2012ANNUAL PUBLICATION

OF THE FINNISH FOOD DEVELOPMENT

CLUSTER PROGRAMME

INNOVATIONSHOW TO BE A SMALL INNOVATIVE COMPANY?

eNUTRITION – NUTRITIONAL GUIDANCE UP TO DATE

HUMAN SECURITY GRIDBUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES IN DEVELOPING AREAS

FUTURE FORECASTING FOOD IN THE YEAR 2050

EDITORIAL Mini clusters, efficient activities for many

TOP PRIORITY PROJECTS Top priority projects

FUTURE FORECASTING Bravely across industry borders

Innovation is more than just a product

Column: Courageous Grub!

Find a new idea and make it a success!

How to be a small innovative company?

Food in the year 2050

HUMAN SECURITY GRID Business opportunities in developing areas

FOOD CLUSTERS WORLDWIDE The Pharmapolis Innovative Food Cluster

LOCAL FOOD Knowing the origin of food is paramount

eNUTRITION eNutrition solutions bring nutritional guidance up to date

From counting milligrams to interactive nutrition coaching

Stop Dieting – Start Living

CONTACT INFO

Contact info

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Makustele is an annual publication of the Food Development Competence Cluster.

Publisher Food Development Competence Clusterwww.fooddevelopment.fiEditor in chief Annaleena AiraLayout Siru Lämsä, BSTR Luova Konttori OyTranslations Multiprint Oy / MultidocPrinting Waasa Graphics

The Food Development Competence Cluster is a part of Expertise Programme (OSKE) administrated by the Ministry of Employment and the Economy of Finland. The annual Publication is published once a year. 5th volume.

2012 ENGLISH

Editorial

Finland’s Food Development Cluster has shown that a nationally based cluster is the best way to handle development activities for a branch of industry. This is particularly important in a small country, and even more important when the activities are for international business. This way we can collect all the know-how in research and development for the benefit of the companies.

We need special tools for certain subgroups in our industrial branch. The food branch is very wide. It is not the same thing to export food, or food related know-how and products. We have established an association Food Safety Management Finland for this work.

We started this FSMF mini-cluster in order to help companies having special knowledge or products in the food safety area, aiming to help them in their in-ternational efforts. The idea came from the needs of companies. Many of them have brilliant ideas and products, but often they are too small for international competition. Together we have more power. This is important in big markets like China. We need to be interesting and visible, and we can do this together under the same brand umbrella.

Food Safety Management Finland has already achieved its first success in China, in the meat industry, in cooperation with Chinese companies and au-thorities. We are continuing this work by arranging a seminar and workshop for Chinese decision-makers to deepen the collaboration in October 2012. I think that we can also widen this kind of work to other countries. For example, having Russia next door is very interesting; we have already had interesting initial discussions there.

Good results give us faith that mini-cluster work is wise and efficient. That is why we have started to develop other similar things. One very interesting idea is to combine food, nutrition and exercise together. This is an area where I know there are activities in many other countries and clusters. Well-being is important everywhere. Is this also an opportunity to develop new cooperation between clusters in various countries? I am sure it is, and I invite you to join us in this planning. I am also sure we can find both interesting items to develop and different strengths to combine in this area.

Mini-clusters, efficient activities for many

JUKKA LÄHTEENKORVAProgramme Director

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Top priority projectsWhen you want to find the best partners in Finland, the Centre of Expertise Programme (OSKE) is the right place. The following themes are cluster key areas, but we cover the entire food industry. Contact us for the best solution for you.

FUTURE FORECASTINGWe consider future forecasting as an important success factor for the Finnish food industry and we want to support companies in this challenging task. See the following pages for more information!

FOOD SAFETYWe promote Finnish food safety know-how and its export abroad. For this purpose, an association, Food Safety Management Finland ry, has been established for Finnish food safety companies, research organisa-tions and other actors. We are embarking on a busy and active year.

SUSTAINABILITYThe Finnish food industry has the possibility to stand out as a sustainable business. But how can we really take a hold of sustainability? The Food Development Cluster provides assistance for company sustainabil-ity communications and production transparency and traceability. Come along and enjoy the results and de-velop the competitiveness of your company!

BERRIESFood Development Cluster has compiled a company group of 10 berry processing companies, whose um-brella project “Creating new business activities within the berry industry through an integrated, export-orien-tated marketing strategy” has brought new ideas and concrete support for internationalisation for the com-panies involved. The companies are currently planning the future utilisation of the development concept.

Top priority projects

Foodwest is a specialized

company of experts.

Our core fields of

expertise are product

development, market

research and quality

management.

www.foodwest.fi

Our focus area in the Food Development Cluster: consumer behaviour.

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HUMAN SECURITYFood safety, food security and nutrition are important matters in developing countries and crisis management areas. Finland can offer solutions to many challenges, and we want to keep developing and internationalising these skills.

BALTIC COUNTRIES INTO A DOMESTIC MARKETWe are building a Baltic Sea Region Food Cluster Network, so that the existing food clusters and new members can benefit from cooperation in the Baltic area. The primary goal of the network is to lower the threshold for small and medium-sized companies to find a suitable partner or service provider in other Baltic countries.

RESEARCH INFORMATION FROM THE FOOD INDUSTRYWhen you need the latest research information from the food industry, you can utilise the Finnish research data service Foodle. New research information from the points of view of technology, product development and marketing and new business is constantly being entered into the service. www.foodle.fi/en

EVENTSFFF Probiotics 2012 Turku, Finland, June 11–13, 2012http://congress.utu.fi/fff2012/

WEBSITEwww.fooddevelopment.fi

Top priority projects

Foodwest is a specialized

company of experts.

Our core fields of

expertise are product

development, market

research and quality

management.

www.foodwest.fi

Our focus area in the Food Development Cluster: consumer behaviour.

Bravely across industry borders – Olli Hietanen encourages us to find “happy families”

Finland has a long tradition of seeing differ-ent industries as separate, indeed: the food industry as the food industry and the forest industry as the forest industry. What if we saw things differently? Future successes may rise from breaking and crossing the industry interfaces.

– Colliding industries can be approached from two points of view, where one is seek-ing absurd partnerships and the other is encouraging us to forget, says Futures Re-search Centre Development Manager Olli Hietanen from the University of Turku.

The name ”happy families” is borrowed from the old children’s card game, and it means that different people from various industries are mixed together into groups. Hietanen emphasises that innovations are not created by bringing together people who think similarly. We need varying thoughts and different people.

– Development in our country has been hin-dered by stupidity condensing in groups, to paraphrase a Finnish saying, which is evi-dent in gathering ideas from people from the same industry in clusters, for example, Hietanen criticises.

As a solution, Hietanen proposes X-clusters made up of companies from completely dif-ferent industries that have nothing in com-mon on the surface.

For example, the lift company Kone and textile and clothing company Marimekko started a cooperation, which resulted in launching lifts decorated by Marimekko. The same kind of thinking could be applied to the food industry. Hietanen encourages us to ask the question “How could the food industry form happy families?” and to look to companies outside our own industry.

Another means of finding innovations and enabling pioneer spirit is forgetting. The gist of the advice is: ”Think of what is most important and forget it!”

In order for a company to create something new, it must forget its star products for a second.– If Nokia were to forget its mobile phones for a moment, it could apply mobile tech-nology to clothes, cars, home appliances, and food packaging, for example. If the shipyards industry forgot about ships, we could see that the same skills could be ap-plied to building something else on sea – and if we stop building ships, why not think beyond the sea? Hietanen envisions the possibilities of forgetting.

