Sponsored Workshop: Predicting Palates – Leveraging AI (Almond Intelligence) to Innovate for Tomorrow’s Tastes

Cherie Grace [00:12] We really have a good story to tell about almonds. It's really exciting and sexy. I know lots of people do other nuts and snacking, but we're going to show you the sexy today about almonds. So my name is Cherie Grace. I'm a part of the trade marketing and stewardship team at the Almond Board of California, and we're really excited to have you here today as we, you know, we, we talk about the subject of AI and how AI can be integrated in your new product development life cycle. So the way that this session will work today is that we'll do an overview of Tastewise for those of you that are not familiar with TasteW and exactly what is it and how can it be applied in the food and beverage industry. Then we'll do a 30 minute panel discussion with our panelists here. I'll have them introduce themselves shortly. After that we're going to take, I don't know that we'll break, we'll just reposition and kind of go through, you know, get set up for our product demonstration which is going to be super exciting. So I hope you stay for that so that you can hear from our chef and see how he's using AI to integrate it in the product development cycle and then After as we get ready for that, we're going to talk about almond snacking trends. So how do we use AI to help us predict some of the snacking trends as it relates to almonds, and then we'll end with the full demonstration and sampling of the products that were developed as a result of our AI technology. So as we get started, I will hand it over to my panelists to give an introduction. Hannah, let's start with you.

Hannah [01:43] Thanks Cherie. My name is Hannah. I am a customer success manager at Tastewise. So Tastewise is an AI powered food intelligence platform, um, and I am really excited to be here. I've come over from London and I've brought the weather with me, I'm so sorry, um, but I'm excited to be here. I'm really passionate about food, data, and AI and it's great to be working with a, a really forward-thinking organization like the Almond Board of California. Thank you.

Chef Henry Hill [02:11] And I'm Chef Henry Hill of Hill's Research Kitchen, a product development consultant.

Emily Fleischmann [02:18] And I'm Emily Fleischmann. I lead the global market development team at the Almond Board. We're a nonprofit that supports the California almond industry with demand building activities as well as research both on nutrition and production.

Cherie Grace [02:31] And Emily, at the Almond Board, do we sell anything? Do we make anything?

Emily Fleischmann [02:35] We do not, but I have a lot of vendors who reach out asking me if they could help me with my packaging.

Cherie Grace [02:41] So, let's, uh, before we start the actual panel discussion, let's hear from Hannah and understand what is Tastewise and how exactly, um, are we using AI? Are you using AI with Tastewise, so I'll hand it over to you.

Hannah [02:54] Thanks, Cheri. Yeah, so, uh, Tastewise was really born out of a passion for understanding consumers, what they're eating, what their needs are, um, be that in restaurants or food space, um, and as well as that in their kitchens and homes, so. Um, over the past year, the world has seen an influx in AI technology and people just talking about AI. So I'm gonna ask you guys for a show of hands who here has used chat GBT or Bard? Few of you who here has used it um in a professional er capacity and, and actually got something great out of it. Slightly less hands, so we're really at that point where people are excited about AI but they're not sure how to integrate it into their lives. Um, what I would definitely not recommend is asking it to write you any jokes about almonds, because I tried doing that and it was terrible. Um, but yes, so, um, uh, at the same time as this kind of growth in. Uh, in AI technology and people really trying to understand how it can help them in their professional, professional lives. We also have more than ever, um, access to huge amounts of consumer data. Consumers are sharing with us every single day, the food choices that they're making, and as well as that, why they're making those food choices. So it's a really great opportunity, um, but this is a huge amount of data, and anybody who's worked with data will know that. You know, working with big data, uh, working with unstructured data, it presents challenges. So Tastewise it's AI technology is there to kind of do that heavy lifting for you. Take all that consumer data, um, and really bring you a picture of the food and beverage world and consumer needs in a few clicks. Um, so Tastewise is, uh, an end to end platform for the food industry, um. It uses generative AI um and food specific data, so that food specific data is social media data where people are telling us all the time what they're eating and why they've chosen that. Uh, menu data as well, um, and as well as that, home recipes. So we're bringing together these three different sources, and that's what powers our, um, generative AI suite. Our solutions incorporate um food specific algorithms as well so we at Tastewise we only do food and beverage er insights, so we are obsessed with food, like I'm sure that you guys all are. So I want to talk to you about trends, because trends is what we are here to speak about today. So at Tastewise, we consider trends more than a fleeting moment. So we are really about looking at those sustained trends. It's not about those like viral TikTok moments that you hear about, like the feta pasta, um, that people will. Making for a while and probably aren't making anymore, but we're really here to kind of show you those growing sustained trends that consumers are um incorporating in their day to day lives. So I mentioned that we have these three main data sources, um, And we have this holistic view of the food and beverage world, and that is what we use to identify and predict trends. So some of the signs that we look out for are things like consistent growth in conversation over two years, um, and. Consistent growth across multiple areas, so growth in consumer conversation, but also growth in orders from, from, uh, in restaurants and food service delivery platforms, and an increase of interest in um in home cooking and home consumption. So what we have here on the slide is a glimpse of Tastewise it's 2024 food trends. Um, I'm not gonna kind of go through them one by one because if you are, if you are interested in this, and I would definitely, definitely recommend. Um, reading it, you can download it from the Tastewise website. Um, it's super interesting, it's really engaging, it's really fun, um, but I wanna just kind of briefly touch upon how these are linked to almonds, and Emily and I are gonna have a discussion about that a little bit later on, um, but kind of kicking off with talking about those health needs, of course, like almonds are a big, uh, a super healthy food, um, and we are going to talk to you about how consumer health needs are changing and where almonds can fit into that. I want to talk to you about how in uh an economic downturn, almonds can present a real opportunity for our consumers to have those indulgent experiences that they're all really craving. And finally, we're gonna talk about flavors, so consumers continue to search for those unique, exotic experiences, uh, through their food choices.

