19/3/2018 El Mercurio | CAMPO| Página 8 | lunes, 19 de marzo de 2018

http://impresa.elmercurio.com/Pages/NewsDetail.aspx?dt=2018-03-19&dtB=19-03-2018%200:00:00&PaginaId=8&SupplementId=6&bodyid=0 1/1

Pag. Anterior Primera Pag. Hoy Pag. Siguiente

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Pag. Anterior Primera Pag. Hoy Pag. Siguiente

Ir al inicio

19/3/2018 El Mercurio | CAMPO| Página 9 | lunes, 19 de marzo de 2018

http://impresa.elmercurio.com/Pages/NewsDetail.aspx?dt=19-03-2018%200:00:00&SupplementId=6&BodyID=0&PaginaId=9 1/1

Pag. Anterior Primera Pag. Hoy Pag. Siguiente

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Pag. Anterior Primera Pag. Hoy Pag. Siguiente

Ir al inicio

What's coming on food consumption

The 420 thousand annual deaths due to contaminated food have driven different countries to strengthen the stages of production and distribution in order to prevent diseases. In addition, ready-to-eat food, online shopping and healthy products are other current trends.

1.- Focus on safety

Antonio Dominguez modifies a couple years ago the control system that goes from the primary farm production until the product reaches its final destination, becoming more demanding in each of the processes in which they manipulate the food that they export in their company Nevada Export. Dominguez recalls that the decisión to be more demanding was because USA was processing the Food Safety Modernization Law, believing this would encourage other countries to adopt similar norms.

One of the measures he promoted for his exportation frozen raspberries industry and for all of this sector in general was to improve the hygene in harvest and post harvest, specially because working with so many small farmers represents a risk for food safety.

“People should always wash their hands in order to start harvesting or processing the raspberries. Otherwise, they can’t manipulate food. We have to be extremely careful and along with the Agriculture Ministry, INDAP (Institute of Agricultural Development) we are taking cards in this matter” explained the president of Nevada Export and director of Chilealimentos.

Dominguez’s decisión was to join what at that time could be a passing trend, but that now has become an international way to do things in food consumption matters.

“There’s a strong preocupation around the globe on food safety issues. If a foreign visitor wants to buy a product from our country, he will make sure that we are doing all in norm and taking measures to minimize the food contamination risks to prevent health problems”, he says.

He’s not the only one. Alifrut’s general manager, Gonzalo Bachelet, has also become a participant of this process, enforcing the highest international standards available in terms of quality managment, safety and traceability.

“All our operations count with the highest certifications in the industry. The control in each

English translation for Title and Sections 1, 2 and 3

of our products goes from their origin to the final sell. This is why we have the most demanding customers, because we are very into this matters and we know that safety is key”, says Bachelet, emphasizing that in Minuto Verde’s freezing techniques permits using no additives to their products.

This way of doing things, which is becoming increasingly demanding, is due to the fact that intoxications related to various foods, ranging from spinach to peanut products, have increased considerably in recent years. This situation has led to an annual worldwide sickness of 600 million people -equivalent to 1 in 10 inhabitants- and 420,000 people dying.

While food safety is on everyone's lips - so much so that for consumers in China it’s one of the three key factors in deciding which supermarket they will buy food in - only Americans have turned it into law, which directly affects the exportation processes from Chile.

During 2016, 1,009,674 tons of fresh vegetables and fruits were exported to the United States, which consider 35 different species, according to the Office of Agrarian Policies (Odepa). Dominguez points out that the country must focus on generating a culture change for food handlers, so that the volume of exports continues to grow and keeping United States as the largest market for shipments. In addition to improving the conditions working with food and giving a competitive advantage to those companies that are concerned about the issue, food safety allows -if generated a mass poisoning- the country has all the information that leads to know where the problem came from. "Nowadays it is required to identify where the product came from, record the certifications of the orchard, what treatments were applied to it, how was the traceability and how was it transported, among others," Domínguez explains.

2.- Food “on the go”

That new generations have no time and want everything ASAP is a reality that has had as a consequence the growth of prepared foods consumption, which only in the last year has grown 54% worldside, according to Market Intelligence Agency (Mintel) information.

This trend allows consumers to serve themselves fresh food anytime, anyplace.

“To produce food that can be transported and eaten meanwhile doing other things, such as texting or driving, is a dangerous but emerging trend” says the Director of UC Davis World Food Center, Kent J. Bradford.

Its commonly associated that this kind of foods are highly processed and high in sugar, Bradford specifies that this has nothing to do with “junk food”, and that the same customers are deciding in favor of highly nutritive healthy food, such as wraps and green sandwiches.

3.- Online shopping growth

It's no news that ecommerce is becoming more and more popular in Chile, and regarding this trend, something worth noticing is the growth of online food shopping, that in 2017 grew 30% according to a Kantar WorldPanel report.

This trend, which is expected to grow 20% in the next five years, is mainly sustained in three pillars: the reduction of time spent in shopping, the customer's increased connectivity and more trust on ecommerce services, Kent J. Bradford says.

According to Paula Savanti, food analyst for Rabobank, the low prices and cultural nunaces also influence the online purchase decision for costumers.

“Different ecommerce pages attract users with low prices, promotions and free shipping. All this has caused that people don't wait to have the complete list of what they're looking to buy,” she says.