The Idealog guide to food innovation

If you’re thinking about exporting to China, there’s no room for guesswork. New Zealand Trade and
Enterprise can give you the tips and tools you need to move your business into this market; from
country overviews and language and culture, to sales and marketing suggestions. That way, you’ll
know that the executive you’re dealing with hasn’t left for an impromptu holiday, he’s just waiting
for the right time to make his decision.
Visit www.nzte.govt.nz/answershere or call us on 0800 555 888.
Get the answers here. Succeed over there.
IN CHINA,
A BUSINESS EXECUTIVE
MAY CONSULT THE
STARS, OR WAIT
FOR A ‘LUCKY’ DAY
BEFORE MAKING
A DECISION.
TRUE FALSE
T&E0028/B

The figures indicate that New Zealand has
the ingredients to be a worthy contender
on the global food export market. So
what, exactly, constitutes the winning
recipe, and what are the challenges we
face as a minority?
TEXT ANDY KENWORTHY
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
The
Idealog
guide to
INNOVATION
Food
PHOTOGRAPHROBINHODGKINSON,COURTESYOFTHEFOODBOWL

Contents
TheIdealogguideto
Food innovation
Chapterone
Basic
ingredients
82
Chaptertwo
The
challenge
Chapterthree
The utensils
94
111Chapter
fiveThe
special
sauce
98
Chapterfour
Experimenting
withtherecipe
Digestif
Final
thoughts
104
88
80/IDEALOG.CO.NZ

AJParkisaboutiP•intellectualproperty•ignitingpassion•ideaspervading•innovationprotected•integratedprocesses•intelligentpeople•increasingpotential
iP is about ideas prospering
Kiwis are innovators, bringing fresh ideas to each day.
Since Rutherford discovered the proton, our scientists
have been at the forefront of world-class innovations.
Whether it’s the disposable syringe, The Hamilton
Jet, or the Bungy, we Kiwis have continued to use our
ideas and technologies to change the way we live.
At AJ Park we work with you to find the right IP
solutions, giving you the confidence that your
innovation is protected.
We delve into your inventions’ DNA, right down
to the last atom, to understand the best IP
strategy for you.
With a team that includes scientists, engineers,
IT experts, patent attorneys and lawyers, you get
the best advice that spans over 120 years.
For clear concise and jargon-free IP advice,
talk to our team.
0800 257 275 I www.ajpark.com
New Zealand + Australia
AJP10315_IM

New Zealand does good food. We all know that.
But can we sell enough of it to claw our way up the
OECD affluence tables and get ahead of a rapidly
accelerating pack of competitors?
CHAPTER ONE
Basic ingredients
82/IDEALOG.CO.NZ
IDEALOG GUIDE TO FOOD INNOVATION
PHOTOGRAPHYROBINHODGKINSON,COURTESYOFTHEFOODBOWL

MAY-JUNE 2013/IDEALOG /83
T
o know where New Zealand’s food and
beverage sector might be headed, and
what opportunities there might be for
you, it’s important to know where we are at
right now.
New Zealand has a worldwide reputation for
having the right blend of climate, technological
sophistication and laws to give it the potential
to be a world player in the food and beverage
markets. And offshore we have the world’s
fifth largest exclusive economic zone (EEZ),
covering roughly 430 million hectares of ocean
full of seafood (that’s about 15 times the size of
our land mass).
Lisa Barrett, General Manager of Tourism,
Sectors, Cities and Regions at the Ministry of
Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE),
says: “Food has been New Zealand’s major
export for 120 years. Contrary to what many
might think, the nature of the products we
export has changed significantly in that time.
“Before the freezer ship we exported grains
and pulses. By the 1940s it was butter, lamb
and cheese. Today it’s milk powder, butter,
lamb, beef, cheese, apples, kiwifruit, seafood,
wine, and beef – with grains and pulses making
a bit of a comeback and processed foods
growing fast.”
Anton Gibson is a partner at intellectual
property company AJ Park and heads up its
Auckland office’s life sciences patent practice.
“What I think is exciting in the food space is
that New Zealand still has such a competitive
advantage in being able to produce more than
it eats in a way where you can trust the quality,
and we are skilled at wrapping that up in
appealing ways and getting it out of the
country,” he says.
Meanwhile, big players such as Asahi and
Kirin from Asia, Coca-Cola from Australia,
Unilever, Cadbury, Nestlé, Heineken and
Danone from Europe as well as US giants such
as Heinz, McCain, Mars and Bacardi, have all
come to invest in the New Zealand food and
beverage sector.
This, along with rapidly accelerating local
food and beverage production in New
Zealand’s key target markets is creating an
atmosphere of almost feverish competition.
Clearly, nobody sane now believes it is okay
to just stick to farming and hope nobody else
works out how to cultivate cows and sheep.
We have to continue to innovate in the way we
produce, distribute and sell the New Zealand
goodness both at home and abroad.
Michael Crampin, group head of creative
strategy at strategic design practice
Designworks, believes we are living through
a food revolution where this sector is more
front-of-mind than ever before.
“It has become the cult of food and
beverage,” he says. “Whether it is Jamie Oliver,
Masterchef or the general trend of consumers
really needing to know who is behind the
brands, where the product comes from and
why they should love it.”
Read on to find out how we get the right
answers to that question.
Infant formula Confectionery Frozen meals
and sides
Pet food Wine
‘The nature of the
products we export
has changed
significantly. Before
the freezer ship we
exported grains and
pulses. Today it’s milk
powder, butter, lamb,
beef, cheese, apples,
kiwifruit, seafood,
wine and beef – with
grains and pulses
making a comeback
and processed foods
growing fast’
LISA BARRETT
According to research firm Coriolis
the following sub-sectors of the
New Zealand food and beverage
market could hit the US$1 billion
mark by 2025:
Billion-dollar expansion bids

84/IDEALOG.CO.NZ
BIGGER HELPINGS FOR THE NZ
FOOD AND BEVERAGE MARKET
Research firm Coriolis reckons New Zealand’s blend of
temperate climate, stable democracy and economic freedom
mean the country is well-positioned to triple its food and
beverage exports over the next 15 years.
In 2010, food and beverage made up just over half of
New Zealand’s total exports, with a value of US$17 billion.
MBIE now estimates that processed foods make up about
$2.2 billion of those exports each year.
According to the Ministry, infant formula sales have increased
from around $20 million in 2003 to close to $750 million today.
Food and beverage exports have trebled in the past 17 years
and now make up more than 10 percent of our GDP.
The food and beverage sector grew by seven percent between
1995 and 2010, vastly outstripping our European competitors.
-$5.0
$-
$5.0
$10.0
$15.0
-$5.0
$-
$5.0
$10.0
$15.0
1965
1966
1967
1968
1969
1970
1971
1972
1973
1974
1975
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
Exports
Imports
Net trade
balance
New Zealand has
a strong and
growing trade
surplus in food
and beverage
US$b
New Zealand F&B trade value: exports versus imports
SOURCEUNCOMTRADEDATABASE(CUSTOMJOB);CORIOLISANALYSIS,
COURTESYOFTHEMINISTRYOFBUSINESS,INNOVATIONANDEMPLOYMENT
PHOTOGRAPHPHOTONEWZEALAND/TERRYHANN

DESIGNWORKS
www.designworks.co.nz
DESIGNED
FROM
THE
SOURCE
AIR NEW ZEALAND
DB BREWERIES
FIRST LIGHT
FONTERRA
KIWIBANK
MONTEITH’S
NATURE BABY
NEW ZEALAND DANCE COMPANY
SILERE
SILVER FERN FARMS
Taking Our Stories
To The World For
Over 35 Years

