Talking about future food with Alexander Mathys
Prof. Alexander Mathys leads the Sustainable Food Processing group at ETH Zurich. In interview, he talks about sustainable food innovations and his thoughts about future food.
A member of the World Food System Center since 2015, Prof. Alexander is the Principal Investigator for the WFSC Flagship project on Novel Proteins for Food and Feed.
Q: Your research group has developed many technology innovations to make food production and processing more sustainable. What do you see as the main trends to reduce the environmental footprint of food?
A: I believe there are many relevant trends, but of course, we, as the Sustainable Food Processing Laboratory need to focus. Besides that, we need to consider all three dimensions of food sustainability, including the social and economic dimensions. Several animal-based protein rich foods and feeds are linked to significant sustainability issues. Therefore, this is one of our main targets for innovations, with focus on novel proteins from microalgae as single cell systems and insects as alternative animal based source. Innovating and renovating these emerging value chains includes also new circular economy approaches with clear links to waste reduction and conversion or upgrade.
Q: The new website of the Flagship project on novel proteins for food and feed highlights many innovations using insects to convert biowaste to feed. What do see as the next steps for this technology, both abroad and in Switzerland?
This is a huge new innovation field, where we are glad to contribute to with our awesome global team from academia, applied R&D centers, and industry. The current and future research and development fields focus on the topics of product, feedstock, larvae, and process and sustainability innovations. Current research avenues include safety concepts of insect-based food and feeds, waste streams as substrate for insects based on circular economy principles, microbiota of insects and substrates, emerging processing concepts for the new insect factories, and improved sustainability assessments. We are working on all these topics with our valuable partners and publish all data as open access.
"We need to consider all three dimensions of food sustainability, including the social and economic dimensions."
Alexander Mathys
Q: You were recently appointed as Governing Council Member of the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE). What do you feel is the importance of your participation both for the Flagship project and for you, personally?
A: I am very glad about this appointment, as I would love to share our most recent know-how regarding insect production and processing for food and feed applications. We have a very valuable collaboration with a start-up in Nairobi, Sanergy, and contributing to the excellent icipe network could increase the impact of our current research but also for the whole Flagship project.
Q: Besides working with insects, your research group has designed and analyzed innovations to make microalgae production sustainable for food applications. What do you see as the current hurdles to large-scale production and consumption of microalgae?
A: Many microalgae based products are not competitive on a large scale yet, mainly due to the limited technology readiness level and lack of economy of scale. Once these hurdles are overcome by production and process innovations, incorporating microalgae as food ingredients will not only provide interesting potential health benefits but could also contribute to improving issues related to sustainability and food security in different regions. Microalgae have the unique benefits of requiring low amounts of arable land, high biomass productivity, and very high protein contents in dry matter.
The WFSC supports a Flagship project focused on the topic of novel uses of alternative proteins for feed and food. The initiative is a collaboration of several WFSC member groups, led by Prof. Alexander Mathys. Check out the project website: https://worldfoodsystem.ethz.ch/research/flagship-projects/NovelProteins.html
And learn more about other WFSC Flagship projects and education initiatives in the Center Newsletter!