Close Ad

The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Video

SKS 2019: For Gen Z, Eating is all about “Access, Portability, and Fluidity”

When you hear about new trends in the food and CPG space — plant-based, sustainable, snackable, etc. — they’re usually credited to younger generations: specifically millennials and Gen Z. But what exactly are younger eaters looking for, both in and out of the kitchen? And what will they demand next?

That’s exactly what Michael Wolf asked two analysts, Susan Schwallie and Joe Derochowski, from the market research firm the NPD Group at SKS 2019 last week. Schwallie looks into where, why, and how consumers are preparing food and eating at restaurants, and Derochowski focuses on kitchen space — and its appliances.

If you’re at all curious about how younger generations are reshaping dining habits, it’s worth watching the whole video below. But here’s a quick rundown on what millennials and Gen Z are looking for:

Schwallie said that millennials prioritize experiential eating — they want to cook or eat something Instagrammable that will give them what she called ‘The Betty Crocker effect.” Gen Z has some similarities, but above all they prioritize “access, portability, and fluidity.” In short, they want to get exactly the food they want, where and when they want it — be it getting a Domino’s pizza delivered to their park bench or having groceries sent to their doorstep to make a recipe they discovered just an hour before.

Generations may have different dining habits, but Derochowski pointed there are some unifying factors that all groups share — like prioritizing health and wellness and the desire to entertain more at home. These “consistencies between generations,” as he put it, are exactly what kitchen appliance makers are trying to target with convenience products like slow cookers.

Watch the full video below to hear what younger generations are eating, and how companies are hustling to figure out how to capitalize off of changing dining habits. Then keep an eye out for more content from SKS 2019 coming your way!

SKS 2019: Eaters of the Future: A Look at Millennials, Gen Z & Food

SKS Hot Seat: WPC’s David Baarman Says the Future of The Kitchen is All About Simplification

As kitchens get smarter, they also tend to get more cluttered and complicated, especially if the various connected devices involved don’t communicate with each other. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was some sort of universal standard that allowed all smart appliances to be interoperable?

That’s exactly what the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) is trying to achieve with its new Ki wireless power standard. The consortium works with over 600 companies to simplify the smart kitchen, making various connected devices simpler to use in tandem — and, of course, wireless.

We sat down with David Baarman, Co-Chairman of the Kitchen Application & Promotions Group at WPC, at SKS 2019 last week to ask a few questions about how his company is working to make the kitchen not only smart, but also simple to navigate. Check out the video below and be on the lookout for more videos from SKS 2019 to hit The Spoon soon!

SKS Hot Seat Interview: David Baarman, Wireless Power Consortium

Video: Do Food Robot Startup Founders Need Restaurant Experience to Be Successful?

Say you’re a VC looking to invest in a company that makes strawberry-picking robots. There are three or four companies in the space, all vying for your capital to get off the ground.

How do you choose where to put your dollars?

That’s one of the questions that we tackled last week at ArticulATE, our inaugural food and automation summit. We closed out the day with a lively panel on the opportunities — and challenges — in the food robotics investment landscape. Our speakers were VCs from the foodtech, hard tech and IoT spaces: Brian Frank of FTW Ventures, Brita Rosenheim of Better Food Ventures, Rajat Bhageria of Prototype Capital, and Avian Ross of Root VC.

The Spoon’s Michael Wolf moderated the conversation on what these investors are looking for in a food automation startup pitch specifically — and where they see significant opportunities in the fast-growing market. (Yes, both Frank and Ross have invested in strawberry-picking robots — and Ross claims he made the right choice.)

It’s certainly an exciting time in the food robotics space: there are tons of entrepreneurs out there with lofty plans to build the next robotic sushi restaurant, the next automated food delivery bot, or the next burrito-rolling robot arm (which, apparently, really hard to do).

However, the panelists seemed to agree that food robotics is a trickier investment space than a lot of other tech areas. Sure, the basic building blocks of food robotics — AI, articulating arms, etc. — are pretty democratized. But Ross (who — fun fact — spent a former life building robots for the Food Network) said that “robotics feels special and different.” He pointed out that the food system is incredibly complex and that a whole host of players have to be involved to deliver even the most basic meal to the consumer. And that’s just logistics: getting a robotic system to reach parity with a basic human fast food experience in terms of taste or customer experience is really tricky.

Because there are so many complexities at play it can require more capital than some other tech investments. It can also take longer to bring food automation technology to market. Which isn’t a problem — unless, as Rosenheim pointed out, you’re working with investors who are looking for “the next shiny thing” and aren’t patient enough to be in it for the long haul.

Investors in food robotics have to be especially willing to take risks and play the long game. However, not all the VCs saw eye-to-eye on what it takes for a food automation startup to be successful. The panelists disagreed on whether or not startups need deep restaurant market knowledge to be successful, how high the capital investment has to be in food automation, and what sets one seemingly identical food robotics startup apart from another.