IDEALOG IN ASS OCIATION WITH FONTERRA
C
heese and butter exports
to the UK were the high
value incarnations of milk
in the first half of last century, but
since then innovation at Fonterra
has seen the white gold hit new
markets by being spun into truly
high value products – with names
such as milk protein concentrates
and whey protein isolates,
hydrolysates, dairy complex
lipids and probiotics.
“Fonterra is well recognised
as one of the leading innovators
in the world, both in dairy
ingredients and finished product,”
says managing director of Fonterra
Nutrition, Sarah Kennedy.
One key to its success is that
it works on an ‘open innovation
platform’ over the areas of
paediatrics, everyday nutrition,
mobility, food service and its
pre-factory gate research,
working with a number of
institutions in New Zealand and
around the world.
“New product development is
directly linked to our business units,
which feed in insights gathered
from different regions around the
world, to make sure products and
ingredients are developed for local
market requirements.”
Research at Fonterra is a
combination of blue sky science
and product design. Down at
the Fonterra Research &
Development Centre (FRDC)
in Palmerston North, they’re
Refreshing milk
Since 1945, per capita milk consumption has steadily fallen across the
Western world, and is now well below pre-war levels. In response,
diversifying milk and developing emerging markets for ‘the white
stuff’ has become one of Fonterra’s main strategic objectives
currently excited about ‘C21’,
shorthand for ‘Cheese of the
21st Century’, an advanced
technology that has so far created
a mozzarella for use on pizza
whose process takes only one
day to transform fresh milk
to a frozen, shredded, cheesy
packaged product. That’s pretty
speedy considering the traditional
grated mozzarella-making
process requires months of cheese
maturation, freezing, thawing,
shredding and packing.
Another FRDC buzzword is
hydrolysates. Handy in the food
and beverage, medical nutrition,
sports nutrition, and infant
nutrition areas, hydrolysates help
with faster digestion of protein –
particularly important in sports
recovery and for hospital patients
– and help prevent dairy protein
allergy issues in infants.
Hydrolysing is really just
snipping up proteins under
specific conditions using special
enzymes, so that they are
effectively pre-digested, but
it’s quite difficult to do it in a
way that conserves both the
flavour and the functionality. And
Fonterra’s scientists are rather
good at it.
But some of the company’s
innovations have been to take an
existing product and improve it
beyond recognition. Scientists
in Europe originally came up
with Milk Protein Concentrates
(MPCs) in the 1970s. MPCs
are mostly whey and casein,
the elements left over after the
moisture, fat and most of the
lactose and minerals have been
extracted from milk.
MPCs were originally added
to cheese to bulk it up, but
sometimes they didn’t dissolve
and resulted in hard nuggets.
But Fonterra had dairy protein
magician Vijay Ganugapati, who
was instrumental in transforming
the structure and functionality
of MPCs. The IP he developed
involves transforming the mineral
environment of the MPC, while
maintaining the nutritional value.
This enables the MPCs to be
dissolved (a feat previously not
possible) and even survive the
UHT process.
Now Fonterra’s functional
MPCs are exported to the globe,
added to a myriad of products in
many markets and are responsible
for an array of benefits including
improving flavour and texture in
dairy products and creating high-
protein beverages.
More recently, Fonterra’s
scientists have reworked whey
protein (which is packed with
branched chain amino acids,
beneficial in building muscle)
so it can be added to acidic
sports drinks without destablising
TEXTSKYEWISHART

IDEALOG.CO.NZ/BUSINESSPLAN
ADV2013
structure design, human
nutrition, advanced processing
and control, analytical
measurement technology, animal
nutrition and health and other
farming technology) and with
these cohorts, along with a host
of commercialisation directors
and business partners, it’s hoped
that Fonterra’s innovations will
Fonterra Nutrition managing
director Sarah Kennedy.and turning the drink cloudy.
They can also pack more
concentrated whey protein into
UHT beverages than has ever
been pulled off before.
“Protein is one of the absolute
emerging trends,” says Sarah
Kennedy. “There’s a need for
higher-quality protein across
all age groups with differing
requirements, whether it’s
in ageing, general growth
and development, muscle
maintenance, satiation and so
on. It certainly is an elixir with
untapped potential.”
To make sure it’s not innovating
up the wrong tree, Fonterra
makes sure it’s actively engaged in
consumer surveys to gain insights
about product development and
its subsequent marketing.
Surveys have covered topics
such as the US sports nutrition
market (a leader in a global
market that has been increasing
8-9 per cent every year for
the past 15 years), discovering
most mass-market consumers
– the root of the growth – need
education on the exact role of
protein to get them buying the
good quality stuff.
They’ve also covered ‘Healthy
Agers’ in seven markets around
the world, who love the benefits
of dairy protein, but are fussy
about the format it’s delivered in,
pointing to the sort of products
Fonterra scientists should be
looking to design.
Infant formula, particularly
for the Asian markets, is a huge
area of research at Fonterra, in
the quest to deliver nutritional
benefits that are closer to those
of mother’s milk and its wealth of
complex nutrients.
Probiotics, or bacteria that
confer health benefits, is one such
area of research forging ahead
at Fonterra, both in product
development and clinical trials.
There are more than 300
scientists at the FRDC tackling
research in its science and
technology programmes (food
continue to crack markets around
the globe and push New Zealand
milk as far as it can go.
“Some of our researchers
are leading in the world,”
says Kennedy. “It really is
extraordinary, some of the
work that is going on – it’s
cutting-edge, and is helping set
our road map for the future.”
IN BRIEF
Fonterra is a co-operative owned,
integrated dairy business with
a diverse range of R&D,
manufacturing, distribution and
marketing activities. Of the
billions of litres of New Zealand
milk supplied by farmer
shareholders every year, around
98 percent is processed and
exported around the world as
everyday dairy nutrition
(typically whole milk powder or
skim milk powder) or innovative
advanced nutrition products.
The Fonterra Research
& Development Centre in
Palmerston North is the world’s
largest dairy research centre and
boasts a long history of world
firsts in dairy technology,
research and product
development.
CONTACT
To find out more, visit
www.fonterra.com
The Fonterra Research and Development Centre in
Palmerston North is a hive of activity with more than
300 scientists working on blue skies research, new
technology and product development.

Every good food show needs a challenge
and New Zealand is no exception. The old
tyranny of distance issue we hear so much
about is particularly relevant when you’re
trying to get something to people a long
way away that’s in a fit state to eat
The challenge
CHAPTER TWO
88/IDEALOG.CO.NZ

