L'Italo-Americano

www.italoamericano.org 10 THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2021 L'Italo-Americano P l a n t - b a s e d f o o d h a s b e e n identified as one of the strongest f o o d t r e n d s i n the North American market in the last 5 years recording, in 2018 alone, sales for 140 million USD. And while the global tradi- tional meat market is still growing, the sector is set to slow down in the years to come. The growing awareness of the critical issues of current f o o d p o l i c i e s f a v o r e d t h e birth of new trends oriented towards sustainability, in particular towards plant- based diets, consisting main- ly of food products of plant origin. Although often confused w i t h v e g e t a r i a n o r v e g a n diets, the term plant-based has a slightly different mean- ing. While, in diets, the term is mostly focused on plant foods, it does not exclusively refer to them. Those who fol- low this type of diet do not always give up entirely meat or animal derivatives, but rather limit and reduce their consumption as much as pos- sible. The trend is constantly growing in the United States where, in terms of sales, the plant-based food market has gone from 4.9 billion in 2018 to 7 billion in 2020, record- ing a growth of 43% in two years. Last May, the American company Beyond Meat , h e a d q u a r t e r e d i n E l Segundo, California, also went public and immediately saw the price of its shares s k y r o c k e t t o o v e r 6 0 0 % . Working in the company's Research & Development department is an Italian sci- entist, Enrico Federici, 29, f r o m A l t a V a l t a r o i n t h e p r o v i n c e o f P a r m a , w h o a r r i v e d i n C a l i f o r n i a i n February 2021 specifically to work in this sector. Enrico, tell us more about you. What did you study? I am a food technologist a n d I s t u d i e d a t t h e University of Parma. During m y m a s t e r ' s I s p e n t s i x months at Purdue University in Indiana where, thanks to a scholarship, I did my thesis. After graduating and work- ing for a year in Italy, I was offered to do my PhD in Food Chemistry, again at Purdue University, where I returned in 2018 and where I stayed for three and a half years. Once finished, I moved to L o s A n g e l e s i n F e b r u a r y 2021. What do you like about this? For an Italian who was born and raised in Parma like me, the relationship with food is very strong, as the food industry is big in the area. I always wanted to work in science and what I like about the food sector is that is it is very much based on it. Y o u c a n b e c a l l e d a food scientist. What do you do exactly? Anything that is scientific and applied becomes tech- nology. So, in the food sector, w e w o r k w i t h p l a n t s a n d machinery to produce food on a large scale. I am a scien- tist of the food industry, so yes, I can be defined a food scientist. I basically deal with formulations: I make new products to be launched on t h e m a r k e t t h a t s i m u l a t e meat in all respects, but are fully plant-based. A scientist is necessary in this context, because these products are not easy to create, and specif- ic skills are needed to do it. What's the goal of the Research & Development Department? We aim to emulate meat, but we are working on prod- ucts that derive from plants, so there is absolutely no link with animals. no meat, no milk and no eggs. Everything comes from plants and their c u l t i v a t i o n , f r o m c e r e a l s (wheat, rice, millet, spelt), legumes, tubers, vegetables and fruit, aromatic herbs, spices, oils and dried fruit. W h a t ' s t h e m o s t important characteristic t h e s e p r o d u c t s m u s t have? I eat meat, so taste is very important to me: I want to make a product that I enjoy eating. Not all products are g o o d : j u s t t e n y e a r s a g o , vegan burgers had no market because they didn't taste that good. W h a t ' s t h e s e c t o r ' s goal? The goal of the sector is to take over the meat sector. O u r C E O i s a c o n v i n c e d vegan and wants to take a s l i c e o f t h e m e a t m a r k e t , which is worth 1,400 billion USD a year worldwide: our number one competitor are companies that produce ani- mal meat. Many companies are entering the vegan meat m a r k e t a n d t h e s e c t o r i s growing rapidly. T h e e n v i r o n m e n t a l sustainability of meat in terms of costs and health is often at the heart of discussion. Can you give us some details? There is a lot of research o n t h e s u b j e c t , a n d t h e advantages (of plant-based products) are innumerable: compared to the production of a traditional hamburger, making a plant-based prod- uct uses 99% less water, 93% less land, 46% less energy a n d p r o d u c e s 9 0 % l e s s greenhouse gas emissions. This means the entire pro- duction chain is highly sus- tainable. And then excessive consumption of meat is not the best on a health level. In general, plant-based "meat" is more sustainable and bet- ter for our body: this is a key component. For example, it has a lower content of satu- rated fats than animal meat and scientific evidence points out how the risks of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular dis- eases, cancer, but also osteo- p o r o s i s , P a r k i n s o n ' s a n d Alzheimer's are reduced with a plant-based diet. You are from Parma, a meat and salumi land, w h a t ' s t h e a t t i t u d e t o w a r d s p l a n t - b a s e d products there? I think it depends on the product. Some traditional products such as Parma ham and Parmigiano Reggiano are very difficult to make and have a very strong, tradition- al link with the territory. On t h e o t h e r h a n d , e v e n i n Parma, there are people who go to fast-food restaurants, so I believe that the two can coexist, there is a market for traditional products and for technologically advanced ones. I like to eat vegan meat, but I certainly don't give up Parma ham! W i l l y o u b e a b l e t o have a position in this s e c t o r i n I t a l y i n t h e future? The sector's market is very developed here in the United States; in my R&D depart- ment alone we are two hun- dred and it is growing fast. In Italy, there are many food companies, even large one, that are now doing the same, such as Granarolo, which has been following the trend. H o w e v e r , t h e h e a r t o f i t remains here, in the United States. Even on a media and celebrity level, the sector is very popular now, for exam- ple we had personalities like Kim Kardashian and Louis Hamilton visiting us at the company. SILVIA GIUDICI E n r i c o F e d e r i c i , a f o o d s c i e n t i s t i n t h e USA for a more sustainable future LIFE PEOPLE PLACES HERITAGE Enrico Federici, a native of Parma, has been working with US company Beyond Meat since February 2021 (Photo: Enrico Federici)

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