SugarCreek: Brandworthy Food Solutions

When consumer goods are your brand’s bread and butter, there are plenty of factors outside your control that influence how you develop and implement new food technology. If environmental factors like water limitations are not currently impacting your food and beverage business, there’s a good chance they will in the very near future.

Reduced water supply, in particular, poses a fundamental risk to many consumer goods companies, hobbling their ability to innovate new food technologies, methods and products.

American consumers are still living the fast-paced, on-the-go lifestyle they have been living for the past 60 or so years. Our appetites for ease and convenience have not changed, although our health preferences and diet choices have. Instead of automatically opting for the Mickey D's drive-thru when we're hungry and pressed for time, we're increasingly pressuring food innovation experts and grocers to provide us with healthy, low-fat, low-sodium and low-sugar grab-and-go products that we can gobble on the fly.

In mid-September, self-confessed GMO skeptic Jon Entine publish an article on Forbes that declared an end to the GMO debate following the release of an exhaustive survey of animal feeding studies— all of which showed GMO feed to be safe for animals. But in spite of his declaration, the GMO debate is still going as strong as ever.

Over the summer, McDonalds reported the single greatest decline in same store sales in over a decade. Wendy's has unveiled a cost-cutting plan to cope with increased beef prices and disappointing sales. Burger King moved headquarters to more tax favorable Canada after buying out coffee-and-doughnut chain Tim Hortons. But, while traditional fast food has faced considerable struggles, fast casual venues like Chipotle, Five Guys and Panera have been gaining market share.

In just a few short years, industry analysts will look back at 2013 as a major tipping point for the food service industry.

In that year, Chipotle posted a 9.3% sales gain while fast food giants like McDonalds and Burger King saw slumping sales, according to Ashley Lutz of the Business Insider, and the US saw a new kind of fast food concept make its mark.

Food innovation has always been driven by what consumers want or think they need.  Just consider how many new food categories have been created over the past three decades to address consumer concerns with weight management, healthier eating, low carbs, high protein, gluten free diets, organic ingredients, no sugar added.

Someday in the not-so-distant future, you’ll be able to purchase packaged food at the local grocery store and not only eat what’s inside, but dine on the package as well. Edible packaging is just one of the many fascinating advances in new food technology that are transforming our relationship with food.  In today’s post, we’ll look at some of the more extraordinary inventions and innovations that food scientists have developed in laboratories around the world.

The food service sector is at a crossroads. While growth has been slow and demand soft, there are still incredible opportunities— especially if you’re planning ahead for the 60% increase in food demand the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is predicting that we’ll see by the year 2050.

Waste is a real problem in the food industry, negatively affecting the bottom line for restaurants, caterers and food manufacturers alike. The US Environmental Protection agency estimates that food waste costs the commercial food industry more than $100 billion every year. Much of the 33 million tons of food that goes into US landfills annually— enough to fill the Rose Bowl completely every day— is avoidable waste.

Innovative foods are the lifeblood of the food service industry. Consumers are always on the lookout for the Next Big Taste, the Next Big Diet, or the Next Big Restaurant Experience. If you fail to innovate, or to at least keep pace with those who do, your venture is doomed to fail.