In 2016, about 815 million people, or 11% of the world's population, were undernourished. Although advanced food and agriculture technologies have eased hunger issues, warnings of food shortages have escalated recently for the following reasons.

--->First, the world population is projected to grow from today’s 7.6 billion people to 10 billion by 2050. If that rate of growth continues, food production will not be able to keep up with consumption.
--->Second, rapid urbanisation has created an unprecedented expansion of the middle class who can afford high-quality fresh food. To meet that demand, intensive farming has become more widespread with increasing amounts of chemical inputs like pesticides.

In this context, potential food sources must be identified to satisfy future demand sustainably. With a shared understanding of the potential food shortage, many startups are jumping into the future food industry for commercialisation. Food enterprises are turning their attention to alternative sources as a new growth engine with a blue ocean strategy.

According to a 2016 report by Boston-based Lux Research, the market size for alternative protein is estimated to expand by at least 14% annually up to 2024. One possible future food source is insects. Globally, there are 1,700 edible insect species, and more than 2 billion people already consume insects. In addition to insects, clean food produced in an eco-friendly, sustainable manner includes “vegetarian meat.” Algae and seaweed are also being promoted as food sources.

In this course, you will learn about alternative food sources that are also known as future foods. These food sources tend to be more environmentally sustainable and can be healthier than their counterparts.

At the end of this course and assessment you would be able to answer/discuss the below questions with a lot more clarity and confidence.

--->What are future/novel foods? Why future/novel foods are important?
--->What is the value of edible insects as future foods?
--->What is cultured meat? What is the value of cultured meat as future food?
--->What are meat analogues? How is the consumer adoption of meat analogues?
--->Why is the market for meat analogues on the rise?
--->Why are plant-based dairy & egg substitutes gaining attention?
--->What is the potential of microalgae as a future food?
--->What to assess the market potential for future foods?
--->How to set pricing for future foods?
--->What strategies are working for the commercialisation of future foods?

The completion of learning and assessment can take anywhere between 3-5 hours of time investment.