Season 4, Post 16: Metaverse meals and more
Your author’s children spent much of the recent long weekend eating food, particularly of the chocolate and egg-shaped variety. While they were busy at work hunting and then consuming, there was ample time to learn more about how many businesses are thinking about the future of food. Spoiler alert: as with every other industry, technology is going to play an increasingly important role in what we eat.
Begin with metaverse. Regardless of whether the development of virtual worlds may be considered hype (see our views on this topic here and here), it certainly hasn’t prevented the likes of global brands from McDonalds through to Carrefour from experimenting within the space. The fast-food chain announced earlier this year that it had filed various trademarks for a virtual restaurant that will deliver not only to your avatar but also to your real-world home. We also liked the brand extension being pioneered by Panera Breads, a leading US bakery company. In the future, real and virtual visitors might be able to enter the ‘Paneraverse’ (for more on both these stories see here).
Children (when they are not consuming food) may also be delighted to learn that if playing Fortnite, there is now an option to engage with ‘Healthy Map’, a new game level developed in conjunction with Carrefour, the leading French supermarket chain. Here, players enter a virtual supermarket and can ‘heal’ their hit characters with certain foods to aid health restoration. Above and beyond the positive branding exercise, Carrefour also says it hopes to promote healthier eating habits.
If these activities do not seem revolutionary enough, then consider the power of artificial intelligence algorithms to help design dishes. The project, launched by Midjourney, an independent research lab, uses key words to develop computer-generated images of (often mouth-watering) dishes. While the initiative seems currently oriented towards fine dining – where aesthetics can matter as much as taste – the potential of the technology is significant (for more, see here).
As exciting as the above sounds, we still need to eat. Boundaries are being pushed here too. For one perspective on truly novel innovation, consider what SavorEat, a listed Israeli business is up to. The business has pioneered machines (or, smart robots, as Savor terms them) that are able to 3D print a plant-based meat product of the consumer’s choosing. Put another way, customers can design their product based around desired levels of protein, fat and so on. Savor’s angle is to emphasise the personalisation of food, a trend which it believes will only grow in importance. “Demand is already there” according to the Founder/CEO with whom we spoke recently. In her words, Savor is all about recreating “food as an experience.”
19 April 2022
The above does not constitute investment advice and is the sole opinion of the author at the time of publication. Past performance is no guide to future performance and the value of investments and income from them can fall as well as rise.
Alex Gunz, Fund Manager
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