Close Ad

The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

SKS

SKS 2019: How Can Tech Break Down Barriers to Get More People in the Kitchen?

At the Smart Kitchen Summit we bring together innovators who want to make the kitchen more high-tech, connected, and futuristic. But what does that matter if it doesn’t actually get people in the kitchen and cooking?

That’s exactly the question that the first panel of SKS 2019 tackled onstage last week. Nancy Roman, of the Partnership for a Healthier America, Beth Altringer, of Harvard, and celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor spoke with The Spoon’s Michael Wolf about how we can build a bridge to the future of food and cooking. Without alienating people.

Onstage Roman emphasized that the kitchen of the future should have one goal: building a healthier population. One way to do that is to make it easier for people to cook simple, nutritious meals at home — be it with a new cooking app, a recipe platform, or something else entirely.

For Dr. Altringer, the kitchen of the future isn’t all rosy. In fact, she showed data that suggests outsourcing more and more cooking processes to automation or other convenience measures doesn’t necessarily equate to happier eaters. “People enjoy food more when they know they worked for it,” she said onstage. One way they might cook and enjoy it is by employing her Flavor Genome Project, which is gamifying food preparation to help consumers and chefs figure out better dishes and fix flops.

With all this talk of automation, you’d think that a career chef like Sanjeev Kapoor might be worried about what the kitchen will look like down the road. Instead, he’s excited about it. “It’s an opportunity,” he said onstage. For example, Kapoor leverages social media to reach more viewers and leverages tech to help feed 1.8 million kids per day for his nutrition outreach project.

Overall, it was a really fascinating way to kick off the summit, and a departure from some of the typical conversations you hear around the future of food. If you’re interested in how tech can help us eat better, you can listen to the full video below! Keep an eye out for more content from SKS 2019 coming your way over the next few weeks.

SKS 2019: Building The Bridge To The Future of Food & Cooking

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

SKS Hot Seat: Lynette MacDonald of Thermomix on the 100 Year Old Company and Food Capsules

When you think of Thermomix, you probably think of the future. It is, after all, one device that can do 20 different meal preparation functions like chopping, stirring, and oh yeah, cooking. But here’s a fun fact: Thermomix is actually more than 100 years old (I’m guessing it had a butter churning feature back then?).

Thermomix thrust itself further into the future this year when it announced the new connected TM6 model, which featured a bigger touchscreen display, new cooking functions like sous vide, and guided cooking. The company didn’t stop there. At our Smart Kitchen Summit this past week, Thermomix announced a partnership with Drop to control even more smart appliances and add grocery ordering directly from the TM6.

Since she was showing off Thermomix at SKS this year, we thought it would be fun to put Lynette MacDonald, Culinary Development Manager for Thermomix, in our SKS hot seat to answer a few fun questions about her company and the future of food (spoiler: capsules!).

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: Lynette Macdonald, Thermomix

SKS 2019: An Industry Working Together To Solve Hard Problems in Food Tech and the Future Kitchen

At the first SKS in 2015, a group of like-minded folks in the world of food tech and connected kitchen got together in an old cannery for a day because we knew change was afoot, but had only just started to think about maybe doing something about it. Sure it was noisy, crowded, and we had an old couch on the stage (I still feel bad about making three full-grown adults sit on it), but the connections that started that day have continued to grow ever since.

Fast forward to SKS 2019, and it’s clear that we as an event and an industry have come a long way.

Not only were we in a beautiful waterfront venue with lots more space for breakout talks, startup and sponsor displays and dedicated meeting spaces, but the conversation itself had moved on from the theoretical to finding practical solutions and figuring out how to get things done.

And so in this week’s Spoon newsletter, we thought we’d reflect on some of the biggest takeaways from the last two days in Seattle. Below Chris, Jenn, Catherine and myself each wrote about what we took away from SKS 2019.

CHRIS: Robots are Ready to Grapple with Bigger Issues

When it comes to food robotics and automation, the questions are evolving from straight technical ones like “Can a robot do X?” to deeper, existential ones like “Great, but what does that mean for the people using and working with them?”

During our panel discussion, Chas Studor, Co-Founder and CTO of Briggo spoke about before installing its automated Coffee Haus at SFO, the airport required changes to make the kiosk accessible to the visually impaired. Briggo’s solution was to attach something akin to a Bat Phone on the side of the machine. Visually impaired customers can pick up the phone and speak directly with a Briggo rep, who places their order.

Elsewhere, Shawn Lange of Lab2Fab made a compelling presentation on why $15 an hour is not the real problem for food companies looking at automation. Lange posited that automation can actually make jobs more rewarding and easier by removing the monotonous and dangerous tasks, and in doing so, companies can embrace higher wages.

