of this innovation. Do you think they're ready for something different? How long do you think we're going to be on this meat analog trend?

Sonia Huppert: Yeah. So the meat analog trend I wasn't welcome to me. I think there's two questions on what you are seeing in back here. How the consumer will go to just beyond mimicking what we're seeing is that the mimicking is happening then. They start by going to the mimicking product so it seems to me, I would say the first step for them to enter into a more plant-based diet. But then they will go continue to have these mimicking products of course and they leave this phase for those mimicking for a lot of different occasion and a lot of different product. Because again, we need to remember that when we talk about flexitarian or the reducers, we're talking about people with different needs and again different needs a long debate. So there's really space for all of that.

            It's simple that if we do own mimicking we will not capture the entire mass market. So going into beyond mimicking will help moving into more mass market consumers, but also go into offering the variety of the consumer are looking for and ensuring they could have plant-based choices for basically every time. Every time they want to eat something, they could have a choice, you know. And having the choice of mimicking or having a choice of really testing something very different and going back into it. Because I think what I haven't talked also about is in that what is, and that also what I will elaborate at the end of the month in my speech, but it's how to make consumer come back in fact to those product. And for that, they really need to love the food that they are finding and that's really a goal in fact, for the industry. Getting really consumer really craving for those new type of product.

Nicole Astra: And that's what excites me because there are so many alternative proteins out there. Some of them sustainably sourced, so nutritious, but they look so different from what's on our plate right now. How far into the future do you think we need to go until our plates really do look different?

Sonia Huppert: It will effectively take time because it's a matter I would say of cultures and also adoption from the consumers, but with agency that we're having on the sustainability part and the conscious that is more and more important from the younger generation, you could expect these to come probably much more quickly than what we could think of. As you can see definitely these trend really well-supported by the younger generation. And this is a big opening, and it's also where it's very important to open beyond mimicking because those new consumers are really looking for basically creativity, variety in the food that they eat. So really important to cover all the different [inaudible 00:10:00] occasion with different types of product.

Nicole Astra: Well, I will be tuning in to learn more about this. If you'd like to hear more from Sonia, please tune in to the Future Food-Tech Conference, September 30th. Thank you so much for joining us.

Sonia Huppert: Thanks a lot.