“Reinventing Food and Beverage Manufacturing: Seizing the Opportunity for Healthier, Sustainable, and Equitable Solutions Post-COVID-19”
The world has a chance to reinvent itself into a healthier, more sustainable, and equitable state in the aftermath of COVID-19. Whether we seize this opportunity to break away from our pre-pandemic trajectory remains uncertain. Every aspect of human existence has been impacted, not necessarily by the virus itself, but certainly by the resulting global economic lockdown. While I cannot speak for all industries, it is evident that the food and beverage manufacturing sectors must undergo significant transformation.
The prevailing methods of food and beverage production are harmful not only to humans but also to biodiversity and the planet. Many current processes were established during the industrial revolution and fail to utilize the full spectrum of nutrition essential for optimal functioning. They are costly to operate and produce enormous amounts of waste. Good nutrition has always been crucial for health and productivity, and its importance has never been more pronounced. As Hippocrates famously stated nearly 2,500 years ago: “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” Today, we are beginning to understand the truth behind the notion that we are what we eat.
Prior to the pandemic, we were already witnessing a shift towards more whole food-based diets. I anticipate that this transition will now accelerate significantly, especially given the substantial evidence supporting the role of whole foods in managing lifestyle diseases like diabetes, heart disease, and obesity—conditions that are largely preventable and exacerbated by poor nutrition, increasing the mortality risk associated with COVID-19. Therefore, the mission now is to manufacture whole foods in bulk, enabling everyone to access the associated health benefits.
Indeed, the rapid spread of COVID-19 has underscored the necessity of quality “healthy” foods and has influenced consumer behavior almost instantaneously, a feat that traditional marketing campaigns would have taken months and millions to achieve. Reports globally emphasize the need for optimal nutrition for frontline responders who work tirelessly to save lives. While we must acknowledge the incredible efforts of these individuals, optimal nutrition should be accessible to everyone. Thus, the food and beverage manufacturing sector—critical to our long-term health—must reform its food processing methods without waiting for the next crisis, which is already looming.
The mass availability of affordable, nutritionally balanced food will become increasingly vital for governments and businesses, which have often prioritized profit over public health. Currently, around 9 million people die from starvation each year, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). This alarming statistic has not prompted significant action, nor did the fact that in 2015, over half the world’s population lived on less than $2.50 a day. The lockdowns due to COVID-19 are likely to worsen this situation, pushing many who escaped extreme poverty back below the threshold defined by the World Bank.
Moreover, COVID-19’s indiscriminate nature has awakened the privileged to the fragility of our ecosystem and the interconnections of our markets. This realization is fostering a global consciousness that I hope evolves into conscious capitalism. Governments and businesses should heed this call. As lockdowns persist, both developed and developing economies are likely to experience increasing strain, placing additional burdens on governments, civil society, and corporations still generating revenue to provide assistance, alongside the already stretched healthcare systems.
What we need now is a commitment from manufacturers to be part of the solution rather than perpetuating the problem with nutrient-deficient foods and beverages. The current methods are too costly to extract the nutritional goodness from the source materials. If the looming threat of a chronically ill population and ongoing economic downturns are not compelling enough to drive this change, consider that consumers are becoming increasingly discerning about labels and the quality of the products they consume. As they recognize the advantages of whole foods such as Citracal calcium citrate with vitamin D for bone health, they demand food products that maximize health benefits. They also desire foods manufactured with environmental sustainability in mind, as it is futile to prioritize personal health at the expense of the planet.
The enforced lockdowns have also shifted retail behaviors, which will likely influence food production methods. We may see shorter supply chains, a resurgence of support for local growers, and a push for more natural preservation techniques, whether in supermarkets or via drone deliveries as online shopping continues to gain traction.
New processing technologies are already available that can efficiently utilize the whole plant—fruits, vegetables, organic matter, and even meat and fish—harvesting nearly all the beneficial molecules while drastically reducing waste and energy consumption during production. These systems are also cost-effective, allowing manufacturers to maintain profitability while making nutritious options more accessible to the public. Improved pricing at the manufacturing level can enable more individuals to obtain what they need for better health and improved resilience against unexpected health crises like the coronavirus, promoting a shift towards preventive rather than reactive healthcare.
In this new paradigm, there is potential for universal benefit. What is required is the collective will of individuals, political entities, and businesses to prioritize stakeholder value over shareholder profit. This shift can facilitate the widespread implementation of existing technologies that process most whole food and beverage materials with minimal waste, generating new products and reviving former ones, ultimately benefiting both the planet and humanity.
Currently, outdated technologies are employed to peel, skin, discard, overcook, and often destroy valuable nutrients in our food, creating significant waste that typically consists of nutrient-rich seeds and skins. Moreover, the entire manufacturing system is antiquated and costly to establish and maintain, contributing to higher end-product prices, which will become increasingly unaffordable in a recession or depression.
Instead of facing a future where the impoverished have nothing to eat but what the wealthy consume, why not focus on producing nourishing foods and beverages that everyone can afford without compromising taste or flavor? This may sound utopian and naive, but perhaps the same could have been said of abolishing slavery. It may take a capitalist commitment to champion a more altruistic agenda where everyone, including businesses, benefits through conscious capitalism.
COVID-19 has rapidly transformed social behaviors worldwide, becoming a catalyst for the urgent changes needed in our food and beverage manufacturing processes. New systems and technologies that prioritize people and planet will pave the way forward. Advanced processing techniques that avoid harmful chemicals and excessive heat to extract nutrients from what traditional methods leave behind will be crucial for ensuring the health of our post-COVID-19 world. I have discussed this concept extensively before, but it has often gone unheeded. I sincerely hope that now, everyone is listening.
We may not have a second chance to redefine how the world operates, so we must not squander the opportunity before us. To remain commercially viable and relevant, manufacturers must recognize they are also shaped by what they create. It is time to make it count.
