A first for Treatt’s research and development manager Charlotte Catignani as expert speaker at conference on the future of our food

Charlotte Catignani, who is Treatt’s research and development manager at Bury St Edmunds was one of an expert panel discussing and exploring the opportunities for sustainable, nutritious and delicious food of the future at Project Gastronomia, held in London.

Project Gastronomia is a global initiative which is run by the Basque Culinary Centre with the aim of working towards a sustainable future for gastronomy.

A panel of 10 experts from different disciplines including academia, NGOs, chefs and regulatory bodies led the discussion with 70 attendees sharing, debating and addressing in a collaborative way: How can multisensory design create a shift for the future, for 2050?

R&D Manager Ms Catignani, who has worked at Treatt for 13 years, presented about how the work at Treatt impacts the future of food.

Her involvement came about because of her collaboration with the Open Innovation Forum at the University of Cambridge.

The focus of Ms Catignani’s role at Treatt is sugar reduction and she works closely in the field of multi-sensory using sugar flavours to enable customers to reduce sugar in their beverages or make high intensity sweetened beverages taste more like sugar – without adding any calories or sugar itself.

She said: “Our sugar reduction products work via a multi-sensory mechanism (using all our sensors (multi etc) not just taste. My involvement at Project Gastronomia was to look at how all our sensors affect flavor and how we can use that to make more delicious and nutritious food in the future.

She added: “This event provided an exciting opportunity to work with experts across the field to ensure that food and drink developed in the future not only fulfils industry expectations but that it tastes great, is delicious and nutritious and is healthy with long term benefits – looking to 2050.”

“The workshop was a fantastic opportunity to collaborate with others in the food industry and share our thoughts on how we can ensure the future of healthy, sustainable and delicious food. It was an honour to work with the expert panel and learn more about how their broad backgrounds impact the food industry both now and tomorrow. We were also very privileged to experience the gastrophysics chef’s table at Kitchen Theory, an incredible multisensory dining experience. Project Gastronomia was a stimulating, productive workshop and I’m sure some exciting ventures will be initiated as a result.”