Shownotes
In this Omni Talk Retail interview, recorded live from the Consumer Goods Forum Global Summit 2026 in Vienna, Chris Walton sits down with Sharon Bligh, Director of Health and Sustainability at the Consumer Goods Forum, to discuss the evolving intersection of consumer health, sustainability, food waste, climate action, and AI.
Drawing on insights from CGF's latest Healthier Lives report, Sharon explains why global attitudes toward health and well-being are rapidly changing, how retailers and manufacturers can help consumers make healthier choices, and why trends such as solo eating, scratch cooking, GLP-1 medications, and AI-powered health guidance are reshaping the future of food and retail.
Sharon also shares updates on global food waste reduction efforts, the role retailers can play in helping consumers waste less food at home, and what companies should know about AI's environmental impact as sustainability leaders navigate the next phase of climate action.
Key Topics Covered:
• Highlights from CGF's Healthier Lives report developed with Bain
• Why consumer attitudes toward health and well-being are changing globally
• The growing desire for home cooking and scratch cooking
• The rise of solo eating and its impact on food purchasing behavior
• How GLP-1 medications are reshaping consumer food choices
• AI, health misinformation, and the future of consumer trust
• How retailers can help consumers make healthier decisions
• Progress on global food waste reduction efforts
• Why household food waste remains a major challenge
• How AI and technology can help reduce food waste at home
• Understanding food date labels and consumer education opportunities
• The relationship between climate action, food systems, and sustainability
• New research on AI's environmental footprint and climate implications
• Where sustainability leaders should focus their climate efforts moving forward
Special thanks to the CGF Leadership Studio sponsored by Vusion for supporting Omni Talk Retail's coverage in Vienna.
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy
Transcripts
Hello, everyone, this is omnitalk Retail and I'm Chris Walton coming to you once again from the Consumer Goods Forum Global Summit in Vienna, Austria.
Speaker A:And we are of course recording this from the CGF Leadership Studio, which is sponsored by Vuzion.
Speaker A:And now joining me is Sharon Bly.
Speaker A:How are you, Sharon?
Speaker B:I'm great.
Speaker B:How are you?
Speaker A:Yeah, I'm great too.
Speaker A:I love it.
Speaker A:I love the Irish accent.
Speaker A:Sharon Bly, she is the director of Health and Sustainability for the Consumer Goods Forum.
Speaker A:It's great to see you.
Speaker A:Great to meet you.
Speaker B:Great to see you, Chris.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So you've worked at, you've worked at CGF for a while now.
Speaker A:So I'm curious what keeps you inspired and passionate about the work that you do?
Speaker A:Because I can feel it already, even though we're just starting this interview.
Speaker B:I mean, this is a bit of a cliche answer, but it's the people, really.
Speaker B:Yeah, I mean, I start my day with people in Japan, retailers in China, then I move to Europe and then I end my day in Chile or speaking with with people in the US I just love the people element.
Speaker B:And the collaboration, again, might sound a bit cliche, but there's just something about the CGF with the people and we work for a people industry.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Well, tell me, I mean, tell me about that.
Speaker A:Like, what types of things are you doing with those people?
Speaker A:Like, I mean, you're on part of the People and Planet initiative at cgf, so I want to know what that all entails.
Speaker A:But like, what types of conversations are you having with all those people around the globe?
Speaker B:So my role, I lead health and sustainability.
Speaker B:That means consumer health, employee health, food loss and waste and the climate transition.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:So I can start my day with a, a group of Japanese retailers and manufacturers talking about salt reduction and how we need to change the diets in Japan.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:I moved to China and we're talking about clean labels and AI and how we can help them accelerate that.
Speaker B:I moved to France and I'm doing a project on, with chefs in France on changing ingredients and healthier cooking.
Speaker B:I would talk to a standard body on climate transition and how we can keep it real for companies trying to keep straight in their climate transition plans.
Speaker B:I then speak in the US about food loss and waste and we agree on how big of a challenge that is and one that a lot of great organizations really working on that in the US and trying to collaborate.
Speaker B:And then I might end my day with a manufacturer in Mexico talking about their employee well being program.
Speaker B:So I have the best job in the world.
Speaker B:I have the best job in the world.
Speaker A:You do.
Speaker A:You have a pretty cool job.
Speaker A:You sound like a bonafide expert on the subject too, of health and sustainability.
Speaker A:Without a doubt.
Speaker A:You just published a Healthier Lives report.
Speaker A:I want to talk about the report, but I'm curious, what is that report and how often do you do it and what prompts it?
Speaker B:So this is kind of the first time we've done it with Bain, and it's an insights report where we just wanted to understand the state of play of what people are eating today.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:What's good, what's less good to give us kind of a foundation then for us to, to change and see what we needed to do to help the industry.
Speaker B:And the reason we did it now is there's just something happening, a mindset shift around health and well being.
Speaker B:I can feel it.
Speaker B:I can feel the urgency to act on challenges with healthcare systems.
Speaker B:I mean, there's a real pressure everywhere in the world.