There are still a lot of societal issues that need to be addressed as automation makes its way deeper into our lives. I’m just glad to see that companies aren’t just recognizing the issues, but engaging with it and creating solutions.

JENN: Wellness Is Now a Design for Living . . . and Your Kitchen

It’s no secret that “wellness” is on the minds of many these days, and a recurring theme at SKS was how a trendy term is evolving from buzzword to business driver as companies create solutions to design healthier eating habits into daily life.

A major example of this was when architects Veronica Schreibeis Smith, of wellness-focused kitchen company Vera Iconica, and MIT Media Labs’ Suleiman Alhadidi took the stage to discuss how wellness is changing the way home kitchens get designed — literally. Both speakers showed off solutions that utilize everything from robotic cabinets to temperature-controlled pantries to space in the cabinetry for hydroponic grow systems. The idea behind these up-and-coming designs is to make it easier for the average consumer to access fresh ingredients daily, utilize space, and make the home-cooking process for healthy meals much more efficient.

In a different panel, Sherry Zhang, CEO of GenoPalate, explained that 40 percent of health is due to human behavior, and that all the health data in the world won’t help consumers if they can’t figure out how to change their behavioral patterns. How will we get there? Zhang suggested AI will play a big part in this, with intelligence eventually embedded into our actual cooking devices, like ovens.

We’re still some ways off from that day. Cost remains a big barrier for some of these health-focused kitchen solutions. As more companies start to focus their innovation efforts in this area, we’ll see those costs start to come down, hopefully for both devices and the food itself.

CATHERINE: Alternative Protein is On the Cusp of a Major Revolution

When most people think about the future of protein, their thoughts turn to plant-based meats like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, both of which have been grabbing tons of media headlines.

But at SKS 2019, we dove into new worlds of alternative protein. Sure, plant-based was one — but it extends far beyond faux burgers. I spoke with Bjorn Oste of Oatly, Daniel Scharff of JUST, and scientist Dr. PK Newby about the trajectory of plant-based revolution and why it’s only going to keep growing (thanks, Gen Z).

Plant-based protein popularity may be growing, but so is our desire for protein in general. Plants can help feed this protein hunger, sure, but the solution may also lie with cell-based meat and aquaculture. That’s what Lou Cooperhouse of BlueNalu and David Kay of Memphis Meats told me in our discussion on what’s next for cultured meat. I was interested to learn that they don’t envision this new protein source replacing all traditional meat, but rather helping to fill the delta between how much protein we can grow on earth, and how much we’ll need to feed the world. Just as soon as it gains regulatory approval, of course.

One of the most futuristic talks of the day was our panel on next-generation protein building blocks. Perumal Gandhi of Perfect Day, Dr. Lisa Dyson of Air Protein, and Morgan Keim of Motif FoodWorks dove into the emergent field of fermentation protein, a technology that can help us have our animal-free ice cream and save the planet, too. As long as we can figure out what to call it…

Perhaps the biggest question of all was tackled at the very end of the conference, when I spoke with Jaime Athos, CEO of Tofurky, which is suing two states over product labeling restrictions, about what exactly defines meat — and who gets to say so. That’s a question that will likely guide the availability (or lack thereof) of many of these new sources of protein going forward. If you want to stay up to date with the latest, make sure to subscribe to our Future Food newsletter!

MIKE: The Entire Food and Cooking Ecosystem Is Being Transformed and So It’s Time To Work Together 

As I said in my intro, this year was all about figuring out how to get things done. After all, we can speak about what we think will happen in the future, but unless we take stock of what is working and what isn’t, we’ll take twice as long to get to our desired destination.

So in my first session I had Joe Ray, fresh off his article for Wired about the smart kitchen, on stage with Nick Holzherr of Samsung and Mario Pieper of BSH Appliances to discuss just that.  Joe made it clear he doesn’t think many of the current connected kitchen products are ready for primetime, but agreed there are some tech-forward products that provide true value to the consumer and expected there would be more in the future once the industry figures things out. Nick Holzherr emphasized the need to focus less on gadgets and more on building well-orchestrated consumer experiences, while Mario Pieper discussed how BSH had learned many lessons early on in the connected kitchen and said the industry needs to work together to make the future kitchen vision a reality.

I also had a great session on the evolving meal journey and the potential for technology to shape it with Beth Altringer of the Flavor Genome Project, Nancy Roman of Partnership for a Healthier America and Sanjeev Kapoor, India’s most well-known celebrity chef.  While the three came to the conversation with widely varying backgrounds, all agreed there is significant potential in addressing some of society’s biggest problems through applying innovation to the food system and inside our own kitchens.

