Innovation is only way to meet future food challenges, says PepsiCo’s top scientist

If food companies think there are big challenges feeding today’s world and its 7.3 billion people, even bigger problems face them in the future, said Mehmood Khan, M.D., Ph.D., vice-chairman and chief scientific officer of global research and development at PepsiCo, Inc., Purchase, N.Y. He gave the keynote address at AACC International’s centenary meeting in Minneapolis on Oct. 20. “If we continue doing in 2050 what we do today, 3.5 billion people will be hungry,” he said. During the question-and-answer session, Dr. Khan confirmed that PepsiCo was actively, but quietly, working on the composition of its food products. The company has taken out more than a half-billion lbs of sugar from U.S. food products. “We did the same with salt,” he added. “A bag of Lay’s potato chips now contains less sodium than one slice of bread.” More