FDBusiness.com

Running alongside the main conference, seminars and exhibition, Food Matters Live attractions give visitors a chance to get involved, taste and even become part of the research into the latest innovation in food and drink.

In Catering for Health, renowned chefs Jenny Chandler, Paul Gayler, Domino Teague, Mark Kennett and Preston Walker will join Premier Foodservice, Artizian, Bidvest, foodologists and nutritionists to create healthy, nutritious and cost-managed meals to suit a variety of consumers, workplaces, and dietary needs.

Through live cooking demonstrations, talks and tastings, they will show how free-from food and drink, sugar and salt replacers and natural ingredients like pulses can help tackle obesity, manage diabetes and other diet-related diseases.

Tailored menus will be designed to show how to meet the specific nutritional needs of different people – from teenagers in a school environment, those living with allergies, patients at risks of malnutrition, through to health conscious consumers wanting to achieve optimal performance during the working day.

And with nearly 45% of the UK population experiencing food sensitivity, Benjamin Xavier, executive chef at the Allergy Aware Scheme Accredited Rainforest Café, will show how to adapt one of the restaurant’s most popular dishes – the Wiki Wiki Stir Fry – by leaving out 12 of the top 14 food allergens.

The FEED Sensorium showcases scientific developments that will impact the food industry, education and policy-making in the coming years, offering potent tools for companies to design more exciting, commercially viable, sustainable and healthy foods of the future.

Visitors can take part in educative sensorial experiments from looking at the role cutlery plays in modelling flavour perception – to how our brain perceives food and brands. They can also co-author an artist’s book, contribute to a traditional cookbook, match typeface fonts to taste and learn about the exciting potential of digitising flavour.

New concepts underpinning innovations in ‘better for you’ food and drink, brand health and wellbeing strategies will be explored in the Evidence Base theatre, with the help of Mars Food, Ella’s Kitchen, The Bell Institute of Health and Nutrition/General Mills, and a2 Milk.

Meanwhile, visitors will have their reactions tested to a menu of delicious bites, from fresh fruit skewers with berry coulis and barbequed cauliflower with saffron yoghurt, to dark chocolate and beetroot brownies or cucumber cheesecake in the Experimental Café, organised in association with the Institut Paul Bocuse and Levy Restaurants.

New to this year’s Food Matters Live is the Sustainable Food Futures attraction, which will show sustainable food practice at work, including how disused London Underground tunnels are being used to grow mouth-wateringly fresh micro greens and salad leaves 33 metres below the busy streets of Clapham.

Meanwhile, the Growth Lab gives young and enterprising food and drink businesses the chance to meet experts and hear their thoughts on a range of issues, from getting products ready to manufacture, open innovation and collaboration for SME growth, to unlocking hidden benefits of the R&D tax credit scheme, crowdfunding, complying with trading standards, getting innovation grant funding from the EU and the power of storytelling.

A team of experts will be on hand during the course of each day for one-to-one meetings with visitors and exhibitors, including Macknade Fine Food’s Stefano Cuomo, Crowdfooding’s Alessio Dantino, Giant Peach’s James Read, Eat Well Global Inc’s Erin Boyd Kappelhof and Barker Brettell’s Susan Fridd.

Food Matters Live is free to attend, including entry to the conference, seminars and all visitor attractions. Simply register at www.foodmatterslive.com