One of my favorite sessions was a discussion I had about the changing eating habits of Gen Z and Millennials with NPD analysts Joe Derchowski and Susan Schwalle. Susan pointed out that while some in the press think many consumers have given up almost entirely on eating at home in favor of ordering out or heading to the corner restaurant, in reality the data is skewed because of the high-price of outside of home dining. Joe pointed out that the future of food shopping lies in the ability to connecting our kitchens through smart home technology to food retail.

We saw how connected kitchen products hold the potential to completely reinvent how CPG product companies approach product development from Victor Penev of Edemam and Marc Drucker of Drinkworks. Drucker discussed how data gathered from consumption of cocktails with their connected drink maker helped them realize how consumers are using it during the day and identify product holes in the drink pod lineup.

I talked to those founders building software for the digitization of food and the kitchen – Kevin Brown of Innit, Ben Harris of Drop, Kevin Yu of SideChef and Jeff Xie of Chefling – who all felt that it was essential to reduce the effort required of the consumer by better connecting all parts of the meal journey from shopping to meal discovery to cooking itself.

My belief that food waste is having a moment as a critical focus for the broader food industry was confirmed throughout the two days at SKS. Many speakers made it clear their companies have made sustainability a core focus for new products, and we saw lots of excitement for our new Wise Kitchen Initiative with the Future Food Institute to foster innovation to reduce food waste in the home.

And of course, we had a great master session on how tech and innovation is reshaping food in Japan. Led by SKS Japan‘s Hirotaka Tanaka, the session illustrated the diversity and passion of the rapidly growing food tech market in Japan. This session was capped off by a fascinating look at the joint project to develop food for space, Space Food-X, which included a presentation from Yuta Kikuchi of JAXA, the Japanese Space Agency.

Before We Go

And now some thanks. Thank you to the Spoon team you heard from above – Chris Albrecht, Catherine Lamb and Jenn Marston – who worked hard all year to tell the stories of the people and companies doing interesting things in this space and then brought these stories alive on stage in Seattle.

Thanks to the SKS event team – including the always amazing Ashley Daigneault, Susan Volland, and (once-again) Catherine Lamb, who clearly does a bit of everything – for helping to bring this growing event together in so many ways.

Thanks to all the incredible speakers, who traveled to Seattle to share their expertise and experience.

Thanks for our partners from SKS Japan who not only crafted a great session, but also brought a big and enthusiastic contingent from Japan to connect with the SKS community.

Thanks to the startups finalists who took time out from building their companies to share their story with us.

Thanks to our fantastic volunteers, who gave us a day (some two) of their time to help pull this off.

And finally, a big thank you to our sponsors. Without your support, there is no way SKS would be possible.

With SKS 2019 in the books, we are more excited than ever about building this community, covering the innovators and disrupters, and continuing the conversation. We are already planning for SKS 2020 and are looking forward to seeing many of you in Las Vegas at FoodTech Live @ CES to discuss how we can build this future together.

Millo Is Reinventing the Blender to Make it Quieter, Sleeker and Smarter

You probably have a blender in your house. It’s probably… fine. But what if your blender could not only make you a really good smoothie, but do it silently — and look pretty dang cool in the process?

That’s exactly what Millo, a new startup reinventing the blender, is trying to do. They’re one of the finalists in the Startup Showcase at our Smart Kitchen Summit {SKS} food tech conference. We spoke with Ruslanas Adam Trakšelis, the co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer of Millo, to learn more about how the company is improving upon one of the most common household staples. Check out the Q&A below then grab a ticket to watch him and the other Startup Showcase finalists pitch live next week! We only have a few left (seriously), so get on it if you’re interested.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

First thing’s first: give us your 15-second elevator pitch.
MILLO is the blender reinvented as a smart gadget. Using unparalleled magnetic clutch and a brushless motor called AirDrive, the MILLO has no bulky-looking mechanical parts and stands out by its sleek Scandinavian premium/minimalist design. MILLO is cordless, buttonless and fully portable. Its smart electronics, together with firmware, enable real-time tracking of changes in liquid consistency, which allows extreme precision and creates a new dimension in recipes that are conveniently shared within the Millo app.

What inspired you to start your company?
MILLO was born out of the frustration experienced by everyone who makes smoothies. Usual blenders are noisy, messy and hard to wash. After a number of occasions in which I woke up my newly-born daughter while making my post-workout morning smoothie, I decided to reinvent the blender.

The moment of inspiration came when I was watching my daughter playing with a toy which rotated two dancing figures with magnets. That inspired me to develop AirDrive, a motor based on the magnetic coupling. The AirDrive technology eliminates mechanical friction of engine parts, thus the noise level is reduced significantly and I don’t disturb my family’s sleep.

