On 18 June 2026, we celebrate Sustainable Gastronomy Day, a moment to reflect on how food connects people, culture, ingredients, and the choices made across the value chain.
For IMCD, the conversation is closely linked to practical food innovation. It is about helping partners respond to changing consumer expectations, reformulation needs, affordability pressures, nutrition goals, and ingredient challenges, while keeping taste and product experience at the centre.
To mark the day, we spoke with Colin Wheeler-James, Development Chef EMEA at IMCD, about how he approaches food development, why older food practices still matter, and how collaboration can help turn ambition into products that work in the real world.
Q: Sustainable gastronomy sits at the intersection of food, culture, people, and the planet. What does it mean to you in practice, and how does that influence the way you approach your work?
For me, it starts with understanding the true value of food.
Throughout history, cultures around the world have developed incredibly intelligent ways of working with ingredients, from preserving abundance and reducing waste to improving nutrition, creating flavour, and making the most of the resources available to them. Many of those approaches were not called sustainability at the time. They were simply good food practices.
In my work today, I try to bring that same mindset into modern food innovation. An ingredient is never just an ingredient. It has a story, a function, a purpose, and an impact. The challenge is understanding how all those pieces connect.
“Great food has to work across many dimensions. It needs to taste great, be affordable, technically achievable, culturally relevant, and considerate of its impact.”
Ultimately, progress only creates meaningful change when people want to adopt it. If we create products that people do not enjoy, we have not solved the whole challenge.
Q: The conversation around food often focuses on what is new: new ingredients, new technologies, new processes. Do you think the industry sometimes overlooks what already exists?
I think one of the biggest blind spots is assuming innovation always means creating something completely new. Some of the most sophisticated food technologies we have are some of the oldest, such as fermentation, preservation, drying, curing, and using the whole ingredient.
Previous generations created incredibly efficient food systems because they had to. The opportunity today is not about looking backwards instead of forwards. It is about connecting the two.
We now have the scientific understanding, ingredient technology, and manufacturing capability to understand why those approaches worked and apply them at scale.
“Sometimes the future of food isn’t hidden in discovering something completely new. Sometimes it’s discovering new potential in something we already have.”
Q: The food industry is constantly navigating trade-offs between health, taste, environmental impact, and cost. Where do you see the most exciting opportunities to move forward without asking consumers to compromise?
The biggest opportunity is moving away from the idea that progress must mean sacrifice. People choose food because of experience: flavour, aroma, texture, and enjoyment. Those emotional connections are incredibly powerful. If we remove the things people love, even with good intentions, adoption becomes difficult.
For me, the opportunity is to have a smarter food design. We need to understand the architecture of food, including how ingredients interact, how flavour develops, how texture creates satisfaction, and what role each component plays.
Reformulation is a great example. Removing sugar, salt, or fat is often the easier part. Understanding everything they contributed, such as mouthfeel, structure, and flavour delivery, and rebuilding that experience is the real innovation.
That is where culinary creativity, science, and ingredient technology working together can create food that is genuinely better, not simply different.
Q: IMCD sits between ingredient producers and food manufacturers. How does that unique position create an opportunity to drive these conversations forward?
I think IMCD’s position gives us a very valuable perspective because we sit at the connection point between different areas of expertise.
Our supplier partners bring ingredient technologies and research. Our customers bring deep knowledge of consumers, markets, and real-world manufacturing challenges.
The opportunity is connecting those worlds. My role is often about translation: translating ingredient functionality into culinary possibilities, technical solutions into consumer experiences, and ideas into something practical and scalable.
“A great ingredient on its own doesn’t create change. It creates change when it solves a real challenge and becomes part of a product people genuinely value.”
Q: True progress takes collaboration. How does IMCD work alongside its partners as a co-creator rather than just a provider of solutions?
The most successful collaborations start with understanding the challenge, not immediately jumping to the solution.
A customer might come with a target, such as reducing sugar, improving nutrition, or replacing an ingredient, but behind that is always a bigger question: what experience are we trying to create?
At IMCD, we can bring together ingredient expertise, technical understanding, market knowledge, and culinary creativity to look at the whole product.
A great example is our work around sugar reduction. The question is not simply, “What replaces sugar?” because sugar performs many roles. By understanding the complete product architecture, we can build solutions rather than just make substitutions.
“That collaborative approach changes the conversation from supplying ingredients to solving challenges.”
Q: Sustainability goals are easy to set but harder to deliver at scale. What role does IMCD play in helping partners close that gap between ambition and action?
Ambition creates direction, but practical solutions create impact. A concept only creates real change when it can be manufactured, scaled, delivered consistently, accepted by consumers, and make commercial sense.
I think IMCD can play an important role because we operate in that space between possibility and reality. We can connect global ingredient innovation with local market understanding, technical expertise with creativity, and ambitious goals with practical application.
“Progress comes from turning good ideas into solutions that work in the real world: products people choose, enjoy, and come back to.”
Explore Food & Nutrition Concepts
As Colin's perspective makes clear, the future of food is not about choosing between what is good for people and what is good for the planet. It is about designing smarter, collaborating, and understanding that great food must work across every dimension from taste and texture to nutrition, affordability, and real-world scalability.
At IMCD, that philosophy is not just a conversation; it is embedded in the work we do every day alongside suppliers and customers to turn bold ideas into products that people genuinely want to eat. Our recent collection around processed meat and our campaign Value Talks discover and offer ingredient adaptations to create more nutritional and affordable food solutions. Discover more here:
· Processed Meat Innovation: Three concepts addressing improved nutritionals, clean label preservation, and yield optimisation.
· Value Talks Campaign: Four concepts focused on creating high-quality, affordable food solutions.
Additionally, below you can find solution examples of how IMCD's technical and culinary experts are helping partners achieve their product development goals, from ingredient reduction and better nutritionals to plant-based innovation and affordability. Find out how we can help you with your formulation challenges and work towards your goals:
· Indulgent Hybrid Burger: A juicy, flavourful burger experience with a 50% meat formulation.
· Balanced Hybrid Sausage: A savoury sausage concept with a 50% meat reduction.
· Premium Vegan Brioche: A plant-based take on a bakery classic.
· High Protein Instant Pancake Mix: A breakfast favourite fortified with protein.
· "Less is More" Brioche: A cost-effective brioche with 0mg cholesterol, 30% fewer calories, and plant protein.
· Sodium-Lite Extruded Snacks: A savoury snack concept with an improved nutritional profile.
· Insta-Nourish Pudding Shake Mix: A plant-based mix designed for better nutritionals.
· Protein-Packed Lemon Square: A plant-based sweet bakery concept with a protein boost.
· Vegan "Cri-oche": A vegan, clean label brioche with an improved nutritional profile.
· High Protein Tomato-Basil Soup & High Protein Curry-Coriander Soup: Vegan, vitamin-enriched soups fortified with protein and fibre.