AFRY is a design and engineering company with 17,000 employees. The company is located in most of the world and operates in many different industries, including industry and infrastructure, always with the goal of creating a more sustainable society. In a hot debate on climate, and a huge shift towards a more circular society, AFRY’s Future Food is an important contributing component.

– The food industry accounts for a large part of greenhouse gas emissions, which means that there is an incredible amount to do in that area. We want to create new types of food and optimize and improve production. We collaborate across departmental boundaries and in Future Food benefit from our broad expertise within AFRY. We have a large team of experts who work with how to present climate-friendly food and we also include experts with production knowledge, says Katrin Hedvall, Business Unit Manager Food & Pharma at AFRY.

And AFRY is not alone in looking for innovative solutions around the entire production chain. On the other hand, the company possesses an incredibly broad competence, a competence not everyone has.

– The advantage of AFRY is that there are 17,000 employees. It has always been said from ear to loaf, but we have the competence before you even make the ear itself. We are very tense in a race where all food companies work with new proteins and new ideas. It is a fantastically fun journey to be a part of, says Dennis Hågebrand, Section Manager El & Automation at AFRY.

Future Food supports and helps customers with sustainable production. This can be a change in an already established food company as well as a scaling-up process for a smaller player. However, the goal is always the same – to create a sustainable way of working.

– It is about finding out where the customer stands and what they want. All our customers have different conditions and the biggest problem is often money. During the past year, we have worked together with Lejonet and Björnen and digitized their operations by connecting business systems and production. Together with financial support from the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth, we will continue the work of digitizing production and increasing efficiency. It is also worth mentioning that large investments are not always the best. The small things that cost a little can give great results for a long time. We try to capture sidestreams in production. The customer may think that the water with which they rinsed food is a residual product, but there we can, for example, find ways to use that water. There you can find solutions to reduce the climate footprint, says Dennis Hågebrand.

But in addition to helping customers in their production chains, AFRY and Future Food are putting a lot of work into the food of the future. For AFRY, it is quite clear that we are in the middle of, and facing, a huge change that will affect the plate of the future.

– We spend a lot of time thinking about what is the next thing in the way of food. How to make land-based fish farms more circular? We also watch a lot of blue food. Blue food includes algae and we have some such projects underway. We dig, together with a management team and our bioengineers, to identify challenges. For example, what is the challenge with lab-grown meat? We want to do everything to help our customers, says Katrin Hedvall.

And how the plate of the future will actually look like so far can only be predicted. But right now, countless food companies, both established and start-ups, are working to find the best and most sustainable solution.

– We believe that there will be two different side tracks. One clue will be those who try to find proteins that replace meat products in taste and texture. The second track tries to find proteins that taste in an exciting way but are not meat-like, says Dennis Hågebrand.

– We see great opportunities to, for example, with digitization of the production process be able to reduce food waste. The important thing is that we need to make climate change quickly and collaborate both internally and with other companies, Katrin Hedvall concludes.

Want to know more about the food of the future? The fair will be held on October 18-20, 2022 Nordic Food Industry at the Swedish fair. The meeting place for companies and organizations that develop the smart and sustainable industry of the future.