What’s the most challenging part of getting a food tech startup off the ground?
I believe this is not related to food tech startups in particular, but startups in general — the main challenge is to find the right people who believe in the project the same way as you do, or close to it. Not only co-workers, but also investors, advisers, etc.

How will your company change the day-to-day life of consumers and the food space as a whole?
Today’s lifestyles have us more overworked and time-poor than ever, with our bodies and our well-being suffering as a consequence. Obesity, heart disease, and stress-related illnesses are some of the greatest threats to our health today. But we don’t need devices telling us to break our bad habits — we need technology to help us to leave them behind.

MILLO is not just an improved blender, but a true gadget specifically designed to help us integrate a better diet and nutrition to our modern, busy lifestyles. It takes the noise, mess, and hassle out of blending, making it easier than ever to make the right choices

Get one of the last remaining tickets to SKS to watch Trakšelis pitch onstage with the other Startup Showcase finalists! We’ll see you there.

Naveen Jain Says for Perfectly Personalized Food, Trust Your Gut. Literally

What if the food you ate could not only help you feel better and lose (or gain) weight, but also cure chronic health conditions, make you more alert, or even clear up your skin?

That’s exactly what personalized nutrition company Viome is trying to do. Viome’s CEO Naveen Jain will be onstage at the Smart Kitchen Summit {SKS} next week to talk about biomapping your menu and the power of personalized diets.

We spoke with Jain recently to learn more about how he’s trying to reinvent individual nutrition, starting with the gut. Read a little teaser about our conversation on Viome’s capabilities below, and be sure to get your tickets to SKS (there’s only a few left!) to hear him talk about the future of nutrition and personalization onstage.

You might not know it, but there are over 40 trillion microbes currently living in our gut. These microbes help us break down food and absorb nutrition, but, as living organisms, they differ person to person. So why isn’t the food we eat attuned to our specific gut microbe breakdown?

Jain thinks it should be. “We understand the human body at a biochemical level,” Jain told me. “Everything in your body is so personalized. That’s why we should change healthcare from the ‘one size fits all’ model.”

That’s why he created Viome, which uses an individual’s stool sample to check out what the microbes in their gut are doing. Based off of that data, the company can tell them which foods are good for them (and why)‚ which ones are not so good, and can also recommend dietary enzymes to help stabilize your gut or facilitate weight loss.

Viome used to be limited to analysis and supplements, but a few months ago the company acquired personalized nutrition company Habit. Jain said that they’re using Habit to add integrated recipes and meal planning into the Viome platform. Though it’s added new services, Viome has also gotten a lot more affordable. When it first launched in 2016 its test cost $400 — now it’s under half that.

All of this goes to show that personalized nutrition is getting more accessible, relevant, and better about pinpointing exactly how individuals should eat to meet their health goals. Is it the future of eating? It very well could be. The best way to find out is to join us at SKS as Jain and others do a deep dive into the potential power of personalized eating. We’ll see you there!

Perumal Gandhi of Perfect Day Thinks that Yeast and Bacteria Can Help Feed the Planet

The temptation of ice cream can be a killer for even the most devout dairy-abstainers and flexitarians. So much so that Perumal Gandhi and Ryan Pandya were motivated to create Perfect Day, a company that makes animal-free dairy products with the exact same proteins as the real thing, thanks to fermentation. Their debut product, a suite of ice creams, disappeared as soon as they were released (I can personally attest that they were very, very delicious).

We reached out to Perumal Gandhi to learn more about his motivation behind co-founding a company that makes dairy from microbes. It’s just a snippet of what he will discuss onstage at the Smart Kitchen Summit {SKS} on October 7 & 8 in Seattle, so get your tickets now!

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity. 

What inspired you to create Perfect Day, a company that makes dairy without the cows?
For me it all comes back to the animals and the environment. My entire life, I’ve always been a nature lover and been conscious about humanity’s impact on the world. Although I was raised eating meat, dairy, and eggs, I decided to go vegetarian when I was young. This first transition was pretty easy, I just ate more dairy and eggs to compensate. Fast forward to grad school, I learned that dairy and eggs are part of the same problematic system of industrial farming, so I changed to a 100% plant-based vegan diet.

This second transition was far from easy — I found that I really missed cheese and dairy products. Given my scientific background, I knew that there had to be a way to make real milk in an environmentally friendly way, so I looked into it. Then, thanks to a coincidental twist of fate, I got connected with Ryan Pandya through our mutual friend, Isha Datar of New Harvest. New Harvest is a nonprofit research institution dedicated to funding cellular agriculture research. Isha told Ryan and I that we were the only two people who had ever approached her with the idea to make dairy without animals.