Speaker B:This is a completely global topic.
Speaker B:And so we as a coalition, the way we work is we bring retailers and manufacturers together.
Speaker B:That coalition just needed to understand what's the baseline, what are we working with and what are those really kind of key trends for us to act upon?
Speaker A:Right, right, right.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:No, I'm feeling that here at this conference, especially like, and it's something, it's funny that you said that because I've never felt that before.
Speaker A:There's a heightened focus on it.
Speaker A:All right, so I'm curious, what were some of the key insights coming out of the report?
Speaker B:So one of the areas was home cooking, scratch cooking.
Speaker B:There's a real desire for people like you and me to want to cook from scratch, but we don't know how to do it.
Speaker B:We live, we're used to convenience.
Speaker B:We don't want that to change.
Speaker B:We do not want it to be difficult.
Speaker B:Also just really trends around how we eat solo eating is people are really eating alone, even if they're at home with the family.
Speaker B:There are.
Speaker B:People are really eating alone.
Speaker A:Solo eating.
Speaker B:Solo eating.
Speaker B:Solo eating, yeah.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:So the industry as well is, what does that mean in terms of portions?
Speaker B:What does that mean in terms of what your, your customers are buying?
Speaker B:We've seen AI, obviously how you shop, how you consume and who you trust for your diet, for your health and well being.
Speaker B:We see GLP1s, obviously.
Speaker B:I mean, it's as big a trend or an impact as AI.
Speaker B:I really think this is just, we're just seeing the beginning.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:And people are confused.
Speaker B:Navigating the supermarket, if you're honest or someone in your family is on it, it's really, really difficult.
Speaker A:What makes it so difficult?
Speaker B:You just have to completely rethink your diet and how you're looking after your body.
Speaker B:And it is quite an education journey that you need to go on for the person and for their family, actually.
Speaker B:So you have to really rethink what you need to stay healthy.
Speaker B:And your body is changing very rapidly.
Speaker B:So people are struggling.
Speaker B:There's a lot of relapse happening.
Speaker A:That's what I heard, too.
Speaker A:I heard that this morning.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker B:So, yeah, there's a lot that the industry can do to really help people to navigate this door.
Speaker B:And it's not only food, the side effects as well, oral hygiene, skin, hair.
Speaker B:There's a real kind of collaborative piece there that I can see that we're hoping we're going to work on at the cgf.
Speaker A:That's the first time I've ever heard that.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker A:That's a new tidbit too.
Speaker A:That's a new nugget.
Speaker A:Love that, Sharon.
Speaker A:All right, well, let's click into some of those.
Speaker A:We've got to click into AI because it's, you know, the talk of the town at the conference, particularly the conference team is adaptive edge.
Speaker A:What specifically are you finding in regards to that in terms of, you know, how the consumer is version is viewing, you know, how they can live or eat more healthily.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So we have kind of looked at obviously across my three areas, across waste and how it can get us efficiency and reduction and really help kind of driving the reduction of waste within food waste within our member companies climate.
Speaker B:Obviously a huge amount of innovation and technology happening there, in particular on farms and then in the health space.
Speaker B:We had a really interesting conversation here in Vienna on Monday around misinformation and just the reality of how many people are connected, that people are trusting AI more than a healthcare professional.
Speaker B:It's where it's your doctor, it's your, you know, you really are using it in a different way.
Speaker B:But the amount of misinformation, the challenge to navigate all that, Chris, is just insane.
Speaker B:So we think there's a lot we can do, especially the retailers within the cgf just to help people.
Speaker B:The influence that they have and the trust that people have in retailers is really phenomenal.
Speaker A:Okay, got it.
Speaker A:So I'm curious.
Speaker A:We've kind of talked about it.
Speaker A:I mean, you've mentioned it a couple times, but we haven't really talked about it.
Speaker A:Food waste.
Speaker B:Yep.
Speaker A:Where are we globally on Food waste.
Speaker A:Like, how would you sum it up?
Speaker B:Sum.
Speaker A:So, But I don't really know where we are.
Speaker B:So we measure and publish every year how we're, how we're doing.
Speaker B:We are doing better with a 22% reduction in food waste intensity.
Speaker B:So that means we're getting better at managing the waste in our, in our operations.
Speaker B:But there's still a lot of food waste.
Speaker B:And the big, I mean, untalked about kind of problem is waste at home.
Speaker A:At home.
Speaker A:Right, home.
Speaker A:That's why I was here.
Speaker B:It is just weird, you know, growing, producing, treating all of this food and just so much of it just gets wasted at home.
Speaker B:So we have here in Vienna, it's called a sustainable kitchen.
Speaker B:We've been trying to inspire the executives here in Vienna to use their online real estate, to use their in store to raise awareness of that challenge, to work with consumers on date labeling, understanding what it means.
Speaker B:So we're really putting a lot of energy into reducing that consumer waste because it's a huge, huge, huge issue.
Speaker A:Sharon, what is the number one thing that consumers can do to limit their food waste at home?
Speaker A:Is it shopping less?
Speaker A:Is it like less pantry loading?
