INDUSTRY LEADING SPEAKERS

STU STRUMWASSER Founder & Managing Director, Green Circle Capital Partners

Stu is the founder and managing director of Green Circle Capital Partners and runs the GC Foodtech Ventures fund. It focuses on seed and series A stage ventures in the tech-enabled food & bev CPG space as well as food safety, food waste, and supply chain efficiency ventures.

SWETHA MAHADEVAN Head of Product, Compound Foods

Swetha Mahadevan is Head of Product at Compound Foods, a food-tech startup focused on creating coffee without coffee beans through precision fermentation. It’s a beanless approach that protects coffee ritual, farmer livelihood, and our precious planet.

Kaitlin Mogentale

Founder and CEO, Pulp Pantry

Kaitlin is the founder and CEO of Pulp Pantry, an upcycled snack brand that reclaims fruit and vegetable fiber as the base ingredient for healthy chips. Pulp Pantry won a 2022 Expo West NEXTY award for best salty snack, and secured investment on Season 13 of Shark Tank.

STEVE FORD Co-Founder and COO, Chia Smash

Steve Ford is the Co-Founder and COO of Chia Smash. Chia Smash are re-invigorating the outdated and sugar filled jelly category with good for you jam made with superfoods and upcycled fruits. Chia Smash is certified upcycled.

CAROLINE DAVIDSON Senior Director, Strategic Partnerships, SPINS

Caroline is the Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships at SPINS, the leading provider of retail consumer insights, analytics and consulting for the Natural, Organic and Specialty Products Industry. Caroline has years of experience in the better-for-you CPG space.

DR. LARA RAMDIN Board Member, Upcycled Food Foundation

Dr. Lara Ramdin is a passionate leader with 20 years of global experience in product development and innovation. She is the Chief Innovation Officer and Chief Nutrition and Wellness Scientist at Dole Sunshine Company and sits on the board of the Upcycled Food Foundation.

Registration And Networking

Opening remarks

The food waste problem – past, present and future

Microphone Sarah Munger, Capital, Innovation, and Engagement Analyst, ReFED

• Understating the true scale & impact of the food loss & waste problem

• Exploring innovative solutions to solve food loss & waste

• How a multi-pronged approach can solve the food waste challenge

The role of upcycling as the most impactful and scalable solution to the food waste challenge

Microphone Angie Crone, CEO, Upcycled Food Association

• Identifying the impact of upcycling on food loss & waste and climate change so far

• How the Upcycled Food Association is driving growth in the upcycling industry

• How effective collaboration can accelerate the upcycled food economy

Building a scalable sourcing process for side streams

Microphone Kaitlin Mogentale, Founder and CEO, Pulp Pantry

• The Pulp Pantry journey so far

• Successfully integrating side-streams into functioning value chains

• Lessons learned from co-developing process solutions with sourcing partners

From restaurant to retail: the Grounded Foods case study

Microphone Veronica Fil, Co-Founder and CEO, Grounded Foods

• Key steps in Grounded Foods’ journey from restaurant concept to retail

• Identifying the right channel and go to market strategy for your product

• Lessons learned from scaling internationally

Networking Break And Prescheduled Meetings

11:30

Mitigating procurement challenges for upcycled inputs

Microphone Steve Ford, Co-Founder and COO, Chia Smash

• The Chia Smash journey so far

• Managing supplier redundancy to plan for limited availability of upcycled materials

• How to work with co-manufacturers to identify and solve inefficiencies in procurement strategy

11:55 13:05

12:20 12:45 14:00

Effectively developing your supply chain to achieve scale

Microphone Caue Suplicy, Founder and Chairman, Barnana

• Lessons learned from an upcycling pioneer

• How Barnana developed a farm-to-shelf supply chain with over 1500 individual farming families and lessons learned

• Assessing the right partnerships to scale your brand

Weighing up trade-offs: formulation, sustainability, and price

Microphone Joe Magliano, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer, Otherworld

• Otherworld’s story so far

• Balancing sustainability with the taste and texture expectations of consumers

• How to prioritize sustainability whilst keeping cost of goods sold low

Upcycling novel ingredients: the Reveal avocado seed brew case study

Microphone Sheetal Bahirat, Founder and CEO, Hidden Gems Beverage Co

• Upcycling novel ingredients: Origin story of Reveal

• Overcoming product development challenges to effectively launch an upcycled food product

• Working towards reverse logistics with business model innovation

Lunch Break

Optimizing sustainability with upcycled, alternative ingredients

Microphone Swetha Mahadevan, Head of Product, Compound Foods

• Compound Foods’ R&D journey so far in making beanless coffee

• Identifying similar flavor compounds in more sustainable crops to effectively create upcycled products with alternative ingredients

• Reducing carbon footprint of the product by sourcing byproducts locally

FutureOfFoodEvents.com/UpcycledIngredients

14:25 14:50

Overcoming supply chain constraints to achieve scale

Microphone Ben Stone, Sales and Operations Manager, Blue Stripes Urban Cacao

• How to select partners to effectively meet procurement needs for your upcycled product