Ryan, like me, had a background in biomedicine, loved the natural world, and had struggled to completely give up dairy foods. We started trading our ideas for making dairy using well-known fermentation techniques. The rest is history! Five years later, we now lead a team of nearly 70 people, have begun to commercialize and scale our technology, and we plan on working with food companies around the world to help evolve what is possible for dairy foods and beyond.

You call your animal-free dairy “flora-based,” instead of plant-based or cell-based. Why is that?
Microflora refers to microorganisms collectively. We use flora as a shorthand way to refer to the fungi, yeast, algae, bacteria and other organisms commonly used across the world to produce ingredients via fermentation.

Not only can fermentation using microflora address the world’s nutrition needs — and our demand for animal products — without the significant environmental and climate impacts caused by animal agriculture, it can also allow for a climate- and geography-agnostic way to produce nutritious food.

Protein made using our flora-based approach is identical to that from animals, but also fundamentally and functionally different than plant-based proteins. We use the term “flora-based” rather than plant- or cell-based because it’s the most scientifically accurate term. We’ve found that it differentiates us from both plant and animal products and describes the origin of our protein in a concrete way.

Perfect Day recently launched its first product: flora-based ice cream (which was delicious). Where is it available now/when will it be on grocery shelves?
We’re so glad you liked the ice cream! This launch was very limited and was only available for purchase through our website. However, we’re working hard to get products made with our protein into stores in the near future. For now we’re directing people to sign up for our newsletter at our website — subscribers will be the first to know when, where, and what the next product will be!

What other products can we expect to see from Perfect Day?
It’s too early for us to share any details about future product launches – but we can say that we’ll have another announcement before the end of this year. Stay tuned!

What a tease! Come see Perumal speak about next-gen protein at SKS on October 7th and maybe you can get some more details out of him. Get your tickets here!

Planeteer Is Cutting Down on Plastic Waste with Cutlery You Can Eat

We all know that single-use plastics — like disposable cutlery, straws, and cups — often end up hanging out in landfills and clogging up the oceans. Some companies opt for biodegradable options, but those can also take a long time to break down.

Planeteer LLC is trying to solve the problem of single-use cutlery waste by making single-use spoons that are meant not to be thrown away or composted, but eaten. The company will be pitching live onstage at the Smart Kitchen Summit {SKS} for our first ever Future Food competition this October! Read a short Q&A with co-founder Dinesh Tadepalli below and grab your tickets to see (and taste) his innovative cutlery for yourself.

This Q&A has been lightly edited for clarity.

First thing’s first: give us your 15-second elevator pitch.
Did you eat your spoon today? It’s time to ditch the single-use disposable plastic — which, though only used for a few minutes of comfort, hurts nature for hundreds of years. Let us be more creative and innovative in helping the planet be a better place for future generations by eating your spoon! Our edible cutlery revolution starts with spoons that are all-natural, vegan, protein-rich and compost in just days! They come in two shapes and fun flavors, and will stay firm up to 25 minutes in a hot soup and 50 minutes in a cold dessert.

What inspired you to start your company?
We owe our future generations the same planet we enjoy. Our mission started after our kids were born. We felt responsible not just to secure their education but also to provide them clean oceans and environment. This started our path to exploring and innovating the way to make edible cutlery. Every spoon eaten is one less plastic one in the ocean!

What’s the most challenging part of getting a food startup off the ground?
Being a new concept and more expensive than a plastic spoon, our most challenging part is convincing customers that they can eat the spoon, literally! Our flavors and win-win pricing strategy helped all the sections of the business from manufacturing to the end customer. Now, we have about 20 shops selling these spoons for a minimal add-on cost, where the customer can leave the shop with gratitude and empowerment that they have not wasted another plastic spoon today.

How will your company change the day-to-day life of consumers and the food space as a whole?
We strive to replace all the single-use plastic spoons with a spoon you can eat. Edible Coffee stirrers are next. Take-out food is a huge market in US, so just imagine how many plastic spoons can be saved from oceans and landfills if we make a conscious switch.

A few minutes of eating ice cream with a plastic spoon leaves 500 years of impact on the planet. Our only goal is to help customers provide better alternatives to single-use plastic.

Get your tickets to SKS 2019 now to meet all the Future Food companies and give their products a taste!

Michele Fite Wants to Defy Your Idea of What Animal-Free Alternatives Can Be

Burbling bread starters and pots of kimchi or kraut are common in today’s fermentation-forward, health-conscious kitchens. But what happens when you merge the ancient craft that brought us fine wine, soy sauce, and chocolate with cutting-edge science and technology ? You get protein, which is exactly what new(ish) spinoff company Motif Foodworks is all about: making animal-free protein solutions to help feed the alt-meat revolution.

