Page 14 - Food&Drink Magazine November-December 2021

EDITORIAL COMMENT
What’s in a name?
The current federal senate inquiry into the labelling of plant-based foods is about a lot more than calling a soy protein patty a burger. Kim Berry looks at the state of play.
plant-based meat think tank Food Frontier examined every plant-based product on sale in Australia. Almost 90 per cent (222 products) use no animal depictions on front-of-pack packaging, seven per cent
(17 products) use animal depictions taking up less than 10 per cent of the front-of-pack label, and four per cent
(10 products) used depictions on more than 10 per cent on front-of-pack.
OF PLANT-BASED FOOD PRODUCTS USE NO ANIMAL DEPICTIONS.
At a senate estimates hearing in late October, CSIRO chief executive Larry Marshall fielded questions from Liberal senators on any investments in, and connection to vegan/anti-meat activist lobby groups. While he took those questions on notice, Marshall said only four per cent of CSIRO’s $200 million agrifood R&D budget was spent on alternative proteins.
The diversification of the global protein market is necessary and inevitable. There will be change and some of it will be difficult, but it also creates new opportunities for a host of Australian industries, from primary producers to processing and manufacturing companies. It’s time to adopt a growthmindset. ✷
THERE is no denying we are undergoing one of the biggest – and fastest – changes in food and beverage ever witnessed. Technology advancements and more informed consumers are colliding with global crises surrounding climate, hunger, and nutrition.
Everywhere we look there are targets on finite schedules
– halving food waste by 2030, feeding 10 billion people sustainably by 2050, achieving 17 Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 and on it goes.
The brutal truth is rapid change is not only needed, it is unavoidable. If the population is goingtodoubleby2050,wecan’t
Burger patty by plant-based food manufacturer Fenn Foods.
simply double our current output using the same methods. The reality is we need to produce more food, using less space, and do so rather urgently. In short, we need new and innovative ways of transforming our food system.
But change can be hard. Some retreat, some fight, some adopt a growth mindset and work out how and where they fit in the new landscape.
This is playing out as we go to press, with a federal senate inquiry into the labelling of plant-based food products underway, instigated by Queensland senator Susan McDonald, also the co-founder oftheParliamentaryFriendsof
Red Meat advocacy group (with Labor MP Milton Dick).
The inquiry’s terms of reference include potential damage to the meat industry, health implications of plant-based meats, and impact on primary producers and regional communities. But the central issue is the use of the word ‘meat’ and other conventional animal protein terms by the plant-based industry.
Some traditional protein producers have taken umbrage at the development. Red Meat Advisory Council chair John McKillop said the brand and reputation of natural beef, lamb and goat had been built over generations and was now being “denigrated” by companies “deliberately trying to use piggyback marketing to sell an inferior product”.
Seafood Industry Australia CEO Veronica Papacosta said the sale of plant-based seafood products “threatens the sustainability and commercial viability of not just our businesses, but of the entire animal-based protein sector”.
The Alternative Proteins Council cautioned against
the inquiry becoming an animal proteins versus new proteins debate, saying it would imply new protein industries would grow at the expense of more conventional ones.
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