LSN : News : Diageo’s lab puts sustainability in the spotlight

Dutch Design Week 2019: an algorithm that caters for your health

Chef versus Watson by Eatelier

Chef versus Watson by The Eatelier.

Chef versus Watson by Eatelier

Eindhoven – Presented at Dutch Design Week 2019, Eatelier adopts an analogue algorithm to give consumers a healthier taste of the future.

Utilising IBM Watson's artificial intelligence (AI), Eatelier reveals the underlying connections between ingredients and a future of personalised and preventative healthcare. At Eatelier's Tastebar, visitors pick a preferred flavour combination and ideal health need such as Smart Brain, Healthy Gut or More Energy. The analogue algorithm then comes up with an ingredient combination for an amuse bouche that is placed on the hand as a quick, health-oriented snack. By implementing the theory of food pairing, Eatelier ensures that the paired ingredients also enhance the eating experience.

With increasing demand for food to be highly customised while supporting health needs, an AI driven approach can make this process more efficient. For more on the evolution of products and services catering to consumers' quest for convenience, look out for our upcoming Food & Drink macro trend.

Global café culture meets urban farming

Snackbar, Dalston, photography by Anton Rodriguez

London – Food outlet Snackbar will bring high-tech indoor allotments to a permanent neighbourhood dining space.

Founded by Freddie Janssen, author of the book Pickled, the food concept has been roving London for over two years. Now, Snackbar is establishing a permanent space in partnership with urban growing hub Farm:Shop, offering multiple ‘mini-farm installations’. The space is aided by high-tech indoor allotments and an outdoor polytunnel to grow all of Snackbar's own vegetables, herbs and fungi.

The three-storey casual dining space also includes a fermentation room, chicken shed and dedicated co-working space for those who work in the food and drink industry. Merging flavours from the east and west, the menu varies from kimchi blue cheese toasties to coconut jam toast and miso chocolate chip cookies.

Snackbar is just one example of how the farm-to-table movement is evolving into a farm and table movement, as restaurants integrate farms to secure their supply chains. For more, read our macro trend Uprooted Diets.

Diageo’s lab puts sustainability in the spotlight

Scotland – Global drinks company Diageo is looking to craft a more considerate future for alcohol production with a new Research and Innovation Centre.

Described as a laboratory, it will house teams working on science, technology and innovation projects throughout its supply chains. The centre is part of Diageo’s ambition to safeguard the next 100 years of drinks production, with a key focus on grain-to-glass sustainability across distilling, maturation, packaging and logistics.

To ensure more considerate practices inside and out, Diageo has invested £100 million ($128m, €115m) into renewable energy facilities for the centre, supporting Scotland’s wider ambition to become a net-zero society.

‘We have exceptionally talented people and these new laboratories provide a great environment for them to do their best work,’ says David Cutter, global president for supply and procurement and chief sustainability officer at Diageo. ‘We are particularly excited about the opportunity to lead the next generation of research into sustainability throughout our supply chain for the future.’

Dive into Edible Incubators for more on how lab spaces are fostering collaboration and creativity for new product launches.

Diageo innovation & research centre, Scotland

Summary: Ibiza’s nightlife industry is a major polluter

According to figures from the Ibiza Preservation Foundation, the island holiday destination produced half a tonne of waste per person this year, which is 14% higher than the rest of Europe. Per person, Ibiza’s waste is also double the average amount produced in nearby mainland Spain.

Driven by a booming nightlife market, one of the major contributors to the island’s pollution problem is its unsustainable scale of tourism. In 2018 alone, more than four million people travelled to the island, placing a significant strain on its resources.

As we explore in our Eco Clubs micro trend, the nightlife industry is a significant polluter owing to plastic waste and energy consumption, but eco-conscious clubbers are inspiring venue owners and festivals to consider cleaner, more sustainable practices to protect the environment.