BREAKING AWAY FROM THE FEAR OF FAILURE

It has been the custom in Finland to sepa-rate different industries. Hietanen thinks that the change towards colliding indus-tries will happen through micro-companies and small and medium-sized companies, because small companies have the willing-ness and the need to change. – The bigger the company, the harder it is to change, Hietanen states.

The challenge he poses to larger compa-nies is internationalisation:– Larger companies should aim to compete with large foreign companies. The world is full of growing countries and economies – it is useless to just play act a large com-pany on the Finnish and European markets.

Lack of time is usually a practical problem for the entrepreneur. It seems hard to find time for networking. There may even be a lack of courage. According to Hietanen, the bigger problems lie in our culture and bureaucracy.

– Society spews out paper and stale fear. Fear of failure is a cultural problem. We need a more experimental and courageous society that has a positive outlook towards entrepreneurship, Hietanen says. Luckily, there are signs of positive change: In the autumn, Finland celebrated a National Day of Failure.

Hietanen says that in the future, what will change is how we do things, not what we do. Food will be required in the future, but the methods of production will change. Changes such as the mixing of the roles of the entrepreneur and the customer may change. – Could the customer raise their own ani-mals for food or design their own breakfast cereal, for example?

OLLI HIETANEN MASTER OF SOCIAL SCIENCES (MSSc)

Development Manager and Deputy Di-rector of the Futures Research Centre at the University of Turku, permanent ex-pert for the Parliament of Finland Com-mittee for the Future.

Hietanen has extensive experience in re-search of the socially, culturally, ecologi-cally, and economically sustainable fu-ture. He has also acted as the coordinator for the Finland Futures Academy (FFA) and been a member of the board of the Finnish Society for Futures Studies.

TEXT: HELI HAUTANIEMI, PHOTO: HANNA OKSANEN

Future forecasting

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Innovation is more than just a product

What are we talking about, when we say in-novation? We are not only talking about a product, but the processes behind the product and the policies around it.

There has been so much talk about innova-tion that the word itself has gone through a kind of inflation. What does true innova-tion actually entail?

– When talking about innovation, we should focus on other things than just the product. For example, three dimensions can be identified within innovations: prod-uct, process and business innovation. Talk of product innovation often focuses only on functionality. In the current market, added value seems to be coming from the aes-thetic components of a product, i.e. what a product looks like, what kind of image it has, and what kind of product clouds or usage entities they are connected to or per-ceived to be connected to. These increase a product’s usability and desirability in many ways. Sometimes this side is referred to as soft innovation, says Professor Saara Taalas from Linnæus University in Sweden.

According to Taalas, most of the inno-vations on the market are derived from existing products that have been mass- customised or made available for cus- tomisation. These days products are, indeed, made more flexible and open to different uses by the consumer. Process innovation in turn means a change in the way things are produced in terms of value chains and, say, supply channels. Taalas sees the greatest innovation possibilities in the way business is organised.

– Radical innovations can in fact be connected to other things than just the product, such as logistics, production or business solutions or even entire con-cepts of quality of life, Taalas says. In the case of IKEA, for example, the great-

TEXT: HELI HAUTANIEMI

“The consumer does not buy things that do not speak to them on some level.”

est innovation is in the production pro-cesses: joint production, where the customer carries out part of the production chain themselves, enables the supply of products to as many people as possible at a low cost.– When looking for innovation, we must go beyond the product and see a multi- dimensional world, where the same product can be produced in many different ways, and where multifold business organi-sation is always possible, Taalas describes.

Radical means of production can be per-ceived as a little dangerous inside the com-pany, but things can be seen from other viewpoints as well. In fact, Taalas suggests that the food industry could expand its thinking outside the supermarket world and to those changes in everyday life that affect the way we live in the future.– It is sometimes useful to be on the outside looking in to your own operations and see them in the context provided by the change in the world, Taalas states.

EYES AND EARS OPEN

– The most important quality a company must have to create innovations and truly novel products is vision, says Kristiina Kalsta, Arla-Ingman Future Creations Project Manager. Finding innovations is not based on knowledge but vision. Know-ledge is based on a perception of the present or the past; vision in turn hinges on capturing understanding, perception or insight. >

Future forecasting

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”It is sometimes useful to be on the outside looking in to your own operation”

– Coming up with products and observing consumers’ needs are not special skills as such, but transforming them into a commer-cially profitable form is specifically based on vision, Kalsta adds.

According to Kalsta, consumer interviews are one of the best channels of creating vision.– In order to gain insight, the company must set aside time and resources for keep-ing their eyes and ears open. You must venture beyond your own desk and fol-low the consumers, try to understand their lives. That is when it is possible to find the things that matter to them and the questions they want answered. The consumer does not buy things that do not speak to them on some level. This dialogue can be about very simple things, such as packaging fea-tures or product appearance.

INTERACTION WITH THE CONSUMERS

Product development of the future sees the consumer playing an ever greater role. The significance of the interaction between companies and consumers will also increase. – The employees’ and cooperation part-ners’ field of vision is easily limited and only those things are seen that are directly connected to their own industry and prod-ucts. Interaction with consumers is the com-pany’s window to the “real world”, Kalsta says. So how can a company interact with con-sumers? Kalsta mentions crowdsourcing and its channel social media as a method growing in importance. In crowdsourcing, a randomly selected group are given a problem or task to solve by means of open invitation.

– These will no doubt play an ever greater role in product development in any given field in the future, Kalsta forecasts.

As part of consumption, consumers have to interpret messages and images of product features and desirability. Consumers are in fact part of a larger audience that in-terprets products and service usefulness. This leads to a new kind of relationship be-tween companies and consumers, and this relationship starts to resemble an audience relationship more and more. This is evident in the rise of active audience relationships and fan culture.

Taalas uses the tendency of active audi- ences and fans to link to products as an example. An actively participating audi-ence like this is interested in the stories and values behind products, and these arediscussed online, linked to and recom-mended. Active audiences think of new ways to use the products they are fans of and tell others about them. This is why producing uses is always in the hands of active audi-ences on the market.

Taalas believes that active audiences are interesting, and studying their activities can have a lot to offer the understanding of the forms of innovation. Taalas gives us an example of the second coming of Aino and Reino slippers in the 2000s: their new-found success is based on two fans buy-ing the failing brand, opening up product development to active audiences, creating an open relationship with them, and letting them in on building a classic Finnish brand.

SAARA TAALAS Professor

IKEA’s endowed professor in Business Administration and the Life At Home research group leader at Linnæus Univer-sity in Sweden. Taalas is the leader of the Academy of Finland’s research consor-tium, studying brands as a joint produc-tion space at the Futures Research Centre at the University of Turku.

”Life At Home” is a multidisciplinary and thematic research group that combines business economics, design and technol-ogy research at Linnæus University.

KRISTIINA KALSTA Future Creations Project Manager, Arla-Ingman

The task is to manage innovation from the idea creation process and conceptualisa-tion all the way to the launch.

The task of Arla’s Future Creations teams is to develop the company through in-novations. Future Creations is looking for uncharted territory in dairy products. Thus it operates in a much larger area than is normal in the company’s product development process.

