The supplement industry is ridden with cheap, synthetic chemicals. Ora Organic was founded in 2015 to rebuild trust in the category by creating nutritional supplements made from organic, plant-based and sustainable food ingredients. But building trust is difficult, so Ora relied on a number of digital and marketing tactics to gain consumer trust.

The direct-to-consumer supplement startup first gained notoriety in 2017 when it appeared on Shark Tank and turned down a $375,000 investment in front of millions of viewers. CTO and Head of Growth Sebastian Bryers set up lead capture devices on its website, allowing the company to obtain more than 15,000 emails and thousands of subscribers in a month. Through the show, the company was able to earn the attention of investors and gained an overwhelming response from people looking for premium, organic supplements.

While Ora Organics found its first customers through personal networks, Bryers relied on his background in data analysis to help grow the brand. He performed sentiment analysis on top blogs to understand the key questions people were asking, which provided data for the company to create relevant content. This data-driven approach to content allowed the brand to build trust with its audience. Now, the collection of data is automated and used to optimize its advertising as well as ensure the right audiences receive its content.

Sebastian Bryers joined us at our Rethinking CPG Meetup this past August to share insight on the company’s e-commerce strategy and plans for retail. You can see videos of other presenters at our Food+Tech Meetups here.

The post Ora Organic’s Data-Driven Growth Strategy appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

In tandem with the launch of the Food+Tech Job Board, we are thrilled to launch the Food Startup Growth Series. This series will give you an inside look at the strategies, challenges and best practices of fast-growing food startups and organizations.

Many foodservice operators are benefiting from the halo effect of sustainability, but it’s hard to tell how truthful their sustainability claims really are. Similar to what LEED certification did for the building industry, United States Healthful Food Council (USHFC) is bringing transparency and guidance to the food industry by creating market-based incentives, programs and tools to increase the profitability of healthy, sustainable food.

The non-profit offers three programs: recipe analysis and menu labeling, nutrition consulting services and a certification program. Through its Responsible Epicurean and Agricultural Leadership Certification Program (REAL), it partners with third party registered dietitians to certify that operators’ menus, operations and supply chains are healthful and sustainable. For operators, REAL Certification offers a great marketing tool, as well as access to products from a network of certified ingredients suppliers at a discount. To date, there are 500 foodservice operations have received REAL Certification, including Restaurant Nora, Chipotle’s Shophouse, Bare Burger, Google, Stanford University and Boulder Valley School District.

USHFC is the brainchild of Lawrence Williams, an entrepreneur with a long history of tackling big challenges. Prior to USHFC, he worked with Elon Must to develop a collaboration between SpaceX and NASA to develop a domestic commercial crew and cargo for space travel. He also worked with Craig McCaw and Bill Gates’ Teledesic to negotiate with the FCC to make broadband access ubiquitous through the use of low-Earth orbiting satellites.

Lawrence’s experience in the tech world has always informed how he operates USHFC. Creating a new market and a new certification is no easy feat, but will perseverance USHFC has gotten some of the most reputable brands on board. Now, like any good entrepreneur, Lawrence realizes that its going to take a different skill set to scale the organization, so he is bringing on a new CEO.

I spoke with Lawrence about the biggest challenges he’s faced in scaling, how he’s treated his non-profit more like a startup and how new leadership will impact the direction of EatReal.

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Danielle Gould: What’s keeping your team busy right now?

Lawrence Williams: We are currently in the process of finalizing and rolling out our updated certification standards, which we’re calling REAL 3.0. For the first time, this new certification will include numerous levels of certification (REAL, Silver, Gold and Platinum), which will allow for a deeper dive on some of the more complicated issues. We are also hosting the Eat REAL Roundtable and Eat REAL Kitchen Sausalito next week, where we will gather industry and NGO leaders for a two-day working group to weigh in and finalize the standards. 

DG: What are your growth goals for the next 12-24 months, and how do you plan to achieve those goals?

LW: This is an exciting time for EatREAL! We just completed a merger with another nonprofit (The Institute for Responsible Nutrition), and are working through incorporating their board and leadership team into our organization, as well as the creation of a scientific advisory board to inform our standards. We are also in the final stages of hiring on a new CEO, who will be able to step in and scale our certification program to meet our growing demands. In the next year or two, we are going to work on expanding our consumer-facing brand and expand our footprint with the REAL 3.0.

DG: What does your team look like?

LW: We are a small and self-motivated team distributed between Washington, DC, Nashville, Chicago and San Francisco, supported by a nationwide network of registered dietitians. With fewer than ten people running a nationwide certification program, everyone here wears many hats.

DG: What does your company culture look like? How have you built your company culture?

LW: We have tried hard to act and operate more like a scrappy startup than a typical not-for-profit organization. Even though we are a non-profit, we try to function as a mission-driven business, not a charity.

DG: How are you preserving your company culture as you scale up?

LW: We spend a lot of time making sure we bring in the right cultural fit and we have weekly all-team meetings.

DG: What do you know now that you wish you would have known when you started scaling your company? What are the biggest challenges and lessons learned as you’ve grown your company?

LW: Externally, the biggest challenge in scaling has been working with the foodservice industry, which can be challenging because generally speaking the hours are very long and margins quite small.

DG: What will someone who works for you be able to add to their resume?

LW: Working with EatREAL to help transform our food system provides an opportunity to make a make a huge difference on what is probably the issue of our time. Food is integrally linked to the health of all people and the planet.  

DG: What job(s) are you hiring for, and how will those positions help drive growth in your company?

LW: We are currently hiring a new CEO, which, as you might imagine, is quite pivotal for the development of the organization.  This new leadership will determine the direction of EatREAL in the coming years – for a non-profit at this stage in its lifecycle, the input of our new CEO has the clout to fundamentally influence our brand recognition within the marketplace and to consumers.

DG: What kind of training do you offer for new employees who may be switching from other industries or who are just out of school?

LW: Working for EatREAL offers an opportunity to dive into the flow of an active and expanding organization while still being supported by your teammates.  Here, a new hire or a new graduate will be able to explore a variety of avenues within the nonprofit world in order to discover which of their areas of interest are the most applicable and enjoyable in practice.   

DG: What’s your favorite interview question?

LW: What motivates you to want to join our team?

DG: Why do you think it’s exciting to be working in food right now?

LW: There is no denying that food is a hot-button issue across the board right now.  It is a dynamic time to be involved in the industry as we are confronted daily with new developments, policies, science, and research.  What’s more is that food culture is inextricably linked to a variety of different issues and industries – whether on the side of social dialogue around such topics as race, socioeconomic status, and disease, or around industries such as distribution, education, and technology. As such a central component to our daily lives, food serves as an intellectual and ideological hub for people from many backgrounds and industries to converge and exchange ideas and information.

Check out exciting food tech, design, management, operations, development and food science positions at Food+Tech Jobs.

The post Eat REAL Creates Market-Based Incentives For Healthy, Sustainable Food appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

Does Dig Inn have the answer to the cook shortage plaguing restaurants? Why is Food Network partnering with Instacart to launch a meal kit service? What can you learn from the way Chick-fil-A got its app to number one in the app store? Get answers to these questions and more in our weekly round-up of last weeks top food startup, tech and innovation news.

Want more? Feast your eyes on last week’s newsletter here. Or better yet, never miss the latest food tech and innovation news and trends with our bi-weekly newsletter. We track all the business, tech and investment trends in agriculture, CPG, retail, restaurants, cooking and health, so you don’t have to.

Our newsletter is the absolute easiest way to stay on top of the emerging sector, so sign up for it today. Already signed up? Share the love with your friends and colleagues!

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1. Announcing The 10 Startups Pitching at FoodBytes! San Francisco

We are thrilled to announce the 10 food, agribusiness, beverage and tech startups that will demo at FoodBytes! San Francisco.

2. Seaweed On Your Dinner Plate: The Next Kale Could Be Kelp – NPR

People have foraged wild seaweed off the Eastern Seaboard for centuries. But now a much more active effort to grow seaweed in the U.S. is afoot.

3. Can Dig Inn Create The Skilled Cooks It Lacks? – Edible Manhattan

Faced with a chef shortage, Dig Inn is rethinking the traditional restaurant labor model and training new cooks while providing a clear path for moving up the ladder.

4. Organic Food Company Back to the Roots Extends Series A Funding to $10M – Finsmes

The new funding came from Acre Venture Partners, S2G Ventures and Red Sea Ventures. The startup will use the funds to accelerate product development, scale distribution and continue growing its team.

5. Are Medical Foods the Next Big Trend for Packaged Foods? – FoodDive

Big food companies are making investments in R&D and products that meet medical and nutritional needs for people with certain diseases and conditions, a market that is worth an estimated $15B.

6. Why Is Chick-fil-A’s App Number One in the App Store? – The Atlantic

In three days, the app was downloaded over one million times. The chain promised a free chicken sandwich to people who downloaded the app and it saw huge success by targeting families.

7. The Periodic Table Of Food Tech – CB Insights

CB Insights charts the 100+ active food tech startups that have raised capital since January 2013.

