At IAOM MEA 2025 in Jeddah, Bühler CTO Dr. Ian Roberts argues that protein diversification, AI and industrial-scale upcycling will be key to reshaping the global food system and warns that the world will not remain within planetary boundaries unless it changes.

Speaking to millers and grain industry leaders at the IAOM MEA 2025 Conference in Jeddah, Dr. Ian Roberts, Chief Technology Officer of Bühler Group, delivered a clear message: the Middle East and Africa are moving to the centre of the global food system and the way this region develops its milling and food processing capacity will shape both planetary sustainability and public health.

Drawing on a demographic “PIN code of the world”, Roberts noted that today’s rough distribution of global population – 1 billion in the Americas, 1 billion in Europe, 2 billion in Africa and 5 billion in Asia – is expected to shift towards 1–4–5 later this century, with Africa accounting for much of the growth. “This region is absolutely critical,” he told delegates. “In terms of population growth, business potential, economic development  and in terms of the challenge of how we feed this enormous growth of population in a way that respects planetary boundaries.”

FOOD SYSTEM TRANSFORMATION IS AS CRITICAL AS ENERGY TRANSITION

Roberts anchored his remarks in the planetary boundaries framework developed by scientists such as Johan Rockström. While public debate on climate change often centres on energy, he warned that energy transition alone will not be enough. “Even if we move fully to clean energy, we will not stay within planetary boundaries if we don’t also change the food system and the way we feed people,” he said. For milling and grain-based industries, this implies a dual responsibility:

• To support food and nutrition security for a rapidly growing population; and
• To dramatically improve resource efficiency, carbon intensity and waste reduction along value chains.

Roberts stressed that this is not an abstract agenda for 2050, but a concrete business challenge for millers, grain processors and food manufacturers operating in high-growth regions today.

HEALTH BURDEN OF POOR DIETS

Beyond environmental limits, Roberts highlighted the economic and social burden of poor diets. Premature deaths and spiralling health costs are driven by a double burden:

• Undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies in low-income communities, and
• Overnutrition and diet-related diseases, such as obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular problems, in many middle- and high-income settings.

He pointed to the explosive discussion around ultra-processed foods and the rapid rise of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs as signs of a “fundamental re-negotiation” of what consumers expect from food. Some forecasts suggest that up to 20% of the U.S. population could eventually be on GLP-1 medication. Roberts underlined that without smart nutritional strategies, this could aggravate muscle loss and metabolic problems, leading to a growing demand for high-quality protein and carefully designed diets.

FROM “EMPTY CALORIES” TO FIBRE-RICH, PLANT-FORWARD PLATES

Drawing on the EAT-Lancet “planetary health diet”, Roberts summarised the direction of travel in nutritional science:

• More vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds
• A higher share of plant-based foods
• Diversified protein sources
• Less reliance on resource-intensive ingredients

If there is one recurring theme, he said, it is fibre. “One of the strongest recommendations is that we need far more fibre in our diets – yet as an industry we’ve spent decades taking fibre out to deliver refined products,” Roberts told the audience. “The opportunity is to keep the fibre in and still meet consumer expectations on texture and taste. That’s where we can have a profound impact on health.”

UPGRADING STAPLE FOODS WITH NEW PROTEIN SOURCES

For the milling and grain industry, Roberts sees a “huge opportunity” in protein diversification and plant-based processing. He cited soybeans, lentils, peas and faba beans as examples of crops with favourable protein and health profiles, and noted that Bühler has spent the last decade building technologies that connect “field to finished product” across:

• Plant-based meats
• Drinks and dairy alternatives
• Protein ingredients and blends

But he emphasised that the real impact comes from quietly upgrading the nutritional quality of staple foods:

• Enriching pasta and noodles with plant proteins
• Blending pulses into familiar grain-based products
• Ensuring good amino acid profiles to meet nutritional needs
• Integrating millets and other nutrient-dense grains into mainstream value chains, as India is now doing at scale

He stressed that the goal is not to force people to completely change their diet, but to improve their health gradually through the staple foods they already consume.

