From Mass Market to "Me"

David VandenEinde has spent his career in the food industry, including nearly three decades at global agribusiness company Cargill, where currently he is vice president, R&D leader of food solutions, Americas. So, when it comes to designing products that meet consumer trends—particularly the emerging call for healthier foods tailored to individual needs—he’s got his finger on the pulse. 

Earlier this year, largely through VandenEinde’s leadership, Cargill took a huge step forward in promoting a healthier global food system. In January, the company became the first and only global edible oils supplier to meet the World Health Organization’s best practice on industrially produced trans-fatty acids (iTFAs). “This means that every Cargill food customer, no matter where they are in the world, can be confident that fats and oils supplied by the company comply with the WHO’s recommended best practice of a maximum two grams of iTFA per 100 grams fats/oils,” VandenEinde says. 

The move was costly and years in the making but aligns with what the consumer wants, VandenEinde says. Now he is calling on other companies to follow suit. Below, he explains the drive behind this change and how Cargill made it happen. 

How has consumer interaction with the food industry evolved during your career? 

If you back up 20 years and start thinking about consumer interaction with the food industry, the words that come to my mind are ‘mass market’—limited options, limited distribution channels. The supermarket, essentially. Then, with the emergence of Google, came the ‘educated consumer,’ who has the ability to access information any time of day. Over the past five years or so, with the explosion of social media, we’ve seen the arrival of the “influenced consumer.” And right now, I believe we’re in the age of the “me-oriented consumer.” The digital age and the technological change that’s come with it has enabled this shift, whether it’s easy access to information, a wearable that tells me when to stand because I’ve been sitting too long, technologies that tell me how I should be eating based on my genetics...We still have and will always have mass marketed products—products positioned based on cost and based on health—but we’ve gone from mass-marketed products to those tailored to what I would call the “healthy for me” consumer.

What has been the food industry response to this?

The product solution space has proliferated in terms of how to engage with this new consumer. You see ingredients being developed for very specific health-oriented outcomes, products being positioned as ‘brain food,’ for example. But you also see the emergence of new areas of science, the gut microbiome being a great example of that. With greater scientific knowledge about the gut microbiome has come the emergence of prebiotics, postbiotics, and a proliferation of ingredients based on that science. At Cargill, we are developing new and novel ingredients that have very unique functionality, and increasingly, we are starting with the consumer and working backwards. We’re asking: What is it that the consumer actually wants?

What does the consumer actually want? 

I’ve got a long list: reduced sugar, reduced sodium, trans fat elimination, whole grain fiber, healthy lipids, more plant protein, clean labels. In addition to the emergence of ‘I want what’s right for me,’ you have the emergence of ‘I want what’s socially correct for me.’ I want to buy this product because it’s aligned with my values and what I want to see in the world. So that means transparent and sustainable supply chains. These factors are driving where Cargill is going and where we put our innovation dollars.

Can you talk about Cargill’s work to eliminate the use of trans fatty acids?

In 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) challenged us to play a leading role in this area. We made a commitment that by the end of 2023 we would meet the WHO’s standard for the near elimination of trans fatty acids (also known as partially hydrogenated vegetable oil). We had to clean up our own backyard first. We looked at how we were producing our products and saw that we couldn’t produce them that way anymore. We had to deploy millions of dollars in new technology to process in safer ways. We also went SKU by SKU and said, ‘How do we take the functionality that is in this product and actually drive equivalent functionality through a different route?’ And then we went customer by customer to say, ‘This is where the world is headed, and here’s how we would like you to succeed in serving your customers.’ I’m very proud to say that in January of this year, we announced to the world that we had removed trans fatty acids from our supply chain. We believe we have taken over 1.5 billion pounds of products containing trans fatty acids out of the market. Cargill today is the only fats and oils company to make that commitment and to achieve that outcome, and we’re proud of that.

Where is this work headed now? 

After we tackled our own backyard, we then opened up to the industry and said, ‘This can be done. We’ve proven it.’ We’ve started working with governments like Mexico and Pakistan and started getting involved with NGOs in those regions. We have been going to industry conferences to share what we have done and try to propel the industry to move in the same direction. 

What would you say to your industry peers who want to follow suit? 

I would just simply say, let’s focus on where the consumer needs us to go and lead together as an industry to create meaningful change. Let’s drive healthier hearts. Let’s drive healthier consumers, because then they’re going to come back and buy our products. That’s what this is all about. The first step is making the commitment. 

Learn more about Cargill here.