A growing world population and climate change are among the biggest challenges to food supplies, but they also drive the food industry to achieve technological breakthroughs to meet rising demand in a more efficient manner.

Southeast Asia’s food industry is expected to be innovative, as the region has become one of the world’s engines of economic growth with abundant natural resources due to its tropical climate.

However, with rising global competition and more demanding consumers, players in the regional food industry are in dire need of innovative technology to maintain sustainable profit growth.

Thailand-based Rama Production Co. Ltd., a distributor for global manufacturers of food and pharmaceutical ingredients and additives, expects innovation to help the food industry in the region add value to its products and increase its level of competitiveness.

The company recently introduced an innovative food product called ProtiAct, which it claims can improve production output and reduce processing costs.

ProtiAct, which is a transglutaminase enzyme, or “meat glue,” is an edible ingredient that can bind meat to be processed into products like sausages, meatballs or surimi with better texture and overall quality.

The enzyme helps food industry players be creative as well, such as by combining various types of meat into a single product, rather just selling already widely marketed plain meat products.

“This product is mainly for industrial customers. However, one of our customers is actually a chef working in Chiang Mai [a city in northern Thailand],” Rama Production operation director Gap Hanputpakdikul recently told a group of journalists visiting the company’s factory in Samut Sakhon, a city located around 50 kilometers southwest of Bangkok.

The company began research work on the product in 2010 and launched it a year later. About 8 percent of its total production is exported, and the company now controls more than 70 percent of the market for such enzymes in Thailand.

As it has already gained halal certification, the product has been marketed since last year for food manufacturers in Indonesia, and the company is waiting for them to complete their testing processes by the end of this year.

“In Indonesia, we market the product under the brand ProtiBond. As far

as we know, chicken is in very high demand in Indonesia,” said Rama Production executive director Komkrit Hanputpakdikul.

That is just one innovative product coming out of Thailand’s food industry. In fact, the whole country is marching under a new economic program called the “Thailand 4.0 Policy,” in which its government wants to drive the economy forward through the use of sophisticated technology, particularly in the food industry.

Boasting of itself as the “Kitchen of the World,” Thailand dreams of becoming a global food innovation hub, as it is one of the world’s largest food producers and exporters. Thailand’s food industry contributed about 23 percent to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2015, data from F&B Insight Asia show.

Aiming for a stronger global position, the Thai Finance Ministry has proposed to allocate US$10 billion to fund a food innovation facility, called the “Food Innopolis,” located at the Thailand Science Park north of Bangkok.

The facility is managed by the Thailand Institute of Scientific and Technological Research (TISTR), a state-owned enterprise under Thailand’s Science and Technology Ministry, and offers research and development services for the food industry, including small and medium businesses, to enhance their competitiveness and support the country’s economy.

“As for start-ups and entrepreneurs who are not ready to run their own factories, we let them use our facility to test their products. We can share our knowledge through an ASEAN platform as well,” said TISTR deputy governor of research and development for bio-industries Chantara Phoonsiri.

Thailand is poised to promote its food innovation through Food Ingredients Asia 2017 (Fi Asia 2017), an annual exhibition that will be held for the 22nd time from Sept. 13 to Sept. 15 at the Bangkok International Trade and Exhibition Center (BITEC), after being held in Jakarta last year.

More than 750 companies from 56 countries will join the event to showcase food ingredients as well as technology and innovation for the food and beverage industry.

This year, the expo aims to encourage small and medium businesses and start-ups to come up with technological solutions to increase the capacity of the food industry and help boost the ASEAN economy.

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