Cherie Grace [07:44] Awesome. That was a great crash course on all things Tastewise. It was a lot to consume, but we'll try to dig into that during this conversation or this panel discussion. So we'll jump right in and I guess I'll start with you, Hannah, in terms of all of the stuff that you just told us about Tastewise and AI. What are some of the challenges and opportunities that you expect to see as this artificial intelligence technologies is refined? What do you expect?

Hannah [08:10] Yeah, so I've already alluded to the fact that there's a lot of questions around AI. Some people are a little bit cautious about using it. Other people are embracing that technology, and I think one of the things that we really have to think about is what is powering our AI. Anybody who's kind of read anything about chat GPT will know that the data is a little bit out of date. It only goes up to 2021, and also that chat GPT likes to hallucinate. So the role of chat GPT is to give you an answer. With Tastewise it's AI technology, it's powered by our rich data that I just spoke about, um, and it, it's really there to give you an accurate answer. If you ask a question, uh, to our, to our generative AI, uh, chatbot called a taste GPT and it doesn't have an answer because we don't have enough data, it will tell you. So it's really about having that robust and trustworthy data to power that AI. As well as that, I think, um, there are so many opportunities here, like there are so many opportunities for AI to really be doing that heavy lifting and we've, and I've kind of mentioned that there is a little bit of fear around it, but, um, what I think is really great about AI is that it can speed up processes, um, and it's really important to kind of have humans at the center of that, so. RAI, uh, platform is powered by human data, by consumer data, um, and at the end of that process, we're always going to need those humans in there. So we're gonna need our creative people, um, who are really great at putting together, um, delicious snacks and foods like chef Henry here, and people who are deep expertise within their sectors like Emily.

Cherie Grace [09:51] Thank you. So let's dig into that a little bit with Chef Henry, especially in terms of the human element. So from your experience in the culinary world as a chef working and consulting on R&D projects, how do you see that human creativity collaborating to help you be effective in generating products using AI?

Chef Henry Hill [10:12] So research is a really big part of what we do, Cherise, and taste wise and AI is able to speed up that process a lot so we can leverage all the data points that we get through working with those kinds of programs and then be able to be the conduit between that data and the consumer story that the brand conveys.

Cherie Grace [10:33] That's awesome. I like that as a former product developer, I wish I had time. I had the information to help me speed up, you know, from 6 months to a year. Now I think with with AI, it's, you know, you're like 3 months probably to launch, so that's great. And then I'll come back to Hannah and say, with the use of generative AI, you know, how does that change the way we approach it, like how I would've approached it years ago to how I would approach it as a food developer today.

Hannah [10:57] Yeah, definitely. So, um, as you've both mentioned, it's around doing that heavy lifting. So big data is requires a lot of cleaning and a lot of kind of going through the data and querying it in different ways. Taste wise really allows you to speed up that process and does that kind of heavy lifting by using large language models, um, to organize that data. So that's kind of the first place and Um, you know, you've just mentioned that you used to be, um, kind of in that product space, and, and we actually, um, and you just mentioned 3 months, which is great because, um, we had a client say to us recently that what used to take them 3 months from ideation to actually having like a prototype, um, product has gone, uh, it's now 30 times faster, so it's gone from like 3 months to 3 days to getting it into the test kitchen, which is incredible.

Cherie Grace [11:48] I love that. So I guess Chef Henry, in terms of all these inputs and this platform like Tastewise that takes food service, social media, all these trends, how do you use this as you approach your product development life cycle? How does this change everything, not just the time, but the way that you approach the product development cycle?

Chef Henry Hill [12:09] We still need to capture this data and be able to create a story as the conduit to the consumer. So every brand really tells 4 stories. You're telling a story to your customer, you're telling a story to your employees, you're telling a story to your peers in the industry and you're telling a story to your investors, how you're going to make money. And so being able to effectively use that data to communicate all of those stories is a huge part of how we distill those concepts into a simple product um and I'm not saying tell different stories. To each one of those audiences because it's important that a brand communicates consistently, but where those stories overlap is what defines your brand values and so being able to take that approach to product development. To using Tastewise data and to the build, test, learn cycle is a big part of that qualitative process.

Cherie Grace [13:10] Awesome. So we've talked a lot about the product development cycle and how AI is effective in that, but let's also acknowledge AI's use outside of R&D. And let's, you know, one of the 2024 trends AI, AI is or Tastewise is predicting is that AI will play a major role in the food. Marketing process. So Emily, in terms of companies and organizations that may not necessarily be producing new foods in the near future or at all, how do you feel that AI can support effective marketing strategies?

Emily Fleischmann [13:42] Yeah, well I think we all hear about the promise of AI just being endless, right? And if you've gone on and played with it, you kind of see that, and that definitely comes to life in the space of marketing, right? Just like in the world of food development, we want to like shorten the cycle and also increase. The chances of a win. Well, having better data to help you get there is going to be part of that. And so being able to, you know, mine into all of the data that's really, you know, what they post online about food, what's happening in terms of their response to recipes and other content, and using the Tastewise tools to see that really aids in being able to start in a better place. So we at the Almond Board are working with Tastewise in a couple of different ways. One is just to come up with some new ideas to leverage as we make news about almonds and how almonds can be used in innovation and new food products. And then secondly, taking that a step further, we have this really exciting contest the team is working on um in early next year, it's a student contest, and we'll be using taste, Tastewise data as the starting point to inspire them and then have the students go create new innovation with almonds, um, leveraging that starting point.

Cherie Grace [14:48] And any additional industry trends you think will be key for almonds in 2024? You

Emily Fleischmann [14:53] know, I think the space of plant-based snacking is, is not stopping, Cherise, and it's evolving though, right? So we hear a lot about, you know, the maybe some pushback and what's been in the. Marketplace related to plant-based and I think Whole Foods recently says we need to put the plant back in plant-based, and I think that's true. Consumers are looking for more natural ingredients and so we're seeing a lot of that come to life and that pushback against ultra processed I think is going to result in some really, really special innovation. Um, and then within the side of snacking within plant-based, snacking isn't stopping. We have fundamentally changed the way we eat across the globe. The Elm Award has marketing programs across the globe. We produce 80% of the world's almonds here in California, so naturally we export quite a lot of them. And so we, we go across the globe, and I remember our committee members that we reported talked about how you'll never get French people to snack. That's not going to happen. And you know, 5-6 years later, you know, they're snacking and, and within that the space of plant-based really appeals, especially to the vegan vegetarian, you know, consumer, but then that broader flexitarian too, um, yeah, so I, I think plant-based is here to stay, um, and yeah.