T
his has spurred some of our greatest
food innovations – perfecting the art of
freezing and packaging meat products
and becoming a lead player in selling powdered
milk to the world.
As Anton Gibson explains: “Our biggest
challenge has always been that we face having
to ship lots of air and water a long way to get
our products to market, so we have become
very good at removing that air or that water.
Examples are the way we process our milk,
pack our products and adapt these for specific
market requirements. Another issue for some
products is maintaining freshness for a long
way, and there too we have overcome
challenges with technology – in both the fresh
and frozen space, for a variety of products.”
But there are still limits, especially the fact
that we don’t have a handy few hundred
million people on our doorstep to sell to, as
many of our European competitors do. Even
the Australian market is seen as a tricky
customer with the stranglehold of two major
supermarket chains calling the shots on price
and quality of any food or drink that wants to
sell in big numbers.
The strength of the big retail chains is also a
major barrier in many other markets, and not
only because big buyers like Tesco wield such
influence on the basic metrics – they can also
effectively de-brand food heading into their
system, reducing the differentiation so that we
are all just competing on the basic metrics.
“With some products, we have competed so
long on price that even though we are
delivering a very high-quality product, the
value is being gained by the end seller, not the
New Zealand producer,” Gibson explains.
In this eco-conscious and climate-aware age
the distance challenge has also taken on the
new form of food miles, a concept that has
been used to batter our primary industries
since the middle of the past decade. Basically a
measure of how far your lunch is from where it
was originally frolicking or growing outdoors,
it has been extrapolated out as a rough measure
of how much environmental damage your
meal has caused. New Zealand responded to the
initial challenge with comprehensive Lincoln
University research showing that the relatively
eco-friendly way in which much New Zealand
food is grown made the picture much more
complex. But the challenge remains, since
ordinary shoppers don’t read academic research
– they look at labels, as we shall see.
The perception of remoteness can be a factor
of culture as much as geography. Consider for
a moment the ludicrousness of sending more
than 84 percent of our exports from 1910 all
the way back to ‘The Motherland’ on the other
side of the planet. Did we really imagine
that nobody between those two points would
be interested?
Of course, that situation has radically
changed. Today, the UK takes only four percent
of our exports, with ever-increasing amounts
going to China, Southeast Asia and India,
while sub-Saharan Africa has also developed
a growing appetite for our dairy products.
But despite the dedicated work of New
Zealand Trade and Enterprise, along with
large-scale pioneers like Fonterra, the average
New Zealand food and beverage firm still
struggles to have their produce distributed and
sold in the major growth markets. As in all
sectors, this can come down to a lack of
understanding for the different business
‘With some products, we
have competed so long on
price that even though we are
delivering a very high-quality
product, the value is being
gained by the end seller, not
the New Zealand producer’
ANTON GIBSON
PHOTOGRAPHPHOTONEWZEALAND/ALEXWALLACE

In order for products to
be successful in major
growth markets, they
have to be adapted to
suit local tastes.
90/IDEALOG.CO.NZ
cultures at work. But in the food and beverage
sector this can be compounded by the trials of
navigating the various food regulation systems.
Perhaps most importantly, it can also come
down to the challenge of understanding what
consumers in this market like to eat, and how
they like to eat it.
Richard Templer, acting general manager,
science engineering and technology delivery
at Callaghan Innovation, says: “People often
underestimate the complexity of going into
a market like China. I think the challenge for
New Zealanders going there is that you are
talking about a market that is far bigger than
virtually any of the other markets you are
involved with, and it is not homogenous. There
are highly sophisticated urban areas and quite
under-developed rural areas, for example. The
fact that the infant formula market has proved
challenging for an organisation with the scale
and sophistication of Fonterra suggests it is not
an area where you can just charge in.”
Templer is also concerned that the money to
enter such markets is still hard to come by.
“One of the real challenges facing New
Zealand is capital availability. This is affecting
everybody from startups to large established
companies. Finding people who are ready to
invest in innovation and research rather than
just bricks and mortar is a real challenge for
New Zealand. I think it is starting to improve
but in the midst of the global financial crisis it
was very hard even for established companies
to get any kind of funding.”
Jef Wong, group head of design at strategic
design practice Designworks, takes that point,
but he believes the only real limitations are
those we might place on ourselves.
“I don’t think there is any barrier, in that the
brands we create in New Zealand are world-
class,” he says. “The barrier is simply finding
people with the vision to do it.”
‘I don’t think there is any
barrier, in that the brands we
create in New Zealand are
world-class. The barrier
is simply finding people
with the vision to do it’
JEF WONG
PHOTOGRAPHOFJEFWONGKAANHIINI

Europe
11%
United Kingdom
5%
Russia
1%
USA
10%
Canada
2%
Mexico
1%
Australia
11%
Pacific Islands
2%
Japan
7%
China
11%
Hong Kong
2%
South Korea
2%
Taiwan
3%
SE Asia
14%
Saudi Arabia
2%
UAE
1%
Other
NA/ME/CA
6%
Venezuela
2%
Other
7%
Europe & Russia
17%
North America
13%
Asia
39%
Total = US$16.7b
Oceania
13%
North Africa
Middle East
Central Asia
17%
Aggregate annual food & beverage export value by key markets
New Zealand
exports F&B to a wide
range of destinations.
Interestingly, Australia now
takes twice as much as the
United Kingdom and Asia is
worth around 33 percent
more than Europe, Russia
and North America
combined.

IDEALOG IN ASS OCIATION WITH CALLAGHAN INNOVATION
Meating
the needRefrigeration revolutionised our meat and
dairy industries a century ago. Now, new Kiwi
technology is set to shake things up again
manager Vaughan Whyte says the
system provides a process for
delivering chilled beef, lamb, pork
and chicken from the producer
to the supermarket shelf with
reduced packaging, handling and
transport costs and improved
safety and food quality, as well
as assured traceability.
The Auckland processing
facilities, set up to service
Progressive Enterprises’ North
(L-R) Julian Beavis, CEO, FoodCap; Erin
Wansborough, regional manager, Callaghan
Innovation; Vaughan Whyte, sales and
marketing manager, FoodCap.
F
oodcap International’s
work has been called
unique, exciting and
revolutionary. The company
designs and develops capsulated
food supply chain systems and
technologies that dramatically
change the dynamics of storing
and transporting temperature-
sensitive, short shelf-life products
such as meat.
Foodcap sales and marketing