TURNING SIDE STREAMS INTO NUTRITIONAL GOLD

Roberts also drew attention to the scale of losses and by-products in today’s food system. Citing global estimates, he noted that around 30% of all food is lost or wasted worldwide, meaning that “valuable nutrition and business is lost” along the chain. When major crops such as wheat, rice, soy, corn and barley are processed, they generate more than one billion tonnes of side streams every year – a huge, largely untapped reservoir of nutritional and economic value that can be upgraded through smarter processing and biotechnology.

Yet, he argued, industrial-scale upcycling is already moving from concept to reality. As an example, he cited a newly opened plant in China that processes about 60,000 tonnes of soy crush side streams per year, using biotechnology to remove anti-nutritional factors and convert them into a higher-value feedstock for animal protein. “If you have enough critical mass of side streams and you are willing to be brave, technology allows you to turn low-value by-products into high-value ingredients,” Roberts said.

FOOD PARKS AND SYSTEMS THINKING

To unlock the full potential of upcycling and efficiency, Roberts urged the industry to think in systems, not individual machines or unit operations. Optimising a single step, he warned, often sub-optimises the rest of the process. Real gains come from:

• Integrating process data across entire mills and plants
• Designing food parks where multiple processes share energy, water and material flows
• Using side streams from one line as feedstock or thermal energy for another
• Reducing intermediate packaging and logistics
• Lowering the carbon footprint per kilogram of food

“This is where good business and sustainability align,” Roberts said. “You improve profitability by using resources better, and you reduce environmental impact at the same time.”

AI-ENABLED MILLS

Turning to digitalisation, Roberts described AI as “the greatest technological shift” of his lifetime and reminded delegates that the technology is still at its earliest stage.

In one flagship project, Bühler equipped a state-of-the-art mill in the UK with sensors across the entire process, collecting around 30,000 data points. By combining:

• Process data
• Storage and logistics data
• Customer order patterns
• External factors such as weather, humidity and temperature profiles

…and then applying AI models, the mill was able to generate additional EBIT points through continuous optimisation. Roberts emphasised that the extra EBIT points enabled by AI represent tangible financial value for mills and demonstrate what is possible when operations are optimised at the level of the entire system, not just individual machines.

However, he stressed that such operational optimisation is only the first wave. The next wave is computational food design, where AI and high-performance computing – already used in pharmaceuticals and vaccine development – are applied to:

• Molecular profiling of proteins
• Designing foods based on structure, functionality and processing conditions
• Targeting specific textures, eating qualities and nutritional outcomes

The first generation of products from AI-designed recipes may not yet be perfect, he conceded, but progress will be rapid. “Remember: this is the worst AI we are ever going to see,” Roberts said. “From here it only gets better.”

STARTUP ECOSYSTEMS

A key part of Roberts’ career over the past decade has been building startup ecosystems. He recounted his first visit to MassChallenge in Boston, where 128 young startups and 200 coaches shared a single open space, creating what he called an “infectious buzz of cooperation and competition”.

Inspired by the model, Roberts and partners brought MassChallenge to Switzerland, with backing from Bühler and other corporates. The impact has been substantial:

• 450 startups in the first European cohort
• 2,400 startups from 112 countries applying to the latest programme
• More than 1,000 startups supported through the accelerator
• Around 90,000 jobs created to date
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One standout example is Planted, a plant-based meat company founded by Zurich students who had used Bühler technology in their master’s theses. Planted joined MassChallenge, won the programme and received intensive coaching on business building and scale-up. Today, Planted operates major production sites in Germany and Switzerland and is considered one of the leading plant-based meat producers in terms of product quality and consumer experience.

A CALL TO ENABLE ENTREPRENEURS

Roberts closed with a call for the milling and grain industry to position itself as an enabler of entrepreneurs, not a barrier. He warned that established players often “eat” smaller, more fragile companies, absorbing them and effectively crushing their potential. “We need to enable them, we need to get these businesses thriving,” he said.

For Roberts, the recipe for success combines:

• Delighting consumers with better, healthier food
• Using AI, digital tools and modern process technology to optimise systems and reduce costs
• Upcycling side streams and building integrated food parks to cut waste and emissions
• Empowering entrepreneurs and building ecosystems where corporates, startups, investors and academia collaborate
• Harnessing the region’s diversity, local knowledge and strong food traditions

“There is a massive opportunity to build powerful ecosystems where academics, business leaders, investors and entrepreneurs work together,” he concluded. “If we get it right, we can create a win–win for multiple parties: better business, better food, better health and a better planet."