We talked to Michele Fite, Chief Commercial Officer of Motif FoodWorks, to find out more. She will be at the Smart Food Summit (SKS) on October 7th speaking about Next-Gen Food Building Blocks next month. Tickets are almost gone, so register now!

This Q&A has been lightly edited for clarity.

Tell us more about how Motif FoodWorks works.
We are an ingredient innovation company dedicated to reshaping the landscape of food through science and technology. We will do that by partnering with food innovators, from chefs to startups to major enterprise brands, and creating animal-free ingredients that will enable new and better food experiences. Ultimately, our goal is to defy expectations of what animal-free alternatives can be.

To achieve breakthroughs in ingredient innovation, we employ an exhaustive process to understand and unlock new food properties. We start with a thorough analysis of the sensory experience that allows us to identify the underlying components. We then decode the genetic makeup of those ingredients, translating them into animal-free counterparts. Powered by fermentation, we harness biology and select microbes designed to produce our target ingredients — ones we have traditionally gotten from animals — through a process that is akin to brewing beer.

Motif FoodWorks just raised $27.5 million dollars. What do you plan to use your new capital to achieve?
With the new funding, we plan to add to and accelerate our product pipeline; expand academic collaborations across a broad set of molecular food science disciplines; scale our science and regulatory staff; and deepen our research and development efforts.

This year alone we have been able to expand our leadership team with the additions of Janet Collins, Head of Regulatory, Government and Industry Affairs, Julie Post-Smith, Director of Business Development, and Morgan Keim, Business Development Manager, who will help Motif unlock the secrets of food and meet consumer demand for delicious, responsibly produced foods.

Why do you think the alternative protein space is so white-hot right now? What is motivating its rise in popularity?
The alternative protein space is rising in popularity because of shifting consumer attitudes, emerging technologies, and the “cool factor” of brands like Beyond and Impossible drawing more attention to the industry as a whole.

People want to eat a little better, both for their own health and the health of the environment, and Motif sees a unique opportunity to move plant-based and animal-free foods beyond a fad and solidify them into a movement by making sure consumers don’t have to compromise between taste, nutrition and values.

You previously worked in big CPG companies such as Nestlé, Dupont and Kerry. How has your experience informed your role at Motif Bioworks?
I am fortunate to bring a depth of experience in the food industry to my work at Motif – from working in consumer packaged goods experience as a marketer and brand manager to serving as a B2B executive in highly technical and specialized businesses such as infant formula, weight management, sports nutrition, medical foods, and dietary supplements. I will apply my abilities to understand consumer insights and trends in the food space and connect them back to technology to my role at Motif, as we work to reshape the food landscape and bring more nutritious, accessible and sustainable food experiences to consumers.

Come hear Michele, Perumal Gandhi of Perfect Day and Lisa Dyson of Air Protein speak at SKS next month! Tickets are going fast.

Anrich3D Wants to 3D Print Food Personalized Just For You

The concept of 3D printing food is already pretty futuristic. Add in nutrition personalization, and you get something that sounds even more like it’s straight out of Star Trek.

That’s exactly the device that Anrich3D, one of the finalists in our SKS 2019 Startup Showcase, is trying to make. The soon-to-be-incorporated company is developing a system of 3D printers which can precisely dispense food based off of an individual’s particular nutritional and aesthetic preferences. Pretty radical, huh?

We spoke with Anrich3D founder and CEO Anirudh Agarwal about why he thinks 3D printing could make food more nutritious, affordable, and accessible. Check out the Q&A then get your tickets to SKS to see Anirudh pitch live in Seattle this October!

Give us your 15-second elevator pitch.
We produce personalized meal plans for health enthusiasts based on information from health trackers, apps, wearables and medical check-ups. Each meal is personalized to the individual using multi-material food 3D printing at scale.

What inspired you to start your company?
Most people don’t know what to eat. There are many apps and services out there to give you very personalized advice. But there are no services to convert those apps into meals. Moreover, humans are good at and enjoy creativity, while number crunching is a machine’s forte. I may want to decide what physical form of food I am in the mood for or even what cuisine, but I don’t want to measure every ingredient according to my nutritional requirements.

A food 3D printer can provide personalized nutrition integrating data from all the apps, wearables and even medical records that exist to create the mathematically optimized meal for me — inarguably, the best possible thing I could be eating. It is said, “It’s 80% nutrition and 20% exercise.” With this, I never have to worry about my 80%!

What’s more, it can produce little bite-sized pieces I call “foodlets” so as to make every bite perfect and an absolutely effortless experience. The peak of convenience beyond what any fast food restaurant can provide. And when machines make it, with scale, it can be available and affordable for all.