Island supermarkets, contain the
type of automation you’d find in
a car assembly plant. Robots,
conveyor belts and cranes help
reduce human contact with the
meat and improve consistency
and safety.
“There’s really no other meat
processing facility in the world
like it in terms of the level of
automation and the way it’s
designed,” says Whyte. “The
footprint is half that of equivalent
meat processing plants and the
labour requirement is 40-50
percent less. We’ve eliminated all
the packaging that’s typically used.”
To help continue its R&D
programme, Foodcap applied
for funding through the former
Ministry of Science and
Innovation – a project now
administered by Callaghan
Innovation – and received an
initial grant of $248,000.
Callaghan Innovation
investment manager Simon Smart
says Foodcap has a technology
that could revolutionise the
entire fresh chilled primal meat
handling steps in both the domestic
and export supply chains.
“This investment ticks all the
boxes for us – the potential for the
company itself to grow
significantly, a huge spill-over for
the meat industry, and also even
the dairy industry. It’s a really
novel New Zealand technology
and there are huge opportunities.
The first step is to develop the
technology further, and we’re
helping fund it to the next stage.”
With input from Callaghan
Innovation, Foodcap has defined a
four-year R&D programme. The
first step means making significant
changes and improvements to its
existing technology in order to
develop a new capsule prototype
for the export market.
“This project is to redevelop the
technology so it’s more robust and
can be easily and cost-effectively
integrated into an existing meat
plant without redesigning the
entire plant,” explains Whyte.
“It’ll be a very modular system
that can be plugged into an
existing system and be used to
either transport meat from a
slaughter plant to a secondary
processing plant, within a meat
plant to reduce the single-use
packaging, or to export fresh
chilled meat internationally.”
While it hopes to obtain more
R&D funding in the future, Whyte
says it’s not just the financial
assistance that’s been valuable.
ADV2013
“Working with Simon and
Callaghan Innovation has brought
many benefits,” Whyte says.
“They’ve introduced us to
a network of new companies
with specialised or unique
technologies, skills and science.
“We have a large R&D team that
includes many external parties,
but we’d reached a place where
none of them had the specific
knowledge or technologies we
needed. Simon put us in touch
with a group that can help us,
which is really valuable.”
Smart says that’s typical of the
work Callaghan Innovation does
with companies.
“It’s not just about giving them
money, but also connecting them
with consultants, R&D providers,
IN BRIEF
Formed in February 2013,
Callaghan Innovation is a
stand-alone Crown Entity that
works to drive innovation and
commercialisation of New Zealand
products and services by providing
both funding and advice for
research and development.
Callaghan Innovation’s advice and
funding is helping Foodcap
International develop and refine its
unique meat processing and
packing technology that could
revolutionise our meat and dairy
export industries.
CONTACT
For more information, contact
Callaghan Innovation,
0800 422 552,
www.callaghaninnovation.govt.nz
TEXTDEIRDRECOLEMANPHOTOGRAPHYROBINHODGKINSON
CUTTING-EDGE COLLABORATION
Robots are set to take over some of the more specialised and labour-
intensive processing jobs, providing significant productivity gains for our
all-important lamb export industry. Ovine Automation Ltd (OAL), a
research consortium of meat industry companies and various technology
providers, was formed in 2009. OAL brings together nine industry
shareholders, with MIRINZ Inc (jointly owned by the MIA and
Beef+Lamb) providing initial funding and co-funding from the Ministry
of Business, Innovation and Employment.
A further R&D grant has helped develop and commercialise
technologies such as automated evisceration, brisket cutting, Y-cutting
and gas de-pelting systems, to help streamline slaughter-board production.
The science, engineering and technology-delivery group of Callaghan
Innovation has been providing expertise and advice to push these
developments along. Callaghan Innovation sector manager Geoff Bates
says OAL is an excellent example of key players collaborating to achieve
real gains for the industry as a whole.
“This project works because there’s so much industry involvement and
buy-in,” says Bates. “One of the challenges of bringing science into the
real world is getting all parties to work together. It takes a lot of desire on
everyone’s part to make it happen. Our role is to facilitate that process.”
Richard McColl from OAL says the consortium has set a precedent
and provided a step change for the industry.
“Other countries have spent a lot of money on automation in the pork
and poultry industries, but what we’re doing for the New Zealand ovine
industry is unique in the world,” says McColl. “The work we’ve done with
the science, engineering and technology-delivery group of Callaghan
Innovation, Geoff Bates and the team has been excellent. They’ve
advanced a lot of the ideas we’re now bringing into commercialisation,
and in my view, providing the business case supports it, the industry will
take up this technology.”
and other investors or customers.
We try to point them in the right
direction if they have a need.”
The grant application process
was also useful for Foodcap in
terms of its strategic planning.
“Completing the application
helped to clarify our thinking
around prioritising our R&D
programme. The monthly
reporting process also makes us
analyse what we’ve achieved, and
what we’ll be working on next.”
Those next steps could be
meeting international demand.
Foodcap has had significant
interest from Walmart about
transforming the multinational’s
meat operations in several
countries, and inquiries from
the UK and Ireland.

The scale and competitiveness of the
food and beverage market means that
innovators and entrepreneurs with an idea
to commercialise will almost certainly need
some governmental and institutional help
The utensils
CHAPTER THREE
94/IDEALOG.CO.NZ

and you have some very big players there.”
Here are some examples of the handy tools
you can use to get cooking in this sector.
Institutes of innovation
Callaghan Innovation
For those of you who missed the latest
reincarnation of one of the government’s
flagship innovation organisations, the creation
of Callaghan Innovation in February brought
together the former Crown Research Institute
Industrial Research Limited (IRL) and the
Ministry of Business, Innovation and
Employment’s business investments team.
From July 1, New Zealand Trade and
Enterprise’s Lean Manufacturing programme
will be part of Callaghan Innovation and
Auckland’s Food Bowl will also be
incorporated, subject to negotiations with
its current owner, Auckland Tourism, Events
and Economic Development.
With 400 staff and offices in Auckland,
Wellington and Christchurch, the new
organisation is on a mission to accelerate
the commercialisation of innovation in New
Zealand. It is named after distinguished scientist
Sir Paul Callaghan, who passed away in 2012.
One of the key areas of Callaghan’s research
around the food and beverage sector is the
search for value-added extracts from primary
products like honey, shellfish and fish that
might be applied to the burgeoning nutraceutical
sector. The organisation is also working on
improving automation processes, and recent
successes include a mussel-shelling machine
developed with Sanford by its KanDo
Innovation offshoot and working with the
meat industry’s Ovine Automation to develop
machines for speeding up meat processing.
Callaghan Innovation also invests $115
million each year into Kiwi businesses in the
form of government grants.
The organisation has specialist expertise
that could help you identify and quantify
natural extracts from a wide range of
natural products, and to develop these extracts
as potential ingredients for nutraceuticals and
other functional foods. Callaghan Innovation
also features one of only three laboratories
worldwide that offers a full carbohydrate
analysis facility and extensive fermentation
and microbiology capabilities.
kk www.callaghaninnovation.govt.nz
AgResearch
AgResearch is taking a close look at how we
can continue to improve meat, fibre and
dairy production. Recent successes include
developments in non-chemical pesticides and
the first cow bred to provide high-protein
hypoallergenic milk. AgResearch is there
to help if you have an opportunity to exploit
or a problem to solve relating to the value,
productivity and profitability of New
Zealand’s pastoral, agri-food and
agri-technology sector.
kk agresearch.co.nz
‘The food industry is
expanding, however I think
it varies depending on the
sector. In the kiwifruit, dairy
and meat industries it’s
probably stronger than ever,
with government agencies
stimulating a level of research
and innovation that we
haven’t seen for some time’
RICHARD TEMPLER
A
ccording to the MBIE’s Lisa Barrett,
“Innovation in the food industry
is much more about product
development, packaging and branding than it
is about basic science. The food industry all
around the world has high rates of innovation,
but firms are generally relatively small
investors in basic science.
“However, the food industry is a heavy
user of innovation developed in other sectors.
This might be in the machines used to process
and package foods, new materials for
packaging, chemicals or compounds that can
enhance shelf life or processes that might
reduce the need for high levels of sugars,
fats or salt. In statistical terms food
manufacturing is classified as low technology,
but in terms of the machines and processes
applied, it is highly knowledge-intensive and
highly technical.”
Callaghan Innovation’s Richard Templer says
it’s also important to note that the level of
innovation and research still varies from one
product area to another.
“The food industry is expanding and there’s
more research and development. However,
I think it varies depending on the sector. In the
kiwifruit and dairy and meat industries it is
probably as strong or stronger than it has ever
been, with government agencies stimulating
a level of research and innovation that we
haven’t seen for some time.
“In the smaller niche areas you see a lot of
research into honey. It’s a bit more patchy in
the consumer-facing foods because things are
more competitive internationally in that space
Bio-processing at
Callaghan Innovation.

