Food waste, pollution, water and waste management and energy - among the key environmental challenges facing the country – will all come under the spotlight at a cross-sector trade show to be staged by Messe Muenchen South Africa next year.

Suzette Scheepers, CEO of Messe Muenchen South Africa, says: “Energy reliability is a challenge across sectors, with a growing awareness among enterprises that they need to look to cleaner, renewable sources of power for manufacturing. At the same time, our environment faces waste, refuse, water and wastewater challenges, and a significant food security and waste problem.

These challenges are interlinked to a large degree: water scarcity and poor water quality impacts food manufacturing; manufacturing waste impact water and air quality; food packaging and production methods impact environmental quality and food security.”

Recognising that addressing these issues demands an integrated approach, Messe Muenchen South Africa will bring stakeholders together across the food-water-waste value chain at three co-located trade events in Johannesburg next year.

IFAT Africa, food & drink technology Africa and analytica Lab Africa, to be co-located at the Gallagher Convention Centre from July 13 – 15, 2021, will convene thousands of stakeholders across overlapping sectors including food and drink production, science and laboratory technology, manufacturing, water and wastewater treatment, waste management and recycling.

IFAT Africa is the leading trade fair for water, sewage, refuse and recycling in Southern Africa, featuring solutions from around the world and a high-calibre forum programme addressing trends, challenges and solutions from the water, sewage, refuse and recycling sectors.

analytica lab Africa is the only trade fair for laboratory technology, analysis, biotechnology and diagnostics in South Africa, providing a comprehensive overview of the entire range of topics that pertain to laboratories in research and industry across a wide range of sectors.

food & drink technology Africa (fdt Africa), presents food and drink manufacturing solutions from innovative developments for resource conservation to raw materials, through to processing, filling and packaging machines.

The three co-located events will also feature an all-new renewable energy pavilion at the IFAT Africa show. Through this co-location, the events will cover every aspect of food and drink manufacturing, the quality controls, power and water needed to support them, and the management of their waste.