PHOTO: SAMULI KARALA

Future forecasting

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Courageous grub!Many believe that business, and the econ-omy in particular, is a brain game. We often perceive the economy as a series of numbers, unpleasant calculations, some-thing cold and soulless. I think this is a great fallacy. To me, business is a matter of the heart, a field in which intuition and courage are often more important than pre-cision and fiddling with spreadsheets. They are part of it too, admittedly, but when I see companies fail in their strategies, it is more often due to a lack of imagination and courage than errors in calculation.

You should remember this in the food busi-ness, as well. We all know that food is an industry of slim margins, which in itself ties many companies to a logic of constant cal-culation. Finnish food companies have tra-ditionally focused on small, familiar moves. This is why very few have been able to grow other than organically, closely tied

Alf Rehn is Professor of Business Eco-nomics at Åbo Akademi University. He loves food, drink and coffee, and is happy to spend his money on them. www.alfrehn.com

to their basic operations. Even though there have been some that break away (i.e. Carelian Caviar), the logic has been that of survival, which is why real, global successes have been few and far between.

Things could be different. Finland is a country that has immense possibilities, even in the food industry. We know that people are looking for high quality food, we know that food trends are ever faster and stronger, and we know that new solu-tions (especially functional new services) interest consumers. But still companies are often slow to react to this. Just look at how long it took to take proper notice of the low-carb trend. At about the time its interest had already started to fade.

Why is this? Partly because established companies grow slow and rigid, but also because so many of us have grown accus-

Column by Alf Rehn

tomed to ‘sense’, ‘functional’, and ‘calcu-lated’. Still, the future and future successes cannot be calculated in Excel, they are cre-ated with imagination and courage. Every truly creative idea seems crazy at the time of its birth. Let’s celebrate this.

Future forecasting

2012 Primary Project of the Food Development Competence Cluster:

Find a new idea and make it a success!

What could the success products of tomor-row be like? How are ideas found? How can a company sense the needs of the cus-tomer, when the consumers themselves do not know how to describe them? Questions like this are addressed in the 2012 Primary Project.

Nowadays there is an abundance of trend reports, branch reviews, and consumer sur-veys. We can collect and analyse different weak signals or consider alternative future scenarios. There are more and more op-tions and various research data available. It may seem challenging for individual com-panies to find pertinent data and methods and to get started with forecasting and brainstorming work. – We are here to help small and medium-sized companies within the food industry to utilise forecasting methods, especially at the beginning of their innovation process, says Development Manager Mari Norrdal from the Functional Foods Forum at the Uni-versity of Turku.

TOWARDS INNOVATIVE PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

Truly novel products are rare. Indeed, the project tries to provide companies with bet-ter abilities to create true innovation.

In forecasting the future, it is important to see things in a different light, with new people, and from different angles than before. The best abilities in terms of suc-cessful and innovative creation are yielded through company cross-pollination, bring-ing together talent from different branches. Food Development Cluster has decided to do its bit.

TEXT: HELI HAUTANIEMI

– We aim for the consumer point of view, research data on the subject, branch trends, and lots of weak signals for the fu-ture, says Norrdal.

FUTURE FORECASTING AS PART OF BUSINESS

Tool of the Future project is a development wheel that proceeds from identifying pos-sibilities to creation and idea development, and onto assessing ideas and defining concepts.

The idea creation phase is shared, and after this, the companies continue assess-ing the ideas and making them into con-cepts on their own, led by experts. The idea concepts are also tested on con-sumers. As the end result, companies receive ideas that are made into concepts and are tested. They can then be used for product development, model creation and concept building.

The Food Development Cluster builds an operations concept to make future forecast-ing data and research results a part of the company’s innovation process.

Future forecasting

Product and service

development

Refinement of ideas within the

innovation processWorkshops

2. Creation and idea development

3. Assessment of Ideas

Concept testsEvaluation of

business potentialCommercialisation

Weak signalsConsumer research

Information on market, branch and product category

1. Identification of Possibilities

4. Definition of Concept

Consumer testsPanels of experts

TOOL OF THE FUTURE DEVELOPMENT WHEEL

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How to be a small innovative company?

Kanniston Leipomo, a small bakery in the heart of Helsinki, launched its innovative gingerbread concept in 2010. Since then, the Kanniston Leipomo’s gingerbread has been awarded both domestic and interna-tional prizes. It has also been a commercial success, doubling sales between 2010 and 2011. In this article, CEO Henrik Bruun and R&D Manager Heikki Manner write about the challenges of small companies who want to make innovation a part of their modus operandi.

Small companies are an important source of innovations. When new trends arise, small companies are quick to capitalise on the market niches that appear. They are agile. On the other hand, small companies by definition have smaller resources, and they tend to be focused on product devel-opment, not commercialisation. With these restrictions, what is required for a small company to become a successful innova-tive company?

INVENTION & COMMERCIALISATION

The problem for small companies that want to be innovative is that they tend to focus on inventing products but neglect the commercialisation of them. A truly in-novative company must succeed at both parts. Big companies have often grown large because at some point they found this balance of effort. They have adequate in-house resources and break up tasks into departments like production, product development, sales and marketing. Some firms even have departments that deal spe-cifically with packaging design and social media, for example. In big companies, the challenge is to get all of these departments

TEXT: HENRIK BRUUN JA HEIKKI MANNER, KANNISTON LEIPOMO, PHOTOS: KANNISTON LEIPOMO

involved in truly novel projects, and to work in collaboration rather than competition. While inspiration and focus come easier in small companies, the breadth of competen-cies and approaches that are needed for innovation may be a difficult challenge.

At Kanniston Leipomo, we have tried to resolve this dilemma through networking. Some of the competencies that are crucial for our capacity for innovation are in-house, but for many we depend on exter-nal partners. We work actively in building networks of trusted partners who not only bring important knowledge to our decision-making and operations but also push us to become better. A trusted partner in this sense is one that not only delivers what you ask for, but who has learned to work with you and knows and respects your philoso-phy and values. Partnerships of this kind are built on personal relationships and joint experiences of collaboration. Thus, the innovative small company must be skill-ful in finding potential collaborators who bring added value to the company and then enrolling them as trusted partners.

PARALLEL DEVELOPMENT OF DESIGN AND PRODUCT

When we developed our innovative gin-gerbread concept, we brought a relatively large group of in-house people and ex-ternal partners together to make a novel product. All in all, fourteen people par-

ticipated in the product development, less than half of them in-house staff. We relied on external inputs in the areas of product development, packaging design and mar-keting. What is especially notable is that seven of the fourteen people represented sales, marketing and design, while only four represented product development and production. Another notable feature in our process was that design and production collaborated from the start. For instance, some of the designers tested different ideas together with the bakers in the bakery. The idea was that design should not be an ex-ternal factor that is added to a ready-made product, but that the development of design and product should be done in parallel.

