The proportion of elderly aged over 65 in Europe will rise to 30% by 2060, while over the same period, the proportion of those aged 80 and over will more than double from 5% to 12% of the population, becoming almost as numerous as young people under the age of 15. Thereby, the increasing need and pressure on long term health care services is very clear. The premise of Pioneering Innovative Food for Seniors (PIFS) is that as adults age, their bodies become less efficient at absorbing and metabolising nutrients at a time they need to take in more nutrients. This is challenging. Reducing mobility and dexterity means that it is more troublesome to buy foods or prepare meals while certain foods may become difficult to consume due to changes in oral health. Importantly, many elderly people also experience a loss in appetite and are at risk of nutritional deficiencies. According to the Institute of Food Science and Technology (IFST), researchers at Wageningen University in the Netherlands purport that simply trying to motivate the elderly to consume more food is unlikely to be successful, given that their tendency to eat less is the source of the problem. A more promising approach is the commercialisation of nutrient-enriched foods for elderly, a type of functional food. Innovation is the lifeblood of the food industry and is essential for ensuring profitability and survival. However, the development of successful innovative products is challenging. In an average year, there are almost 80,000 new product launches around the world. According to Mintel, 30% of new food brands fail within the first year. The failure rate is more acute in years 2 and 3 to the extent that only one third of products are still around. Why is the failure rate so high? Of the total, over 75% are copycats or me-too products. In the food sector, it is recognised that only 1- 2% were classically innovative, genuinely new or, breakthrough products. This is in the context of the need to increase food production by anything between 70 per cent and 100 per cent by 2050. Due to specific challenges in the development and marketing of functional foods, failure rates in this product segment are likely to exceed these numbers. However, the food industry is traditionally considered as a sector with low research intensity. Our project responds to the Europe 2020 innovation strategy which set the scene “…with an ageing population and strong competitive pressures from globalization, Europe’s future economic growth and jobs will increasingly have to come from innovation in products, services and business models. This is why innovation has been placed at the heart of the Europe 2020 strategy for growth and jobs…” (EU, 2011). The increasing importance of innovation in the food industry is mainly due to the recent changes that the sector has faced, both in the nature of food demand and in the supply chain organization, together with a more and more competitive environment in which the food companies have to operate. The food industry has always been regarded as a mature and slow-growing sector with low research intensity, and quite conservative in terms of type of innovations introduced to the market (Christensenet al., 1996; Martinez and Briz, 2000). Although researchers develop continuously innovative products and technologies, their applications in the food industry meets several obstacles. For smaller food SMEs the challenge is stark. The innovation processes in the majority of food companies are still based on internal innovation efforts. They have poor interaction with academia and lack the innovation, research and development skills. For decades, food companies innovated following a “closed innovation” perspective. Such a perspective refers to a situation in which all innovation is developed internally and kept inside the company. In other words, no knowledge flows go into or out of the company. The lack of engagement with universities is also stark and universities are rated quite low as knowledge sources and potential partners by firms, notwithstanding their higher impact in terms of innovative outcomes with respect to other actors of the food supply chain, like customers, suppliers, and consumers, rated as primary sources of innovation (Howells et al., 2012). The Pioneering Innovative Food for Seniors project is transformative in that it creates lasting impact for food businesses, particularly SMEs and their employees; using innovative methods to enhance critical innovation and entrepreneurial skills that help companies respond to the increasing demand for new food products and services within the “Silver Economy”. Our project targets food SMEs with up-to-date knowledge and innovation skills necessary to capitalize on this niche market opportunity and the VET sector that provide training to same and will help them to grow their businesses AND empower senior consumers with wider food choices.
The “Pioneering Innovative Food for Seniors” project (PIFS) is developed to accelerate the ongoing development and innovation of age-friendly food products and services in Europe. There are three project objectives: firstly, it aims to help food SMEs enhance their critical innovation and entrepreneurial skills and capitalise on the niche market opportunity for innovative food products and services within the “Silver Economy”. Secondly, it aims to provide food vocational and educational training (VET) providers (e.g., colleges, food hubs and incubators) training to support their business development and empower senior consumers with broader food choices. Thirdly, it aims to equip food enterprise policymakers with novel strategies and skills to boost their economic growth while contributing to healthier senior communities. By introducing a digital E-learning platform with dynamic online education resources, guidelines, and tools, the project offers SMEs, VETs, and policymakers in the food sector cutting-edge scientific knowledge and practical insights to inform practice in age-friendly product/service development and commercialisation and to strengthen the bonds and knowledge exchange between the food industry and academia.
As our population rapidly ages, the demand for a broader range of healthy, nutrient-enriched food options also grows. However, the food industry is a mature, conservative, and slow-growing sector with low research and development (R&D) intensity (Christensenet al., 1996; Martinez and Briz, 2000), resulting in a dearth of genuinely innovative, age-friendly food products and services on the market (Hogan, Harney, Hanlon, Pilch, & Walsh, 2021; Bigliardi, Ferraro, Filippelli, & Galati, 2020). Meanwhile, with an ageing population and strong competitive pressures from globalization, innovation has been placed at the heart of the Europe 2020 strategy for growth and jobs (European Commission, 2010). Accordingly, there is a pressing need to advance food companies’ capacity to innovate age-friendly food products and services (Bigliardi & Galati, 2013), especially for food small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) since they often have limited access to innovation training and financial, technological, and human capital for in-house product R&D (Sadat & Nasrat, 2020).