How Big Food is Taking on a World of Picky Eaters
2017-05-04 07:58:37
How can food industry giants keep up with customers chasing increasingly restrictive diets that excise GMOs, sodium, sugar, preservatives, artificial colors, and all sorts of other compounds that have long made it easier to make tasty treats on a wide (and affordable) scale?
Campbell Soup chief Denise Morrison and Tyson Foods CEO Tom Hayes tackled that thorny problem during a discussion at Fortune‘s second annual Brainstorm Health conference in San Diego on Tuesday. Simply put? The answer is to listen to consumers—but ultimately try to go where the science leads.
But it’s also a fact that food eaters (so, basically, everyone) are getting wary of putting chemicals that they can’t even pronounce into their bodies. And there are a whole lot of legitimate concerns about the amount of salt, sugar, and other substances that people regularly ingest because their choices are limited by the market.
Innovation will be key in the future of “Big Food.” Technology and evolving R&D present the most promising opportunities to meet consumers’ evolving demands (as does transparency about what’s in your food), according to Morrison and Hayes.