With “fast-food” made healthy, we can liberate people to always have a healthy option no matter how busy or broke. There is a saying in Hindi, “Jaan hai to Jahan hai”: if you have your health, you have the world! Health is the foundation of our productivity. With optimal nutrition and therefore good health within grasp, people can reach their full potential and propel humanity forward. And of course lower instances of diabetes, obesity and other lifestyle diseases. A lower strain on the healthcare system. Preventive healthcare!

It doesn’t end there. With enough scale, we can transform the supply chain for food by applying manufacturing inventory management techniques. We can work with grocery stores to minimize inventory and even utilize the fresh produce left at the end of each day to minimize food waste. With more efficient distribution, we may be able to reduce world hunger if not eliminate it completely!

I could go on about specific ground-level applications, but this is the overarching vision. This drives me and gives me a reason to wake up in the morning!

What’s the most challenging part of getting a food tech startup off the ground?
Where do I begin! Food is a touchy subject. Literally — we need to be careful about what is literally touching the food! We need regulatory approval (FDA for the U.S.) for the parts, the machine and the process of preparing the food. We also need food handling certification for all personnel that handle the food.

Food is also “touchy” figuratively. People have deep emotional connections to their food. A new form of food may have a psychological barrier to cross for acceptance. We need to focus on demonstrations and education and make this “new” thing mundane and “normal” with exposure for the majority to adopt it. The good thing is, instead of giving supplements powders, we want to focus on real food ingredients and just give the precise proportions of those!

How will your company change the day-to-day life of consumers and the food space as a whole?
Food 3D printing at scale has the potential to make “fast” food healthy. In other words, make healthy food convenient and affordable!

No two people are the same. Everyone has different needs and goals. Food 3D printing at scale has the potential to make individual-level personalization available and affordable for all. Beyond personalized nutrition, people crave a personal touch. For some people, a sandwich is most convenient, while it may be a wrap or hot pocket for others. Some want a dish displayed traditionally, while others may like their toast carved as a dinosaur. With 3D printing, this personal touch can also be added.

Armed with personalized nutrition and this personal touch, Anrich3D can change the perception of food and what form it can take! Star Trek anyone?

For kids, healthier food can be delivered in the shapes of their favorite characters to improve their motivation to finish the meal. This can be made into a gamified nutritional educational program for kids where they unlock more characters by finishing each meal. As the levels progress, they need to identify ingredients and make estimates for the amounts of each ingredient in a balanced meal. The program gradually helps them acquire the taste for healthier foods and teaches them about healthy ingredients and nutrition along the way!

This can be a government-mandated nutrition course in every school all over the world to raise a generation of healthier kids with an acquired taste for healthier food and a deep understanding of nutrition to create a healthier and more productive tomorrow!

Even beyond all that, Anrich3D can streamline the food supply chain from farm to grocery store to your plate so as to minimize waste and redistribute existing produce to minimize hunger. Mobilizing forces across countries, we can end world hunger!

Come watch Anirudh pitch live and at the SKS Startup Showcase next month! Get 25% off your tickets here.

Rotten Avocados? StixFresh’s Sticker Will Keep Them From Going Bad

Have you ever bought a bunch of avocados that ripened so quickly you had to throw them away before you could use them?

Well I have, and I’m not the only one. In fact, almost half of food waste happens at home, often because of scenarios like the one above. StixFresh is a new startup that’s combatting downstream food waste in grocery stores and consumer kitchens — with a sticker. They’re also one of the finalist companies who will pitch live at the SKS 2019 Startup Showcase in October.

We spoke with StixFresh cofounder and CEO Moody Soliman to learn a little more about these seemingly magical food waste fighting stickers. Check out the Q&A below then grab your tickets to SKS before they sell out.

Give us your 15-second elevator pitch
At StixFresh, we’ve developed a food-safe sticker that can extend the shelf life of fresh fruit by up to two weeks. This simple sticker can be applied at any point along the produce supply chain.

What inspired you to start StixFresh?
My co-founder and I both have an unyielding passion for bringing innovative technologies to market that ultimately improve people’s health, safety and quality of life. This is exactly what we saw in StixFresh — a technology that truly has the potential to change the world. It will not only have an economical benefit, but it will also have enormous social and environmental benefits across governments, companies and communities around the world.

What have you found to be the most challenging part of getting a food startup off the ground?
In a food tech startup, efficacy and safety go hand-in-hand. You are not only faced with the challenge of developing an innovative and potentially disruptive technology that has to work, but it must also be 100% safe. Because of our backgrounds, this has been our focus from the get-go. Nevertheless, this requires extensive R&D and product development work. This takes significant resources in the form of time and money in order to do it right, neither of which are a luxury for most startups.

