scfic 2020 - 33rd Annual southern California food industry conference - march 5, 2020

topic "2050: future of food through technology"

The following is a brief summary of select speakers topics from the SCIFTS conference.

"pioneering the application of a.i. in food & flavor development"  
robin lougee, Ibm

IBM continues research on machines that approximate humans with artificial intelligence.  A.I. can be utilized now to work on perfumes, cosmetics and concrete applications replacing humans.  They are in the process of building a formulary base with profiles and flavor combinations utilizing popular flavors and ethnic trends to develop new product concepts eliminating the human sensory aspect.  This could expedite the product development process exponentially with computer generated formulas to evaluate.

hamid faridi, mccormick company

McCormick has 20 R&D Innovation centers in 14 countries.  Faridi heads a global team of 500+ scientists and flavorists responsible for leadership, research, product development, nutritional, wellness, and sustainability supporting the worlds largest spice & flavor company. This enables McCormick to be a leader in global flavors and trends.

IBM & McCormick applied A.I.

IBM is working with McCormick's extensive product formula data base  to re-create food and flavor innovation utilizing artificial intelligence.  A.I. is enabling McCormicks benchtop developers to create more innovative and iconic flavor products at significantly faster success rate. A.I. utilizes McCormick's worldwide R&D database of formulas and recipes to create unique on trend products.  ie: pumpkin with chipotle or increased use of cumin giving warmth or umami to products. A.I. automated R&D tasks can select consumer demand products and trends for future market innovations targeting groups like millennials and gen-x too.

"Can a healthy food supply be both clean and processed?"

eric a. decker, food science, university of massachusetts

Food processing provides a safe, nutritious and affordable food supply to the nation.  The advantages of further food processing provides increased sustainability and decreased food waste.  Synthetic food additives have achieved many of those advantages and Natural food additives can replace synthetic but often at reduced shelf life impact.  Natural food additives can result in decreased food quality, increased cost and increased food waste.  Clean label foods are made with as few ingredients as possible and with wholesome recognizable known ingredients.  "Clean label" actually is not defined by FDA, nor will it be!  Further research is needed to continue to maintain a healthy food supply chain.  "Clean" vs. processed? TBD
Other comments:
In 2018 Nutrition Journal - household approximates 50% men cook and 66% women cook, where as 92% women cooked in 1965.  Total cook time per day is 20-50 minutes.
"Eat 5 a day"- people are still only eating 3 a day fruit & vegetables.
Toxic lipid oxidation - if immune compromised, oxidized products are extremely detrimental for individuals.

"the road to the optimal diet; are we there yet?"

Dalia Perelman, nutrition, Stanford university

Optimal diet should maintain health, fight infections, provide nutrients and essential energy to the body.  Nutrition adequacy in 1988 we were told to reduce fats, in 1992 we needed to limit fats & oils.  Low fats however translated to high carbohydrates. Creating thus another problem...
Variety is still the answer to diet!!
We have a huge list of trending diets, here are a few of the current fads. Food pattern diets like the Zone diet- complicated nutrient based diet, Ketogenic diet with no carbs at all,  or Paleo diet which includes meat, fruits, veggies, seeds and grains.
If you're Vegan, you don't eat cheese or dairy! Hello!!  So, why do we make non-dairy cheese products? Confusing...
People are cooking less and eating out more.  Restaurants are having to provide a variety of dietary preferred menu offerings for the consumers.
Our species is resilient, we can eat animal products or we can live on tubors!
"Eat with the Seasons", produce is grown year round but are the nutrients better in season?

"how impossible foods uses plant protein to replace animal products"

allen Henderson, impossible foods

Impossible Foods utilizes molecular biology to identify, isolate and characterize proteins to formulate food products from non-animal sources.  They create delicious, uncompromising meat-like products form plant protein.  Ingredients in the meat-like product include heme, coconut oil, potato starch and veggie proteins.  The heme or leghemolglobin is derived from the soy root nodules.  It is created with microbial fermentation to make the heme from the root.  It grows in large vats and looks like real blood.  Pichia pastoris, a yeast similar to saccaharamices is used for the microbial fermentation to make the soy leghemoglobin.  Impossible Foods has been able to create delicious, uncompromising meat-like products from their research and synthesizing plant leghemoglobin for application.

"a consumer lens on the future of eating"

david portalatin, Npd group 

Portalatin is an industry national advisor that provides information , insights, and analysis on how U.S. consumers eat and drink, their attitudes and motivations, diet and nutrition, snacking and personal characteristics.  
The Ham & Cheese sandwich is still the #1 sandwich!  Amazing! 
As of February 16, 2020 the restaurant industry has been strong with an increase $ 14% since 2014.  March 3, 2020 - no additional information until next week? (closures starting?)
80% consumption at home with entertaining and at home trending.  We have a generational shift of Milennials - life stage changes.  Millenials cook more than Boomers!  In-home eating experience expected to grow 4% this next year.  Social media influence, Pinterest, on-line recipes, new experiences, new idea stimulation and sharing.
Grass root influencers such as clean label, clean eating, intermittent dieting, keto, vegan or plant based diets. 
Plant based or alternative meat products are a growing market with 89% of those consumers not actually vegan.  However, 61% U.S. adults want more protein.  Meat consumption is actually down but this is likely due to the fact that the population is getting older and eat less. 
​CBD products in those states with legal cannibus have an increase of brownie sales by 107% and gummies at 17% increase sales.