The result was a product that contained novelty in three dimensions: the recipe of the dough, the cookie design and the pack-age design. The new recipe, based on a traditional method that has been forgotten in modern baking, made the taste of our gingerbread one of the best in the world. The cookie design introduced the concept of shareability into the domain of cookies. Our gingerbread is formed like a flower, but if you press the centre of the cookie, it divides into three hearts. Thus, one cookiecan be happily shared between three

>

Future forecasting

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bilisation and direction of a network of people and organisations that represented each dimension neces-sary for innovation. We believe that this is also a key to future successes. Therefore, collaboration within the network has continued in new development projects, sometimes just with parts of the gingerbread network, and sometimes with the network as a whole. It is also important to remember that innovation networks are not fixed. New people and organisations enter the network from project to project, while other partners may leave or be left out of some projects. While this approach gives great flexibility, networks come with transaction costs that arise from their management. Managing in-novation networks is more demanding than managing employees in one company. If small Finnish companies want to become innovative, the one thing they need to learn is the art of building and managing networks.

people. The structurally innovative packaging gave our gingerbread a unique, recognisable identity when compared with our competitors’ products. The pack-age is round, with an open top and bottom, so that the consumer can see the handmade cookies through their plastic wrapping. Although gingerbread is tradition- ally a seasonal product, we chose to emphasise its Scandinavian origins more than the season. The pack-age is beautifully white, with the front depicting a pic-ture of a divided gingerbread. The design is charac-terised by simplicity and elegance.

Kanniston Leipomo’s gingerbread has won numerous domestic and international awards. The most pres-tigious perhaps was the Pentawards silver award in September 2011. Despite the relatively high price for this unique premium cookie, it has been a commercial success − we sold all we could produce over the 2011 Christmas season.

INNOVATION NETWORK – KEY TO FUTURE SUCCESS

The secret behind Kanniston Leipomo’s success in the gingerbread case is the successful engagement, mo-

Future forecasting

Supporting the success stories of the futureAt its disposal the Viikki Food Centre has the comprehensive pilot plant facilities of the University of Helsinki as well as research serving the complete food chain. We can also provide cross-disciplinary knowledge and new development methods for the benefit of businesses in the food industry.

Food safety Food product development Food commercialization

We’re happy to help.Contact details at:www.viikkifoodcentre.fi

Success factor

”The Yosa® technology is an excellent example of an invention born out of research that has been successfully commercialized by Bioferme Oy.”

Professor Hannu Salovaara, Food Technology Faculty, University of Helsinki

INNOBUUSTERI – NEW TOOL FOR INNOVATIONS

As a part of its innovation work, Kanniston Leipomo used the InnoBuusteri tool devel-oped by the Viikki Food Centre. The idea of the InnoBuusteri is to help companies pro-cess challenging issues on the road to in-novation. In Kanniston Leipomo’s case, the InnoBuusteri consisted of two workshops. Workshop participants included in-house experts and managers, owners of the firm, external collaborators and researchers. The first workshop was analytical in orien-tation, and dealt with strategic issues. A map of strategically relevant concerns was designed. One of those concerns was then selected as the topic for the second work-shop: How should the Kanniston Leipomo brand be developed in the future? Having a clear conception of the brand will give us direction for future innovation. We started by analysing the prevailing trends affecting food consumption and production. An ani-

mating “What if…” presentation was then given by one of our collaborators. Inspired by the richly illustrated demonstration, we brainstormed creatively about the future of our brand. A great number of ideas were produced. At the end of the workshop, we organised the ideas into larger themes and ranked the themes in terms of opportunity and implementation.

Both InnoBuusteri workshops were facili-tated by a professional facilitator. A num-ber of facilitation techniques were used to organise the collective processing of problems. Different methods were used for analytical and creative tasks. The speed of professionally facilitated group thinking is impressive. Still, innovation requires much more than a couple of workshops. The In-noBuusteri provided us with direction for continued work. We are now working on nine themes identified in the workshops. This is done in a distributed manner, with appointed “managers” for each theme.

Another equally important outcome of the InnoBuusteri was that the direction in which we are developing things has been anchored in our innovation network – from the owners to individual consultants. Ev-erybody knows in what direction Kanniston Leipomo is heading, and why. A third out-come was that our innovation network was extended. Some of the participants had not worked with us before, and as a result of sharing information and getting to know each other in the workshops, new, exciting projects are being developed.

More information: Johanna Jaskari-Halonen, Viikki Food Centre (p. 25)

Future forecasting

Supporting the success stories of the futureAt its disposal the Viikki Food Centre has the comprehensive pilot plant facilities of the University of Helsinki as well as research serving the complete food chain. We can also provide cross-disciplinary knowledge and new development methods for the benefit of businesses in the food industry.

Food safety Food product development Food commercialization

We’re happy to help.Contact details at:www.viikkifoodcentre.fi

Success factor

”The Yosa® technology is an excellent example of an invention born out of research that has been successfully commercialized by Bioferme Oy.”

Professor Hannu Salovaara, Food Technology Faculty, University of Helsinki

Research article / MTT Agrifood Research Finland:

Food in the year 2050TEXT: RAIJA TAHVONEN

As of now, there are very few forecasts or scenarios for food in 2050. In the long term, there are many risk factors. The amount of energy appears to be largely sufficient everywhere in the world. The WWF UK Livewell report used linear mod-elling to create a plate model for the year 2020 based on the currently available food products. The plate model reached the emission-reduction targets for 2020 and provided the recommended amounts of nutrients. A large share of the meat had been replaced by leguminous plants and other vegetables. A small amount of food products containing large quantities of fat and sugar was also permitted.

The authors state that it seems possible to use small amounts of meat and other ani-mal products even in 2050, but they must be compensated with food products that create little environmental stress. A diet in accordance with emission-reduction targets differs greatly from the current British diet, but it still seems possible to gain a suffi-cient amount of necessary nutrients from ordinary food. In the worst case of Finnish scenarios for 2030, food supply is sparse and food production and consumption are regulated.

WHAT COULD BE CHANGED WITHOUT RISKING THE SUPPLY OF NECESSARY NUTRIENTS?

Finland consumes vast amounts of alcohol, confectionary, soft drinks and ice cream. The greenhouse gas emissions for alcoholic drinks (CO2 equivalent) differ between 1.5 kg/l (beer) and 6 kg/l (wines, spirits). Ad-ditionally, alcohol has significant health and socio-economic effects, i.e. indirect en-vironmental effects (Saxe 2010). The direct environmental effects of confectionary and snack products are relatively small. In Swe-den they were estimated at 2.6% of all the environmental effects caused by foodstuffs (Nilsson et al. 2011). The environmental

effect of ice cream is quite significant, be-cause its raw material, milk, has a substan-tial environmental effect. However, the di-rect environmental effects of ice cream are probably only a few per cent of the overall effects of foodstuffs.

Reducing the consumption of these non-essential products to, say, the consumption levels of the 1960s would decrease the di-rect environmental effects significantly. Ad-ditionally, a smaller energy supply would reduce obesity and its co-morbidities, which would reduce the indirect environ-mental effects (health care) significantly.

DIETARY CHANGES AFFECTING THE SUPPLY OF NUTRIENTS

Reducing the consumption of meat, and red meat in particular, seems to be an effective way of reducing greenhouse gases and adapting to climate change globally. We can balance the increase in greenhouse gas emissions caused by the necessary amount of meat for the increased popula-tion by the year 2050 by consuming only 90 g of meat per person per day. A strong decrease in meat consumption in industrial countries would greatly reduce the amount of lifestyle diseases. An increase in con-sumption in developing countries would increase the risk of cancer of the large in-testine, heart disease, and breast cancer, but it would greatly reduce dysplasia in children. The overall effect for the society would, however, be advantageous.

Animal protein and other nutrients can be replaced by increasing the consumption of vegetables, especially leguminous plants and other crops. Favouring domestic beans and peas would benefit other domestic pro-duction through their advantageous envi-ronmental effects (nitrogen fixation, improv-ing soil structure, decreasing the leaching of nutrients).