Cherie Grace [16:04] Any studies or anything that we have from the almond board that could just propel that

Emily Fleischmann [16:10] in any way? Yeah, well, I think there's research on both sides. So you know externally from a snacking standpoint, IIC recently did a study that showed 7 in 10 consumers are snacking, and most of them are under 50, so 50 next year so I guess I have to stop snacking but you know that and and then there's a dairy study that McKinsey did that just talked about the desire for the products to be a little more sustainable and a little more environmentally friendly, especially in the plant-based sector, which isn't really surprising. We kind of already know that. Um, but almonds have, have a really nice story there and so excited to see that story be brought to life a little more. The LCA that we had done by UC Davis actually showed that we have a really pretty low carbon footprint overall when compared to similar foods.

Cherie Grace [16:53] Awesome. And also some innovative um insights to talk about the growth year over year in terms of snacking. I think snacking saw like a 10% growth. Yeah, awesome. So at this stage of the game we are going to, um, just transition into we're gonna have Chef Henry. He's gonna be in the background setting up as we go into talking about our snacking trends for 2024. We're going to jump right into the 2024 snacking trends, and Hannah and Emily, let's take a look at what's happening, especially in the health and wellness space. I think there's a lot to learn about almonds and how we really fit into the insights are confirming what we already knew, so we're excited to share those with you, Hannah.

Hannah [17:36] Yeah,

Emily Fleischmann [17:39] yes, so interrogating.

Hannah [17:43] Uh Great, so we are gonna kick off with snacking. So we've mentioned snacking, um, a lot already, um, and, uh, kind of gonna kick off looking at snacking from a healthy perspective. Um, so first of all, kind of thinking of health overall and the way that consumers see health. In the past we would talk a kind of about just like healthy eating, and this is healthy food. What we're seeing for consumers is a more mature approach to. Health. So rather than talking generically about healthy, they are actually really focusing in on their health needs. Um, so talking more about the exact nutritional needs that, um, the products or or dishes would support, um, and also talking about kind of those dietary requirements as well. So, it's really important to kind of understand what your consumers, um, are really searching for from any snacks. Um. So if we look at our top 10 overall functional health needs that consumers are talking about in the US market, you can see here that we have things like fitness, weight management, and energy. When we look at almond conversation. Uh, we can see that almonds are highly relevant to all of these top 10 needs, and they're overindexing, so they are more, uh, the percentage of conversation is higher, uh, for almonds than it is in the general, uh, population, showing that consumers really see almonds as, um, a really healthy snack across these different categories. I want to talk a little bit about weight management. Weight management is a really highly personal, um, conversation and a need for consumers, and people talk about it in lots of different ways. Some people talk about it from a weight management perspective, staying at a healthy weight. Some people are interested in weight loss that never goes away. It changes a lot and I think over the past kind of two decades we've seen a huge shift in that. And we're on a cusp of Another shift in people thinking about weight management. So we're seeing with um the, the um revolution in pharmaceuticals, so drugs like Ozempic, um, and the other weight loss drugs that people are really changing the way that they're talking about uh health needs from a, from a food and beverage perspective. Um, a lot of people are still interested in using food as a, a healthy weight management technique. And when you look at almond conversation. On weight management, 70% of that conversation mentions healthy weight loss. Um, and I've brought some examples to show you kind of what that looks like in terms of, uh, in terms of our different data sources. So if we look at our social media, we're seeing people, um, making, uh, sharing all of these interesting creations and, and talking about almonds as, um, uh, supporting healthy weight loss. In the kitchen, we have some great recipes, you can see here that we have things like smoothies and, Um, uh, uh, and so on, and then on the menu, so restaurants, cafes, and other food services are really using almonds and talking about that weight management piece as well. A really interesting thing that we pulled out of our, um, our data is that, um, consumers are really looking to support healthy eating throughout a 24 hour period. I am sure that when we all think about like nighttime and late night snacking, we all think about when we come home from a bar or a pub and we've been out with our friends and we've had a few too many drinks and we open the cupboard and we eat like whatever's in front of us or we like order a pizza or something. Um, consumers are really moving towards supporting those health needs, um, kind of 24 hours and maybe making those healthy choices in the past where they would have made less healthy choices. Um, so we can have a look and see that, um, nighttime snacking, uh, is continuing to grow, and consumers are really looking for a healthy, uh, option there, and some of the motivations for late night snacking that we're seeing are things like satisfying, energy, protein. Um, and indulgent, so I'm really looking for like those delicious, indulgent experiences, but the support their health needs. Here's some,

Speaker 5 [22:12] oh, I have a question. Are you scraping to determine that.

Hannah [22:14] Exactly, so we're scraping social media, it's a really rich place to understand the why behind the what that they're doing cos people share all the time why they're choosing something. They'll share why they're eating something, they'll share the experience they're having while, where they're eating something. So here's some examples of those social posts, um, and some recipe data as well, so people sharing these like late night snacks that they've made, which are, you can see they're like covered in chocolate and things, so they're indulgent, but they're also healthy, and these are all using almonds, so things like cookie dough bites, um, insomnia fighting smoothie, uh, and a chocolate date bar as well. So I wanted to pass over to Emily to, to kind of talk a little bit about um how almonds can support um those health and fitness needs.

