In this interview, he provides exciting insights into how FOOD2050 helps catering businesses to make their ecological footprint transparent – and how we as a technology partner enable the technical implementation of this vision.
VISION & MISSION
Imagine we meet in the elevator: How do you explain FOOD2050 in just one sentence?
FOOD2050 helps catering businesses to make healthier and more climate-friendly decisions every day, while at the same time optimizing the profitability of their offerings.
When you look at today’s food system: Where does it burn the most and where do you apply the leverage to change exactly that?
The fire is burning where millions of meals are decided every day, but no one knows exactly what effect they have, both ecologically and in terms of health. Our lever is the individual dish: we bring data, understanding and decision-making aids precisely to the point where cooking, planning and choices are made.
”We can't want to save the planet but at the same time sacrifice the health of the world's population and vice versa.
Christian KramerCEO und Co-Founder FOOD2050
DATA & PSYCHOLOGY
Hand on heart: How do restaurateurs react when they see the ecological footprint of their kitchen in black and white for the first time?
Usually with a mix of surprise and honesty. Many people say: “I didn’t expect that.” The important thing is that we don’t come with a moralizing finger, but with context and options.
Transparency sounds great, but sometimes it hurts. What resistance or misunderstandings do you encounter most often when you try to convince restaurants to adopt sustainable nutrition?
A common misconception is that sustainability automatically means sacrifice, additional costs or acceptance problems. In practice, we often see the opposite.
To what extent does FOOD2050 help kitchen teams to effectively steer their offering towards healthier and more sustainable choices?
FOOD2050 takes action where decisions are shaped in the long term: in menu design. Kitchen teams receive clear guidelines, comprehensible key figures and specific recommendations for action in order to optimize recipes, portions and menu lines in a targeted manner. In this way, more sustainable and balanced options are systematically made more attractive. The effect can be seen in measurable shifts at menu, demand and sales level, adapted to specific target group needs.
IMPACT
Is there a concrete number or a story that proves it for you? Wow, our approach really works?
Over the months, we have seen a stable shift towards more climate-friendly and balanced dishes in partner and restaurant businesses and, very importantly, without any loss of sales or even an increase in sales in some cases. We are currently working intensively on this. The use of our solution also opens up various opportunities to reduce costs. These can be realized above all in the areas of offer planning, preparation and guest communication.
Before we get to the next questions: Our case study shows impressively how we implemented the heart of FOOD2050, the digital menu guidance system for restaurants. We won two Best of Swiss Web Awards for this.
PARTNERSHIPS & POLITICS
You recently announced a partnership with the medical non-profit organization PAN International. Why do health and climate go so well together for you?
What is good for our bodies is in most cases also better for the planet. Nutrition combines individual health with systemic climate protection. And if you look at the issues holistically, you quickly realize that you can ‘t really tackle them in isolation. We can’t want to save the planet but at the same time sacrifice the health of the world’s population and vice versa.
Unhealthy and climate-damaging foods are often cheaper because there are no ecological follow-up costs. If you had one wish for politicians: What course should be set immediately?
Make true costs visible and give structural preference to sustainable options, especially in public procurement.
AI & Roadmap
AI is everywhere. Do you see potential for your software to not only analyze recipes in the future, but also proactively suggest creative, more climate-friendly alternatives to chefs?
Yes, AI should inspire chefs and show how small adjustments can have a big impact. We are currently working intensively on the integration of AI in order to better evaluate our data. Our aim is to offer restaurateurs solid decision-making aids and even automate certain work steps. Offer planning in the catering industry has become extremely complex and AI can provide value-adding support here.
Software is never finished. When you look at your roadmap: Which upcoming technical challenges are you glad to have a partner like Panter at your side?
We work with highly complex data models, from life cycle assessments and nutritional value logics to guest behavior patterns, and have to integrate them into existing IT landscapes that have grown historically. Panter helps us precisely at this interface: they understand both the strategic objective of an impact-driven product and the technical depth required to build scalable and user-friendly software. Whether API integrations, data architecture, AI-enabled systems or UX decisions, they help us to reduce complexity without losing impact.
