Commodities like coffee, cocoa, and olive oil have faced highly publicized supply chain woes in recent months. Some companies have even gone as far to replace the ingredients in products traditionally included with the help of technology. Voyage Foods, for example, is making cocoa-free chips and melting wafers.
Frank Jaksch, CEO of Ayana Bio, a technology company that produces bioactive ingredients to support health and wellness, told Food Dive in an interview that the amount of ingredients and crops in jeopardy is only increasing.
“This is not a new trend, it’s just getting more attention now,” said Jaksch. “There have been crops affected by climate change but now there are other crops that haven’t gotten a lot of attention and these will continue to grow.”
Locust bean gum
Also known as carb gum, this ingredient is a natural, vegetable-based hydrocolloid extracted from the seeds of the carob tree. It is frequently used as a thickening agent in products like cream cheese and ice cream. With the bulk of its production happening in the Mediterranean region, the ingredient faces supply threats as it becomes significantly warmer and the region therefore has faced volatile weather changes.
Lavender
This plant is growing in popularity due to its unique flavor and wellness benefits. The ingredient is commonly used for added flavor in beverages and baked goods. But hotter summers have in turn increased the population of insects such as Cixiidae, a species of mini leafhoppers related to the cicada, which in turn devastated the crop.
Vanilla
The majority of the world’s vanilla supply has always come from Madagascar, which is also where Cyclone Gamane flooded fields and stripped vanilla pods from their vines earlier this year, causing concern for an impending shortage.
“This has been a slow impact and this will continue to be a slow decline, but the broader impact surfacing is that we are now starting to see a nutritional decline over fruits and vegetables and various plants,” Jaksch said.
The CEO suggests companies start thinking about other regions, beyond where these ingredients historically are found, in order to grow the crops. But this could prove difficult due to volatile changes in the environment.
Nutritional losses
Another issue not getting enough attention, according to Jaksch, is that crops of fruits and vegetables look the same as they did years ago, but they aren’t as nutritionally dense.
“It’s not widely known that this problem is out there,” he said.
Part of what Ayana Bio is looking to do is produce plants, fruits and vegetables in a different way to preserve the health benefits found in produce to then be added into certain products.
“We won’t be able to replace stands at farmers markets, but we are aiming to fortify these crops and grow plants without ever putting them in the ground.”
This involves essentially “tricking” plants like broccoli and blueberries, for example, into thinking they are growing in the ground, and this gives the company control of things like rainfall, temperature, and other volatile factors of the environment.
What suppliers can do
Crops that are traditionally grown in certain areas are becoming less and less viable in those historic locations.
“Suppliers will have to find other areas to grow, and this is happening slower than it needs to,” said Jaksch. “If suppliers can grow these crops in ways that make them resistant to drought and other environmental issues, this could be another way to solve the problem.”
Ayana Bio’s answer is completely different, and it may take some time for suppliers to catch on.
The company is in the process of scaling and developing “elite plant cell lines” that are able to produce significant amounts of macronutrients. But the concern is producing quantities that companies can add to their food products in a cost effective way.