Cherie Grace [22:59] Yeah, well, let me, let me just interject before we get there. If you could go a slide back. I think it's interesting several things. Number one, you know, this whole late night snacking up 29% year over year actually upstairs, one of the samples that they're giving out is like a late night pizza. I don't know if you saw that up there. So you can take a late night pizza snack. It's like a chip snack. I haven't tried it yet, but I think it just really coincides with the data that we actually have. From Tastewise and then I just think there's so much going on. It's so interesting about guilt free and you know, weight loss associated with almonds because if you remember years ago people thought eating almonds made you fat, like it, you know, and it added to the fat content and so we had to really dispel that and in fact all the research that we show that we have, it just shows that almonds are really good for you and The good fats and it's satiating and it provides protein and fiber so all of this can be incorporated into that lifestyle of healthy eating and in your weight loss journey. So I thought that was interesting anyways. Emily, sorry about that.

Emily Fleischmann [24:00] That's good. I'm going to try that. That was it a chip or a pizza? What did you say it was?

Cherie Grace [24:04] It's a pizza, a late night pizza snack and it's vegan. It's vegan, so it just goes back to the trends anyways. This is way more exciting.

Emily Fleischmann [24:13] Oh. It is interesting how we make our choices

Cherie Grace [24:23] in food, right? The late night snacking. Oh, that is such a really interesting. We can

Hannah [24:28] look at the data later. I've got my laptop. Let's have a look. That's a great

Emily Fleischmann [24:31] point. Uh, so you know, as we think about, you know, food, nutrition and health and consumers' perspectives there and how they're evolving, you know, almonds are healthy consumers generally know that. We know 9 in 10 consumers across the globe will tell you that if you ask them. Um, but what's really interesting is all the research that we have and so whether it's in the space of weight management where we have a real strong body of research to newer studies that we're doing, we're really digging in to find specific ways that we can tap into consumer needs. So a recent study that we did, which is the one we're working with Dion on, Um, he didn't do the study, by the way, is related to exercise recovery. And so a study was done to look at just average everyday consumers who might exercise 3 times a week and if they eat almonds every day, do they have a difference in their exercise recovery versus those who don't? And the answer is they do. In fact, the Researcher was quoted as saying to my team, he thinks almonds might be the perfect exercise food. Like, it's pretty impressive data results, and he's excited to go deeper into them. But we wanted to make sure that news got out there, so we partnered with Deion Sanders, who many of you may know. He is the first year coach at the University of Colorado. A lot obviously gets a lot of attention just in his natural social media presence, but certainly with his taking over the coaching there, it's been a big, big deal, and he's really brought a lot of attention to the study. Emily,

Cherie Grace [25:54] let me interject, did something happen to him today or was there an announcement made about Deion Saunders today?

Emily Fleischmann [25:59] was, yes, Cherie. So if you were watching Good Morning America or watching your Sports Illustrated, he was, um, the sport named the sportsperson of the Year. So pretty awesome. So yeah, we're happy for him, happy for us. We're all around. It's been a really good partnership. So

Cherie Grace [26:16] yeah, thank you.

Emily Fleischmann [26:19] So, now you took me

Cherie Grace [26:20] off direction. I'm so sorry. So Hannah, I guess just, just talking about all the good stuff and the fact that we do have this prime campaign that's going on, and I think that's it.

Emily Fleischmann [26:30] Yeah, and you? I'm just curious. I don't know. Do you watch football? Yeah, good. Some in the room.

Speaker 5 [26:39] Oh, you

Emily Fleischmann [26:39] are nice. Have you gone to

Cherie Grace [26:41] see a game? And was it fantastic? You guys. Next year I think it'll be there. Well, that was all fitness, and we're going to shift over to another exciting topic which is food waste, and I know a lot of you guys are hearing so much about it. So let's see the spin that we get from Tastewise with regards to food waste.

Hannah [27:10] Yeah, so, uh, at Tastewise, we measure over 1000 different consumer needs, and we use our AI to kind of, uh, organize those and, and bring them together so you can get to that data really quickly. When we look at food waste conversation within almonds, we're seeing a small but growing topic, um, of, of using food waste more wisely. So 11% up year on year. Um, and one of the trends that we have from our 2024 trends report is around, um, affordability. So we are in an economic decline, um, and we are seeing that consumers are really conscious of their wallets, of how much they're spending, but they still want these indulgent moments. People still want to have nice food and they still want to eat delicious things, of course we do, that's kind of what makes us human, right? Um. Uh, and so this presents a real opportunity for almond waste, um, and almond byproducts to kind of come in, um, and present that affordable indulgence, reduce those costs and pass them on to consumers. So we are seeing that interest in indulgent food and indulgent experiences is up 41% year on year. That is huge. Um, at the same time, Affordability is up 30% year on year, we're seeing inflation take its toll. Um, and this presents a real opportunity because almonds have seen, uh, 37% increase in being mentioned as indulgent. So 20% of almond conversation mentioned something around the theme of indulgence. So already in consumers' minds, there's a link between almonds and indulgence. So it presents this opportunity of, uh, for almond byproducts to kind of, um, Grab onto that, that, um, uh, that, that thought in consumer minds, um, and really be used, uh, more widely in the food industry. Um, and I wanna just touch upon something that consumers are doing already. So thinking about almond pulp, so that's seen an almost 10% growth in conversation year on year, and almond pulp is something that is like the byproduct of consumers making their own almond milk. So, um, We, we have some examples here, and I really like the one that's like, almond pulp makes the best chocolate chip bars, not like almond chip, almond pulp makes good chocolate chip bars, but the best. Um, so we're seeing it used in baking and, and consumers really like using the whole of the almond that they've used, uh, um, and 84% of that conversation references vegan as well, so it's used to support those kind of dietary needs. Um, so this is consumers, um, in their own homes. Really just scratching the surface of what you can do with almond byproduct. I'm going to pass over to Emily, because she, um, can tell us about the, the more technical side of that and from an industry perspective.

