Spanish agri-food company Cerealto Siro Foods has launched its first AI-inspired snack – rice cakes with pea and lentils – in the UK.
The composition of the snack took into account the latest consumer preference for organic, high-protein ingredients that are suitable for vegans and coeliacs, and are low in sugar and salt.
The Technology
The company incorporated the AI tool IBM Watson to develop products that adapt to the nutritional needs and tastes of consumers.
The AI tool, developed in association with IBM Services and innovation partner I+dea, analyses and anticipates global consumer tastes and predicts ingredients that are gaining popularity or are associated with certain feelings and emotions.
The I+Radar tool gathered data from public social network sites of consumers and experts like Twitter, blogs, scientific journals, forums, and mainstream newspapers.
It used the AI functionalities of IBM Watson, like Watson Knowledge Studio, Watson Natural Language Understanding and Watson Discovery News, on the IBM Cloud to collect information.
Consumer Trends
Data analysis revealed that consumers are demanding products that are low in sugar, salt, additives and fats, and high in fibre and proteins containing super-grains such as quinoa, chia, millet and oats.
It also found that customers in the UK wanted to increase their intake of quality proteins.
The sustainability of cultivation methods and the environmental impact of packaging were other important factors.
Cereal-Based Food
Cerealto Siro Foods is a multinational producer of cereal-based food products.
It has production centres in Spain, Portugal, Italy, the UK, and Mexico.
Every year, the company launches more than 250 new cereal items and sells over four million products.
© 2019 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Branislav Pekic. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
