Future of Food
The Future of Food is a topic much debated in the last decade. Its importance and need for direction is evident in the formulated ‘Sustainable Development Goals’ set for 2030 by the United Nations. Twelve out of a total of seventeen of these goals can be attributed to food, from consumer health through nutritious food consumption to the food production process and waste across the food system. We are living in times where the need for change and transformation of our food consumption and supplying sectors is more urgent than ever before. This urgency is particularly visible by examining the impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic which has caused devastating conditions but also sparked new innovations across the food service sector globally. For many stakeholders this has vast consequences, from limiting and adjusting consumption behaviour to closing of businesses and unemployment. As we persevere through this challenging period, this is also a time and opportunity for radical innovation towards a more sustainable path of our industries.
Consumers today are equipped with the technology to access knowledge across disciplines in a matter of seconds assisting and stimulating their decision-making process. This in turn means that the chain from production to consumption has become much more complex, where various stakeholder needs, and contexts need to be understood and incorporated to create a more sustainable development pathway for the food service sector, and closely connected industries. The challenge lies in how to innovate the food and wider hospitality industry through sustainability interventions that satisfy consumer demands for food experiences while anticipating and responding to disruptors that trigger transformations across the food sector to guarantee a sustainable future of food.
Mission
The research centre Future of Food aims to face this challenge by supporting and providing direction to the development of the food and hospitality industry. It aims to serve as a platform that brings together industry practitioners, researchers and students nationally and internationally to identify current and future challenges across the food service industry and resulting consumer experiences and propose sustainability interventions that can be prototyped and tested through applied research with the aim of stimulating sustainable innovation in the industry. The mission of the research centre is to advance knowledge and support the development in two distinct areas of the future of food:
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Sustainable Consumer Food Experience Innovation
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Food service transformation
Contribution
The research centre Future of Food contributes to and connects education, industry and knowledge development:

The lector
Dr. Danny Han joined Zuyd University of Applied Sciences as professor for the research centre Future of Food in February 2021. He holds a PhD in the area of mobile Augmented Reality user experience design and has been involved in numerous projects studying the user experience for immersive technologies in the hospitality and tourism context. His research primarily focuses on the design and application of augmented reality, virtual reality and mixed reality enhanced experiences and the impact on consumer psychology and behavior. Danny serves on the board of the Global Food and Beverage Association (GFBA), Las Vegas and the European Federation of Hospitality and Tourism Educators (EuroCHRIE) as well as on editorial boards of various journals. He is a founding member of the Creative Augmented and Virtual Reality Hub and the International Association of Immersive Technology Innovation, and has authored and regularly reviews articles in hospitality and tourism, and wider business and HCI journals. Next to his activities at Zuyd, Danny is also working as senior lecturer and researcher at Breda University of Applied Sciences, where he is largely involved in Experience Design and Research using immersive technologies and physiological measurements in the Experience Lab.
Inaugural speech Danny Han
On April 7, 2022, Dr. Danny Han was officially installed as lector Future of Food. You can here read his inaugural address A Taste of the Future.