96/IDEALOG.CO.NZ
Plant and Food Research
Plant and Food Research is all about adding
value to fruit, vegetable, crop and food
products. It has more than 900 people based
at sites across New Zealand, as well as in the
USA and Australia. The organisation is
perhaps best known for its research work on
creating the hugely successful ZespriGOLD
kiwifruit, but it has research projects across
a wide range of crops and also works on
seafood. Recent projects have included
research into the benefits of eating apples
to combat inflammatory diseases, and the
controlled release of a wasp species from
Kazakhstan to combat codling moth
infestations in orchards.
kk plantandfood.co.nz
Government research
The Ministry of Business, Innovation
and Development’s Food and
Beverage Information Project
This five-year project began in 2011 and is
producing a series of comprehensive reports on
investment opportunities in major sections of
the New Zealand food and beverage sector. It
also provides a directory of more than 1,000
relevant New Zealand companies.
kk med.govt.nz
Government funding
Primary Growth Partnership
The Primary Growth Partnership joint
funding scheme works in pastoral, arable,
horticultural, seafood and forestry production
as well as food processing. The basic idea is
that as long as a qualifying industry can come
up with at least half of the investment cash,
with a minimum of $500,000 excluding GST,
the government will chip in the rest, so far to
the tune of $190 million since 2009. Recent
beneficiaries have included the selective
breeding of Greenshell mussels, ways of
getting more value from a beef carcass and
high-performance manuka plantations.
kk mpi.govt.nz
Academia
Food research at AUT
With food remaining such a major employer
for research graduates it’s no surprise that New
Zealand has an active academic sector geared up
for its needs. The major players are AUT, Massey
and Otago University, with many smaller related
departments in other institutions.
At AUT food science has a strong presence,
incorporating research in food chemistry, food
microbiology, food technology and specialist
research into biofilms. (Find out more about
AUT from the folks involved on page 100.)
Massey University’s Food and Science
Technology division undertakes research across
a range of areas, including dairy, meat and
‘post-harvest’. Publications and staff expertise
cover off everything from the underlying food
science and chemistry to processing of the final
products with the university’s own Food
Laboratories and Food Pilot Plant.
Meanwhile, the University of Otago’s Food
Science Department offers commercially
focused research and consultancy services at its
Product Development Research Centre. And at
its Sensory Science Research Centre there’s a
specialist team that leads training and research
in taste, smell and sensory irritation, which are
fundamental to product choice and acceptability.
kk aut.ac.nz
The FoodBowl
The $18.1 million FoodBowl food innovation
facility gives established companies, startups,
chefs and wannabe food entrepreneurs access
to state-of-the-art food and beverage
equipment. Here they can test ideas, refine
procedures and hone existing production
processes in a low-cost, low-risk and
supportive environment that complies with
the highest national and international quality
and hygiene standards.
kk foodinnovationnetwork.co.nz
New Zealand Trade and Enterprise
NZTE is there to help you get ready to export,
develop knowledge and expertise, access
international networks, explore export
markets and find funding assistance. There
is even a series of specific food and beverage
research reports on a range of key markets,
as well as reports covering specific areas
of sustainability.
kk nzte.govt.nz
Foodbowl’s Auckland premises
and (right) chairman Tony Nowell
with Stuart Walker, who was
acting CEO in the early stages.

make sure you have the best market
analysis at your fingertips.
foodandbeverage.govt.nz
Extensive and detailed business-
focused information on New Zealand’s
leading export industry→
If food & beverage is
your bread & butter…
The Food and Beverage
Information Project

98/IDEALOG.CO.NZ
Experimenting
with the recipe
CHAPTER FOUR
To get a taste of the kind of work
that our universities are doing, we disguised
ourselves as students, got up in time for
elevenses, stuffed an old rucksack full of
electronic devices and books, and shambled
around AUT’s Food Science department

John Brooks, Professor of Food
Microbiology at AUT University, explains
the pitfalls of building a business around
Mum’s secret recipe (via his blog
foodsafetywithjaybee.blogspot.co.nz):
“Mum has for years made a special dish or
sauce and the whole family enjoys it. Perhaps
it’s a traditional dish made back in ‘the old
country’ and an enterprising emigrant wants
to make it commercially in the adopted
country. All that is necessary is to scale up
production, right?
“In some cases, this might be so. However,
there may be hidden pitfalls.
“Perhaps the most important difference
between Mum’s cooking and a commercial
operation is the timing – Mum cooked the
dish or sauce and served it straight from the
kitchen, whereas commercial manufacture
involves packaging, storage, transport, retail
display and purchase. The shelf life must also
leave time for the consumer to store it at home
before consumption.
“How about putting the sauce into a glass jar
or a plastic pouch? This introduces a new
variable not present in the original. I want
answers to some additional questions before
I’ll agree that the product is safe.
“For example, what is the pH of the product
– acid or low acid? This is not just about
flavour. If Mum poured a low-acid sauce over
your food and you ate it straight away, there
was no problem. But if we now wish to sell it
in an hermetically sealed container, it may
support the growth of clostridium botulinum.
“Even if the raw materials are heated during
preparation, spores will have survived and can
germinate and grow, producing botulin toxin
during storage. There may be no apparent
change in the product, but it could be lethal. In
the case of a low-acid product, a full ‘12D’
process must be applied. This process has to be
filed with the regulatory authority, followed for
every batch and be under the control of a
registered person with full records kept.
Special equipment, capable of heating the
product to well over 100ºC, is needed, too.
“What about stability? Will the sauce separate
during storage and transport? A stabiliser may
need to be added to prevent separation and thus
ensure that it looks good to the consumer. It’s
not a safety issue, but dissatisfied customers are
unlikely to be repeat buyers.
‘We need to come up with
something other than dried
milk powder. On the meat side
we basically still sell large bits
of dead animals. Can’t we
make something rather more
spectacular out of them?’
JOHN BROOKS
“What shelf life should we put on the label?
Properly conducted storage trials are essential.
For that matter, what are the labelling
requirements? You can’t just put a picture of
the product onto the label and call it ‘Mum’s
Special Pasta Sauce’; in most jurisdictions,
there are very specific requirements. The
usually include the name and address of the
manufacturer, as well as a list of ingredients –
possibly with warnings about potential
allergens. These requirements even extend to
specifying the size of the type that’s required
for the nutrition information label.
“Not least is the requirement for the
product to be manufactured on suitable
premises. These premises must be inspected
and it is unlikely that the home kitchen
will be approved as suitable for even minor
commercial production.
PHOTOGRAPHPHOTONEWZEALAND/TERRYHANN

100/IDEALOG.CO.NZ
“In New Zealand, food manufacturers must
have a suitable food safety programme in place.
New legislation will require this programme to
be based on an assessment of risk posed by the
product and process, and the programme must
be documented and detailed records kept, so
that the premises and process can be audited.
“There are many wonderful products on the
market today that had their origins in Mum’s
kitchen in some part of the world. To avoid
tears, the budding entrepreneur should seek
the advice of a professional food technologist
before putting the product on the market.”
FOOD SAFETY FIRST
Professor John Brooks has spent more than
30 years working to improve the understanding
of food microbiology and help reduce the
incidence of food-related illness. It’s a health
and safety issue, but also a crucial commercial
one for New Zealand’s food and beverage
industry to compete overseas.
As Professor of Food Microbiology at AUT,
Brooks consults on microbiological problems
for a range of companies and carries out
research across New Zealand’s dairy, seafood
and biomedical sectors. Often, his work
involves dealing with one-off contamination
risks that need to be identified and headed off.
But he also works on longer-term issues such
as biofilms in food, aquaculture and medicine.
These bacterial films are found growing on
surfaces in diverse environments including the
human body, streams, medical apparatus and
food processing equipment. Brooks’ research is
helping to model the biofilms’ behaviour in
industrial plants, such as milk evaporators.  
“When dairy companies have a problem like
this they probably don’t want to talk about it,
but it is common across all of them,” he
explains. “Our teams are investigating some
new ideas, but it’s difficult to know whether
New Zealand companies are that far ahead of
our competitors.”
Brooks says Fonterra has done a lot of good
by breaking down milk into its molecular
components and coming up with all sorts of
new food ingredients, but what we really need,
is genuinely new products across the board.
“New Zealand needs to come up with
something else other than dried milk powder,”
he says. “And on the meat side we basically
still sell large bits of dead animals – can’t we
make something rather more spectacular out
of them?”
While doing his bit to move that conversation
forward, Brooks is also nurturing the next
generation of food scientists to help innovate
for the sector.
MEET A MEAT
RESEARCHER
Owen Young, Professor of Food Science at
AUT’s School of Applied Sciences, has
strong links to the meat industry. He has a
track record of research in flavour chemistry,
particularly of sheep meat, the development
of innovative meat products, and the
invention of a method for the rapid and early
prediction of meat quality in slaughterhouses.
This work has expanded at AUT into
sheep meat and seafood products, with a
particular emphasis on preserving molluscs.
Another major area of research is the
development of New Zealand-unique
alcoholic drinks, with a focus on spirits.
The group has also developed a novel
method to make goat’s milk products
taste much less goaty, and therefore more
acceptable to a wider market.
Other recent and current research topics
include development of a gluten-free
commercial bread, food allergen control in
food processing, flavour problems in rolled
oats, applications of kiwifruit enzymes in
enteric health, eel aquaculture, defining
commercial meat cooking
protocols, evaluation of novel food
extrusion and distillation equipment.
‘Academia is fundamentally
useful in food and beverage
research in two ways: Basic
research with no obvious
application, and applied
research on industry
problems and product
development. Both should
occur simultaneously within
a university, and the
practitioners should be
continually in dialogue’
OWEN YOUNG

