Friedrich Büse, amidori founder, is one of the keynote speakers at the 14th Plant-Based Foods summit Europe that will be held 2-4 October in Lille, France. Friedrich will present the talk: “Plant-Based Foods 3.0: Consumer Transparency with a Value Chain Approach“. In this interview, he shares his vision on the Protein Transition and the future of the plant-based foods market.
What prompted me to be one of the speakers at this summit? My principal motivation, one that years ago led me to end my professional career in the meat industry, is devoting my energy and expertise to the creation a truly future-oriented kind of food. This guiding principle still holds true today – Consumers need transparency when it comes to the food chain.
What is your sweet spot and personal interest in the transition based on your role or background?
Decades of working in the meat industry taught me that meat, milk, and egg production does an inordinate amount of damage to the environment, especially in comparison to the production of any other kind of food. Meat production is extremely inefficient and places such a strain on our available resources that the capacity to provide roughly nine billion people with both good food and a balanced diet will soon prove simply impossible. Another critical aspect of current production methods in the food industry is an unchecked increase in monocultures, along with their associate deleterious consequences. However, the million-dollar question is as follows: How do we want to live in the future, and what will we live on? Answering these questions is the driving force behind amidori.
We see this type of thinking in the increasingly large portion of the population that clamor for this future way of eating. Customers are attaching more and more importance to the quality of their chosen food products, which represents a shift towards greater quality of life. This is quality is, in turn, based on TRUST in the foods that we all stand for.
Who should be on board to achieve this moonshot?
The people! Our customers! Everyone! All of us in this industry are striving to realize an amazing idea: the preservation of our planet’s natural resources through delicious, plant-based food products. We do this for our own good and the good of our children. Trust is our greatest asset. Our product promise is also a value promise. We sow trust by making this promise transparent and traceable. This trust is the prerequisite for our own success and for the amazing idea of making the world a better place. What we are doing at amidori gains traction amongst our customers, is multiplied in the public sphere and – together with the efforts of like-minded people – helps keep the planet in balance.
Changing peoples’ eating habits does not happen overnight. And it only happens if people actually receive what they have chosen to purchase. Anyone who buys good plant-based food products is making a conscious, deliberate choice – and will make certain that they are given what they have been promised. If they can have an unassailable certainty about the quality of their foods, they will stick to their choice. Buying is akin to casting a vote. In this regard, good plant-based foods are but one plank in our campaign platform. People will make judgments, which is why they need transparency in the procurement chain.
amidori guarantees maximum transparency and the highest quality standards along every step of the production chain. amidori customers can thus rely not just on great taste, but also on the greatest level of safety when choosing their food. That’s because amidori offers all services from one source – from planting via cultivation to the production of plant proteins and the development, manufacture and marketing of these premium products. This is our approach: from field to fork. By the way, this value promise is no walk in the park, but is based on effort and worthwhile cost. Like everyone else, we get our electricity from the socket – but it’s electricity from a 100% renewable source. We use hydroelectricity at all our sites – and even in our own homes.
What is the specific position of your company in this market, in the food industry?
Only amidori can maintain this promise of sustainability because all amidori products are vegetarian, made from 100% local plants, and are born in the soil of Europe. Our products are based on plants such as sun peas, oats, sunflowers, lentils and others, which we grow using traditional mixed cropping – and not using monocultures. This is not only sensible, but also part of our promise. We don’t buy from wholesalers; amidori’s raw ingredients are produced by European farmers under contract, using a two- or three-field crop rotation system. We know pretty much everyone who grows our raw ingredients.
Our products do not make the journey to customers by ship or plane. We embrace a holistic value chain because that’s how we want it, because that’s what our customers expect. They have the right to see whether they are getting what they want. They need to know that our products are free of genetic modification, are produced without soy or palm oil, are free of artificial flavours, and that they are non-allergenic. Our products have a healthy, environmentally friendly, mindful, and fair footprint.
amidori set for itself the objective of creating genuine food for your body and soul and in doing so contributes to both better nutrition and healthier lifestyles. This objective relates not just to aspects such as taste and variety, but more genuinely to improved health, environmental protection, and animal well-being. amidori’s long-term goal with its high-protein food is to offer its customers better solutions in the shape of meat substitutes, snacks, and dairy alternatives while consequently setting new benchmarks in terms of quality and taste.
How do you see the plant-based food market growing?
If the products provide the right taste, ingredients, and nutritional value, then growth will be much quicker than many people think. Then will plant based foods become a part of our daily life.
About Friedrich Büse
amidori founder Friedrich Büse developed amidori together with the Wedel family and the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Technology and Packaging IVV. amidori is produced using a special process which Fraunhofer IVV has been researching since 2010 and which the Institute adapted to local raw ingredients such as peas. Development of suitable, and above all natural, seeds was preceded by a long, intensive cooperation with the Emsland Group on the cultivation of peas in different regions.
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About the 14th Plant-Based Foods Summit Europe, 2-4 Oct., Lille (FR)
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