8. Instacart and Food Network Join Forces to Launch Meal-kit Delivery Service – Business Insider

The personal grocery shopper and delivery service will integrate with the Food Network’s digital tools Recipe Box, which lets users plan meals, and Grocery List, which enables users to save shopping lists.

9. Microsoft Is Teaching Your Plants To Talk Back – FastCo.Design

How Project Florence, a sensor-loaded plant capsule that’s connected to a computer, could have incredible implications for the future of farming.

The post Food Network Launches Meal Kits With Instacart, Meet The New Kale, Dig Inn Invests in Its Cooks & More appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

The food industry is one of the slowest industries to adapt to and incorporate new technologies. The principle cause of this slow adaptation is the acceptance of an age-old system, parts of which work and, ultimately, get the job done, albeit maybe not in the most healthful, sustainable or safe ways.

For many years the drivers of food production have been based solely on increasing food quantity whilst maintaining low costs. This emphasis on cost has progressively deteriorated the health and safety of our food over time, having a detrimental impact on consumers. Importantly, the blind acceptance of the current food system comes in part from the huge lack of understanding of food in general, both by the industry and the consumer. It is the industry’s role to educate consumers, but their focus is more on marketing their products than educated consumers. Thus, we have minimal knowledge about the food we eat, let alone how these foods interact with our bodies.

The era of the Internet, however, has started to change this. Consumers are now more aware of heath and food safety and, as information is more readily available online, they actively seek out healthier products. This shift in consumer preferences is putting increasing pressure on an outdated food industry to adapt and respond to the growing public awareness and demand for healthier, safer foods.

Artificial Intelligence & Big Data Increase Utilization of Food Co-Products & Reduce Waste

Thankfully, some important technologies have been developed in the last 5 years to disrupt the current system. These technologies include new ways of creating healthy foods, such as locating protein from novel sources (i.e. insects), which can be suitably harvested to feed a growing global population. Other technologies are looking at novel means of making foods safer, for example antimicrobial techniques within meat, which in turn is reducing the downstream disposal of such products.

An advancement that is particularly close to our hearts here at Nuritas is the identification of innovative ways for dealing with food co-products, or by-products from food production, by discovering new uses for them within the human food chain. Whey, for example, is a co-product of yogurt production. Today whey is a multibillion dollar industry, but in 2000 it had zero value. This is incredibly significant as an estimated 25-50 percent of food is discarded at the production level. Indeed, this number doesn’t include the further percentage that is thrown away downstream.

The best way to increase the sustainability, safety and health of food is to use technologies like artificial intelligence to examine food and its co-products at the molecular level. Such an approach has never been undertaken in food before.

So what does this mean exactly?

There are billions of molecules, called peptides, found within food and food co-products, which contain functional health benefits for the food industry and consumers alike. Some of the molecules we have found have antimicrobial capabilities which can thus be used as natural food preservatives to enhance food safety and extend shelf life. Another of our peptide discoveries aids in moving glucose into the muscle. This is important because diabetes is associated with a depletion in sugar movement into skeletal muscle cells.

Using a revolutionary technology that combines artificial intelligence and DNA analysis, we are able to extract these and many other molecules from within food and food co-products. This technology is able to not only add value to a seemingly valueless sidestream, but it is able to unlock unforeseen, health-promoting ingredients in such sidestreams, enhancing the safety and health of food products.

At Nuritas, we have discovered that we can use revolutionary technologies to guarantee safety and sustainability, but also to ensure future food products are life-changing in their capabilities. We believe the way forward is to integrate new technologies to ensure we get the most out of our foods by sustainably using the co-products of food production to unlock their molecular potential. This integration of science and technology will ultimately help the food industry become a healthier, safer and more sustainable industry.

Internet of Food is an editorial series exploring how we might use technology, new business models and design to guarantee healthy, safe and sufficient food for everyone. Join the conversation between March 23 and April 29. Share your ideas in the comments, on Twitter using #internetoffood, Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn, and follow the conversation by subscribing to our newsletter.

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Dr. Nora Khaldi is a global leader in the field of food and nutritional technology. She is a mathematician with a PhD in Molecular Evolution and the founder of Nuritas, the first company in the world to use artificial intelligence and DNA analysis to find new disease-beating molecules in food and food coproducts. Nuritas is not only defining the future of food and health with these disease-beating ingredients but also adding incredible value to currently valueless food sidestreams. The company has been recognised as one the most innovative startups in the world.

The post How Nuritas Uses Artificial Intelligence to Unlock The Full Potential of Food appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

A lot of people argue that healthy, organic food is expensive and inaccessible to the masses. To challenge this belief and inspire people to rethink their ability to eat better without breaking the bank, Edible Impacts launched a project called #30DAYStoSHINE.

Founders and self proclaimed “edible impactors” Alex Monroe and Brooke Sunness ate all organic, whole food, vegetarian meals on a budget of $5-7 per day for 30 days in New York City. They shopped for ingredients exclusively at Whole Foods and documented their 3 meals a day on their blog including recipes, photographs and daily nutrition and cost breakdowns.

The duo found that it is possible to eat plant-based, organic foods on a small budget, and they published their findings to empower others to eat better too. They drafted a 25 page manual, including recipe ideas, sample shopping lists and tips for eating healthy food on the cheap, as well as a comprehensive budgeting spreadsheet, which helps eaters create cost-plans for ingredients and recipes.

We chatted with Alex and Brooke via email to learn more about their findings from the project, their business model and their current project “exposed,”. Our interview has been edited for brevity.

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Food+Tech Connect: Can you tell me more about the inspiration for Edible Impacts?

Edible Impacts: We both love eating delicious foods including seeds, fruits, leaves, stems and roots, insatiable wild meat from the sea and tree nuts. We spend a lot of time discussing various preparations for these types of foods, shopping for these foods and researching histories of these food. Through our journeys into researching, cooking and consuming whole foods we became inspired by the opportunity to build social communities around food. Our conversations and research then began moving towards advertising, psychology, sociology, and philosophy. Finally, we decided we had some ideas that could create new perceptions about food…and here we are.

FTC: What is your business model?

EI: Through partnerships with small and large businesses and public organizations we are creating non-traditional campaigns and messages, what we call edible impacts, that influence consumers through mainstream marketing channels including online, social, and print media.

FTC: What impact do you hope to have?

EI: We are addressing a need gap that we see in the way in which whole foods are represented (or misrepresented) today. By building greater curiosities around food, challenging the current food system, and rearranging the framework that drives a person’s decisions, we are confident we can reduce the size of that gap.

FTC: What were your key takeaways from the #30DAYStoSHINE campaign?

EI: It’s easiest to write out our findings in list form.

1. How easy it is to cook, shop, prepare and make food once you understand a few insights that the campaign has taught us: Use quality, unprocessed, organic ingredients, pair with a legume or grain and top with quality olive oil and salt/pepper.

2. Organic food is even more affordable than we expected. We have pinpointed which foods drive up the grocery bill (meaning only to be eaten occasionally) and those organic staples that can be turned into many delicious creations.

3. The importance of being curious and willing to take risks in the kitchen – i.e. not following recipes or traditional rules and beliefs like roasting a banana to eat with beans and rice or making pizza out of something that isn’t white or wheat flour.

4. Learning about the short term gains from eating a balanced whole foods diet including increased energy, clarity, satiation, a closer connection to our bodies and a deeper appreciation and gratitude for our food and meals.

FTC: What’s next for Edible Impacts? Can you tell me more about your second project “exposed,”?

EI: We have created a #30DAYStoSHINE Manual, which anyone interested in eating on this budget or taking on the campaign as a challenge can do so. We hope to get more individuals and corporations to take on the effort as a challenge on a larger scale, so our objective is to continue buttressing the American understanding about accessibility, affordability, and tastiness of whole foods.

“exposed,” is the [un]dramatic reintroduction to [good] food.  It is a solution that we believe can create a massive paradigm shift in the way people view [good] food. “exposed,” is a social value collaboration concept–interest groups working collectively to create dynamic social campaigns that represent a shared vision and influence diverse audiences. By collaborating with creative doers, social influencers and industry leaders and aligning them to a cohesive message that challenges our food choices and puts [good] food on the stage, we can make an impact, one that is exponentially influential.

We’ve created three iterations of “exposed,” and are now focused on finding partners who are truly interested in the growth of this message.

• Real People Real Food: challenging identity. what makes you, you.
• Kids Menu: challenging the dismal consistency in children’s food options offered by most restaurants.
• What Lies Ahead: challenging “healthy” food appeal by removing “healthy” from the messaging

The post Edible Impacts Cooks Up Blueprint for Eating Organic on $6 a Day appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

FTC has been producing events left and right this summer. Last Tuesday, 100+ members of the food tech community joined us for our “How Nutrition Tech Personalizes Eating” Food+Tech Meetup. Five innovators who are leveraging technology to make food healthier, more transparent and personalized discussed their missions, business models and technologies, as well as their lessons learned.

Check out our recap of the evening below. We will also be publishing videos of the presentations in the coming weeks, so stay tuned. You can learn more about our Food+Tech Meetup and get notified about future events (don’t miss our Fail Friday Meetup this Thursday, June 25) here.