NUTRACEUTICALS
When Hippocates said, “Let food be your medicine and
medicine your food”, it was unlikely that he had foreseen
anything quite like modern nutraceuticals. These are
defined as “a food or food product that reportedly
provides health and medical benefits, including the
prevention and treatment of disease”.
In practice, nutraceuticals can include anything from
witches’ cauldron-type animal parts up to and including
deer penis, oils and such squeezed out of fish, and a
bewildering array of botanicals, bee products, fruits and
cereals. Basically, you name a food and there’s somebody
cutting it up or boiling it down to its active components,
and reformulating these into more food or health products.
“Health supplements, whether in a food or a tablet,
are commercialised in a sometimes uncomfortable
space between consumer protection legislation and
pharmaceutical regulation,” says AJ Park’s Anton Gibson.
“The nutraceutical market is challenging, because the
business model may not justify the expense of doing
clinical trials. This necessarily excludes operating in
a pharmaceutical market in the space defined by the
local regulatory regime about the types of health claims
that you can make about ingredients in products.”
Gibson points to the costs of development and the
regulatory uncertainties as reasons why this remains
a difficult market to work in. But it is nonetheless an
expanding one, with the worldwide value estimated
to be around the US$200 billion mark by 2016.
Vitaco (vitaco.co.nz) is one Australasian company that
has found success in this area. It now employs nearly
500 people and distributes to more than 30 countries
in five continents. The company’s Nutra-Life range
incorporates Biolane, an extract from New Zealand
green-lipped mussels, which Vitaco claims supports joint
and muscle tissue health. Auckland-based Good Health
(goodhealth.co.nz) also produces a huge range of health
products and supplements that are exported to more
than 20 countries around the world.
Food &
Beverages
54%
Other products
46%
$59
$58
$56
$35
$34
$34
$24
$17
$17
$11
$11
$10
$9
$7
$7
$5
$4
$2
$2
$2
Germany
France
Netherlands
Spain
Italy
Belgium
United Kingdom
New Zealand
Denmark
Chile
Ireland
Austria
Norway
Sweden
Switzerland
Portugal
Japan
Iceland
Israel
Finland
Total food and beverages export value: New Zealand vs its peers
Food and beverages as a percentage of New Zealand’s total export value
In New Zealand, food and
beverage exports have trebled
over the past 17 years.
US$b

IDEALOG IN ASS OCIATION WITH AJ PARK
Weaving tradition
with innovation
Its Māori-based values are a unique selling point for one Kiwi food
and wine exporter, so protecting its intellectual property is vital
K
ono NZ is a premium
food and beverage
company that’s taking
its innovative products and
techniques underpinned by
traditional Ma-
ori values to
the global market. With three
divisions producing wine, fruit
and seafood, it has mussel and
oyster farms, vineyards and
orchards throughout the Nelson
Marlborough region, from
where it exports to more than
25 countries.
With 300 staff and farming 530
hectares of land and sea, Kono
came into being in 2011, when all
the food and beverage businesses
of Wakata-
Incorporation were
consolidated under one brand.
“A kono is a traditional
woven-flax basket used to serve
food,” says Wakata-
chairman Paul
Morgan. “We’re a Ma-
ori business
so it’s essential we have a brand
that reflects what’s important to
us as an organisation and captures
our core values.”
Wakata-
had previously been
using the Kono brand for some
of its wine and mussel products.
The brand now covers Kono
Horticulture, Kono Seafood
and Kono Beverages, including
the internationally awarded
Tohu wine.
“We needed a powerful master
brand across our different
divisions. Kono is currently the
most widely exported Ma-
ori brand
and we want to grow it, introduce
other products and work with
other Ma-
ori businesses with new
Incorporation secretary Kerensa Johnston and
AJ Park senior associate Lynell Tuffery Huria.

food products in the future.”
Intellectual property experts
AJ Park have been advising
Wakata-
for many years and
assisted Kono after their
restructure with IP protection.
Senior associate Lynell Tuffery
Huria advises the organisation
on appropriate and cost-effective
trade mark protection for Kono
in its various markets.
“My role involves identifying
the markets they are entering and
getting protection there, while
reviewing current levels of
protection and ensuring they’re
adequate,” she says. “It’s a unique
Ma-
ori-values-based organisation
so we need to consider this factor
when advising.”
Kono’s export strategy is to
develop both existing and new
customers, as well as introduce
new products to those markets.
It recently began farming flat
oysters and wants to take these
to its mussel buyers. Another
emerging brand is Aronui wine.
“It hasn’t been an easy road to
get trade mark protection,” says
Tuffery Huria. “That’s always a
lesson for anyone entering new
markets – just because you can
use your brand in New Zealand, it
doesn’t mean you can go ahead
and use it overseas.”
The US, Kono’s main market,
buys Kono wine, mussels and
fruit. Europe and Asia are also
significant markets, with major
customers in Hong Kong, Taiwan
and Korea.
“It’s vital that our IP is
protected in all those countries
according to our strategy to
develop new customers,” says
Morgan. “Doing this is expensive,
but we target protection to areas
where we have existing trading
relationships and where we see
potential for future products
going forward.
“Anyone dealing in the
international marketplace needs
to have good IP protection in
place. AJ Park has given us great
advice. They’re experts in their
field and we rely on their
knowledge.”
Paradoxically, it’s been
protecting Wakata-
’s brands in
New Zealand that’s posed the
biggest challenge.
“Ma-
ori words are more difficult
to register here than overseas,”
says Tuffery Huria. “The
Intellectual Property Office has
raised objections based on the
ADV2013
literal meanings of certain Ma-
ori
words. We’ve had to argue that
this isn’t relevant because the
words have holistic or esoteric
meanings that are more relevant.
“These arguments have helped
get the trademarks registered. It’s
very novel for a Ma-
ori-based
organisation to use Ma-
ori words,
imagery and means as part of
their branding message, and
also to seek IP protection for
those elements.”
Kono is also moving into the
innovation space, investing in
new processes, machinery,
environmentally sustainable
practices, and products such
as flat oysters and hops. The
organisation is also doing some
research work with Industrial
Research Ltd.
“The strategy moving forward is
ensuring that Kono can capture
all that IP as it creates new
machinery or products, and
looking for opportunities for
patent, copyright, and other forms
of IP protection so they can gain
that competitive advantage
through innovation,” she says.
“I’ve worked with Kono for a
long time and seen them grow
into an organisation that’s unique
in its size and its market position.
Because Kono are different to our
traditional clients, we’ve had to
think laterally to come up with
solutions for them, but it’s been
really satisfying.”
IN BRIEF
Kono NZ is a Nelson-based
Ma-
ori organisation that
exports its wine, seafood and
fruit to 25 countries, including
the US, Australia, Hong Kong
and Korea. It is currently the
most widely exported Ma-
ori
brand and is now moving into
the innovation space,
developing new technology,
processes and environmentally
sustainable practices around
its products.
Intellectual property experts
AJ Park have been helping
Kono protect is trademarks
both locally and internationally
and plan for future product and
market expansion.
CONTACT
To find out more, contact:
Lynell.TufferyHuria@ajpark.com
www.ajpark.com
TEXTDEIRDRECOLEMANPHOTOGRAPHYOLIVERWEBER
Kono is moving into the innovation space,
investing in new processes, machinery, and
environmentally sustainable practices.