Emily Fleischmann [30:03] Yeah, I, I love seeing consumers play with, you know, kind of a waste part of something else that they're making. It's pretty awesome. The almond industry has a really exciting story to tell as it relates to food waste. I don't know if many of you are familiar with it, but we actually grow 33 things when we grow what comes off the tree, and it's a whole a shell, and a kernel. So everybody's really familiar with the kernel. It's what we eat. We make sure that does not go to waste, right? So when they make almond milk or other almond powder, there's offshoots and you saw some examples there of a couple of things consumers can do. Oil is one of them that we'll get in the manufacturing level. That oil gets used in beauty products or sometimes now we're starting to see it in food products. You might have seen some on the shelf. We've got some very passionate almond oil folks in the industry. Um, and then the imperfect almonds, right, those easily have a place whether it's chopped in for or in some sort of other form used in things like marzipan and cookies and bars. So the whole kernel's getting used. I feel very confident in that. But what you may not know is the shell and the hull have a home, and it's been in the world of kind of dairy for a long time, so bedding is what the shells have been used for, and the hull go into animal feed. But really interestingly, that hull has some really Special properties to it. It has some really interesting sugars and fibers, and so we've actually done some work with Mattson to look at could you turn that into a food grade human food grade item. So currently it's not grass status, but some of the work they did is really exciting, looking at nutritional bars, making teas or coffee additives, even bread additives. And so I think there's a real exciting opportunity to upcycle that for the industry, but also for the consumer to create new experience. So look for more of that to come. And then as it relates to, we talked earlier about the life cycle assessment that UC Davis did, um, and overall ours is pretty low, and you know, the trees sequester carbon. But what you may not know is that when the trees are spent, one of the more recent practices that's come to life and probably the last 5 years is they grind the tree up and put it back in. Ground and so it keeps that carbon in. It actually creates a more nutrient dense environment for growing in the future. So pretty awesome stuff in food waste in the almond industry.

Cherie Grace [32:10] Awesome. All righty, so talking about going from the idea, the insights from Tastewise, to the actual plate, I love this part so.

Hannah [32:20] Yeah, so I already mentioned that you can interrogate the data within Tastewise in lots of different ways. So you could take a look at what's happening in the almond snack world, a great world, um, what are people, you know, what are, what are the applications for almonds within snacking. So we can see some really indulgent things here, brownies, macaron, meringue, and so on. And then we also see like a, a healthy option here. We see the energy bytes, it's up 12 12.7% year on year. So again, seeing this focus on health, we can really jump into that data, um, and take a look at kind of what's powering that growth. So with Tastewise, everything is super transparent. You see these numbers, but then you can click in and you can see what's behind that. Um, lovely visuals, seeing those consumer captions. So we can see here some social data, recipe data, um, we have that no bakey bites, um, with over 300,000 saves. So people are really interested in these recipes. And this almond butter chocolate chip energy bite, which is a bestseller, um, from our menu data. We can also interrogate the data in another way. We can look at the snacking category overall, not specifically looking at almonds, um, but we can look at it through the lens of a consumer need. So for fitness, what are the snacks that are highly associated with fitness? I wanted to put 5 in here, but then I saw that dessert pizza was number 6. So maybe if anyone wants to develop a dessert pizza, please go ahead because that sounds amazing. Um, but kind of kicking off with protein bar because that's kind of where we're seeing, you know, there's a 6% social share in terms of snacks and fitness, and that's growing year over year. Um, so it's really highly relevant to, to fitness. Um, and what we can do using our generative AI suite is take all of that really interesting data that we have on, Um, on, uh, products, on flavors, on cuisines, on consumer needs, feed it into our generative AI suite, and we have asked concept creation to generate 10 almond protein bars for us, and I picked the three best ones. So you can see here, um, concepts totally generated by. AI, the images are generated by AI, so you have these really nice, maybe not consumer ready, but at least presentation ready images, and they also just give you a really nice feel for what something could look like, um, and as well as that, you have the justification of why that's being created, so you have the data behind that. So I decided that I wanted to go with pineapple almond protein bar because it sounded delicious, but also because it's, um, uh, you know, our 2024 trends report really supports this, like consumers looking at those exotic, interesting flavors. Where can we go to next? We have decided that we're going to investigate our, um, pineapple and protein bar and we can use our generative suite to generate a recipe. So the recipes are based on all of our recipe data that we are gathering and it will generate a Really nice recipe for you so you can take that to your test kitchen. It will tell you the justifications behind the ingredients that it's chosen. So it will tell you we've chosen this specific ingredient because it's seen growth year on year or because it meets a certain consumer need. It will also write an AI blog post for you. So who here has opened a Word document and sat at a blank screen and not known where to start? I'm a bit worried about those of you who haven't put your hands up, maybe we can have a chat afterwards and talk about, you know, about that, because I'd like to know how to do that. But, um, thinking about things like AI generated content, we like to think of like an 80, 20% rule. 80% of the work is done by the AI and then the 20% is done by you amazing humans who have expertise, who are creative, who, you know, know how to make people laugh, because AI is just really not funny yet, but um, um, you know, the AI blog post can be, um, can be written for you, and again, it's giving you the reasons behind the claims that will attract consumers, so protein. Um, fiber, and so on, you know, what is it that, that consumers need, um, as well as those experiential needs like a convenience sack. And then my favorite part is our packaging and positioning creators. So we have an image here of um some packaging created by our, um, uh, by, by AI. So you can see it's like really colorful, it has pineapples on it. It's got some strange writing because AI gives you some, some weird language in there, but you know, it's a really nice starting place to understand like what a package could look like for you, you can kind of stick your own label on top of it. Um, and just start to really bring it to life for the people that you're going to be presenting this to, and, and to give you food for thought about where you can next take this. It's also generated a one liner for us, and I actually really like this one liner. It's a little bit cheesy, but it's a tropical getaway in a protein packed bar. Our pineapple almond protein bar is your delicious ticket to paradise. So you'd probably want to take that and make it like a little bit cheesy. I mean, definitely for a UK audience, we're always quite skeptical about things like this, but um, it's a, it's a really great, um, starting point for kind of thinking about what your marketing efforts could look like. Pineapple is an exotic flavor, but consumers are continuously looking for these really unique and adventurous choices. We are seeing that, um, the trend that started with COVID, which was when people couldn't really travel, they wanted to kind of have these experiences in their home and looking at really exciting flavors like gotchijang from Korea, um, in our 2024 trends report, we've really, um, Uh, we looked at frozen desserts actually and we're seeing this huge growth in Southeast Asian flavors. So Vietnamese and Japanese are already quite well established, but things like Filipino. Um, and they're really, uh, overindexing for experiential claims, adventurous, uh, unique and creative. Um, so it's a really nice place to, um, to kind of pass over to Emily to talk to, uh, to us about how almonds are perceived in, uh, global cuisines and cultures.