Check out the video below to see the whole conversation — it was a really fun one.

Articulate 2019: Investment Opportunities in Food Robotics

Look out for more ArticulATE 2019 videos rolling out on our YouTube channel over the next week! 

CES 2019 Video: SeedSheet Launching Sensor for Idiot-Proof Home Gardens

Much as I love the idea of home gardening and picking fresh herbs from my windowsill to sprinkle over a pasta dish, anything I try to grow at home usually ends up dying within a few weeks. I either forget to water my plants, or else they perish due to weeds or lack of sunlight.

Maybe I should give Seedsheet a go. We wrote about this startup, which makes sheets that have pods of seeds embedded in a weed-blocking fabric, back in 2017, just a month after they got half a million bucks from Shark Tank investor Lori Greiner. Basically, it’s an idiot-proof garden.

And soon it will become even more easy to manage: in June, Seedsheet will launch a bluetooth sensor which you can stick in your Seedsheet-covered pot to give real-time data about ambient light, soil moisture, and more.

We caught up with Seedsheet CEO Cameron MacKugler on the CES floor to talk about what’s next for his company and the home gardening space in general. Give it a watch below:

The Spoon Talks to Seedsheet At CES 2019

Meet Fromaggio, a Countertop Cheese-Making Robot

For most of us, making cheese at home seems almost laughably unattainable, something for the Martha Stewart’s of the world, not the average (or even above average) home cook. A simple ricotta, maybe, but a blue cheese or a cheddar? No way.

A new device claims it can make even the most hapless cook into a cheesemaker. Fromaggio, which debuted at CES 2019, is a smart countertop appliance that takes the guesswork out of making any kind of cheese. Just add the right type of milk (sheep, cow, or goat), pop in a pod of cultures, and press a button. In 48 hours or less you’ll have a round of cheese. (Admittedly, for hard cheeses like cheddar you still have to age it.)

We caught up with Fromaggio founder Dr. Glen Feder on the floor of our Food Tech Live event to get a hands-on look at the machine that will make everyone (yes, even you) a cheesemaker. And to eat our weight in cheese samples, of course.

The Spoon looks at Fromaggio, a smart home cheese maker

Video: Why Impossible Foods Thinks They Can Make Better Meat Than a Cow

On the first night of CES, we hit up the Impossible Foods press conference to try their new and improved burger 2.0. The verdict: juicy, savory, and delicious.

But before the actual taste test began, the Impossible team set the stage with a short panel featuring CEO Dr. Pat Brown, Chief Science Officer David Lipman, and Mary Sue Milliken, owner and chef of Border Grill, who hosted the unveiling and cooked all the delicious food.

Check out the full conversation below to learn why Dr. Brown thinks that food is “the most fundamental and ancient human technology,” one that he and his team is constantly working to improve it. “Unlike the cow, we are going to be getting better every single day from now until forever.” Next up: steak. 

The Full Impossible Burger 2.0 Press Conference at CES 2019

Video: Impossible Foods CEO Pat Brown says They’ll Tackle Steak Next

Last night, Impossible Foods unveiled their new Burger 2.0 at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). The newest iteration of the alt-meat is made of soy and potato protein (not pea protein, as I guessed!), is gluten-free, and has fewer calories and fat than the first version.

After tasting our way through sliders, tacos, empanadas, and even tartare made of the new ground “beef,” we got to sit down with Impossible Foods founder and CEO, Dr. Pat Brown, to ask him a few questions about the topic that’s on everyone’s mind during CES: the future. Specifically, the future of plant-based meat.

“R&D has been going at a blazing pace since Day One,” said Brown. Which means as soon as they locked down the formula for Version 1.0 of Impossible’s patties and started selling them in 2016, they were already working on version 2.0 (and yes, now they’re working on 3.0).

While they plan to keep iterating on their flagship ground beef product, Brown explained that they’re also starting to work on what he called “whole cuts of beef,” including steak. “[Steak] has huge symbolic value,” said Brown. “If we can make an awesomely delicious world-class steak . . . that will be very disruptive not just to the beef industry, but to other sectors of the meat industry.”

Watch the video below to hear more about Impossible’s plans to tackle the $3 trillion industrial meat industry, and why they’re not worried about plant-based competition.

Impossible CEO Pat Brown talks Impossible 2.0 and the future of meat

If you’re in Vegas for CES, be sure to hit up their food truck outside the Convention Center and taste the burger 2.0!

Video: Can You Sell Things in the Smart Kitchen Without Being Annoying?

Most of us have heard the adage that the kitchen is the heart of the home. But it’s also a space that’s ripe for commerce, especially with all the new appliances, software, and services rolling out as the kitchen gets smarter.