The UN experts’ population projec-tion for the year 2050 is 9–10 billion. According to optimistic scenarios, we are able to produce enough energy for almost everyone. According to pessimistic scenarios, however, en-ergy supply and overall welfare will diminish around the world.

The demand and supply of food are affected by many factors. Accord-ing to forecasts, the majority of the population (over 70%) will live in cities by 2050. Disposable income will increase, particularly in devel-oping countries. Diet will change along with the increase in income. The consumption of meat, sugar, and fat will increase, which will result in increased lifestyle diseases. Some of the products fit for nutrition will be used for bio fuel production. Climate change and other environmental ef-fects caused by humans will affect the production amounts of crops and livestock. The areas suitable for agricultural use will be limited, much like the amount of usable water. The diminishing biodiversity will hinder agricultural production.

Food production can be increased by developing farming methods, re-fining crops and livestock, and opti-mising fertilisation and irrigation. The amount of food can also be increased by optimising the use of farming land, i.e. allocating land to food products that can be produced with the least input for production and minimum water usage. The amount of food on supply can be increased by decreas-ing waste that is up to half of the crop in some areas. The amount of food going to waste is astonishing, even up to 30% in some countries.

Future forecasting

14

Food in the year 2050 could at best be quite normal food. We would consume meat at the level of the 1960s, but the share of poultry and pork of all meat would be greater. Grain would primarily be whole grain. Vegetables, especially legu-minous plants, would be consumed much more than today. Wild products would be utilised carefully. Greenhouse vegeta-bles would be seasonal produce. Confec- tionary, crisps, ice creams, and soft and alcoholic drinks would be reserved for special occasions.

If we cannot restrain climate change and other environmental effects, the uneven dis-tribution of food and clean water will cause social tensions, restlessness and conflicts. Various unforeseeable natural phenomena (earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, forest/wildfires, etc.) or environmental disasters caused by humans may also affect food production or the availability of clean wa-ter. Agriculture and food research should, in fact, be focused on research into un-usual food raw materials (insects/larvae, microbes, plant and animal tissue cultures, genetically modified organisms, etc.).

HOW COULD THESE CHANGES BE IMPLEMENTED?

The changes should start with baby steps in the easiest areas, i.e. reducing food waste and the consumption of alcohol, soft drinks, and confectionary. Consumers should be informed of the environmental, health, and ethical effects of food, and con-sumers should be offered reliable tools for assessing their own diet. Foodstuff charts should be accompanied by information on environmental and ethical effects.

”Agriculture and food research should, in fact, be focused on research into unusual food raw materials”

RAIJA TAHVONEN

Raija Tahvonen is a professor of genomic nutrition at MTT Agrifood Research Finland.

PHOTO: VEIKKO SOMERPURO / MTT ARCHIVE

COMMENTS Jukka Lähteenkorva

Future forecasting always considers vari-ous possible scenarios and seeks solu-tions for the problems arising from each scenario. Situation described in the re-search article, where there isn’t enough food for everyone, is quite commonplace in many parts of the world right at this moment. Finnish solutions could very well help both in areas suffering from natural catastrophes or war, and develop-ing countries. The solutions could be con-nected to basic issues, such as food and water sufficiency, preventing food-related infections, grain varieties suitable for dif-ferent growth circumstances, and logisti-cal challenges. The solutions could just as well be something completely novel: innovations that have not been thought of before. Solutions that cause things to be a little different and significantly better. If we are unlucky and the worst case scenarios come true, these solu-tions could prove handy in the future in developed countries as well, even in Fin-land. We believe in the abilities of Finnishcompanies and researchers to solve many small problems, whose eventual ef-fects may be significant. That is why we want to be involved in developing and internationalising Finnish know-how.

Future forecasting

15

Human Security Grid

Business opportunities in developing areas

Finnish companies and experts are encour-aged to direct their skills towards develop-ing countries and crisis management areas, and create the preconditions for cooperation there. Human Security Grid brings together actors from the fields of education, business and research from the point of view of hu-man security.

– Our goal is to create needs-oriented product and service concepts in the fields of health and well-being, cleantech, food security, health biotechnology and mobile solutions, lists Roseanna Avento, Project Manager in charge of Human Security Grid operations, from Kuopio Innovation Ltd.

The network connects many fields and clus-ters of know-how. This promotes coopera-tion on both regional and national levels and aims to find new business opportuni-ties of the future.– We can create research and product de-velopment-based innovations for the needs of comprehensive crisis management, says Arto Holopainen, Kuopio Innovation Devel-opment Director of Health and Well-being.

ENTREPRENEURS AND RESEARCHERS ARE INVITED

Workshops and seminars are arranged throughout 2012 in order to involve entre-preneurs and experts. The participants can be actively involved in the building of new product and service concepts. All actors in-terested in offering their products, services or know-how into development coopera-tion efforts are welcome at the events.– The first national seminar in February hosted a “Food Security for the World” workshop for actors in the food industry,

TEXT: JANIIKA VILKUNA-RÄSÄNEN

says Marja-Leena Laitinen, Kuopio Innova-tion Development Director of Food Devel-opment.

FOOD SAFETY PROVIDES MANY EXPORTPOSSIBILITIES

Human Security Grid is in active coopera-tion with the already existing Food Safety Management Finland (FSMF) ry. Laitinen says that Finland has a lot of food safety expertise to offer, and it covers the entire food supply chain, where the food prod-ucts remain microbiologically and hygieni-cally pure all the way from the provider of the raw materials to the end user. Addition-ally, Finland has plenty of food security know-how that guarantees that there is a sufficient amount of food and that it is nutri-tionally balanced. Finland’s strength lies in the control of the entire food chain, where food products, animal feed, and their raw materials can be traced in every step of production, manufacture and distribution.– This concept is dubbed “from the farm to the fork” and this know-how has many com-mercial possibilities, Avento says.

Finland is strong in terms of hygiene, logis-tics, analytics, and cold chain technologies as well as packaging material develop-ment that can provide new business oppor-tunities. The grid also focuses on finding affordable solutions for developing regions in the delivery of high-quality food prod-ucts without compromising shelf-life. In ad-dition, we have transferrable educational know-how for the food development sector.– Health security bridges food develop-ment solutions to cleantech, health and well-being technologies, says Jukka Lähteenkorva, Programme Director of the Food Development Cluster.

The Human Security Grid is compiling a national, regional border-crossing food industry network of actors. You are wel-come to come along and discuss interest-ing ideas for initiatives and cooperation. www.humansecuritygrid.org

More information: ROSEANNA AVENTO Project Manager roseanna.avento@kuopioinnovation.fi +35850 379 5420

Human Security Grid is a joint project coordinated by Kuopio Innovation Ltd. and its operations are directed by the national Health and Well-being Cluster Programme. The Human Security Grid is a joint project of the National Cen-tre of Expertise Programme’s (OSKE)Health & Well-being, Food Develop-ment, HealthBio and Cleantech Clus-ters. The project is primarily funded by the Ministry of Employment and the Economy, the Regional Council of Poh-jois-Savo, and the City of Kuopio. The operation started in the spring of 2011.

Cooperation partners involved coor-dination are the Crisis Management Centre Finland ESF project Adapting Knowledge to Business Models, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, and the Ministry of Employment and the Economy. Additionally, universities, universities of applied sciences, research institutes and companies participate in the project.