Food innovation has less to do with inventing
new edibles – it’s about presenting what we have in
a way that’s authentic, credible and engaging.
And it pays to call in the pros to help you
create that vital point of difference
The special sauce
CHAPTER FIVE
104/IDEALOG.CO.NZ

Strategic design practice Designworks
incorporated the story of how, where
and why Monteith’s ciders were
created into the branding. This gives
the a sense of purity, assuring the
customer that what they’re getting
comes ‘straight from the orchard’.
New Zealand has a great reputation
for its culture, scenery and
environmental assets with Kono
NZ, Regal Salmon and Silver Ferns
Farms enjoying export success.
T
he pace and extent of change in the
basic nature of food is intimately
linked to what our culture and our
metabolisms will accept. This makes the
development of entirely new food groups, meal
pills or inhalable nutrition an extremely
expensive and time-consuming business that
rules out most ordinary firms. So in effect, a lot
of what we are left with in terms of innovation
is about how we present what we have.
“Many of these stories are more about the
creativity of the people, and the way they sell
and formulate their product with a flavour and
visual presence that is relatively familiar but
sold in a slightly different way,” says Anton
Gibson. “Many of the interesting aspects of the
food business come down to the artistry with
which it is sold.”
This has gone through various stages of
evolution. First it was mainly about making
sure the food arrives in an edible condition.
Then we got carried away with snazzy
packaging. And now we are into the modern
full-power realm of holistic brand design that
is inhabited by the likes of the strategic design
practice Designworks.
The first thing to note is that if you only start
talking to a team like theirs once you’ve already
developed your product, you are probably
leaving it a bit late.
Michael Crampin, group head of creative
strategy, explains: “We used to be at the end of
the food chain, more or less just packaging it
up, but we are now much more intrinsically
involved. Traditionally, with companies and
consultancies like ours, the client and consumer
were separate from the work that was done. For
most part there’s now less of a demarcation. The
term is ‘co-creating’ and it is the most effective
way to work. There has historically been
a culture of brand management, which is
essentially managing what you’ve got. Now
it’s more thinking about what you could have,
but you don’t know what that is yet.”
The sooner you can start a branding exercise,
the more coherent the result will be, and in
Crampin’s view this applies particularly to food
and beverage at the moment, because almost
the whole world’s accelerating interest in food
can be boiled down to one word: authenticity.
“Authenticity is the Holy Grail of branding,
in food and beverage even more so. The whole
thing is based on proof points – authenticity of
source, traceability and purity.”
What might have begun as a need for quality
assurance and safety now goes way beyond it,
into creating an engaging story of people and
‘Authenticity is the Holy Grail of
branding, in food and beverage even
more so. The whole thing is based on
proof points – authenticity of source,
traceability and purity’
MICHAEL CRAMPIN

places around a product that attracts
consumers, much like wine vintages and
regions have been doing for millennia. The
designers’ job is to align the product with
where the enthusiasm for food and beverage
is heading.
Designworks is looking to the rapid
proliferation of farmers’ markets and ‘grow
your own’ gardening culture, as well as the
popularity of the likes of Jamie Oliver in
demystifying and democratising what good
food really means.
Noel Blackwell, group head of strategy, says:
“It has become the new interior design, where
everybody has become an expert. People can
have much more coherent conversations about
what is going on with their food.”
This translates into a drive for less
ostentatious branding, which breaks down
the barriers between the consumer and the
companies and allows them to engage in more
meaningful relationships.
Crampin adds: “It’s about the back label
becoming the front label. What was previously
a little detail, like where it comes from, is now
central to what it is about.”
OLD MILK IN NEW BOTTLES?
The latest ‘light-proof’ milk packaging innovation from Fonterra under its
Anchor brand is a classic combination of scientific research and marketing.
The scientists say that light exposure impacts the freshness of milk, while the
marketing folks carve out a shelf niche and packaging look for the light-proof
solution, and according to market research, people prefer the taste from the
new bottles. It’s early days, so it will be interesting to see how much
differentiation this new move provides.
‘Food innovation has
become the new
interior design, where
everyone has become
an expert. People
can have much
more coherent
conversations about
what is going on
with their food’
NOEL BLACKWELL

AUTHENTICATION AND CERTIFICATION
Going into the complex world of comparing the huge variety of independently audited
eco labels available in the food and beverage sector would require another issue
altogether, but it’s safe to say that consumers are increasingly looking out for them.
According to industry estimates, sales of organic food and other organic products
topped US$54.9 billion by 2009, and research by global market researchers Markets
and Markets forecasts that the global organic market will be worth US$104.5 billion
by 2015. Also in 2009, an estimated ¤3.4 billion (NZ$5.9 billion) was spent on
Fairtrade products, and big international players like Cadbury are now on board.
The use of these certifications, alongside sustainable packaging certified by
organisations like the Forest Stewardship Council and the Rainforest Alliance, as
well as statements on carbon emission like carboNZero, can provide access to these
rapidly expanding niche-conscious consumer markets.
They are also helping with access to major distribution chains, partly because they
are increasingly selecting produce with these values in mind. Another reason is that
the process of acquiring third party certifications demonstrates the sort of supply
chain control that gives the major chains confidence they can avoid any repetitions of
mishaps such as the UK horse meat debacle.
BRAND NEW ZEALAND
There is no doubt that New Zealand has a strong
background story to tell, especially when it comes
to food and beverages.
Richard Templer says: “You only have to look at
the number of times people attempt to steal the
brand with images of New Zealand or silver ferns on
products that are not from here. That is because of
the strong reputation for quality and safety.
“It’s a very strong brand.”
But as you will oftend hear from design experts,
and as you will have seen in a recent Idealog
interview with Geoff Ross and The Business Bakery
team (Idealog #44), it can’t be relied on as the only
story you tell.
Blackwell agrees.
“We have all the God-given stuff about being
remote and temperate, whether you are talking
about sunshine hours or water. It’s a pretty good
foundation but you have to do something with it.
“The story that needs to be told is more about the
people who live in that land and how they have been
inspired by it.
“You can never lose the qualities of both the land
and people’s side of the story.”
Highlighting provenance and
eco-friendly practices played
a key role in marketing Kiwi
meat manufacturers Silver Fern
Farms as a reputable brand.
J. Friend and Co’s Beechwood
Honey Dew and Viper’s
Bugloss Honey are
carboNZero certified.