Emily Fleischmann [38:56] Yes, I, I think I do have to just make a comment about your, uh, the ability for it to write some of the AI content in that blink. I mean, back when I worked in innovation. In one of the CBG companies, writing the concepts was the hardest thing, so to be able to use AI tools to do that would be amazing. So anyways, but as it relates to kind of flavors and forms within the space of almonds, you know almonds have a space in many cultures around the globe, and a lot of Indian cuisine includes almonds. There's an occasion in the morning where a lot of consumers have 2 to 3 almonds. The morning before they go out for their day to increase mental acuity and start their day well. In the Chinese culture, Chinese New Year has a cookie that's traditionally eaten that uses almonds in the Mediterranean diet, so there's a lot of examples around the globe where you know almonds can kind of come to life as consumers are looking to increase kind of that experiential global cuisine but yet have an element of familiarity to it. And then in addition, as we think about the way the almond comes to life, almonds are available in 14 forms. That is a pretty unique thing in the world of food within the specialty, the specialty crop world, so like berries, nuts, things like that. There really is no other item that has that many forms available. So from a food development standpoint, it's a really nice place to go, and almonds just a really nice. Start because the flavor blends with just about anything so it can vary with spicy with sweet, and go in so many different types of products. So great opportunities there as it relates to almonds.

Cherie Grace [40:26] Awesome. Well, I'm looking at the time and I think that we can move on to Chef Henry and just look at some of the demonstrations and some of the items that he actually used AI to create the new items. So I'm going to turn it over to Chef Henry.

Chef Henry Hill [40:40] So the alchemy of product development. You might, I feel like you might think, Henry, what are you talking about? Product development's food science, right? Um, but really it's so much more than that. There's, um, so many qualitative aspects to it and with data and science we can look at what's already happened and we can look at what's happening right now to predict what's about to happen. Um, but there's really no silver bullet to it. So I'm gonna go ahead and real quick run through just high level, the levers that I tend to pull throughout the ideation process. So once you have this data or even before you have the data, what are you supposed to do with it? Um, so the first part of the ideation cycle, uh, is setting intent as a researcher. I think a lot of entrepreneurs, when you have an idea, it's almost like a child was born, you love it. It's uh, you know, you have such an attachment to it and it, it means so much to us, but it's really important to be able to look at research with this unbiased approach. Um, so that's always the first thing that I try to start with. Sometimes you're researching to validate an idea that you already had. Sometimes you're researching to find entirely new ones. So the first part of the step. Is to research and connect the dots. Once you're conducting research and you're connecting the dots, you start to put things together and have original and spontaneous ideas. And the more that you go through this process and the more that you can start to recognize these patterns, the more frequently that you're going to be able to have original and spontaneous ideas. So the way that I use this research as a part of that cycle started actually like the whole philosophy behind how I started um this concept was actually with a jazz guitar lesson so I sat down with the instructor and I was like I just do not get music theory or like how to improvise with music it seems like so complicated and abstract. And he said something to me that really resonated, and I took it with me and think about it now in just about everything that I do, and he said, Henry, music at its most simple definition is the organization of sound. And that that like really hit home for me and I feel like you can apply that to just about anything in your life so being able to take data and organize it in whatever ways makes sense to you there is no right or wrong way to do it and I think that you'll see that in the product development process as well everyone tends to have their own way of doing things and so there's something that you can learn from everyone in that cycle. So these are a few of the theories that I've put together based on that process. One. I, well, I guess higher level. How, how do we organize flavor? Again, like such an abstract idea like music, you know, something that's impossible to kind of capture, right? But there is a way to do this and um these are a couple of the organizational tactics that I've used in flavor pairings when creating new products and things that I've observed over my career. So one of them is the Big Mac theory, right? So one of the most successful products of all time, definitely not using any farm to table ingredients. Um, but why does this resonate with people? Part of it's a great story, part of it's a great price point, but another part of it is being able to lay layer flavors in a way that excite every part, every sensory element of the palate. So when I think about the Big Mac, I think, you know, you've got this toasted bun, you've got this charbroiled patty, you've got this creamy, tangy sauce, you've got sour, crunchy pickles, and so there's so many different elements every time you bite down, it just like explodes in every different part of your mouth. And a lot of, I think a lot of chefs, as they're learning to take this approach of layering flavors, they layer too many, and so things get too complicated and to me, The perfect dish, the perfect product is being able to hit as many of those sensory elements and characteristics as you can while using the fewest number of ingredients. The next one is what grows together goes together. So that's, that's one that comes from the slow food movement and whether regardless of what region you're in or what season you're in different foods grow together and I don't know why, but for whatever reason they all tend to pair really well together. So in the in the spring you'll find that spring, all the different spring produce and wild mushrooms and ramps, they all go together in a delicious way. Um, and the other one is a culinary, I call it culinary approach, um, so how can you paint a picture? With colors that that can create different flavor profiles, so. When I call a flavorist and I'm trying to order a flavor sample. I'll say I'm looking for a strawberry flavor. I want a rich, juicy red strawberry, and they'll know exactly what I'm talking about. But or I might be looking, I might not be looking for a juicy red strawberry. I might be looking for something that's not quite ripened yet, so I might describe the flavor as being green and seedy. So I'm looking for a different profile even though we're still talking about strawberries. The nuances of those flavors are oftentimes described by color. So if you look at a flavor wheel, Or you look at a color wheel and you pair the colors with the flavors, you can find. That for whatever reason, Colors that go together also match with flavors that go together, so red strawberries tend to go with other red colored foods that all go together. So that's my, that's my culinary approach. I like that. So how do we use AI as a part of this organizational process to get there faster? The 1st 3 of these tiles up here, AI speeds us right through. So usage occasions, different emotions, what are the trending flavors we should be looking at and using global trends. We already talked about scraping social media, which is something that I do used to do. All the time, but now I sit down and taste wise and I feel like I'm at the mother ship. I've got all these different windows open and I'm able to pull from Pinterest and TikTok and look at data spikes and zoom in on different regions and it's just so much faster than looking through my Google search history and trying to remember what website I saw the last cool thing on. So it's a great resource to speed right through those 1st 3 bullets right there as we look for a product to market fit. The next one. Is manufacturing platforms. I find so many great ideas, and one of them we're going to talk about in a few minutes by flipping the script on manufacturing platforms. You might find something, a savory platform that works so well for sweet or a sweet platform that just hasn't had a chance in a savory snacking environment, and one of them we're going to talk about a little bit. Um, the other one is shopper data, supermarket comps, being able to see where people are going in the store is really important to making sure that your product is successful. You might have a great product, but if it's not in front of your customer or a part of their shopper profile in the store, it's not gonna work. I think that that's one of the mistakes that, um, a lot of plant-based meats made going to market, um. They were positioning themselves in the deli department. I don't know any vegans that go to the deli department. They're all in the produce area. So how are people going to find your product once they're in the store? So being able to look at shopper category data and comps and understanding the buyer decision is a huge part of how we're going to get a great product to fit in the store. And then lifespan of a product, so When, when does your customer use it? How long do they use it for? I'm not gonna sell infant formula to Cherie. She doesn't need it. So understanding the lifespan of your product and who it's meant for and at what point in their life is incredibly important. Um, consumer sentiment can play a big role in that as well. Um, different ingredients come in flavor profiles. They fall in and out of favor all the time. So when I'm thinking about a great product that is gonna stand the test of time on the shelf, I think about what is a great platform first because you need something that's gonna be able to adapt to an evolving landscape over time. Um, and then barrier to entry is a huge part of that as well, and that's a part of the reason that I wanted to look at a gummy as a part of this demo, so. A gummy is a good example of something that there's a lot of available manufacturing and there's a ton of different functional ingredients that you can add to it. There's a ton of different flavor profiles that you can test, low volumes, easy to get into market, shelf stable, um, so you can, you can test easily without spending millions of dollars on a beverage line to be able to test if. You know, guayasa tea extract, which I'm actually going to put in this gummy, makes sense in a beverage,