We’d like to thank our killer food sponsors Ox Verte, Meal Maison, Krunch Kitchen and Brewla and our host R/GA Accelerator. Learn more about R/GA’s new hospitality tech accelerator project Techstars METRO Accelerator here. 

Data-as-a-service startup Edamam sells access to real-time food and nutrition data to food, health and wellness companies including The New York Times, Nestle, Samsung and Epicurious. After launching as a B2C business, Edamam listened to its customers and pivoted to B2B. Founder Victor Penev told the group that his team built its product for consumers because it’s the easiest way to sell a product to other businesses. For other data-driven food startups, Penev says data is an asset and he advises owning it rather than selling it outright. Edamam has raised $1.9M in funding to date.

Ingredient1 helps shoppers discover healthy foods and empowers them to inform the market and make positive food change. Since launching in beta in April 2014, the startup has amassed a database of food product information that’s three times as large as the USDA’s; it contains 30k products and 20k ingredients. For brands and retailers, Ingredient1 offers data and analytics on new and relevant foods, as well as what shoppers care about and what products they are most likely to buy. “Ingredient1 focuses on ingredients now. Later iterations may focus on personalized wellness,” founder Taryn Fixel told the Meetup group.

Power Supply offers tasty and healthy meals made by networks of independent local chefs and delivers them via custom refrigerators at partner activated fitness and wellness communities (i.e CrossFit boxes, yoga studios, etc) in Washington DC and Los Angeles, CA. Its meals cater to people with specialty diets, chronic diseases and those who want to focus on clean eating. Co-founder and CEO Patrick Smith advised the group to have negative operating capital, because it allows your startup to fund itself until it finds product market fit. He also highly recommends focusing on a specific niche like Power Supply does because it limits the competitive field and makes customer acquisition easier. Smith encouraged the group to read Getting to Plan B by Randy Komisar, Zero to One by Peter Thiel, Effectuation.org by Saras Sarasvathy and Drive by Dan Pink. Power Supply raised $515K of debt financing in December 2013.

HowGood researches and rates the environmental and social impact of food products and partners with grocery stores to display its ratings in 26 states. Its app helps customers identify products that fit their values and its rating labels enable stores to showcase their commitment to transparency and sustainability. The startup spent 5 years researching and building its database of sustainable food using data from sources including the USDA, Animal Welfare Approved and Seafood Watch, co-founder and CEO Alexander Gillett told the group. Products that have a high HowGood rating have seen in-store sales increase by an average of 31%, according to Gillett. Customers upgraded an average of 3 products to more sustainable alternatives in stores that use HowGood’s ratings, which translates to a $2.31 sales bump per transaction, Gillet noted. HowGood raised $2 million in seed funding in September, 2014.

Meals to Heal offers personalized nutrition solutions for people suffering from chronic medical conditions. Its three tier approach includes personalized healthy food delivery, educational resources and nutrition counseling. Founder Susan Bratton had a lot of advice and lessons learned to share with the group. Regarding product development, she said “listen to what your customers want and build for them.” Bratton recommended following the Lean Startup Method; “Nothing is sacred, fail fast,” she said. When it comes to marketing, Bratton recommended testing in small dollar amounts to see what’s working and what’s not. Meals to Heal participated in Startup Health.

The post Nutrition Tech Innovators Share Business Insights & Lessons Learned appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

This year has been jam-packed with exciting food tech events, and there are lots of awesome conferences, summits meetups and more to come. Here are our top picks for kick-ass food tech gatherings this Spring and Summer. Let us know if there are any we missed in the comments below, and we’ll add them to the list.

The Greenhouse Project Benefit – April 23 – New York, NY

Join New York Sun Works for their annual benefit to help build more innovative science labs in urban schools. With your support, they can bring their Greenhouse Project Initiative, which uses hydroponic farming tech to educate students and teachers about the science of sustainability, to more schools.

Silicon Valley Meets Sacramento: Hot Opportunities in AgTech – April 28 – Sacramento, CA

Moderated by Roger Royse, founder of Silicon Valley AgTech and organizer of RoyseLaw AgTech Incubator and the RoyseLaw Silicon Valley AgTech Conference, this panel will discuss the current opportunities, successes and challenges, specifically, the drought in the Central Valley, dominating the AgTech space. Panelists include John Matthesen, Jack Coots, Ephraim Lindenbaum, Patrick Dosier and Bob Adams. Get tickets here.

Meat Matters – April 28 – New York, NY

Join Chefs Collaborative for a rare opportunity to explore the Food Network Kitchen with great chefs and great food. Meat Matters will feature 5 nationally-renowned cooks, 5 cooking stations, a butchery demonstration, beer and wine as well as signature cocktails from New York Distilling Co. All proceeds benefit Chefs Collaborative. Get tickets here. 

Food+Tech Fundraiser Partay for Jimmy’s No. 43 – April 29 – New York, NY

Help jimmy’s no. 43 get back on its feet after the recent E Village explosion! Join us on 4.29 for a Food+Tech Meetup/fundraiser/celebration of owner and local food hero Jimmy Carbone. They’re be lots of networking, local snacks from Quinciple, Food360 and Made by Lukas and drinks from The Brooklyn Brewery, Brooklyn Winery, Brooklyn Farmacy and Hella Bitters. 100% OF THE PROCEEDS will go to Jimmy’s. RSVP here!

Fresh Food: The Prescription for a Healthier America – April 29 – Philadelphia, PA

Organized by St. Christopher’s Foundation for Children, the 3rd bi-annual FreshRx symposium will gather experts in the health and nutrition fields to discuss the powerful link between health and diet. It will be held at the Urban League in Philadelphia. Register here.

Strategy to Shelf: An Insider’s View on Bringing Food Products to Market – May 7 – Cambridge, MA

Hosted by Northeast Les Dames d’Escoffier, The Food Loft and Massachusetts Specialty Foods Association, this panel will offer advice on everything from product development, packaging and manufacturing to distribution and finance and will share best practices and helpful tips for building a sustainable, profitable food product business. RSVP here.

NRA Show – May 16-19 – Chicago, IL

Join the 44,000+ attendees at this year’s National Restaurant Association Show to learn more about the challenges, opportunities, trends and topics  in the hospitality and foodservice industry.  Learn more and register here.

Tech To Table – May 20 – New York, NY

Featuring Sarah Sclarsic of Modern Meadow, Jared Koch of Clean Plates, Christopher Washington of Radicle Farms, Rachna Govani of Foodstand and moderated by our creative and editorial lead Nina Meijers, this panel will discuss the booming opportunities and challenges in the food technology world. Purchase tickets here.

Eat Retreat Bite – May 21 – Philadelphia, PA

Brought to you by Squarespace in partnership with Fair Food Philly, Eat Retreat will host its first ever community pop-up! Chat with local bakers, farmers, roasters and distillers while snacking on olive oil, cheeses, oysters and ice cream. As a member of our community, get $10 off with the code “SQSPBITE” here.

TECHmunch NYC – May 21 – New York, NY

Organized by BakeSpace.com, this traveling conference teaches food and lifestyle bloggers how to take their blogs to the next level. Over 20 TECHmunch conferences have been held in cities all over North America but this event marks the fifth visit to New York.  Join  200+ food and lifestyle bloggers, culinary media and expert panelists for this must-attend event for bloggers. Get your tickets here.

RootedNY: Farmstead Cheese – May 24 – New York, NY

Join RootedNY for a day trip to Sprout Creek Farm in Dutchess County for an informational farm tour, cheese tasting and a farm-to-table lunch. Your ticket includes round trip transportation from Manhattan. Sign up here.

Foodstand Spotlight – June 1 – New York, NY

In partnership with Slow Money NYC, Foodstand invites entrepreneurs, creators and innovators in the food space to its monthly event series. The night will feature five 5 minute demos, a panel of experts, audience collaboration and networking opportunities. Get your ticket or sign up for the livestream here.

Agri Investment Forum – June 3-4 – Toronto, Canada

This two day, annual conference unites agri-entrepreneurs, corporate strategics and investors from all across North America to discuss the growth and potential of agri-businesses. Attendees will explore an array of categories in the agri-business space, including agricultural waste management, aeroponics & agriculture, bio industrial products, biofuels & renewable feedstock, crop science & precision farming, forestry products & management, livestock & animal health and nutraceuticals & functional foods. In addition to moderated discussions, panels, keynote addresses and networking opportunities, 15 companies will present their business models and investment opportunities.  Register now.

Slow Living Summit – June 3-5 – Brattleboro, VT

Presented by Strolling of the Heifers, the 5th annual Summit will explore “the journey of food” through its five Summit tracks: food entrepreneurship, food systems, nourishment and wellness, food justice and access and food policies. Learn more and get tickets here.

Take Photos Like a Pro, Without Being a Pro – June 5

Presented by Foodstand, NYC based food photographer Evi Abeler invites you to a virtual workshop where she will teach you the ins and outs of taking beautiful food photos. From restaurants to markets to your plate, Evi will explore the most common settings for taking food photos. All levels welcome. Register here.

