An interview with Dr. David Kannar, the founder of Nutrition Innovation, one of Forward Fooding’s top 500 Food Tech startup.

It’s time to put a face to the name…

We asked our FoodTech 500 top-runners to give us a bit of insight into how they started out as a company and their thoughts on the role of technology in Food innovation. Meet Dr. David Kannar, the brain behind Nutrition Innovation, a technology that empowers global mills and refineries to produce raw low GI sugar (at industrial scale) as a replacement or reduction strategy for white refined sugar in the world’s food and beverage brands. Let’s see what he had to say.

So tell us a little bit more about you! Where did the idea for your FoodTech company come from?

Dr. Kannar: I was personally affected by the challenges of diabetes by watching my brother-in-law dying from the condition. As a Dr of Clinical Pharmacology, I asked myself, “how can I stop this happening to him and the millions of people like him around the world?” 

This propelled me into carbohydrate science to understand how the body engages with sugars and then into the food industry to understand why refined sugar is so pervasive. From this, the Nucane range of healthier sugars and sugar reduction technologies were born. To help make the world a healthier place.

How is tech central to your business?

Dr. Kannar: We licence our IP and our technology solutions to the existing sugar and food industry. With this technology, retrofitted into existing infrastructure, customers can produce these healthier sugars at scale. We have partnered with some of the best global food technology companies to provide these solutions. World leaders such as Schneider Electric and FOSS are our global partners to rapidly integrate our approach into the current ecosystem and supply chain of sugar.

Why do you think it’s important to see the food industry embrace tech?

Dr. Kannar: The world urgently needs access to healthier, more sustainable, affordable food systems to combat disease, climate change and even conflict. We live in a bipolar world where obesity and diabetes are costing us $2 Trillion every year yet 9,000 children die every day from malnutrition. Yesterday’s technology can’t solve tomorrow’s food challenges and in some cases, it is the cause.

Want to know more? Check out Nutrition Innovation’s full profile here.

Congratulations again to Nutrition Innovation for ranking 8th in the category “Food Processing” of the Foodtech 500 list.

To find out who else made it into the FoodTech 500; the top Food Tech companies in the world, click here.

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