Cherie Grace [51:00] and there's some gummy samples upstairs today as well, and they're vegan. Oh, interesting, gummy, yeah,

Chef Henry Hill [51:04] we got some samples too, so stick around, um, and then you want to fill a need, um, and that's not just for your customer, but I also feel like that's for me. I want to feel like I'm doing something to improve this. world that I'm a part of and being able to fill a need with, with a customer and make the world a little bit better is a part of what drives the values of all these great products and brands. So these are the concepts. Inspired by the ideation that we did using almonds and using taste-wise data, we came up with three, I think, really unique concepts, and not all of them were necessarily outlined in what was trending with Tastewise, but if you look at the beginning of the ideation cycle, that's not what's important. What's important is learning. And learning and pattern recognition and being able to see what is a potential opportunity in the market. So we have a ton of different tools Tastewise and AI is one of them. And then we're still going to look at our other tools and blend everything together to create incredible products.

Cherie Grace [52:22] And I think that's what the human, when we were talking earlier about that human element, so you have the data insights, but you take, you know, Chef Henry's experience to put the human element into that and develop these three amazing products which I have a favorite I've been snacking on. I won't tell you which one is my favorite, but they really are delicious, and I'm glad that you came up with those items.

Chef Henry Hill [52:41] Thank you, Cheri. I appreciate it. Um, so the first one that we're gonna look at is inspired by, uh, Chamoy Mangoada. Um, so I took a platform that I think has been overlooked for a long time. I'm sure you've seen those wafer tubes and the big tins in the, in the, in the international aisle of the supermarket that you try to avoid buying because you eat the entire tin, um. And so this is inspired by that. So we took a chamoy spiced almond butter and filled them in a wafer tube and then enrobed a part of the tube and dusted it with chopped nuts and dried mango. So this Yeah, those are the samples right there. Enjoy it. Um, and then the next one that we did is a, an almond miso chili crisp. I've been incredibly frustrated with the, with the chili crisps that have been coming to market because they all seem to be exactly the same. And I feel like it's one of those platforms that are low barrier of entry into market, easily can be used with many different flavor profiles, and a great use for almonds as well. So this is one that we did with a A miso, almond butter, chili oil, and we also used some almond skins for extra texture in the crunch.

Cherie Grace [54:10] So are any of the two that you mentioned so far, are they vegan friendly? What are the attributes?

Chef Henry Hill [54:16] Yeah, so all of them are vegan friendly, um, I, aside from, uh, with organic sugar, yeah, but otherwise everything can be, can be plant-based, um. And then the gummies as well were. In an almond milk and honey gummy using a guayasa tea extract for a little bit of an extra energy boost so we wanted to take that idea and use it as a showcase for, um, trending flavors being different forms of functionality and then what's also unique about this formulation is most gummies you either have gelatin or you have pectin and gelatin is great, um. But it's not plant-based. Pin also great texture, but it reacts with pH so you have to have acidity to it. This gummy is neither. This gummy was made using a blend of locust bean gum and agar, so you can get one that has a great texture that's very similar to pectin, but it doesn't need to be so acidic, so that gave us the ability to showcase, um. A little bit more kind of sweet and mellow flavors like milk and honey.

Cherie Grace [55:40] OK, so I'm crunching, but what do you think so far?

Chef Henry Hill [55:47] So, Without further ado, I will show you exactly how we made the mangoata pocky stick right now.