Edible Business at Stony Brook Southampton – June 5-7 – Southampton, NY

Hosted by The Food Lab at Stony Brook Southampton, this event will bring together today’s leading thinkers in food business, media and policy to discuss the path towards healthy regional food systems. This three day event features tastings, dynamic discussions, networking sessions, as well a pitch/feedback session with investors. Learn more and get tickets here.

Bite Silicon Valley Conference – June 5-7 – Palo Alto, CA

This three day conference at the Levi’s Stadium unites the food tech world in Silicon Valley. Featuring keynote addresses from José Andrés of ThinkFoodGroup and Josh Tetrick, CEO of Hampton Creek, this inaugural event will explore how we can use cutting edge technology and prior knowledge to secure a safer future of food. Our founder Danielle Gould will be moderating “The Renewed Debate About GMOs” panel. Get tickets here.

FTC is thrilled to be partnering with BITE SV for an informal happy hour immediately after the conference on Saturday, June 6. You’ll have a chance to meet and network with our speakers and other attendees to continue the conversation about the days thought-provoking topics. Wine and light bites will be served. As a member of our community, get 20% your happy hour ticket with code “FOODTECHCONNECT” here.

FMI Connect – June 8-11 – Chicago, IL

Join  400 retailer companies and 12,500+ professionals at FMI Connect 2015. Featuring 40+ education sessions, 700+ exhibitors and much more, this three day conference seeks to unite food retail professionals to discuss emerging trends,  view new products in the market and connect producers with suppliers. Register for tickets here.

Balle Conference – June 10-12 – Phoenix, AZ

Phoenix will host the 13th annual Balle Conference, bringing together business owners, social entrepreneurs, community funders, policy makers, conveners, network builders and local economy leaders. This year’s conference will explore the trends, challenges and lessons learned in local economies. You can get your ticket here.

THINK&ACT: The Future of Food – June 10 – San Francisco, CA

The THINK&ACT series seeks to create connections between startups and large organizations. Featuring demos from Pantry, Kite Hill, Orange Chef, FarmX, Sereneti, Bitty Foods, Kuli Kuli, Revive Foods, Sourcery and 6Sensor Labs, this event will focus on successful food startups in the booming industry. Snag an early bird FREE ticket here.

Change Food Facing Factory Farms Salon – June 16 – New York, NY

Join 2015 TEDxManhattan speakers Kendra Kimbirauskas of the Socially Responsible Agricultural Project and Michele Merkel of Food & Water Justice at this salon to discuss ways to increase public awareness and to combat factory farms. Purchase tickets here.

Food+Tech Meetup: How Nutrition Tech Personalizes Eating – June 16 – New York, NY

Join us and host R/GA Accelerator at our Meetup to hear from nutrition tech companies on how they operate and feed the diverse preferences of consumers. The Meetup will feature presentations from Victor Penev of Edamam, Taryn Fixel of Ingredient1, Patrick Smith of Power Supply and delicious bites from Ox Verte and Meal Maison. Snag a ticket here.

Techstars METRO Accelerator is the world’s first technology accelerator focused on improving every aspect of the hospitality and food value chain. From now until August 3rd 2015, interested teams can apply online at www.techstarsmetro.com.

Menus of Change – June 17-19 – Hyde Park, NY

Menus of Change, the Business of Healthy, Sustainable, Delicious Food Choices, is an initiative developed by the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in collaboration with Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. This three day summit unites culinary, business, public health and environmental science leaders to tackle issues such as sourcing, healthcare and food supply. Learn more and register here. 

RootedNY: Blue Point Oysters and Beer – June 20 – Brooklyn, NY

Join RootedNY for a trip to Blue Point, Long Island to visit local producers Blue Island Oyster Company and Blue Point Brewery. Learn how they grow their oysters and brew their beer (and of course have a tasting along the way!). Snag a ticket here.

The Seed Experience – June 20-21 – Brooklyn, NY

Join 100+ exhibitors, world renowned speakers, doctors, nutritionists and athletes who are looking to lead healthier and eco-friendly lifestyles at the Brooklyn Expo Center for the fourth annual expo and conference. The festival will feature cooking demonstrations from top chefs, various workshops and screenings of award-winning films. Tickets include 30 days FREE membership to FMTV. Reserve yours here.

Who Moved My Plate? – June 23 – London, UK

Brought to you by Grubpreneurs, this networking event will explore how technology is disrupting the food and food tech space. Featuring talks from Hussein Kanji, Founding Partner of Hoxton Ventures and Oli Ashness, founder of Simply Cook, Who Moved My Plate? will tackle food tech trends, subscription services and mobile discovery. Snag a ticket here.

FOOD IT 2015: Macro to Micro – June 24 – Stanford, CA

Featuring 30+ speakers and judges, the second annual FOOD IT conference will unite startups, VCs, IT innovators and food and ag sector players to discuss the biggest challenges in the industry. The conference is organized by the Mixing Bowl, a business-focused forum that connect innovators in the tech, food & ag sector, in collaboration with FEED Collaborative. Get your ticket here.

FoodBytes! 2.0 Summit – June 25 – San Francisco, CA

Join investors, technologists, media and others to see live demonstrations from innovative startups in the food industry such as Ipiit, Back to the Roots, Noble Brewer, Thistle, No Food Waste and more. Reserve your ticket here.

Summer Fancy Food Show – June 28-30 – New York, NY

Hosted by the Specialty Food Association, the SFFS is the largest specialty food trade show in North America. It will feature 180,000+ products, 25,000+ buyers and 2,500+ exhibitors. Learn more and register here. 

Foodstand Spotlight – July 6 – Brooklyn, NY

In partnership with Slow Money NYC, Foodstand invites entrepreneurs, creators and innovators in the food space to its monthly event series. This month, hosted at Brooklyn Brewery, the night will feature five 5 minute demos, a panel of experts, audience collaboration and networking opportunities. Get your ticket or sign up for the livestream here.

33entrepreneurs’ #33USTour – July 8-30 – Various Cities

33entrepreneurs will be hosting 10 StartUp Contests across the country this July on a quest to find the most innovative companies working in wine, food & beverages and travel tech. Three finalists from each city will be brought to Bon AppeTech, for food and beverage startups, or Phocuswright, for travel tech startups and the top three startups will be given $100,000 in equity investment plus a three-month acceleration program in France. Find the city nearest you and apply here.

IFT15 – July 11-14 – Chicago, IL

Join 23,000+ food scientists and tech professionals from 90+ countries to learn about the recent trends, the latest products and the newest innovations that are driving food science. Not to mention, you will have access to 1,000+ exhibitors and 1,000+ technical research presentations. Register here.

Palo Alto Food Startup Bootcamp – July 18 – Palo Alto, CA

Local Food Lab’s one-day intensive workshop will teach you everything you need to know to get your food startup off the ground. You’ll learn everything from customer discovery, market and industry analysis, financial forecasting, sales and marketing strategy, development of a social mission statement, fundraising and pitching. Learn more and sign-up here. 

Intro to Food Processing: Licensing and Selling – July 20 – Brooklyn, NY

Learn first-hand how to comply with federal regulations needed to launch your food business at Brooklyn Grange. This workshop will feature panelists Rob Dondorf, Chief Food Inspector at NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets, Peter Trunk, Food Specialist at the FDA and be moderated by Robin Puskas, Chef/Owner of NYC Kitchen Co. Reserve you spot here.

Food & Agri Business Management Program – July 21-31 – Ithaca, NY

Hosted by Cornell University and Sathguru Management Consultants, this program will explore the economic, social and environmental issues that impact the agribusiness industry. Learn more here.

Restaurant Tech: From Sourcing to Reservations – July 22 – New York, NY

Join our Meetup to get an inside look at how a handful of startups are working to improve restaurant operations and optimize the dining experience. You’ll hear from founders from Bento Box, Improvonia, Reserve and Dig Inn. Learn more about our Meetup and snag a spot here.

The Power of Produce – July 23

During this free webinar, Anne-Marie Roerink from 210 Analytics, LLC will explore the biggest insights from The Food and Marketing Institute’s inaugural report, The Power of Produce 2015. The report features data on the produce retail industry, path to purchase, mega trends, shopper suggestions and more. Register here.

Los Angeles Food Startup Bootcamp – July 25 – Los Angeles, CA

Local Food Lab’s one-day intensive workshop will teach you everything you need to know to get your food startup off the ground. You’ll learn everything from customer discovery, market and industry analysis, financial forecasting, sales and marketing strategy, development of a social mission statement, fundraising and pitching. Learn more and sign-up here. 

Spoon University Brainfood Conference – July 25 – Brooklyn, NY

Join Spoon University for the 2nd annual Brainfood conference. Topics will include food and technology, female food entrepreneurs, new food startups and sustainability and food sourcing plus a live food demo from Michael Cirino. Added bonus, FTC’s very own Nina Meijers will be speaking! Snag a ticket here.

IAFP 2015 – July 25-28 – Portland, OR

Hosted by the International Association for Food Protection, this meeting unites 2800+ industry, academic, governmental food and safety professionals from six continents to discuss current and emerging food safety issues. Learn more and register here

Ag Supply Chain School and Field Tour – July 28-30 – Visalia, CA

This tour unites agri-business and food industry specialists for a unique opportunity to see and experience the extensive on-farm practices of one of the most intensive agricultural regions in the world and learn first-hand from growers, consultants, scientists and local agri-business experts. Register here. 