In this video from the 2018 Smart Kitchen Summit, Richard Gunther of Digital Media Zone speaks with Iri Zohar of Freshub, Benton Richardson, of Amazon Dash, and Shawn Stover of GE Appliances about the future of in-kitchen commerce models: be that automated grocery replenishment, personalized suggestions, or shoppable recipes.

But how do you sell things to people in their kitchen in a way that, as Gunther put it, “isn’t annoying?”

Watch the full video below to find out.

Kitchen Counter Point of Sale: Analyzing In-Kitchen Commerce Models

Look out for more videos of the panels, solo talks, and fireside chats from SKS 2018! We’ll be bringing them to you hot and fresh out the (smart) kitchen over the next few weeks.

Video: To Succeed in the Smart Kitchen, “You Have to Get Multi-Modal Fast”

Voice is becoming more and more present in consumer electronics. At the same time, appliances are also coming with a whole host of AI-powered, software-driven interfaces and interactions.

How do these components work together in the kitchen? In this video from the 2018 Smart Kitchen Summit, Stacey Higginbotham of the IoT Podcast moderates a panel with Shelby Bonnie of Pylon AI, Adnan “Boat” Agboatwalla of Samsung and Jason Clarke of Crank Software about the evolution of smart appliances and interfaces in the heart of the home.

There’s a lot to consider. As Clarke said, “there’s all these interfaces that I want to jump between depending on the task and the environment of the moment.” For example, if his daughter is being loud, he doesn’t want to rely on voice to turn on his oven; if his hands are dirty, vice versa.

In short: the smart kitchen can’t function just with video screens or voice, but both working together. “You have to get to multi-modal fast,” said Bonnie.

But for the ultimate user experience these appliances all have to work together, too. “There should be a platform that connects everything… multi-branded appliances should be able to talk and work together,” said Agboatwalla. Easy? Maybe not. But with conversations like these, we can pave the way to a more connected kitchen and a better cooking experience.

Watch the full video below.

Beyond The Dial: Exploring Voice and AI-Powered Interfaces For The Kitchen

Look out for more videos of the panels, solo talks, and fireside chats from SKS 2018! We’ll be bringing them to you hot and fresh out the (smart) kitchen over the next few weeks.

Video: Food Blockchain — Just Hype, Or True Path To Food Transparency?

Blockchain is everywhere, from currency to copyright protection. Many also see the decentralized ledger as the key to food system transparency — that is, an incorruptible record of where food comes from, which can help increase food safety and promote customer knowledge. Others are skeptical, but blockchain is nonetheless a hot topic on the (dinner) table.

Two companies betting on blockchain as the future of food transparency are Walmart and Ripe.io. The former recently announced they would be using blockchain to keep track of spinach and lettuce sold in their stores, and the latter has been working for two years to create “The Blockchain for Food” (and racking up funding, too).

Watch as Stacey Higginbotham of Stacey on IoT talks to Walmart’s Tejas Bhatt and Ripe.io’s Raja Ramachandran about the impact of blockchain on the food ecosystem.

Food Blockchain: Hype Or True Path To Food Transparency

Look out for more videos of the panels, solo talks, and fireside chats from SKS 2018! We’ll be bringing them to you hot and fresh out the (smart) kitchen over the next few weeks.

Video: Smart Kitchen Perspectives from Japan, Europe, and the U.S.

More so than a living room, dining room, or even bedroom, kitchens — and their appliance lineup — vary dramatically region to region. In our global economy, how do companies in the smart kitchen space serve consumers across diverse geographies?

In this panel discussion from our recent Smart Kitchen Summit, ConnectSense’s Adam Justice moderates a discussion between Robin Liss of Suvie, Erik Wallin of Northfork, and Masa Fukata of Panasonic on the challenges of designing smart kitchen products and services which appeal to differing regions.

Smart Kitchen Regional Perspectives

Look out for more videos of the panels, solo talks, and fireside chats from SKS 2018! We’ll be bringing them to you hot and fresh out the (smart) kitchen over the next few weeks.

Video: Plant-Based, Cellular, and Sustainable — What is the Future of Meat?

Cell-based meat (also known as “clean” and “lab-grown” meat) is set to hit the market by the end of 2018, even though the FDA and USDA are still figuring out how to regulate it. At the same time, plant-based meat companies are seeing unprecedented levels of consumer interest and investment, even from Big Meat companies.

Watch as our panel from the 2018 Smart Kitchen Summit, featuring Tom Mastrobuoni of Tyson Ventures, Christie Lagally of Seattle Food Tech, and Thomas Bowman of JUST, Inc., explores the challenges and opportunities of the future of meat: plant-based, cell-based, and otherwise.

Plant-Based, Cellular & Sustainable: Exploring The Future of Meat

Look out for more videos of the panels, solo talks, and fireside chats from SKS 2018! We’ll be bringing them to you hot and fresh out the (smart) kitchen over the next few weeks.