Unilever Food Solutions Unveils Digital Vision at Gastroekonomi Summit

Unilever Food Solutions presented digitalization in gastronomy and chefs' digital behavior at the Global Gastroeconomy Summit, held for the first time this year to establish gastronomy as an industry that grows the country's economy and creates resources.

As gastronomy begins to transform into economic power, the inaugural Global Gastroeconomy Summit was held at Istanbul Lütfi Kırdar Convention Center. Representatives of gastronomy economics from South Korea, the US, Japan, Peru, Denmark and Spain participated alongside key figures from Turkey's sector contributing to industry development.

At the summit, Önder Arsan, General Manager of Unilever Food Solutions Turkey, Central Asia and Iran, spoke on digitalization and presented Unilever Food Solutions' digitalization vision globally and in Turkey.

Arsan stated: "Digital transformation has already begun. Globally, 400 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every 60 seconds; 29 million WhatsApp messages and over 300 emails are sent. Chefs worldwide use the internet quite intensively.

Our research in Turkey showed similar results in chefs' digital behavior. 82% of chefs use the internet via computer or mobile device for personal purposes, and 76% for professional purposes. 88% use the internet daily. We support our chefs not only with our products but also with the services we provide. Addressing food safety training needs that chefs identified as their 'most important requirement' through digital platforms, we introduced the sector with 'Trusted Hands,' Turkey's first and only online food safety training and certification program.

With the Unilever Food Solutions application to be launched in May this year, we are preparing to offer chefs the topics they need and that will ease their lives through the app.

In the future, we will use digital technology at much more advanced levels in gastronomy from suppliers to chefs. Turkey has all the infrastructure in this regard and this needs to be utilized," he said.

At the summit, where "Zero Waste" was also addressed through collaboration between WWF Türkiye, TÜRYİD and Unilever Food Solutions, attention was drawn to measures to be taken to reduce food waste. At the summit, Trusted Hands, Turkey's first and only online food safety training program, received intense interest from both domestic and international participants at its stand.