Global Sustainability Summit – August 19-21 – Denver, CO

Developed by The Food Marketing Institute (FMI) and the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), the Summit was created to help companies incorporate sustainability into their business models. It will address emerging issues and trends, technology and innovation, packaging and waste, education and communication, natural resource challenges, sustainable supply chain and sourcing and sustainable agriculture.  Learn more and register here.

Ag Innovation Showcase – September 14-16 – St. Louis, MO

In its seventh year, the Showcase seeks to bring together ag’s biggest names, innovators and investors to explore the convergence of ag and tech. Presenting companies in the past years have raised $430m post-showcase and 6 have been acquired. Register now.

Expo Milano 2015  – May 1-October 31 –Milan, Italy

Taking place in Milan, Italy from May through October, Expo Milano is the first world’s fair devoted entirely to food. It’s expected to draw 20 million visitors and exhibitors from 140 countries to showcase and explore how technology can help guarantee healthy, safe and sufficient food for all.

Amongst the many exhibits, the USA Pavilion will showcase the United States as a food, culture, science and business innovator and collaborator. Using interactive exhibits and state-of-the-art digital media, the pavilion will highlight products and companies that are working at the forefront of sustainability, nutrition and health, technology and innovation. The USA Pavilion is also hosting a food tech startup accelerator called Feeding the Accelerator. Learn more and apply here.

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The post Must-Attend Food Tech Events: Spring/Summer 2015 Edition appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

Guest post by Brian Witlin, COO of Yummly. The views expressed here are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the views of Food+Tech Connect.

Tackling food issues in the US is not a small feat by any means. With the wealth of knowledge and technology we have today, I began to think about how can we use new technology or design to guarantee healthy, sufficient and safe food for everyone.

To answer that question, I started by exploring new technology tools, incentives and even reimagining the way we produce and regulate food today that could lead to better food for everyone.

It starts with tools to understand and inspire smart consumption and healthy lifestyle and ends with quantified incentives to make change.

In today’s society, sound food education gets overwhelmed and confused by food marketing, fad diets, and general miss-information.  Further, nutrition is not widely understood by a majority of medical professionals. Doctors generally only take 1-2 classes in medical school in nutrition science, yet we turn to them regularly for advice.  The advice is generally reactive and one size fits all. Further, the market for nutrition supplements is unregulated, and the efficacy of many are questionable.

With the advancement in wearables like Jawbone Up and the Apple watch, and personalized nutrition education and planning apps like ShopWell, Fooducate, MyFitnessPal and Yummly, users can both track their general health and activity, learn about foods that are best for their unique diet, and find recipes and meals tailored to their diet.

If you combine these services (which quantify healthy input and output) with an app like Pact, which provides financial incentives for good food and exercise behavior, you can imagine a broader lifestyle tracking system that facilitates healthy food intake and consistent exercise output.  This broader system can connect with an ecosystem of “incentive providers” which can include medical insurance providers, life insurance providers, gyms, food delivery services, and even the government.

By combining education, personalization, and financial incentives together, we can help individuals live healthier more empowered lifestyles. While this may seem far-fetched, this can become a reality in the near future.  More and more consumers are taking tracking their health into their own hands. Sensors are becoming smaller and more useful, products are maturing, and food information companies are collaborating in new and innovative ways.

Link government subsidies and tax incentives to foods associated with healthy lifestyles.

With an active “incentive provider ecosystem” and millions of active users, a wealth of information becomes unlocked about what foods and activities are most associated with healthy changes and outcomes.

Economists and data scientists can mine the large pool of user data to find key drivers of improved health.  Food subsidies, currently going to corn, soy and other less nutrient rich foods, can be more evenly distributed to healthier foods, like fruits and vegetables, to further incentivize producers to grow nutrient rich foods most correlated with quantified healthy consumption and successful health outcomes.

Further, the data for individuals can be used to create “healthy” tax deductions, further reinforcing good behavior.

Food safety is a multi-faceted problem with a multi-faceted solution.

Food safety issues typically arise from the following factors:

1.     Method of production and storage
2.     Temperature and time since production
3.     Unregulated foods and supplements

Method of Production

The first, method of production and storage of food is a challenge.  Food is manufactured behind closed doors.  Imagine, however, we used tools like UStream to broadcast live feeds within food production facilities. To take it a step further we could combine these live feeds with easily read (think geckoboard) dashboards, to allow anyone to view what was happening behind closed doors, and to see the relevant metrics and data about what was being put into their food.  This hyper transparency would both serve to let consumers fully understand how their food is made and it would provide an extra incentive for food manufacturers to produce things that met the standards of the law and consumers.

Temperature & Time

Temperature and time are significant factors for the shelf life of food.  With the advancement in sensor technology, we are reaching a point where fully integrated circuits with temperature sensors and transmitters can be fit into a package sticker.  This will effectively allow us to pinpoint the shelf life of foods.

These portable sticker sensors are already reaching close to viable price points.It is imaginable, within the next years, that these sensors will be cost-effective, communicate wirelessly with other systems, and greatly improve supply chain optimization efforts.  Sell-by and enjoy-by dates will become dynamic, creating less guesswork for the end consumer.

Unregulated Foods and Supplements

With the lifestyle tracking system described before in combination with quantified-self style wearables, users can participate in live trials for supplements on the market. Researchers can mine data to see if there is any connection with the advertised benefits of the product.

A live feed of these results can be connected within store displays, giving consumers up-to-date information about the supplements they are considering.

In closing, while these solutions will not solve these issues overnight or even in the next couple of years, it is safe to say we are already taking steps to make food healthier and safer for everyone in the U.S.

Internet of Food is editorial series exploring how we might use technology, new business models and design to guarantee healthy, safe and sufficient food for everyone. Join the conversation between February 17 and April 2. Share your ideas in the comments, on Twitter using#internetoffood, Facebook or LinkedIn. 

_____________

Brian Witlin is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Yummly. Brian is a serial entrepreneur and design leader who has co-founded and led three companies to successful acquisitions.Brian currently heads all mobile and platform expansion initiatives at Yummly, the fastest growing digital foodtech startup where he launched the #1 iOS recipe app and the leading recipe API platform.

Prior to his tenure at Yummly, Brian served as the CEO and Founder of ShopWell, the first truly personalized nutrition resource (acquired by YottaMark).

Brian holds a Lecturer position at Stanford University’s Hasso Platner Institute of Design, serves as a startup mentor at 500 Startups and works with a portfolio of startups and IDEO’s Entrepreneurship Initiative. He has also formerly held EIR (Entrepreneur in Residence) positions at IDEO and StartX. He writes on the subject of entrepreneurship and startups on his blog DesignDoing and guest writes on occasion on VentureBeat.
Previously, Brian co-founded Golaces, LLC, a product company (acquired by a publicly traded footwear company) and LeverWorks, a software development consultancy (acquired by LEO Media – now Quasar Strategies).

Brian holds a M.S. in Engineering and Design from Stanford University and a B.S. in Business and Economics from Lehigh University. He is a classically trained artist/draftsman, an aspiring mixed martial artist, and has a love for his hometown Chicago-style hotdogs and deep-dish pizza.

The post Leveraging Data to Incentivize Healthy Eating & Improve Food Safety appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

Image Credit: 6SensorLabs

Guest post by Shireen Yates, co-founder and CEO, 6SensorLabs. The views expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the views of Food+Tech Connect. 

Food plays diverse roles in peoples’ lives, including comfort, sustenance and nutrition, as well as survival, addiction and poison. In the U.S., we haven’t agreed on what is healthy, safe and sufficient. Four years ago the USDA replaced the food pyramid, long assumed the foundation of a healthy diet, with new dietary guidelines.

Our relationship with food is partially defined by societal and environmental conditions. Public opinion oscillates over what is good and bad for you when it comes to nutrition. Caffeine is bad. Don’t drink coffee. Drink at least 5 cups of coffee. Drink coffee made from low-toxin beans and throw a chunk of unsalted, grass-fed butter in it. Diet fatigue reflects the noise.

The first step to healthy food is determining what is good for YOU. The second step is gaining access to those foods.

New technology and services reflect the needs of people who want access to a recipe with nutritional value that works for them – a customized formula of food that matches their food identity. People want to feel empowered to eat well and stay healthy. They want to know what’s in their food as they become more aware of how food affects them.

Here are some examples:

• Food Identity: Dietary restrictions have skyrocketed. Food allergies have increased by 50 percent among children over the past 15 years. Over 200 million gluten-free dishes are ordered in the U.S. a year. There’s more awareness of what people can and cannot eat , which is shaping distinct, individual food identities. Services like WellnessFX analyze your biomarkers to connect you with a nutritionist or dietician for a custom plan that fits your body’s needs.

• Transparency: From calories to allergens to GMOs, people want to know what’s in their food. Some menus now have caloric information for their dishes. GE is designing a calorie counting microwave. At 6SensorLabs, we are developing technologies to empower consumers to test their food for allergens. The USDA. recently approved a new Non GMO label for meat.