BUSINESS INCUBATOR • PROJECT PREPARATION • NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL NETWORKS • PARTNER IN INNOVATION & COMMERCIALISATION

FOOD SECURITYNUTRITION & eNUTRITION

NEW TECHNOLOGIES

Contact information: Development Director Marja-Leena Laitinen Mobile +358 45 657 9569 marja-leena.laitinen@kuopioinnovation.fi

www.kuopioinnovation.fi/en

FOOD DEVELOPMENT IN KUOPIO

16

Year 2011

• Training forum in Central Asia – supporting international operations of companies in the water and food security sectors through knowledge transfer.

• Presenting the operations in the FSMF ry meeting.

Year 2012

• National seminar hosts ”Food Security for the World” workshop for food industry actors.

• A delegation of the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and the Ministry of Agriculture of the Kyrgyz Republic visits Finland. FSMF and the Human Security Grid present Finnish food industry know-how provided by different companies.

• Food Development cluster meeting in Kuopio organised by the Human Security Grid and the Crisis Management Centre Finland.

• Food Security for the World workshop.• Launching food security pilots based on the cooperation ideas created.

HUMAN SECURITY GRID OPERATIONS

Training forum in Central Asia – supporting international operations of companies in the water and food security sectors through knowledge transfer.

National seminar hosts ”Food Security for the World” workshop for

Organization (FAO) and the Ministry of Agriculture of the Kyrgyz Republic visits Finland. FSMF and the Human Security Grid present Finnish food industry know-

Food Development cluster meeting in Kuopio organised by the Human Security

Human Security Grid

BUSINESS INCUBATOR • PROJECT PREPARATION • NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL NETWORKS • PARTNER IN INNOVATION & COMMERCIALISATION

FOOD SECURITYNUTRITION & eNUTRITION

NEW TECHNOLOGIES

Contact information: Development Director Marja-Leena Laitinen Mobile +358 45 657 9569 marja-leena.laitinen@kuopioinnovation.fi

www.kuopioinnovation.fi/en

FOOD DEVELOPMENT IN KUOPIO

Food Clusters Worldwide

The Pharmapolis Innovative Food Cluster TEXT: JÓZSEF PROKISCH, KUVAT: JÓZSEF PROKISCH, ANNALEENA AIRA

The Pharmapolis Innovative Food Cluster holds together the development ideas of big companies and several small and medium enterprises, and brings them closer to the scientific achievements and experiences of the University of Debrecen. Using this special opportunity for development, we can create food products contributing to health mainte-nance and good feeling by eating them.

The Pharmapolis Innovative Food Cluster in Hungary is an internationally regis-tered, market oriented, innovative net-work, and has proved to be attractive for

well-educated professionals in the field of biotechnology and agronomy, especially agro-biotechnology. The cluster is a special knowledge-based system of innovation, in which the University of Debrecen and the other scientific institutes involved in the Cluster provide intellectual services. Beside universities and the other knowl-edge centres, the City of Debrecen, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Hajdú-Bihar, private members such as Pick Szalámigyár Zrt (the leading producer of meat products in Hungary, involved in one of the most important company groups in the Hungarian food industry) and several SMEs interested in functional food also have a key role in the life and work of the cluster.

With regard to the future of our cluster, it links in well with the accredited pharma-ceutical programme, created by Richter Gedeon Vegyészeti NYRt at the University of Debrecen and other pharmaceutical companies. In cooperation with Hungar-ian and foreign partners, the cluster is able to be a key actor in Hungarian and international research and development activities in the food, health and well- being market, including the develop-ment of instruments, diagnostics and healthy food.

Tasty and Healthy! Food products based on tradition and modern knowledge that are clinically tested mean the opportunity for us all to live in a healthier way, to avoid ill-nesses, and to aid recovery from illnesses.

I-SHOP: A NEW TOOL IN CLUSTER INNOVATION

Innovation at the same time as an idea becomes a product is a multistep process. When development of food products be-gins with an idea, the financial value dur-ing this phase is close to zero – in this form it cannot be commercialised. With inves-tigation and further research, it becomes possible to patent it, which is already worth money as well. With this registered intellectual property, we have to solve the production and upscaling issues to move it to the industrial level. The know-how and the patent together are worth a lot. In or-der to be able to find an investor for the rights and the technology of production, the product must prove its value on market. Customers need to pay the price we have introduced, and marketing costs must also be covered in the following period.

An investor needs very strong evidences before he or she commits to funding. To fill the gap between good initiations and success, we designed a brand new service that can increase the public awareness and consumption of newly introduced food products developed by cluster members. This service is the I-shop (Innovative-Shop).

I-shop is a new system of the Pharmapolis Innnovative Food Cluster, which specialises in functional food products. The I-shop fo-cuses on items developed at the University of Debrecen, and its target group is the “population” of the University. Besides its virtual presence, the shop also has a nice physical space, which is located on the uni-versity campus. There are also a number of mobile applications for marketing at differ-ent events.

The cluster’s aim with this shop is to test new foods with clinically proved, posi-tive effects and their marketing at a cer-tain target audience. From the aspect of granted projects, I-shop services are worth an significant amount, because they make it possible to show the positive and nega-tive features of a development and in some cases the project itself under real market conditions.

I-shop has a great role in the media com-munication of functional food consumption and the university’s role in this campaign. The consumer population of I-shop is also a potential group for new clinical testing of subsequent products. This unique system, with these advantages, also strengthens the position of University of Debrecen within the cluster as well.

Our consumers are mainly university em-ployees who can easily order our special, innovative products via the webshop, email and telephone. Some of the I-shop items cannot be found anywhere else: home-made goats cheese with medicinal herbs from Hortobágy, homemade selenium- enriched yoghurt, Mangalica products, black corn, sorghum or millet-based bakery products and teas, to name a few.

Do you have foreign guests coming to visit you at the university, or perhaps you are hosting a press conference or a special oc-

casion? I-shop products represent the food development activity of university, and in this way these items are suitable as spe-cial, exemplary souvenirs for every type of guest.

During the last year, I-shop hosted the rep-resentatives of Food Development Cluster Programme (OSKE) under the leadership of Jukka Lähteenkorva. On 30 May 2011, on the occasion of the informal meeting of Council of EU Ministers of Agriculture, we presented our special selenium-enriched cottage cheese with Hungarian spicing (“körözött”) on purple corn-based blue bread. The dessert was puffed sorghum (“popcirok”) and local strawberries.

DR. JÓZSEF PROKISCHUniversity of Debrecen, HungaryPharmapolis Innovative Food Clusterjprokisch@agr.unideb.hu

Food Clusters Worldwide

19

Local Food

The Meanings of the Countryside pro-gramme headed by Jyri Arponen has for its part wanted to support future busi-nesses in the food industry, especially those who have the chance to speed up development and change within the in-dustry.

Local food – Knowing the origin of food is paramount

The demand for local and organically grown food and novel services connected to them has developed from a growing trend into permanent growth. The Finnish Innovation Fund’s (Sitra) Meanings of the Countryside project has been looking for bottlenecks and their solution models in thesegrowth conditions.– We wanted to identify the changes in the countryside and the new possibilities of-fered by them in our project, says Business Director Jyri Arponen.– The growing demand for local and or-- ganically grown food is one of these pos-sibilities. The project aims to support the birth of new kinds of business, such as dif-ferent logistical solutions and duplicatable service concepts.

