The Future of Ingredients | London Pre-FFT Conference Evening

Join Forward Fooding at Imperial's Innovation and Translation Hub (I-HUB) in White City for an exclusive pre-conference evening ahead of the Future FoodTech London Conference (24–25 September). Hosted at the Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein, the evening brings together F&B corporates, investors, founders, and researchers to explore what is actually happening at the frontier of sustainable ingredients. The evening runs across two sessions. Session 1 is by invitation only. Session 2 is open to all. 🔒 Session 1 | Roundtables: The Future of Ingredients (15:30 – 18:00) - By invitation / approval only A closed-door afternoon designed for senior leaders from food and beverage companies, investors and researchers who want a serious conversation about where the ingredients landscape is heading. The session will include a lab tour of the Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein, a briefing from Forward Fooding on the state of the global FoodTech ecosystem, and targeted roundtable discussions. Numbers are kept deliberately small to allow genuine exchange rather than broadcast.The agenda will cover 3 roundtables discussions: Precision Fermentation: From Story to Adoption - Where do we really stand on unit economics, regulation, and investor attractiveness, and what needs to happen next for precision fermentation ingredients to move from compelling story to mainstream adoption? Panelists:Alex Neves - Clean Food GroupRomeo Frega - ABFIDr Geoff Bryant - Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein Climate-Vulnerable Ingredients & the Race to Reformulate - Cocoa showed how quickly pressure can build when climate, cost, and supply risk collide. But cocoa is not alone. Coffee, vanilla, palm oil, and sugar are all facing versions of the same crisis. This panel broadens the lens to ask: which ingredients are next, what do credible alternatives actually look like, and what does it cost in money, time, and consumer trust, to reformulate around something people love? Panelists:Ross Newton - Founder - NukokoDimitris Lykomitros - Innovation Collaboration & Partnerships Advisor - CargillAnnick Verween - Managing Partner - VIB Biotope Ingredients for the GLP-1 Era: Nutrition, Function, and the New Consumer - GLP-1 therapies are permanently reshaping how people eat: smaller portions, more selective choices, higher expectations from every bite. At the same time, the convergence of food and health is pushing brands to substantiate functional claims around gut health, metabolic health, and healthy ageing. Together these forces are creating a new ingredient brief: do more, with less. This panel explores which ingredient categories are best positioned to answer it. Panelists:Emma Laivisto- CCO - PerfatLucio Cicerelli - Director of Strategic Projecs and Products - pladis GlobalCarole Bingley - Technical Specialist in Food Product and Ingredient Innovation - RSSL Includes access to Session 2. Approval required. 🥂 Session 2 | Startup Showcase & Networking (18:00 – 21:00) Open to all. A curated selection of FoodTech 500 companies take the floor to showcase their innovations, followed by drinks and networking. Whether you're an entrepreneur, investor, corporate, or simply passionate about the future of food.Confirmed exhibitors currently include: Celleste Bio, Nucaps, Perfat, Nukoko, Dapibuset, Kybele's Garden, Koppie, Zolvia, Fermtech, AgrogrinTech, Typcal, The Protein Brewery, THIS, Sun Bear Biofuture, Greencovery. £10 ticket. Forward Fooding is the world's leading AgriFoodTech collaborative intelligence platform, connecting corporates, investors, and founders across the global food innovation ecosystem. Home to the FoodTech 500 - the world's most recognised ranking of AgriFoodTech companies - Forward Fooding brings unique data-driven intelligence to every conversation about the future of food. The Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein and Microbial Food Hub, based at Imperial College London, drives the sustainable protein revolution and advances microbial food innovation through cutting-edge science, advanced fermentation technologies, and strategic collaboration