Givaudan Unveils AI Tools To Identify Positive, Negative Flavour Drivers For Future Product Development

Swiss flavour and fragrance manufacturing giant Givaudan unveiled its new artificial intelligence(AI) driven tool that will be used to develop its flavors division, Givaudan Taste & Wellness.

As part of Givaudan’s 2025 strategic plan, the world’s largest flavour manufacturer announced its investment into new AI tools that will focus on reducing the time needed to develop and commercialize new products.

With over two decades of research, the AI tool called Advanced Tools for Modelling (ATOM) will aim to optimize food and flavour formulation and using data science techniques will try to reduce trial and error in the process. The tools will recognize positive and negative flavour drivers and accordingly experiment with different variations with the results graphically displayed to customers and together with their ideas, the company aims to create new and fresh food options in the market.

In a press release seen by Green Queen, Givaudan’s Head of Global Science & Technology, Taste & Wellbeing, Fabio Campanile, said that ATOM strikes the right balance between AI and human intuition. “At the same time, it also complements the work of our expert flavourists and developers. Tools such as ATOM enable us to help our customers to go beyond consumer expectations, using insight, collaboration and innovation. Implementing what we call ‘wide-eyed thinking’ allows us to use these insights to leverage our curiosity and deep ingredient knowledge to accelerate new product development and create the food experiences of the future.”

According to its full 2020 earnings release, sales were up by 4% when compared to 2019, reaching CHf 6.3 billion (approx. US$6.7B). Going forward, the company plans to accelerate its R&D phase to reach its goal of organic sales growth of 4-5% annually and with the launch of this new tool, the department has already kickstarted its mission to recognize ‘ideal’ recipes.

Initially, Givaudan decided to test the tool by reformulating cheese snacks in an attempt to reduce the quantity of salt. Using ATOM, the company worked out a formulation that reduced salt by 33% in the application and when this was tried in a blind taste test, customers preferred the reduced salt recipe as ideal. This tool has also helped to reduce sugar and is part of the recipe making in several meat alternative projects.

ATOM strikes the right balance between AI and human intuition. “At the same time, it also complements the work of our expert flavourists and developers. Tools such as ATOM enable us to help our customers to go beyond consumer expectations, using insight, collaboration and innovation. Implementing what we call ‘wide-eyed thinking’ allows us to use these insights to leverage our curiosity and deep ingredient knowledge to accelerate new product development and create the food experiences of the future

Fabio Campanile, Head of Global Science & Technology, Taste & Wellbeing, Givaudan

In other news, the company recently announced its plans to acquire Myrissi, a French company that uses AI, to link a consumer’s predicted emotional response to fragrances.

Apart from this, Givaudan also partnered with food processing technology giant Bühler to build a new Innovation Center dedicated to plant-based food in Singapore and will open its doors to food processing companies, startups, and scientific researchers developing new plant-based food products. Commenting on their decision to open the facility in the Southeast Asian hub, Campanile said that there is “a lot of market potential for plant-based products in the coming years in Asia, [and] in particular the alternative meat sector. The goal will be to both develop ideas and manufacture locally in Asia will enable both companies to aid the creation of a range of plant-based products that will specifically cater to Asian tastes, texture expectations, and cooking techniques.” 

Lead image courtesy of Helena Lopes/Unsplash.