The story of the Food Matters Live Podcast
Our story
March 2019
The first episode of what is then called Table Talk is launched on 27 March, featuring guests from Cancer Research UK, Waitrose, and Health Action Campaign focuses on how the industry can support healthy behavioural change. The first episode appears at number 6 in the Apple Podcasts food podcasts category chart in the UK.
July 2019
Tim Spector joins the podcast, his first of two appearances so far, to reveal his groundbreaking research on gut health and its connections to overall health and wellbeing. Volac become our first podcast partner, with an episode looking at the growing world of active lifestyle consumers and sports nutrition.
November 2019
The podcast has reached over 11,000 listeners, with the top episode featuring Tim Spector achieving over 1,200. More than 40 listeners are tuning in every day from around the world, and new episodes focus on topics as diverse as sensory science, the challenge of clean label, and how packaging can be reimagined.
March 2020
In just one year the podcast reaches 18,000 listeners across the globe, with episodes charting in countries such as the UK, USA, New Zealand, Australia, UAE, Canada, Brazil, India, and Japan. New episodes feature a look at Veganuary, how to enhance customer experience, and the growth of alcohol-free drinks.
July 2020
Givaudan become the latest partner, with a series of episodes focused on consumer behaviours following COVID-19. They join an illustrious group of partners including MMR Research, Kellogg’s, Siemens, Lieber GmbH, Sopheon, Glanbia Nutritionals, GS1, the UK Food Standards Agency, and Tetra Pak.
November 2020
Tim Spector joins us for a second popular episode, focused on how everything we think we understand about nutrition may be wrong. Other popular episodes include a look at the UK obesity strategy from both the government and industry POV, and how data-driven agriculture can transform farming.
March 2021
The new year kicks off with a focus on COVID-19 related loss of taste and smell, and what it might mean for the industry. COVID-19, and its impacts, are key discussion points on the podcast, and a number of episodes investigate how consumer retail behaviour has changed due to the ongoing pandemic.
October 2021
Over 78,000 listeners have joined the community since the podcast was launched in March 2019. With over 43,000 joining in the past 12 months alone. The audience is averaging 100 listeners a day, with new episodes exploring the latest gut health research, next-gen plant based food and insect proteins.
December 2021
Two years after first launching, the 200th edition goes live. To mark the occasion, we handed the microphone over to some of our guests to record their own mini-episodes looking at ‘the good, the bad, and the ugly’ of 2021. We’re now up to a community of more than 90,000 listeners.
January 2022
The new year starts with a new regular series. Career Conversations is hosted by chef, food stylist, and journalist, Elisa Roche. The series highlights the many varied roles that exist within the food industry, from farm to plate and all in between.
February 2022
A month before the podcast’s third birthday, we reached 100,000 listeners. More than 50,000 joined us in the last year alone. Thank you for tuning in, and we can’t wait to share more stories with you!
March 2022
As the podcast continues to grow, March saw a record number of listens and website page views. More than 7,500 listened to the podcast and almost 5,000 visited the podcast web pages.
June 2022
Having served us well, the Table Talk brand is retired and replaced with The Food Matters Live Podcast. The new name offers the opportunity for an even closer connection with our community of food industry professionals.
