March 19 2008 / by juldrich
Category: Business & Work Year: 2008 Rating: 14 Hot
Science is the future of food.
Cross-posted from jumpthecurve.net 
Yesterday, in the Wall Street Journal, there was an
interesting article on Steve Demos (the man who brought soy milk
into millions of homes). The article primarily concentrated on Demos’ latest
product—GoodBelly, which is a probotic product that uses bacteria
to aid consumers digestion.
The aspect of the article that caught my attention, however, was
Demos’ response to the question of “Where is the future competitive
advantage for food companies?” His answer was simple: “It’s going
to be with science.”
Let me repeat that—it’s going to be with science. It is
critical that every food company embrace this notion very soon. If
they don’t, they will risk becoming irrelevant.
(cont.)
Over the past few months, I have discussed how nanotechnology
will revolutionize the food industry and I recently discussed
how the field of genomics will
impact the agricultural sector, but for a quick overview of
where the food industry is headed I would encourage interested
parties to read this article entitled “Your Burger on Biotech.” For
folks interested in a slightly more in-depth look into the future
of food are encouraged to read this Popular Science article
called “The Science of Yummy.”
Lastly, as further proof of food companies need to get serious
about embracing science, I’d recommend this short but informative
article discussing how Nestle is applying quantum
mechanics to optimize food taste, texture and nutrition.
The bottom-line is that if food companies want to innovate into
the future they will need to understand nanotechnology, genomics,
biotechnology, synthetic biology and, yes, even quantum
mechanics.
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