Looking at the scope
FiE. Credit: Suzanne Christiansen
At Food Ingredients Europe, the talk was of beans. Fava beans, to be specific. As an allotmenteer, I am devoted to them as an overwintering crop. They are also known as broad beans and are good for a nitrogen fix, can be frozen and also go so very nicely with a bit of feta cheese and mint. In fact, we usually gobble them before they ever get to the freezer.
At FiE, they are the bean of choice right now, with a reasonably pleasant taste and properties conducive to processing. There is also a push towards using citrus fibres, which is upcycled from the juice waste stream. Look out for a citrus fibre-bean product near you.
As the good people from Roquette mentioned, dairy companies are now going to suppliers, with another trend – the further reduction of emissions. As per the Carbon Trust, there are three scopes of importance: “Scope 1 covers direct emissions from owned or controlled sources. Scope 2 covers indirect emissions from the purchase and use of electricity, steam, heating and cooling. By using the energy, an organisation is indirectly responsible for the release of these GHG emissions. Scope 3 includes all other indirect emissions that occur in the upstream and downstream activities of an organisation.”
As suppliers to the dairy industry, most ingredients suppliers as those found at FiE, were busy talking about their Scope 3 emissions, and what measures they have in place to discuss with the customers. In a way, there is a Venn diagram of scopes, and where they meet is what needs to be detailed, between the supplier, the farmer, the processor, and then there is the consumer. Overall, there are a lot of plates to keep balanced, as we discovered at FiE.
It was a very busy day at the show (our trip was truncated due to the dismal weather at London City and Frankfurt airport restrictions), so if I didn’t manage to get to your stand, please feel free to contact me, as I am still collating information from it for the next issue. Thanks.