Arponen is convinced that Finns’ relation-ship with food has changed for good.– Eating is more and more connected with value choices – food is not just food; it has much deeper meaning.

GREENWASHING FOOD?

Defining the concept of local food has been discussed extensively. Some think that the concept can be limited by kilometres, others emphasise knowing the producer and the origins of food and a certain feel for craftsmanship.

Arponen does not want to mention exact distances, but sees the definition of local food as a sufficient connection between the producer and the consumer.– Consumers buying local food know wherethe food comes from, who has produced the raw materials, and who has manufac-tured the product. I think that a known, reliable origin is more important thankilometres. Local food cannot, however, be imported. In Finland local food is always Finnish.

TEXT: ANNE RINTAMÄKI, PHOTO: JUHA SAARINEN

LOCAL FOOD MAY BE BEST

Arponen says that he has been thinking of a better term to replace local food, but has not found one yet.– There are no suitable words in the Finnish language. Clean food is pretty good, but no one can dispute the cleanliness of pro-cessed food. One option would be to use “unprocessed food”, food whose producer is known and that has been produced and manufactured as ecologically as possible. The term short-haul food has also been sug-gested.– Local food should not mean being self-centred either, but we must remember that international trade is an important part of our welfare. These must not be seen as concepts that cancel each other out, but concepts that support each other, as long as we strive towards ecological, social, and financial sustainability. Seasonal food serves as the superior example of this and provides Finland with all the necessary tools for specialisation.

A SIGN OF CHANGE

Even though the definition of local food differs quite significantly depending on the source, Arponen is very pleased with the enlivening of the food discussion and the increase in food-aware consumers.– We have been driven by the economy of greatness for decades; trade and the food industry have become concentrated and unit sizes have gone up. This has impacted on supply, too. Consumers have, however, started to demand real, natural food, pure flavours and reliable origins.– I think there is a market for small industries and small manufacturing in the food in-dustry. The time is right, we just need new modes of operation and co-operation, Arponen says.

The Meanings of the Countryside pro-gramme has for its part wanted to support

future businesses in the food industry, espe-cially those who have the chance of speed-ing up development and change within the industry.– We are also hoping for real changes from the bigger operators. They should be looking for alternatives to the traditional value chain, where the chain would be fair towards all actors. If it cannot be achieved by local forces, the change will come from outside. That is indeed where change origi-nates most of the time.

BRAVELY TOWARDS THE NEW

According to Arponen, we now need good people who understand the market and consumers and good ideas that produce profitable business in Finland.– Success requires the ability to understand the origin of food and the secrets of com-mercialisation. However, we do not need to know all this ourselves. Instead, it is im-portant to identify our lack of knowledge and acquire skilled people for those areas through different means.– The winners in business will be those who acquire their own capital and create sta- ble, close relationships with producers. This concoction will also attract investors. – You must have supply and options in order to create more demand and involve new consumer groups, Arponen reminds us.

20

eNutrition

eNutrition brings nutritional guidance up to date

– We organised an eNutrition theme group for the companies and research parties connected with the theme last spring in Kuopio. This group of companies got very excited about developing new eNutrition and eHealth solutions together. In fact, we are currently cooperating on a pilot project connected to the care of diabetes, says Marja-Leena Laitinen, Development Director of Food Development, from Kuopio Innovation Ltd.

The aim is that the results of the pilot project will give pointers to other companies as well, mainly in terms of developing testing circumstances and methods. The Viikki Food Centre started to promote the theme with Kuopio within Food Development Cluster. The pilot’s company group also received representation from Helsinki.– Additionally, Functional Food Forum in Turku became an active participant. We held a joint brainstorming meeting in Food Industry Exhibition, Laitinen says.

TEXT: JANIIKA VILKUNA-RÄSÄNEN, PHOTO: WELLNESS FOUNDRY

Many companies utilising high-tech and mobile applications are becoming more and more popular in lifestyle guidance and health care. The idea of mapping Finnish eNutrition know-how was born in cooperation between Food Development and Health and Well-being clusters.

COOPERATION OVER CLUSTER BORDERS

The eNutrition know-how mapping began last year in cooperation between Kuopio, Helsinki and Turku. – The work is done throughout our national cluster, which means that all the cities are participating! This is national theme and strenght finding at its best, Laitinen rejoices. – In Health and Well-being Cluster, we are conduct-ing a national ”eHealth Supporting Living at Home” company and service survey together with Invest in Fin-land, and eNutrition is a part of that, says Health and Well-being Development Director Arto Holopainen from Kuopio Innovation.

eNutrition

Case 1: Wellness Foundry Ltd. / Helsinki & New York

From counting milligrams to interactive nutrition coaching

When Michael Quarshie was playing professional football in the NFL in the United States, he had great interest in training and nutrition issues – the topics were naturally an important part of the professional athlete’s work. Alongside playing, Michael completed a bache-lor’s degree in political science at Columbia University, after which the hunger to start a business of his own grew stronger.– I wanted to combine encouraging training with nutri-tional guidance, says Michael, Managing Director of Wellness Foundry Ltd.

Michael and his university friend Nicolas Wuorenhei-mo worked on the idea together, and Nicholas is now in charge of the company’s technology management and operations in the United States, based in New York. – Our business idea got started when we met in Man-hattan through Finnish language Professor Aili Flint dur-ing our studies. We carried out our first pilot projects with the Columbia University basketball and football teams, says Michael.

Wellness Foundry has offices in New York and Helsin-ki. There are many factors contributing to the interna-tional nature of the business in the pair’s backgrounds. – My mother comes from Huittinen in Finland and my father from Accra in Ghana. They met when they were studying medicine and dentistry in Germany, where I was born and started school. We moved to Finland when I was 7. After high school and the Finnish mili-tary service I went to the United States to study and play. I have Finnish and Ghanaian citizenships. My business partner Nicolas moved from Helsinki to New York as a child with his family, and he also served in the military in Finland. He has Finnish and US citizenships.

TEXT: JANIIKA VILKUNA-RÄSÄNEN, PHOTO:TONY GONZALES (THE OAKLAND RAIDERS)

FROM OLD-FASHIONED FOOD JOURNALS TO MOBILE SERVICES

The business idea was born when the men tried to improve their teammates’ diets back at Columbia University.– Traditionally, a food journal would be kept in a note-book and it would be scrutinised at the dietitian’s office or in a nutrition lecture. These practices did not seem very modern, Michael says

The men realised that in addition to computers, mo-bile services could be utilised for nutrition guidance as mobile phones and other mobile devices are a part of the modern person’s basic kit. The idea was cultivated into the MealLogger internet service that is used to help health care and nutrition experts provide lifestyle guid-ance to their customers based on camera phone photos of their food and their exercise logs.– There is no need for healthy eating to entail difficult calculations and watching every milligram. The goal of our service is to make finding and sticking to good diet and healthy lifestyles fun, easy and social.

INDIVIDUALITY AND EASE AS MAIN BENEFITS

Michael says that keeping a food diary consisting of pictures and getting feedback from experts has been found to be both illustrative and inspiring for the cus-tomers. Taking a picture of the food you are about to eat makes you think about what you are eating, where-as a traditional diet diary is only filled in afterwards.– The service clearly increases the customer’s fruit and vegetable consumption, because they pay more atten-tion to their meals. This means that the program leads to eating and perceiving a better and more versatile diet.