• Access: The sharing economy makes it possible for people to have access to nutritious foods. AmpleHarvest.org is a great example of this. It connects people with excess food in gardens and pantries. This model minimizes waste (which is estimated to be 30-40 percent of the food supply in the United States) and provides access to people who may not otherwise have access to nutritious foods. Grocery delivery programs also provide more access to foods people want and may not be able to get in their local brick and mortar stores.

My own experience with food highlights the various roles food can play in life.  Food started as comfort; I could eat anything. Ten years ago I was diagnosed with a number of food allergies and suddenly food transformed into potential poison. Foods I had consumed every day for 20 years could suddenly seriously affect the quality of my life. I started to pay critical attention to what I was putting in my body and how I was physically reacting to food. 6SensorLabs was created to enable the millions with dietary restrictions to trust and know their food.

Over the past century, we have seen technology and business models transform to first provide people with food, then to provide people with food that tastes good. As we become more aware of our food identities and how we are affected by food, we enter a new era of eating, asking ourselves, ‘Is this food good for me?’

Internet of Food is editorial series exploring how we might use technology, new business models and design to guarantee healthy, safe and sufficient food for everyone?” Join the conversation between February 17 and April 2. Share your ideas in the comments, on Twitter using#internetoffood, Facebook or LinkedIn. 

_______________

Shireen Taleghani Yates has been leading a gluten-free diet for the past 8 years. She is always on the hunt for new gluten-free foods but still finds it risky to eat out safely. After five years in sales and marketing at Google and Youtube, and an MBA from MIT Sloan, she decided to pursue her passion for helping people lead healthier lifestyles by starting 6SensorLabs.

The post Enabling Healthy Eating with Personalized Food Identities appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

Every week we curate and deliver the latest food tech news, trends and startup resources to our readers’ inboxes. We track the top technology and innovation happenings across agriculture, CPG, grocery, restaurants, cooking and health, so our newsletter is the absolute easiest way to stay on top of the emerging sector.

From big investments in the international online food delivery and online grocery spaces to a major food media acquisition, you’ll find our top 8 picks from last week in food tech below. Like what you read? Feast your eyes on the full roundup here. Or better yet, sign up for our newsletter and get the latest and greatest in food tech delivered to your inbox every week.

1) Food+Tech Meetup: How New Tech is Transforming Restaurants

Join us this Thursday, January 30th for a behind the scenes look at how tech startups are revolutionizing restaurants. Networking, wine and snacks to follow the presentations. RSVP HERE. 

Presenters:

• Cover– A payment processing app that lets customers seamlessly pay for their meals and saves restaurants money on credit card fees.
• Culinary Agents– A professional network  that offers job matching and networking for culinary professionals in the food, beverage and hospitality industry. 
  
• Easy Pairings –  An online marketplace for the hospitality industry that allows restaurants to lower recruitment costs and find great staff quickly and easily. 
  
• Objective Logistics – A retail/restaurant-focused software company that provides an artificially-intelligent, web-accessible labor performance management platform (MUSE). 
  
• Swipely – An Index Ventures and Shasta Ventures backed service that helps local merchants better understand customers and grow sales by connecting information from the payments network, point-of-sale systems and the social web.
• NoWait – An iOS app that allows consumers to search restaurant wait times, add their names to waiting lists and get texts from restaurants when their tables are ready. 
  

2) ReciPal Generates FDA Nutrition Labels, Saves Food Startups Time & Money

ReciPal does the boring nutrition label work and lets food entrepreneurs get back to what they really love, by enabling startups to generate affordable – $19 or less per recipe – nutrition labels in minutes.

3) Gourmet Food Delivery Service DineIn Raises £310,000 Crowdcube Investment – Startups Co UK

A new start-up that allows customers to order food from London’s top restaurants and chefs and have it delivered to their home has raised more than £310,000 in an oversubscribed Crowdcube pitch.

4) AccelFoods Selects First Class of Food and Beverage Entrepreneurs for Its Accelerator Program – Herald Online

The comapny raised a $4 Million plus investment fund to Support food entrepreneurs. Exo Cricket-Flour Protein Bars, Jaali Bean Indian Side Dishes, KOLAT Nut-Butter Spreads, Whynatte Caffeinated Beverage comprise its first class.

5) Singapore Online Grocer RedMart Raises $5.4M From Investors Including Facebook Co-founder – TechCrunch

RedMart, an online grocery service based in Singapore, announced today that it has closed a $5.4 million bridge round led by Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin.

6) Macmillan Acquires Cookstr, with Schwalbe In Expanded Role –Publishers Weekly

Macmillan has acquired cookbook and recipe Web site Cookstr. Founded in 2008 by Katie Workman and Will Schwalbe, Cookstr has reached as many as eight million unique visitors a month via its own consumer-facing recipe web site, as well as powering recipe searches in partnership with other organizations.

The post Last Week’s Top 6 Food Tech & Innovation Stories appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

This monthly column highlights the most interesting acquisitions, financings and partnerships within the Food Tech & Media ecosystem – digital content, social, local, mobile, grocery, e-commerce, delivery, ordering, payments, marketing and analytics – to give you insights into the latest funding and growth trends.

The deal activity in November picked up a bit from last month with four notable acquisitions, eight early-stage investments (totaling $36.7m) and one Series D (an Indian-based company, Zomato, which raised $27m). The deals represented a variety of categories including health, content, delivery, loyalty and commerce/restaurant technologies.

One theme that dominated news throughout the month was the notion of same-day delivery and solving the problem of the last mile. While it’s still hard to find an article on this topic that manages to resist a reference to the massive failure/flameout/implosion/[insert cataclysmic descriptor] of WebVan and Kozmo.com, the discussion is beginning to evolve. The New York Times calls same-day delivery “a new battleground for e-commerce,” with many companies scrambling to find the right new formula.

Much of the same-day delivery discussion is focused on retail products, but grocery, meals and restaurant delivery are a major component as well. AmazonFresh is launching its third city – San Francisco – in December, and services like Instacart, Good Eggs (see “M&A” section), Sprig (see “Funding” section) and Postmates (see “Funding” section) each expanded their empire in November. Even Whole Foods is testing out online ordering with a new ‘click and collect’ system. And don’t worry, bulk goods haven’t been left out of the fold: Google Shopping Express is now delivering goods from Costco; Amazon is reportedly launching an online wholesale store called “Pantry”; and startup Boxed announced it is launching nationally.

Although the economics are still being tested and it is likely some of the players in this space will disappear, we are a long way from the days of WebVan. For more discussion on recent VC investment in the food space, check out Pandodaily’s article: Software eats dinner: Why VCs are pouring cash into food startups.

M&A

AgSquared Acquires Local Dirt. The New York-based provider of cloud-based farm management software for small farms acquired Madison, Wisconsin-based Local Dirt, a local food marketplace and sales management tool that connects consumers and wholesalers directly with farmers. As Danielle Gould notes in her coverage at Forbes, the overarching rationale for the deal is to bring interoperability among online services for the agriculture sector. According to Gould, “for the next year, AgSquared and Local Dirt will operate as separate tools, but AgSquared will focus on building a basic integration so its users can get their harvest into Local Dirt’s product inventory and get their sales data from Local Dirt into AgSquared. Over time, however, AgSquared will integrate those sales management features into one platform. It has no plans to launch a marketplace.”

Announced: 11/19/13  Terms: Not Disclosed  Previous Investment: $1m+ Seed, $600k National Science Foundation Grant  Launched: 2005

Under Armour Acquires MapMyFitness. The Austin-based startup owns one of the largest global mobile fitness communities (20m+ registered users), as well as a suite of websites and related apps, including nutrition tracking. The acquisition will help the athletic apparel company accelerate its plans to build a mobile fitness platform and enter the biometric measurement and tracking arena. As a wholly-owned subsidiary of Under Armour, MapMyFitness will continue to operate separately.

Announced: 11/14/13  Terms: $150m cash  Previous Investment: $5m Series C, $12m Series B, $5m Series A, $1.5m Angel  Launched: 2007

Vox Media Acquires Curbed Network (which includes Eater.com). The Washington DC-based publisher of content sites like The Verge (tech) and SB Nation (sports) acquired the Manhattan-based lifestyle publisher of Eater.com (food), Racked.com (shopping/fashion) and Curbed.com (real estate). In an interview with the New York Times, Vox’s CEO Jim Bankoff explains the rationale: “Both Vox and Curbed value storytelling and as a result have attracted the otherwise hard to reach young, affluent, social consumers. We think this combined expanded platform will clearly attract premium advertisers.” For a fantastic analysis on the acquisition, which is definitely worth a read for anyone interested in the dynamics (and future) of the digital content space, check out this article by Reuters’ Felix Salmon. Salmon notes that Curbed Network was acquired at a relatively low multiple (less than four times revenues).

Announced: 11/10/13  Terms: $20m – $30m  Previous Investment: $1.5m Angel Round  Launched: 2004

Good Eggs Acquires LolaBee’s Harvest. The San Francisco-based online farmer’s market and food delivery service was acquired by Good Eggs to expand its own online marketplace and network of participating farmers and businesses. LolaBee’s Harvest will shut down its all accounts and move its customers to Good Eggs.