• Using on-farm processing to mitigate inconsistency in raw materials

• How to manage alternative suppliers to enable scale while keeping costs down

Scaling production to be commercially viable

Microphone Jake Lopata, Founder and CEO, Xoca World

• Considerations to make when developing a scalable ingredient production process

• Lessons learned from key phases in their scaling journey so far

• How to manage sourcing when increasing production to achieve scale

15:15

16:15 17:15 17:20

Networking Break And Prescheduled Meetings

Roundtable discussion: the challenges of scaling and R&D

Microphone Sheetal Bahirat, Founder and CEO, Hidden Gems Beverage Co

Jake Lopata, Founder and CEO, Xoca World

Joe Magliano, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer, Otherworld

• Scaling manufacturing to meet commercial requirements

• How shelf life and formulation requirements impact growth strategy

• How to develop effective partnerships to source byproducts at scale

Closing remarks

Close of conference day 1

9:00 9:05 9:30 9:55

Registration And Networking

Opening remarks

Looking to the future: The next frontier of upcycling

Microphone Eva Gouldbourne, President, Upcycled Food Foundation and CEO, Littlefoot Ventures

• How industry collaboration can accelerate the upcycled economy to reduce food loss and waste

• Key risks and growth opportunities for category expansion of upcycled products

• The future of upcycled foods – where do we go from here?

Moving towards a circular economy with business model innovation

Microphone Anna Hammond, Founder and CEO, Matriark Foods

• Using public-private partnerships and nimble processing to divert food from the landfill at scale

• Validating true product impact with a third party life cycle assessment

• The role of upcycled brands in creating a circular economy

Identifying suitable side streams with potential to reduce food waste

Microphone Lars Oltmanns, Founder and CEO, UP TO GOOD Energy

• The UP TO GOOD Energy story so far

• Key considerations – identifying side streams with climate impact and commercial potential

• How to work with other brands to align messaging around a novel ingredient

10:20

Networking Break And Prescheduled Meetings

11:20

Understanding the state of the market as influenced by the values-driven consumer

Microphone Caroline Davidson, Senior Director, Strategic Partnerships, SPINS

• YoY pricing and distribution growth trends and other sales metrics

• How natural vs specialty vs conventional products are performing across whole store

• The performance of food products certified Upcycled vs other values-driven certifications

FutureOfFoodEvents.com/UpcycledIngredients

11:45 12:10

The status of consumer engagement in the upcycled foods movement

Microphone Dr. Lara Ramdin, Board Member, Upcycled Food Foundation

• How consumers are engaging with upcycled products currently

• Overcoming key hurdles to mass adoption, such as neophobia

• Opportunities for increased engagement through positioning

PANEL Engaging the consumer – challenges and tested tactics

Microphone Veronica Fil, Co-Founder and CEO, Grounded Foods

Lars Oltmanns, Founder and CEO, UP TO GOOD Energy

Adam Kaye, Co-Founder and Chief Culinary Officer, The Spare Food Co

• Overcoming negative perception of waste

• Positioning sustainability and nutrition at the forefront of branding

• Effective branding strategies: certification, terminology, and consumer perception

12:55

13:55 14:20

Lunch Break

Identifying successful partnerships to streamline processes and effectively achieve scale

Microphone David Czinn, President and Co-Founder, D'vash Organics

• The D’vash Organics story so far

• How to identify growth opportunities in existing partnerships

• How this strategic partnership enabled scale & other operational benefits

A new model of collaboration and investment

Microphone Jeremy Kaye, Co-Founder and CEO, The Spare Food Co

Adam Kaye, Co-Founder and Chief Culinary Officer, The Spare Food Co

• The Spare Food Co story up until now

• Considerations made when forming strategic partnerships to enable growth

• Relationship with investor/manufacturer as model for other upcycling companies

FutureOfFoodEvents.com/UpcycledIngredients LINKEDIN Future of Food Events

14:45

PANEL Raising investment as an upcycled brand

Microphone Moderator: Stu Strumwasser, Founder & Managing Director, Green Circle Capital Partners

Panelists: TBA

• Examining the halo effect and value of upcycling as part of a brand positioning

• Navigating the tension between ESG and impact concerns and bottom line

• Attracting mission-driven investors with upcycled products

15:30

Networking Break And Prescheduled Meetings

16:00

Mitigating inconsistencies in supply with on-site processing

Microphone TBA

16:25

PANEL Food safety considerations in the upcycled movement

Microphone Jackie Bowen MPH, Executive Director, Clean Label Project

Kaitlin Mogentale, Founder and CEO, Pulp Pantry

More Panelists: TBA

• The realities of perishables in upcycled foods

• How to mitigate risks from upcycled ingredients by updating your HACCP program

• How to implement HARPC preventative controls before sourcing

17:10 17:15

Closing remarks

Close of conference day 2