Cherie Grace [55:57] Had any of you ever tried like a pocky stick or a um a crisp before? Yeah, so using, you know, Emily talked about the 14 forms of almonds that we have, and that's what you really see. So we take the insights from taste-wise, we look at the various forms. Do you want to use flour, oil, almond butter, you know, the various forms, and then put something together. But I absolutely love the fact I'm vegan, so the fact that I get to taste it, try it, and utilize almonds really appeal to me.

Chef Henry Hill [56:31] So the wafer in the tube for the chamoy stick uses um defattted almond flour as a part of the base, which is a part of the upcycling proposition that we've been discussing as as trending in the industry. So we've got defatted almond flour, um. Sugar and all purpose flour and then I'm gonna use aquafaba which is recently an industrialized ingredient. It's something that's been used in home kitchens a lot but really hasn't had an opportunity in the industrial market yet um so this is one of. And I found out about it actually by um reformulating a barista milk during right when the war in Ukraine happened. So when the war in Ukraine started, there was a shortage of sunflower lecithin and we needed to find a way to reformulate the milk for the, for the new environment. And we tested a bunch of different like starches and all sorts of things to try and stabilize the barista milk, but then also keep the foaming when a when a Barista was using it and one of the ingredients that we found most effective because of the way that the proteins are folded after the cooking process of chickpeas, um, it not only replaced the lecithin instability during the aseptic process but then also had great foaming properties in the cafes. So that's when I started working with Aquafaba and I, I used it in um what's basically a waffle cone batter right now. Most of the waffle cones that you find on the market, actually pretty much all of them except for the cake cones, are they use egg whites. um, so this is an example of one that can be used using just aquafaba.

Cherie Grace [58:34] Any questions you have so

Speaker 5 [58:36] far? Just an observation on the, um, The chili fruit. Remember seeing prior to like the emergence of all the popular products. product that would come in a large jar. Like heavy use of peanuts. So it was like red roasted chili oil. Peanuts And I remember being a little frustrated with that. And I was eating, That's a way to I. Way better. I've had with the other stuff.

Chef Henry Hill [59:18] I was telling Cherise, if someone doesn't commercialize that, I'm gonna, I'm gonna commercialize it. Yeah, that's my favorite.

Cherie Grace [59:26] That's my favorite is the mangoada. Like I love that. I like to start It's, it's tardy, yeah. this. I mean I think exactly, and you guys are all in the majority. Everyone thinks that it should be commercialized for certain. And the texture you like the texture. Yeah

Chef Henry Hill [59:51] So while that's working. While that's working, uh, I'm gonna work on the, the filling that you guys tried in that wafer tube, and that starts with.

Cherie Grace [1:00:05] Did everyone get the gummy as well yet or no? What did you think about the gummy? the cleanse. I had Yeah. You liked it? As the gummy is your favorite? like all three. I like the texture of the gummy. Some gummies, they really stick to your tooth, maybe because I'm older, I don't know, but this feels really good in terms of not being extra sticky. But the mangoada definitely is my favorite.

Chef Henry Hill [1:00:46] So the challenge with making a chamoy spiced almond butter is that it is a Water and oil emulsion. Uh, which can be very difficult to formulate, um, and a part of the way that we get, uh, the water-based chamoy concentrate to emulsify into the almond butter as a filling uses some mono and dglycerides. And the mono and dioglycerides use is actually shearing fat, so you're able to cut down the fat molecules into smaller droplet sizes, and this allows the fat to actually accept more water into the base. So that's how we're able to get a chamoy concentrate to emulsify into a fat-based system, which is otherwise very difficult to do. So a big part of the challenge too is trying to get everything to be shelf stable, obviously, um, and in certain applications like the chamoy stick, um, almond butter chamoy stick, uh, there's 3 different elements that you have to keep in mind. So you've got the filling, the wafer. Which should be ready More than ready. And so you want to um You want to make sure that the water activity matches throughout the entire product, so the filling, uh, in order to be crispy, it needs to be under a water activity of 0.6, um, and so the filling, the wafer, and the outer part all need to have the same water activity. If you have something on the inside that's a higher moisture content. Then it'll start to permeate through the outer parts and you'll get something that's quite soft.

Cherie Grace [1:02:59] So I guess Chef Henry, I know some, I really like the mangoata and I like the flavor, but there are different things you can do to it. Like it doesn't have to have that tanginess. We can make it more sweet, make it, you know, include chocolate. Other options that you can use for that format.

Chef Henry Hill [1:03:13] Yeah, you can make it a dreamsicle if you wanted and put some orange flavoring on the inside and dust dried orange and toasted almonds on the outside if you wanted to

Cherie Grace [1:03:22] or the new lemon. I know we didn't get to it, the how do you pronounce it, the Filipino, the calamansi. You know, so there are a lot of different things that you can do in terms of if if this filling didn't appeal to you, there's so many other options, but what the trends are saying is that a pockey stick in some form, whether you call it a pocky stick or not, could be trending, um, you know, in 2024.

Chef Henry Hill [1:03:45] Yeah, and I think on a higher level in general each one of these platforms is exactly that. It's a platform. So then whatever is trending you can plug into it. And so these are just interesting platforms that I've found are underutilized like the Chili Crisp. It's just, it's so frustrating to see this one chili crisp on the market all the time. The, the wafer tubes. I see them in the international aisle all the time. Why hasn't someone done something with this yet? So these are just interesting platforms that I think are ripe for new innovation and that's where you can take taste-wise, trends and data and the nutrition power of, of almonds and make some really interesting snacks.

Cherie Grace [1:04:28] Well, thank you. I know we kept you for a while, but thank you. Chef Henry's going to continue if you have any other questions, but we really appreciate you, um, staying here to hear the presentation. The almond board, we have a lot of research, so if you take that card, you look at the QR code, feel free to contact us if you're looking for specific information we could help you with that. But thank you for coming and um feel free to share, and I think this information, this session will be uploaded um as well. So thank you.

Speaker 5 [1:04:57] Couple weeks from now on the sites. Oh,

Cherie Grace [1:05:03] for sure, for sure you can. I know I have some more samples here as well that I'm trying. So thank you guys.

Chef Henry Hill [1:05:10] All right, thank you.