How will StixFresh change the day-to-day life of consumers and the food space as a whole?
StixFresh will (1) significantly reduce fresh food waste by extending shelf-life via an all-natural process, and (2) maintain the food’s freshness longer, thus allowing many communities (especially developing ones) to consume fresh, natural, organic foods they were not able to access previously.

Furthermore, fruits and vegetables account for the largest portion of wasted food in terms of mass. So, by reducing the food waste that makes up a significant portion of today’s landfills, StixFresh will help reduce our carbon footprint and foster more responsible stewardship of the huge amounts of natural resources required to grow our food. StixFresh will not only help consumers save money, it will also help farmers, governments, companies, and communities provide food sustainably, as well as help address the issue of climate change.

Come watch Moody pitch live and at the SKS Startup Showcase next month! Get 25% off your tickets here.

Steve Nackers on The Evolving Role of Cyber-Security in the Connected Kitchen

Does your blender prefer a specific brand of low-fat yogurt? Is your stovetop eager to share snapshots of last weekend’s epic dinner party? Just how connected are smart kitchens, and more importantly, which appliance knows what (and who are they sharing it with)?

Steve Nackers, corporate Manager of Electronic Controls for Sub-Zero, will be at this year’s Smart Kitchen Summit discussing cybersecurity, the connected kitchen, and the chances of your slow-cooker chili setting off five alarms in all the wrong places.

We sent him a few questions before the October event about how the Sub-Zero team are tackling innovation, performance, and adaptive privacy settings.

This interview has been lighted edited for clarity. 

Tell us more about what you do for Sub-Zero Group, Inc.
I’ve been with Sub-Zero Group, Inc. for over 18 years. During that time, my career has spanned from field support to product launches to innovative research initiatives. I have enjoyed experiencing a wide part of the DNA of this family-owned company and its commitment to its customers — something I’m excited to see even more growth around with the recent breaking ground on our new innovation center that will serve as a hub for research and development.

As the Corporate Manager of Electronic Controls for Sub-Zero Group, Inc., my team will be one of the first to move to the new innovation center where we will work alongside teams from across our three great brands on developing and integrating the controls, software, and innovations that deliver on that promise of quality and value that Sub-Zero Group, Inc. is known for.

How have you seen technology transform the way we cook in the kitchen?
Yes — technology is reshaping the kitchen and the home space around us in ways we see, and in ways we don’t. However, it is important to make sure that those technologies are applied in meaningful ways that enable and enhance the consumer experience. From the NASA-inspired air filter technologies that enhance food preservation to precision software and instrumentation that has evolved greatly in the last decade to provide the consumer greater control and more predictable cooking results, these technologies are reshaping the cooking experience. We continue to take really innovative and new technologies and shape them in ways that help our consumers to have an experience in the kitchen that gives them confidence.

Do you envision a future in which all kitchen appliances are connected and controllable via your phone/voice?
The key thing is providing the consumer with choice. Homeowners still really value the ability to interact with their appliances, but are also looking for ways to improve their efficiency in the kitchen. Their data, privacy, and security should be what they have control over, and we need to enable them to interact with their appliances in the ways that are most seamless and comfortable for them. For some people, that will be voice, for others it is mobile, and still others it is a physical knob. Thoughtfully designing the appliances from day one throughout our engineering process to accommodate that choice and respecting the values of our consumers is what drives our vision of the future.

How do you address consumer concerns about privacy with IoT-enabled devices?
We take security very seriously and have worked closely with organizations like UL and Microsoft from the start to ensure proper measures are in place to be proactive about vulnerabilities. Cybersecurity is an ever-changing landscape, and is something we must continuously evolve and update our security measures to stay on top of. The most important thing is to have a mindset and commitment to security as a priority in every step of your design process and throughout the various levels of your organization. That is something we take seriously and continue to cultivate.

We also understand that consumers have concerns about IoT enabled devices. Our customer service teams are dedicated to working with consumers on their questions. Our hope is always that any concerns they might have we address so effectively that they come away with confidence and a greater sense of trust. To that end, we work to be clear, transparent, and effective in communicating what and how data is handled.

What’s the one kitchen appliance you could never live without?
My Wolf induction cooktop, hands down. Induction is finally making inroads in the U.S., and I’ve converted a few family and friends as well. I had used gas and standard electric methods for years previously, but getting my first Wolf induction cooktop was eye-opening. The power, efficiency, and absolute precision was amazing. To be able to drive a pot of water to rolling boil in under a minute, and yet leave chocolate at a soft melt for as long as needed with such precision on the same devices is incredible. There is a lot of exciting innovation to come in this space too which makes me even more eager for future generations of the product!

Come watch Steve speak on Hacking The Oven: Cybersecurity & The Connected Kitchen at SKS next month! Get 25% off your tickets here.