U.S. food producer Mondelez taps AI to tweak classic snacks

NEW YORK -- A new tool developed by Mondelez, one of the world's largest snacks companies, is speeding up the creation of snack recipes and optimizing them to fit certain taste profiles, which means less lab work, faster time to production and -- for better or worse -- fewer in-house tastings, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has reported.

Mondelez food scientists use the artificial intelligence (AI) tool to create optimal recipes by specifying desired characteristics, including flavor ("buttery," "in-mouth saltiness," or "vanilla intensity," for instance), aroma ("oily," "egg flavor," "burnt," among others) and appearance ("amount of chips," "roundness," "chip edges" are considerations). The tool also considers parameters like the cost of ingredients, their environmental impact and their nutritional profile.

The tool began development in 2019 with software consulting firm Fourkind. It uses machine-learning, a more traditional form of AI, rather than the generative AI popularized by ChatGPT, according to the report.

Food companies like Mondelez are racing to try out AI in every area of their business, from supply chains to marketing to recipe development, Marion Nestle, professor emerita of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University, was quoted as saying.

The companies are under pressure: capturing the American public's attention is no small feat in a jam-packed foodscape that churns out more than double the amount of recommended calories for each person in the country. New types of products and brand offshoots are the way to do that, Nestle said, and AI may help get there faster and better, noted the report.