Announced: 11/08/13  Terms:  Not Disclosed  Previous Investment:  Not Disclosed  Launched: November 2011

FUNDING

Mouth Foods Raises $1.5m. The Brooklyn-based curated online store for “Indie” foods. Rather than an open marketplace, like Foodoro or Foodzie, the company searches nationwide for the best food makers and products it deems as “indie,” buys products in bulk, then stores and ships them directly to customers, and of course adds photographs and snazzy marketing/copy into the mix. According to the Wall Street Journal, the company will use the funding to continue to find and add products to its site, market its own brand, and vendors’ products across the U.S., and to continue to improve its Internet and mobile websites.

Announced: 11/26/13  Stage: Series A  Participating Investors: Vocap Ventures (lead), VegasTechFund, Joanne Wilson, Jason Calacanis  Previous Investment: $300k Angel  Founded: 2012

Index Raises $7m. The San Francisco-based analytics software startup helps grocers, restaurants and specialty retailers recognize and reward customers every time they engage with the brand. Index’s software, which integrates with a retailer’s point-of-sale, links customer brand interactions to a unified customer profile. Once customers are identified, the company delivers personalized, targeted news, rewards and offers to build loyalty and strengthen customer relationships. The proceeds will support the company’s continued rollout with retailers and the growth of its team.

Announced: 11/19/13  Stage: Series A  Participating Institutional Investors: Innovation Endeavors (lead), Khosla Ventures, AIMCo, 819 Capital  Previous Investment: Not Disclosed  Founded: March 2012

Yub Raises $12m. The Mountain View-based offline affiliate network Yub tracks consumers from online click-throughs to offline purchases, directly linking digital marketing spending to offline revenue. The company also partners with restaurants and retailers to offer special promotions so customers can earn rewards while shopping. Yub was incubated within TrialPay, a transactional advertising and cross-platform monetization company, and will launch as an independent company with the fresh financing.

Announced: 11/18/13  Stage: Venture  Participating Institutional Investors: Atomico, Battery Ventures, DFJ Growth, DAG Ventures, Greylock Partners, Index Ventures, QuestMark Partners, T. Rowe Price, Visa  Previous Investment: Not Disclosed (Incubated within TrialPay)  Founded: 2013

Postmates Adds New Investors (Undisclosed Amount). In addition to announcing a new launch in Brooklyn with 200+ restaurants, the San Francisco-based 1-hour delivery platform announced the addition of three high profile early stage investors: Yammer founder David Sacks, Path founder Dave Morin, and Remarq founder Bill Lee. The investment amount wasn’t disclosed, and comes eight months after a $5m venture round. TechCrunch notes the new investors will “help to advise as it scales up and continues expansion into even more markets going forward.”

Announced: 11/15/13  Stage: Venture  Participating Investors: David Sacks, Dave Morin, Bill Lee  Previous Investment: $5m Venture Round, $1.2m Venture Round, $1m Angel Round, $750m Angel Round  Founded: May 2011

TouchBistro Raises $4.5m. The Toronto-based digital menu and restaurant management startup provides iPad tableside ordering and point-of-sale technology for the food and beverage industry. According to the Financial Post, the company’s app is currently used in 22 countries around the world, and the company recently inked new deals with PayPal and payment processing giant Moneris Solutions to help integrate its technology with payment processors. The company intends to use the funding to expand its presence in New York, open a San Francisco office, and translate its product into other languages to further accelerate its growth in global markets.

Announced: 11/14/13  Stage: Seed  Participating Institutional Investors: Relay Ventures  Previous Investment: Not Disclosed  Founded: 2010

Qloo Raises $3m. The New York-based “cultural discovery” engine provides personalized recommendations for restaurants, bars, entertainment, travel, fashion and other categories. Pronounced “clue”, the app requires new users to select at least four categories and enter one of their favorite things in each. Users then provide the app with feedback by rating the suggestions. The company earns affiliate feed for recommendations that result in a transaction (make a reservation through OpenTable, book a hotel through Expedia, order a book from Amazon, etc.). The company will use the funds to continue development of the app (and release an Android version), as well as expand into new cities.

Announced: 11/14/13  Stage: Seed  Participating Investors: Kindler Capital, Danny Masterson, Cedric the Entertainer, Tommy Thompson, Samih Toukan, Hussam Khoury  Previous Investment: Not Disclosed  Founded: April 2011

Sprig Raises $1.2m. The San Francisco-based healthy meal delivery startup prepares chef-made locally-sourced seasonal meals to customers in select neighborhoods of San Francisco (SOMA and Mission Bay). One of Sprig’s distinguishing factors is that customers don’t need to order days or hours in advance; the company’s goal is to deliver the meal 20 minutes of ordering, on average.

Announced: 11/07/13  Stage: Seed  Participating Institutional Investors: Greylock Partners, MHS Capital, Battery Ventures  Previous Investment: Not Disclosed  Founded: April 2013

Zomato Raises $37m. The India-based online restaurant discovery and review site and app currently operates in 11 countries, including the recent launch of its services in Brazil, Turkey and Indonesia. Similar to Yelp, but with more detailed information on menu items, photos and prices, the company currently derives a third of its traffic from non-Indian markets, but that is quickly changing (a year ago 100 percent was in India). According to TechCrunch, the company plans to enter the US in the future, but it will “tweak its feature set so it can offer something attractive enough to crack the market so isn’t going to tackle that market immediately.” The company plans to use the proceeds to expand into 22 additional markets over the next two years.

Announced: 11/06/13  Stage: Series D  Participating Institutional Investors: Sequoia Capital (lead), Info Edge  Previous Investment: $10m Series C, $2.3m Series B, $3.5m Series A, $1m Seed  Founded: 2008

ShapeUp Raises $5m Equity, $2.5m Debt. The Providence, Rhode Island-based health platform provides social networking and incentives-based employee wellness programs that help people exercise more, eat healthier and improve their overall well-being. The funding will be used for investments in mobile technology and capabilities aimed at boosting member engagement and expanding the accessibility of the platform.

Announced: 11/05/13  Stage: Series B  Participating Institutional Investors: Cue Ball Capital, Excel Venture Management.  Silicon Valley Bank provided the debt financing.  Previous Investment: $5m Series A  Founded: 2006

PARTNERSHIPS

Bing Partners With TripAdvisor to Integrate Content Into Search Results. Bing will now display TripAdvisor reviews and photos as well as TripAdvisor’s hotel price comparison tool in search engine result pages. TripAdvisor’s full content library including restaurants, hotels and attractions will reportedly be available to Bing, which could deepen engagement and search frequency on the Bing platform.

Square Partners With Staples To Sell Square Stand Register Replacements. In order to increase use among SMBs, Staples will begin to sell the Square Stand, a piece of hardware that turns a merchant’s iPad into a card-swiping register. The deal covers 1,000 Staples stores in the U.S., as well as Staples.com, and comes on the back of the device also being sold in BestBuy, Apple stores and online from Square itself.

Mobile CRM Suite Punchh Partners with MonkeyMedia Software to Create Restaurant Catering Rewards and Loyalty Program. According to Punchh, the partnership will deliver the industry’s first solution to help restaurant chains grow their catering business by rewarding customers for their repeat catering business.

INDUSTRY LANDSCAPE

As The Food Tech & Media ecosystem continues to see rapid change, we created The Food Tech & Media Industry Map  to help entrepreneurs, participants and investors understand this quickly evolving landscape.

Let us know about your recent or upcoming funding, partnerships or acquisitions here.

Check out last month’s round-up here.

Would you be interested in a round-up of agriculture-related funding, partnerships and acquisitions? Let us know in the comments below.

The post Food Tech Media Startup Funding, M&A and Partnerships: November 2013 appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

From home cooking to the restaurant experience, technology-focused food startups are enhancing the way consumers engage with food. These startups are creating significant value for consumers and notable opportunities for restaurants and brands to better understand and provide value to their customers. As the food tech sector matures, we are seeing an increasing number of these companies being funded or acquired by industry players. This monthly column highlights the most interesting acquisitions, financings and partnerships within the Food Tech & Media ecosystem – digital content, social, local, mobile, e-commerce, payments, marketing and analytics – to give you insights into the latest funding and growth trends.

“Food Tech” investing has been a hot topic this past month, with perhaps the most discussed article being this New York Times piece focused on food startups. The article broadly lumped all food startup investments into one category, however mainly focused on consumable food products, and got some flak from industry players as one source expressed doubt over the long term-promise of food startups. The article also caps 2012 food tech investing at $350m, according to this CB Insights report. My data, however, reveals over $700m was invested in food-related tech and media companies (digital content, social, local, mobile, e-commerce, payments, marketing and analytics) in 2012 – which doesn’t include the numerous innovations in the agricultural, supply chain, nutrition and CPG spaces. Bottom line: we have only begun to scratch the surface of the food tech opportunity and continued innovation will lead to increasing investment in the space.