Speaker A:Like shopping more on demand?
Speaker A:Like, what is it?
Speaker B:So I've seen with AI actually really great examples of how retailers are helping consumers to understand their purchasing patterns and what they have and what you have in your fridge, Chris, tonight, do you know you still have.
Speaker B:There's a brilliant app, great apps, where you can scan your fridge and the retailer gives you the recipe to use up whatever is in your fridge.
Speaker B:Technology is really, really great.
Speaker B:So it is really kind of that the education on just date labels is, is really, really central and key.
Speaker B:We throw away so many things that could still be consumed.
Speaker A:So we buy extra things before we, before we finish.
Speaker B:We don't understand, we're worried about, you know, date labels.
Speaker B:We don't fully understand them.
Speaker B:And so we throw something away, even if it's still, you know, perfectly good to eat.
Speaker A:I got you.
Speaker A:Yeah, right.
Speaker B:And I see a lot of the, the companies that I work with, the, the recipes idea and helping people to turn, you know, why deliver?
Speaker B:Why get a home?
Speaker B:Dive into your fridge.
Speaker B:You've got it all there.
Speaker B:So helping people really understand again through recipes, inspiring, kind of helping people to use things up.
Speaker B:And there's been some really great examples here today about upcycling products, like all the ugly vegetables, turn them into pesto.
Speaker B:You know, there's loads of kind of little tips that you can do.
Speaker B:So a lot of education is happening.
Speaker A:Okay, so I'm going to go back to states and turn my ugly vegetable into pesto.
Speaker A:That's what I'm going to take away from, from today.
Speaker A:That's a win in my book too, Sharon.
Speaker A:All right, so let's talk about climate and the environment too.
Speaker A:Cause that's a part of this discussion too, around health and sustainability.
Speaker A:We need both of those to work well to be healthy and sustainable.
Speaker A:What does your latest report show on those elements and what can executives do here at the show to help you in that regard in terms of making an impact there?
Speaker B:So this was with our steering committee for Climate Transition, and obviously here in Vienna, it's all about AI, innovation, technology, and the people leading sustainability agendas within their organizations were being challenged on what does this mean?
Speaker B:What impact am I having?
Speaker B:What is the footprint of all of this excitement and technology and innovation?
Speaker B:And realistically, if you live somewhere where you have a data center, the access to the grid, electricity, water.
Speaker B:So we did a really good piece of research, a fact base really, with bcg, that's online and available to everyone to calculate what that footprint looks like.
Speaker B:And it's not a bleak picture.
Speaker B:It's not, it's not a bleak picture.
Speaker B:It really is, you know, less than 1%.
Speaker B:We also modeled, because AI is usage is growing so quickly, we modeled what that might look like in the future.
Speaker B:And you're up to about 7% of your scope.
Speaker B:3.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:So, you know, there's still, there's things you can do to minimize it and you can kind of work with, try to influence kind of the organizations that you're working with, but it still isn't.
Speaker B:That's not where the energy needs to be.
Speaker B:It's still on your commodities, it's upstream.
Speaker B:But we just wanted to set the facts out for people within the membership to understand and look at kind of what it might look like in the future.
Speaker B:So you can have some influence.
Speaker B:But we still need to work with our suppliers, we still need to keep on our targets and yeah, mainly upstream.
Speaker A:So, Net, Net, from the position of your expertise, if I kind of talk about the implications of what you just said, the real, the real effort should be spent then on using AI to figure out how to improve those other aspects than worrying about the environmental impact of AI itself.
Speaker B:Yeah, Net, net, you could, I mean, at the moment, I mean, we still, we're still learning and it's moving so quickly.
Speaker B:I think you should be aware of what they are.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:But don't take your energy off where the real challenges lie.
Speaker B:And yes.
Speaker B:It will evolve very, very quickly, that it will help you reduce your emissions.
Speaker A:Got it.
Speaker A:Yep, got it.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Yeah, that's interesting because I've been seeing, you know, definitely in the media, especially in the U.S. like, much more, you know, focus on the impact of AI on the environment too, from.
Speaker A:From what you're saying.
Speaker A:So that's a really interesting point that I think, you know, hopefully people in the industry will think and decide for themselves, too, ultimately, in terms of what they want to do and what their organizations, you know, how their organizations want to tackle the issues at hand.
Speaker A:Well, thank you, Sharon.
Speaker B:Thank you, Chris.
Speaker A:Thank you.
Speaker A:It's always a pleasure getting to chat with you and getting to discuss health and sustainability with everyone here at the conference.
Speaker A:I always love this conference.
Speaker A:I learned so much at this conference, Sharon.
Speaker A:Yeah, Yeah.
Speaker A:I just get inundated with new topics that, you know, don't always cross my banister every single day.
Speaker A:And so I think I would include this topic in that.
Speaker A:In that realm.
Speaker A:So thank you.
Speaker A:Thank you to CGF and to Fusion for allowing us to bring great interviews with folks like Sharon to you each and every day of the conference.
Speaker A:And as always, be careful out there.