IDEALOG IN ASS OCIATION WITH DESIGNWORKS
From the
sourceConsumers aren’t drawn to products – they’re
drawn to stories and experiences that connect
through honesty and authenticity
Total traceability and transparency of origin is now essential to every serious
player in the premium food category. Designworks has helped Silver Fern Farms
(above) tell a story reaching from plate to pasture, to connect with consumers.
T
he food and beverage sector
is changing. The search for
authenticity – knowing the
origin and the owner of what we’re
consuming – is driving a complete
reframing of how companies entice
us to buy their products. Taste and
quality alone aren’t enough;
consumers require transparency,
right from source.
What might once have been
a back-story is now front and
centre, says Michael Crampin,
head of creative strategy at
Designworks. Total traceability
and transparency of origin is
essential to every serious player
in the premium food category.
Silver Fern Farms is a case in
point. With Designworks as a
partner, it has told a story
reaching from plate to pasture –
one that’s connected with
consumers so successfully that
it’s reinvented the way companies
approach the category.
“Consumers want to know
where it’s from, how it’s made, and
why they can trust it,” Crampin
says. “Success for a brand is when
the origin is expressed with
integrity to bring the story to life.”
Designworks combines
strategy and creativity to help
its clients make their mark on
the marketplace.
“It’s not about branding in
traditional terms – it’s more
about leading the category and
establishing a new standard that
exceeds consumer expectations.”
Designworks’ recent work for
Silver Fern Farms and Monteith’s
Brewing Co. illustrates this wider,
richer offering, with new formats
and ways to prepare, share and
experience products.
Starting at the source, proof
of care and commitment
The breadth and depth of the
Silver Fern Farms New Zealand
origin story supports a brand that
allows flexibility and shifts
positioning for end user and
international markets.
Everything in the brand
references back and takes its truth
from this story. The look and feel
has grown from the initial master
brand core to today’s more artisan
inflections – premier selection for
foodservice, restaurant quality
cuts in supermarkets.
Silver Fern Farms has also been
innovating in the supermarket
with branded, vacuum-packed,
fine-trimmed cuts that lock in the
freshness of a better eating
experience, and collaborating

ADV2013
IN BRIEF
Designworks is a leading
strategic design practice that
works with New Zealand
brands across all sectors
to help them succeed
internationally. Designworks
recently helped iconic Kiwi
brands Monteith’s beer and
Silver Fern Farms create
complete consumer
experiences and weave
authentic stories around the
origins of their products.
CONTACT
To find out more, contact
Jef Wong, head of design,
Designworks
jef.wong@designworks.co.nz
www.designworks.co.nz
The Monteith’s brand is about creating a more rewarding experience with the
beer as the hero. Designworks helped the beer brand to amplify the unique
qualities of its different beer styles while demystifying craft beer as a category.
with chefs to hone in on the
perfect cut and pitch for the
specialist food service offering.
Recently their storytelling has
been taken to new levels with
the boutique offerings of Silere
Alpine Origin Merino, a joint
venture with The New Zealand
Merino Company.
“By rethinking Silver Fern
Farms’ role in the category and
how it presents its story, we’ve
created an emotional connection
that, in effect, takes you up the
mountains where this true
free-range product was created,”
says Designworks head of strategy
Noel Blackwell.
A creative collaboration saw top
New Zealand chefs feature Silere
Alpine Origin Merino on their
menus, so consumers could begin
to understand the product they
were eating and the story
surrounding it.
“The result is a truly global
portrayal of the origin aspects of
our high-quality red meat and
the credible promise of an
unforgettable eating experience
that’s 100 percent made of
New Zealand.”

Keeping the explorer
spirit alive
Monteith’s focus is on making
a wider range of beer more
interesting and relevant to a wider
audience, says Designworks
creative director Jef Wong.
“The goal was to amplify the
unique qualities of different beer
styles while demystifying craft
beer as a category, helping
consumers get over the ‘craft
is difficult’ hurdle,” he says.
“Monteith’s wants to champion
the craft beer category by making
it less technical, and instead
giving it more character and
making it fun.”
The Monteith’s work was based
on creating more connections to
the brand’s origin and spiritual
home, the West Coast. A new
brewery built on the longstanding
site is designed as somewhere
visitors can experiment, brew and
taste beers ‘live’.
The recent launch of the
refreshed Monteith’s range was
a way to deliver the origin story
with greater accessibility and
energy, and to meet a new demand
for beer that’s fresher, lighter and
brighter in character, says Wong.
“Single Source was conceived
with a desire to have a purer
expression of our product.
“As with wine, the terroir was
completely controlled and
traceable, from batch to field to
brewer to climate – something
that’s totally unique in the beer
category.”
The completeness of the
experience is key for Monteith’s.
The brand is about creating a
more rewarding experience with
the beer as the hero – from in-bar
food matching and events such as
The Monteith’s Beer and Wild
Food Challenge, to the rituals that
accompany the pour, the overall
feeling in-bar, and growing the
appreciation of different beer
types. Monteith’s commitment to
experience has driven the new bar
format, where consumers can
explore and appreciate beer styles
in a more contemporary,
accessible, vibrant environment.
The results are clear: Monteith’s
sales are growing despite an
overall decline in the New
Zealand beer category.

Show and tell Food and beverage brands getting it right, according to our experts
} Moa
Anton Gibson picked out
the Business Bakery’s use of
wine techniques in brewing
and marketing as
a great example of cross-
referencing methods across
different products.
~ Innocent
Noel Blackwell says: “Innocent is a big brand built on
the humble origin story of its founders, and looks like it
was made by your neighbour.”
| Antipodes water
Michael Crampin says of the Whakatane-based
premium water brand: “It has the combination of
how it is presented, the minimalism of the delivery.
The back story becoming the front story. It sums up
New Zealand best without having to rely on clichés
and nationalistic branding. It’s one of those we wish
we had done.”
110/IDEALOG.CO.NZ
€ Farro
Crampin describes the Auckland-based chain of one-stop fresh food shops as “an
amazing local example of a sense of localism and close connection to source. It has that
‘democratisation’ of accessible quality. And the way it is presented is really ‘unbranding’,
with the hero being the food.”
| All Good Bananas
The multi-award-winning
Fairtrade banana crusaders
also get Crampin’s vote.
“It is so creative and
fantastic,” he says. “The
ability of businesses to have
a real manifesto and be
cause-driven. ‘This is what
we believe and this is how
you should judge us’. It is not
necessarily new but is front
and centre now.”

Digestif
Final thoughts
O
ne question we might ask about the food and
beverage sector is this: according to research firm
Coriolis, doubling the export sales of New Zealand
food by 2025 would need something like one and a half new
Fonterras. So where will they come from?
It would also assume that we have the capital or consumer
base in this country to build businesses on this scale – and
that the sector they enter will be operating under similar
parameters that created the giant food conglomerates in the
first place.
It is not clear that either is true, and it remains to be seen
whether a nation whose business culture is still largely made
up of small and medium-sized companies has the appetite
to create new behemoth-scale multinational food and
beverage companies. It is also uncertain whether the world
will have an appetite for more of them in the future.
The pressure is definitely on to feed the world and
enormous money is there to be made. But the pressure is also
on doing this in a way that is ethical, healthy and sustainable,
as there is an increasing awareness among both consumers
and producers that this is the only way possible.
This leaves New Zealand in a fabulous position. With our
iconic environmental credentials still just about intact, and
an increasing set of pioneering brands out there leading the
way, the table is laid for us to put on a really great spread for
consumers in Australasia, Asia, Europe and beyond. All we
have to do is get to work.
As Michael Crampin puts it: “There are perfect growing
conditions in New Zealand for brilliant ideas.”
PHOTOGRAPHPHOTONEWZEALAND/BRUCEJENKINS

The Idealog guide to food innovation

Recommandé

Recommandé

Contenu connexe

Tendances

Tendances (17)

En vedette

En vedette (20)

Similaire à The Idealog guide to food innovation

Similaire à The Idealog guide to food innovation (20)

Dernier

Dernier (20)

The Idealog guide to food innovation