Representing B Corp at IFE 2023

The International Food and Drink Event (IFE) is always a highlight of The Good Crowd calendar. A welcome opportunity to connect, to discover and, our favourite part, to taste. This year’s event delivered on all counts, as we talked, listened and ate our way through three amazing days.

Connect

It was great to meet so many new people, and to catch up with old friends and clients. We were there to share our expertise, talking all things B Corp. The conversations we had, with suppliers, producers and manufacturers, made it clear there was a genuine appetite to know, and to do, more.

 Over the three days we felt the growing impact and influence of the B Corp movement on how the industry chooses to do business. This shift in awareness means we’re even more excited to be doing what we do - supporting brands and businesses to be a force for good.

Discover

It was fantastic to see sustainability so high on the agenda this year, with a dedicated stage bringing together trailblazing speakers. One headline that stood out for us was that 50% of businesses have set a net-zero strategy but only 11% have a robust plan to achieve it.

Bold ‘green’ promises are easily made but difficult to deliver without clear priorities and a practical plan. The overarching message was that food and drink businesses must start by looking at their biggest impacts on people and the planet, focus on what they control and capture their own data before looking outwards to the wider supply chain.

If you want your business to be doing more, we’re here to offer support and guidance on every step of your sustainability journey, so please get in touch.

Price sensitivity was another hot topic. FMCG gurus had some important lessons for food and drink brands navigating the rising cost of living, including the need, now more than ever, to know their audience. Understanding how and why consumers decide what is value for money, whether they’re motivated primarily by health, indulgence or convenience, is essential to retain brand loyalty from increasingly cost savvy shoppers.  

We also heard a lot of chat about fermentation. Not only is gut health one of the fastest growing consumer trends, with 43% of us concerned about digestive health, fermentation of surplus produce is also an opportunity to reduce food waste.

Of the new products in this space, we really liked Fermenti, which promises to boost gut health on-the-go via cookies containing pre- and probiotics. Having heard that we should all be eating five portions of fermented foods a day, convenient products like this could be the way to go.     

Taste

For foodies like us, the chance to try new products is a major draw of IFE. There were a few standouts this year, once again proving that sustainable brands can deliver on taste and quality.

We loved Pukpip’s Frozen Chocolate Bananas and we weren’t the only ones. Everyone was eating, and talking about, these tasty treats which reduce food waste by upcycling ‘wonky’ bananas.   

Saved’s Lentil Puffs were another interesting find. Cricket protein might not be everyone's cup of tea, but these high protein, digestible and sustainable snacks, from a brand with a clear impact mission, tick a lot of boxes.

At the New Products Tasting Theatre, we also enjoyed demos of 100% plant-based products - SOAK’d OATS are an easy, on-the-go breakfast option and Naked Bakes offer a delicious vegan take on cookie dough. And it was lovely to see Two Farmers’ again, who are doing some great work on compostable packaging.

In the coming weeks, we are looking forward to following up with people we met at IFE and those we’ve connected with through our B Corp webinars. We’ll be sharing more on how B Corp can form part of brand strategy for 2023 and beyond. We have already pencilled IFE 2024 into the diary, so we hope to see you there.