New Nutrition Business Podcast

Humans don't want to eat technology. They prefer to eat real food. That's why the most successful strategy in the food industry, for the past 25 years, has been taking traditional foods and adapting them to the needs of modern consumers. One of the best examples is in Japan, where falling sales of tofu were reversed by a company figuring out how to reinvent tofu as a convenient and good-tasting snack for younger consumers. It's a strategy that also explains the success of Greek yoghurt, skyr, kefir and many others. This podcast sets out the success factors for reinventing a traditional food. 

Do you want to know how to create a successful healthier food product? Here are my favourite Seven Steps for Success, created as a result of our 20+ years of research, creating case studies and advising companies. Take these into account and you will be making a good start! Time: 20 minutes

The failure of the meat substitute business will be the must-read case study for the next decade. It shows what happens when companies make assumptions about consumers and their motivations instead of doing deep research and thinking. It shows what happens when products fail the taste test. And it shows what happens when you don't give anyone a compelling reason to buy your product. As the economic outlook darkens, the future isn't bright for this stumbling category.

Time: 11 minutes

A press release from Harvard stated that a new study had found that consuming meat increases your risk of diabetes. It was reproduced - almost word-for-word - by hundreds of media outlets within a few hours of its publication. Did the media follow up and report the tens of nutrition experts who raised question marks over the study? Not so much.

When the media slavishly reproduces a press release right after publication it tells you that the journalists haven't actually read the study or done any investigation. Research by New Nutrition Business found that's normal practice now in mainstream media, much of which exists to reproduce press releases. And that means they are often producing misinformation.

Time: 15 minutes

This podcast provides lessons you can use about innovation, new health benefits and reinventing a traditional food, told through the frame of three probiotic success stories. One is the story of how a trusted brand in Japan brought a sleep and anxiety benefit and created the most successful product launch - anywhere in the world - of the last 20 years. Two are from the US, where innovative and hard-working Turkish and Russian immigrants used tradition and technology to create something totally new for Americans.

Time: 25 minutes

Oatly's classic Silicon-valley inspired business model from 2012 is facing nemesis. Oatly aimed to get to $1 billion in sales. Unfortunately, in focusing on a big sales number the company seems to have forgotten that it's a good idea to make a profit now and again. In the first six months of 2023 each $1 of product it sold cost it $1.38 to make. With the oat milk business changing and the global economy facing tough times, it's hard to see when, if ever, Oatly can get to break-even.

Time: 20 minutes.

Billionaire investors, most of the media, and many environmental activists insist that we will soon all be eating cell-cultivated meat - a substance more commonly referred to as lab meat. Arguments are raging about the technology, its scalability, cost and regulation. But ultimately the decision about whether lab-meat succeeds lies solely in the hands of the consumer. And the evidence from real-world consumer behaviour isn't looking too good for the lab-meat promoters.

Time: 24 minutes.

The fantasies of investors have collided with the reality of the supermarket. We are witnessing the long, slow death of the plant-based meat alternatives category. It was the creation of billionaire investors who want to force a 'protein transition' in order to make another billion. In the US and UK sales are falling, despite the billions invested, because the finance bros never bothered to understand the technology or the consumer. 

Time: 26 mins.

Nuti-Score is a European front of pack labelling scheme which ranks the healthiness of foods on a scale from A (most healthy) to E (least healthy). It's backed by governments in Germany and France. But it's opposed in Italy and Greece. Why? Could it be because it ranks many traditional foods in the Mediterranean diet as D or E? Or could it be because it ranks whole milk (C) as less healthy than Coke Zero (B)? Nutri-Score is flawed. And the evidence suggests that it may not be of much - or any - benefit for public health. It may be the world’s best example of how public health experts’ greatest expertise appears to lie in undermining their own credibility.

We are witnessing what may be the biggest-ever failure in food industry history. The Silicon Valley idea that you can 'grow sales and profits will follow' has slammed into the reality of the food business. Plant-based meat substitute makers have made every strategy mistake in the How-to-Fail Handbook. Sales are falling. Most meat substitute makers are losing money. Products failed to meet consumer taste expectations. They couldn't even prove that they were 'more sustainable'. An echo chamber of investors, consultants and media pushed the idea that 20-ingredient substitutes would have us all ditching meat - and that plant meat companies would be worth billions. But reality turned out to be the opposite of what the billionaire investors thought would happen. Time: 23 minutes.