AI and Brain Science Are Changing How We Make Food

The world's food supply is facing big challenges. War, energy shortages, climate change, and a growing population are all putting pressure on the global food system. A company called Alamance Foods, based in North Carolina, is working to solve these problems by using new technology to create better food faster. They are using tools like artificial intelligence and brain science to help feed more people around the world.

Alamance Foods makes food products and helps develop new ones. One of their leaders, Eric Nakata, is the vice president of culinary innovation. He spoke about the company's work at a food and farming event in New York City. Nakata explained that the company brings together many different kinds of experts — like chefs, food scientists, and business people — so they can all work as one team instead of in separate groups.

This teamwork helps Alamance test new products much faster than most companies. In a traditional system, a product might move slowly from one department to another, adding time to the process. At Alamance, experts work together from the very beginning so problems get caught early. 'We pressure test this stuff early,' Nakata said, which means they find and fix issues before they become big problems.

One of the biggest challenges in creating new food is making it work at a large scale. A chef might be able to make a delicious dish for a few people, but that doesn't mean it can be made for thousands. If an ingredient is too rare or breaks down during large-scale production, the product can't go to market. Nakata said that if a food 'doesn't have the shelf life, it breaks down my system, so I can't have efficient output.'

No matter how healthy or affordable a food is, taste is still the most important factor. Nakata made this very clear when he said that the chef, the food scientist, and the operations manager all have different jobs — but every single one of them must make sure the food still tastes good. If people don't enjoy eating something, they simply won't buy it. Flavor, he said, is king.

To help make food that people truly love, Alamance is using artificial intelligence. AI is great at analyzing huge amounts of data and spotting patterns that humans might miss. However, Nakata pointed out that AI has one major limit — it cannot taste food. Real people are still needed to bring creativity, feeling, and a personal touch to food development.

Alamance has also teamed up with a company called Thimus, which studies how the brain reacts to food. This field is called neuroscience. The partnership helps Alamance understand what people really think about their food, not just what they say. Nakata explained that when someone is asked directly if they like a dish, they might say yes just to be polite, and brain science helps the team get more honest answers.

One exciting new product Alamance is working on uses an ingredient called Savor. Savor is a special fat or oil that does not come from animals or plants and does not need any farmland to produce. The company behind Savor says their process can cut the environmental impact of fats and oils by 50% to 98%. Alamance is using this ingredient to make a carbon-neutral whipped topping, the kind of cream used on coffee drinks and desserts.

Surprisingly, this lab-made whipped topping actually tastes better than the traditional kind. 'Our palm oil-based whipped cream underperformed against the Savor product, and I was floored,' Nakata said. The new topping is not yet available to the public, but it is close to launching at a major coffee chain. Given how much whipped cream coffee shops use every day, this switch could have a huge positive effect on the environment.

At the end of the day, Nakata believes that food science is about more than numbers and data. He tells his team to stop thinking only about data points and to ask a simple question: Would you like it? Would your customer like it? That human element, he says, is what truly makes a great food product.