COVID-19 and our food industry

What will be the influence of COVID-19 on our sustainable plant forward approach in our food industry and how can COVID-19 support us towards healthy bio-diverse diets to feed the world, also into the next few decades. Over the last decade we have been successfully increasing this approach and now we have to proceed this even faster, if we still want to be able to feed all humans on our planet safely in the decades to come.

COVID-19 has hit our planet hard, and we are still in the middle of this global crisis, but one thing is sure, our world will change drastically and without no doubt. With this, also the food and hospitality industry will have to change.

We should start developing these changes with the same sustainable and plant forward approach right now, so we can turn this crisis into a positive change for the industry, for producers and for suppliers. We now have a chance to increase heading forward into a direction of fresh, healthy and local, biodiverse and plant focused foods.

How can we do that?

The biggest effect from COVID-19 is that everybody on our planet is much more sensible about their personal safety and health, as maybe a few weeks ago and this could be the best opportunity for our industry to change from corporate processed food products with many unpronounceable ingredients towards more honest, local, biodiverse products, back to efficient food, food you can eat without having to think about it.

Many of us have already started this process of change, looking to all different social media platforms, millions of people are showcasing their homemade healthy and plant focused dishes and menus , made from scratch with regional and fresh ingredients and seeing how happy and proud all these people are with there achievements, this is where we have to convince them that this is the way forward.

Also Restaurateurs and entrepreneurs should grab this opportunity to rethink their businesses, their offerings, their suppliers and their ingredients and use the time of lockdown to come up with more innovative food concepts that can conquer this, to come back after this lockdown even bigger and better with safe and healthy food options.

Buffets and self service restaurants will have to rethink their approach drastically, then food safety will be their biggest issue after the COVID-19 crisis, cross contamination and multiple touch points from a majority of customers is a huge risk and with customers being much more aware of this, this challenge has to be tackled. Next to this also the demand for more qualified staff who know what they are doing, will grow extensively.

The use of PPE will also increase drastically and will become the new normal in our industry.

Even trends with authentic production styles of cultural foods like they were once implemented years and decades ago, from around the world as for example street food trends, will not be tolerated anymore if the safety is not guaranteed and transparently executed. Disposable gloves and face masks will become standard in many customer facing outlets.

And next to the safe production of food also the origin of the food will have a much bigger impact on customer decisions of what or where they will eat.

What will be the best strategy is not for me to call out, but I do believe that we should use this time of lockdown in the best possible way to rethink our business and to get ready for new success after COVID-19

Much has to change, so lets start changing now.