Eating the Gap II – Engaging Food Influencers to Bring Change

What are the challenges in the food system created by us and how can we motivate people to live and eat more sustainably?

These questions were addressed at the latest ‘Eating the Gap’, a series of event –coordinated by EUFIC,  which aims to create and collaborate with a network of influencers to further engage consumers in the topics of food technology, sustainability and healthy diets. As part of the Food Ambassadors programme, the events are funded by EIT Food, the leading innovation initiative in Europe.Attended by 40 people and 20 influencers across Europe with a potential reach on social media of over 1,2 million people, the event brought together food, health and sustainability influencers to raise raising awareness of what one can do as an individual. Thanks to the spread of expertise and nationalities, the influencers can pass on science-based messages to diverse audiences that might not be reached through the traditional ways of communication.

Dr. Line Gordon, Director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre, laid the foundation for the evening by presenting the challenges we are facing in our food system, especially those ones created by humans in the last few centuries. With a focus on our planet boundaries she proposed solutions how we can feed the 10 billion people, that will inhabit our planet soon, sustainably and healthy.

The main course of the evening was a small cooking workshop with three top Belgian chefs who put sustainability at the heart of their own cuisine, ranging from world-renowned vegan restaurants to cooking with a 3D printer, with food waste and surplus to locally sourced ingredients. The chefs that joined Eating the Gap II with their knowledge and talent were:

• Sebastion Sandor – Heritage, Gent
• Nicolas Decloedt – HummusxHortense, Brussels
• Adélaïde Lannoije and Romaine van den Brande – Eatmosphere, Brussels

The influencers also had the chance to discover the latest food technologies and projects from EIT Food, such as Future Kitchen showcasing their VR experiences on food innovation and food technologies, RethinkResource, a start-up focusing on sustainable ways to use waste across the product cycle, and Natural Machines supported the Eatmosphere chefs with their Foodini, an intelligent food 3D printer. The attendees also saw Alberts at work, a Belgian start-up that created the world’s first fresh smoothie vending machine.

To learn more about the upcoming events and initiatives or would like to join the conversation, you can follow #EatingTheGap on social media or drop us a line at EUFIC!