An interview with Maxine Roper and Stefano Volpi from Connecting Food, one of Forward Fooding’s top 500 Food Tech startups.

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 Maxine and Stefano, the powerhouse behind Connecting Food, who use technology to track and audit food chains in real time. Let’s see what they had to say.

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

Maxine and Stefano: Hello, I am Maxine Roper, cofounder of Connecting Food, created in 2016 with Stefano Volpi. I worked for over 20 years for global blue-chip companies in the food & beverage industry, both in sales & marketing for major branded manufactured food products and also in major companies supplying intermediary food from upstream producers & cooperatives. During this time I realized how out-of-date the processes are in the food industry, for ensuring that each product really respects the promises on the label. One example: While working for a major supplier of GM-free and antibiotic-free pork to a major branded ham manufacturer, there was an error in the supply of feed to the pigs in the farm. As there are no real-time alerts, this meant that pigs that had been fed the GM-free and antibiotic-free feed for several months were then fed with the wrong feed for several weeks. The error was discovered only after the branded manufacturer had packed and labeled the ham as GM-free and antibiotic-free. Unfortunately, pallets of packed ham had to be recalled and then thrown away, due to this simple human error which was detected far too late.

This situation occurs frequently, putting at risk the reputation of brands and destroying consumer trust in the food they are eating. Today according to the Food Market Institute, only 33% of consumers trust food brands, down from 47% a year previously (study Sept 2018).

That is when we both decided, with Stefano Volpi, to leave our C-level positions in the food industry to create Connecting Food, to use digital technologies to bring real-time tracking and auditing into the food business, to protect brand equity and restore consumer trust in food.

How is tech central to your business?

Maxine and Stefano: Tech is the centre of our business, to be able to follow products as they move through the food supply-chain, tracking, auditing and raising alerts in real-time. Our system is like Waze which follows the cars along the road in real-time, alerting on heavy traffic and re-calculating the best route. 20 years ago when planning a journey we used paper roadmaps, 10 years ago we printed digital maps to calculate the best route, but those weren’t able to alert and recalculate in real-time in case of problems. Connecting Food is bringing digital audits and alerts to food supply-chains saving time, money and avoiding food recalls and waste.

But another central and crucial point is our experience of almost 50 years working in food, as it is crucial to know how to apply different technologies, including blockchain, to food in order to improve the outcome, without requiring each actor along the food supply chain to change the way they work which, to be realistic, will never happen. This is how we were able to create LiveAudit which, in conjunction with blockchain technology, means Connecting Food is bringing the food industry into the 21st century, by not only tracking but also and more crucially, auditing food products in real-time to empower suppliers, brands and retailers to prove to their clients and consumers that each product really does respect the promises on the label.

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

Maxine and Stefano: Technology has become a part of everyday life with the internet. The food industry must embrace technology to remain relevant for consumers who are demanding transparency and information on the products they buy and consume.

Connecting Food’s technology uses existing data, which the food industry is already obliged to collect and store for traceability and auditing reasons, but do it on a post-event basis. Our tech can therefore not only update and improve processes, save money and reduce waste, but can also leverage existing data to prove that promises are truly respected in every product, thus creating value through transparency to consumers.

And when you take into account that according to the Center for Food Integrity, 75% of consumers will switch brands to one which gives more information about how the product was made, future powerful brands will be those capable of proving without a doubt where each batch of a product comes from and exactly how it was produced.

LiveAudit by Connecting Food is the only solution that can provide the sort of certainty necessary to protect and enhance a powerful brand’s image.

Want to know more? Check out Connecting Food’s full profile here.

Congratulations again to Connecting Food for ranking first in the category “Food Safety and Traceability” 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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