Personal nutritional guidance from an expert is a great innovation in health care. The customers appreciate the opportunity to receive custom-made guidance and to utilise the service according to their own schedule.– Interaction is made possible in our service without the customer having to have regular face-to-face meetings with the doctor, nurse, dietitian or psychologist.

“The goal of our service is tomake finding and sticking togood diet and healthy lifestylesfun, easy and social.”

22

Case 1: Wellness Foundry Ltd. / Helsinki & New York

From counting milligrams to interactive nutrition coaching

eNutrition

MealLogger service is utilised in many ways, such as supporting diabetics, eating disorder patients, and weight-loss surgery patients, in weight loss and well-being at work groups, as well as in guiding athletes. Over 400 professionals from Finland and the United States have already logged in to the service. – Our customer base in Finland includes Terveystalo and Diacor (medical centres), Syömishäiriökeskus (eating disorder cen-tre), and individual dietitians. We work in cooperation with the universities of Helsinki and Jyväskylä, among others. In the United States, our customers include several uni-versities, gyms, individual dieticians, and other nutritional guidance companies, Michael lists.

The Wellness Foundry considers partner-ships with other services related to sports, nutrition and health care very important.

Their goal is to develop the service by adding devices manufactured by other companies.– Through the Centre of Expertise Pro-gramme, we have participated in a pilot project connected to diabetes, to which the cluster has brought some great part-ners through its network of contacts. Fur-thermore, we have been introduced to other operators in the field that we weren’t aware of before. We value this very much, because we have created new partnerships thanks to this operation, Michael adds.

www.wellnessfoundry.comTwitter: @meallogger

The Wellness Foundry business idea was origi-nally born out of the needs of athletes. Michael (in front) played for the Oakland Raiders.

Case 2: ”Stop Dieting – Start Living!” – is the primary advice given by FlowDiet entrepreneurs Miika Heinonen, Petteri Kallio and Tiina Lappalainen

FlowDiet team believes in the great power of small lifestyle changes and offer a new lifestyle instead of miracle diets – and they utilise social media in their work.

– We like good food ourselves, that is why we are not forcing our customers to eat only salad, they promise with smiles on their faces.

Tiina is an authorised nutritionist and has a PhD in the genetics of obesity. Miika, who works as a health centre doctor, wrote his doctoral thesis on obesity hormones. Petteri is a biochemist who wrote his doc-toral thesis on gene expression in adi-pose tissue. The trio says that they are an

TEXT: JANIIKA VILKUNA-RÄSÄNEN, PHOTO: FLOWDIET

expert team in the science of nutrition and medicine, not a group of spiritual healers. The business is run in parallel to their full-time occupations.

FlowDiet’s knowledge and message are based on scientific research. The whole idea was originally Petteri’s and it was crystallised in Kuopio Innovation Business Incubator and the Oili project at the Univer-sity of Eastern Finland.– Our team was formed along the way. I myself am Petteri’s colleague at the Univer-

”We are all fed up with dry nutritional communication”

sity and we also knew Miika already. We are all fed up with dry nutritional communi-cation and want to update it for the 2000s, Tiina says.– We have received positive feedback on our gigs and from our customers. That gives us the drive to develop our opera-tions. One piece of feedback said that we put on a brilliant “academic stand-up” at a customer company’s well-being event, Pet-teri laughs.

RANDOM EPISODES AND OTHER MEANS OF SOCIAL MEDIA

FlowDiet adjusts and develops its opera-tions constantly. At the moment the team is producing content for social media and >

23

eNutrition

”We believe in the great power of small changes and offer a new way of life,” say Petteri Kallio, Tiina Lappalainen and Miika Heinonen.

lecturing at company events.– We all write for blogs and people seem to read them, too. Our Facebook pages currently have nearly 200 fans. We post important information on weight control there several times a week. We have also started a Random Episodes video series. We hope to bring a new outlook on things, they say.

The trio says that obesity increases the risk of developing many long-term illnesses, of which the most common are cardiovascu-lar diseases, metabolic diseases such as diabetes and metabolic syndrome, articu-lar diseases, and cancers. They all hinder the ability to work and decrease the quality of life. – I would be surprised if anyone willingly wanted to be obese after listening to all these reasons, Miika ponders.

The FlowDiet group thinks that the biggest problem these days is the difficulty in not

overeating, because there is so much food available all the time. If you want to stay at your current weight, you need to be aware of what and how much you can eat.– We tell our customers our view on how to best achieve it. We can ”lead a horse to the water but we cannot make him drink it”, so our role is to give the customer a little shove, says Petteri.

YOU DO NOT NEED TO REINVENT YOUR LIFE

Miracle diets are not the key to solving life-style issues in the long term. – The truth of the matter is: the amount of energy you consume in relation to energy expended is crucial. If miracle diets were the solution to weight control, we would all be following them, Petteri states.

Tiina, Miika and Petteri remind us that con-sumers should fill half their shopping basket

in the fruit and vegetable section. In addi-tion to berries, fruits and vegetables, one should favour ingredients that are as natu-ral as possible, such as low-fat, unsweet-ened dairy products and non-marinated meat and fish.– The best Finnish products are berries, fish, whole grain products and rapeseed oil. The health benefits of these products have been researched extensively, Tiina comments.

According to the FlowDiet experts, the best and most permanent solution is achieved by cutting back on useless calories without reinventing your whole life. – Or without having to use our personal favourite among bogus products, slimming pants, they say with a smile.

www.flowdiet.fiwww.facebook.com/flowdiet

Jukka LähteenkorvaProgramme Director Foodwest Ltd. jukka.lahteenkorva@foodwest.fi+358 6 421 0013, +358 40 543 6781

Annaleena AiraCommunications OfficerFoodwest Ltd.annaleena.aira@foodwest.fi+358 6 421 0021, +358 50 5142 543

Agropolis Ltd. JokioinenErkki Vasara erkki.vasara@agropolis.fi+358 10 249 1826, +358 400 699 209www.agropolis.fi

Contacts

Foodwest Ltd., SeinäjokiSalme Haapala salme.haapala@foodwest.fi+358 6 421 0036, +358 40 585 1772www.foodwest.fi

Functional Foods Forum, TurkuMari Norrdalmari.norrdal@utu.fi+358 40 550 2471fff.utu.fi/oske.html

Kuopio Innovation Ltd. KuopioMarja-Leena Laitinen marja-leena.laitinen@kuopioinnovation.fi+358 45 657 9569www.kuopioinnovation.fi

Viikki Food Centre, HelsinkiJohanna Jaskari-Halonenjohanna.jaskari@viikkifoodcentre.fi+358 50 308 8551www.viikkifoodcentre.fi

FOOD DEVELOPMENT COMPETENCE CLUSTERwww.fooddevelopment.fi

CENTRES OF EXPERTISE

Agropolis Oy is a consultancy and development company. The mission of the company is to enable high-quality, sustainable food production and increase the use of renewable resources.

AGROPOLIS OY, Humppilantie 9 A, FI-31600 Jokioinen, Finland Tel. +358 10 249 1800 | Fax +358 10 249 1840 e-mail: firstname.surname@agropolis.fi

> Transfer of Technology

> Commercialization

> Business Development

> Strengthening of Expertise

> Project Management

> Agropolis Science Park

Services for the food sector > Management of development projects

> Consultancy for the preparation of EU projects

> Targeted consultancy services for SMEs

> Studies for the utilization of by-products

> LCA inventories

www.agropolis.fi