Meanwhile, the theme of  “delivery” dominated the news in April, as it did in February. Rather than creating a digital infrastructure for existing delivery services, a lot of the recent activity in this space has focused on leveraging existing systems and resources, like underutilized kitchen capacity or social and corporate networks, to create new products and services. Given the steep challenges with gaining meaningful traction among the pillars of the food space – restauranteurs, CPGs, grocers, producers, farmers – it will be key for many startups in the food tech industry to build products that harness existing infrastructures.

M&A

No M&A activity this month.

FUNDING

Relay Foods Raises $8.25m. The online grocery marketplace partners with local farmers and producers as well as grocery stores (including Whole Foods, and other national retailers) to offer a combination of local products and grocery staples that customers pick up at a central location in their city. The team has expanded market share in the Mid-Atlantic, and will soon be live in Washington, D.C. and Baltimore. According to TechCrunch, “the next major market – North Carolina – will take place in 2014.” The funding will used to power the build-out of a new mobile platform, expand the executive and development team, and redesign the company’s online marketplace.

Announced: 4/14/13  Stage: Series A  Participating Institutional Investors: Battery Ventures, TomorrowVentures, Quantitative Investment Holdings  Previous Investment: $1.2 Seed Extension, $3.1m Seed  Founded: 2007

HealthyOut Raises $1.2m. The company first launched as an app to help users find healthy, low calorie dishes at nearby restaurants and now, as it became a TechCrunch Disrupt Finalist, the team unveiled its subscription meal delivery service for New York City, with plans to expand to new cities soon. HealthyOut designed the subscription program, which sources meals from restaurant kitchens, to deliver up to 10 tailored meals a week based on health goals and flavor preferences, and charges a monthly fee to manage the orders and diets.

Announced: 4/29/13  Stage: Seed  Participating Institutional Investors: 500 Startups, Bradley Harrison Ventures  Previous Investment:  Blueprint Health Incubator  Product Launch: October 2012

Plated Raises $1.4m. The NY-based meal kit delivery service, which compiles gourmet recipes from noted chefs and delivers all of the pre-portioned ingredients to make the meal, closed on a large seed which, according to VentureWire, was raised in two separate convertible debt rounds. A member of the current TechStars class, Plated is working to expand delivery regions and is actively growing its full time staff. TechCrunch points out that part of the seed funding was used to develop a new section of the site called “Social Recipe Pages,” which appears to be a cooking version of Rent The Runway’s “Our Runway” where users add tips and upload photos of meals they have made.

Announced: 4/09/13  Stage: Seed  Participating Institutional Investors: ff Venture Capital, TechStars, Alain Bankier, Andrew McCollum, Paige Craig  Previous Investment: Angel  Founded: June 2012

SavingStar Raises $9.1m. The digital grocery coupon and loyalty service enables shoppers to link deals to their grocery and drug store loyalty cards and then receive the rewards in the form of a cash payment, giftcard, or donate it to charity. Rather than aggregating deals, the company works directly with grocery stores to create exclusive deals. The round was led by corporate benefits provider Edenred, and as part of the strategic investment created a joint venture to integrate the SavingStar product into a healthy living rewards program, called NutriSavings (as noted in the “Partnerships” section below).

Announced: 4/05/13  Stage: Series D  Participating Institutional Investors: Edenred (lead), American Express, DCM, Flybridge Capital Partners, First Round Capital  Previous Investment: $9m Series C, $7m Series B, $2.3m Series A  Founded: June 2010

Kitchensurfing Raises $3.5m. On the heels of a $1m seed round in February to expand to additional metro areas, the private chef marketplace continues to grow its chef network, which includes nearly 1,500 chefs, as well as its funding. AllThingsD notes that the team currently vets chefs manually, but in order to scale, the team will need to use a portion of the proceeds to create a system where new chefs get approved via peer-review.

Announced: 4/04/13   Stage: Series A  Participating Institutional Investors: Union Square Ventures (lead), Spark Capital  Previous Investment: $1m Seed  Founded: 2011

Chewse Raises $1m.  The LA-based B2B group delivery/catering platform distinguishes itself by presenting only high quality restaurants/dishes that it curates for its corporate clients rather than aggregating all catering options available in the area. Chewse also limits restaurants to those that already do catering and delivery, and have proved they can handle the demands of complex group orders. The team will use the new funds to expand its workforce and add new markets.

Announced: 4/01/13  Stage: Seed  Participating Institutional Investors: 500 Startups, Telegraph Hill Partners, InnoSpring  Previous Investment: $250k seed  Founded: July 2011

Eatclub Raises $5m. The lunch-ordering service has approached the task of feeding office workers in a unique way from other delivery options by limiting the selection to 10-15 dishes from three or four restaurants each day, and managing all of the operations logistics and delivery for the restaurants, including the delivery fleet. The team will use the funding to expand beyond the San Francisco Bay Area into other metropolitan areas around the US, although specific cities have not been mentioned.

Announced: 4/01/13  Stage: Series A  Participating Institutional Investors: August Capital (lead), First Round Capital, Siemer Ventures, Great Oaks Venture Capital, Launch Capital, Tekton Ventures  Previous Investment: $1.5m Seed  Founded: 2010

PARTNERSHIPS

Locu partners with Yelp. The digital menu company will integrate Locu-managed menu information to augment Yelp restaurant listings with real-time menus and prices.  It is actually surprising that it has taken Yelp this long to incorporate menus in a meaningful way, and this partnership will be a boon to operators and customers alike.  As we noted last month, this partnership comes on the heels of Locu’s recent WordPress integration.

LevelUp and Merchant Warehouse partner to launch $1m fund to encourage developers to build mobile-payment apps.  The co-sponsored development fund was created to encourage more developers to build apps leveraging LevelUp’s mobile payments platform. Qualified merchants will receive a sponsorship of 25% of the cost of a custom-developed LevelUp White-Label mobile payment and loyalty app. As The Next Web notes, Sweetgreen, small chain in the DC area, was the first company to take advantage of this service in February with its Sweetgreen Rewards app.

Mobile restaurant payment app TabbedOut partners with Harbortouch POS system. The new integration will allow Harbortouch terminals to accept mobile payments, and will be installed on all future HarborTouch POS systems, with the option to install on existing terminals as well. Partnership with POS companies  is essential to the growth of TabbedOut, and over the past couple of years, the company has partnered with Micros, Aloha, Future, Focus, Dinerware, Digital Dining, and Jumpware.

Recipe Kit Service HelloFresh Partners With Weight Loss App Noom.  Noom users will now be able to integrate their diet plan into HelloFresh’s delivery meal service, so they can make calorie appropriate meals from scratch in under 30 minutes, and have the info automatically uploaded in the app. As TechCrunch points out, this is “essentially a white label version of HelloFresh inside of the Noom app,” as Noom is taking responsibility for managing both the partnership and the customers and shares revenue with Hello Fresh for each purchase.

Digital grocery coupon and loyalty company SavingStar and global employee benefits firm Edenred create joint venture to launch NutriSavings. Putting the strategic investment (see “Funding” section above) in SavingStar right to use, Edenred is promoting the NutriSavings program as an employee benefits program to encourage healthy and balanced diets (thus reduce healthcare-related expenses). The program provides nutritional info for grocery purchases as well as incentives such as digital eCoupons for healthier products.

Pizza Hut teams up with Microsoft to create an Xbox Live app where gamers can order pizza directly from console. Kurt Kane, chief marketing officer at Pizza Hut, positioned the partnership as a family-focused move, “With today’s avid gamers and busy modern families gathering around their gaming consoles as much as they gather around a dinner table, we felt this was a natural next step for Pizza Hut as we continue to own the digital ordering experience for pizza lovers everywhere.” As the first tangible good ever made available via the Xbox Live platform, it show an interesting potential for the merging of food and technology. However as Forbes points out, the app is more of a gimmick than a solution, as gamers need to exit out of the game in order to order the pizza – which is not as convenient as just picking up the phone or other online ordering options.

INDUSTRY LANDSCAPE

As The Food Tech & Media ecosystem continues to see rapid change, we created The Food Tech & Media Industry Map  to help entrepreneurs, participants and investors understand this quickly evolving landscape.

Let us know about your recent or upcoming funding, partnerships or acquisitions here.

Check out last month’s round-up here.

Would you be interested in a round-up of agriculture-related funding, partnerships and acquisitions? Let us know in the comments below.

The post Food Tech Media Startup Funding, M&A and Partnerships: April 2013 appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

Photo Credit: miltedflower

Every year, Food+Tech Connect looks at the trends that are transforming the future of how food is produced, sold and consumed. We always pay particular attention to Phil Lempert’s, CEO of The Lempert Report and author of SupermarketGuru.com, foresights. This year, Lempert’s predictions touch on many of the topics we’ve covered over the past year like food waste, transparency, health and wellness and protein consumption. Lempert also points to the terrible drought of 2012 as a direct cause of increasing food prices and predicts that consumers will use technology to reduce waste and make smarter purchasing decisions.

Below is a summary and analysis of a few of his ideas for the coming year. Quotes below come from Lempert’s summary on Supermarket News. Read his trend predictions in full here and here.

Trend #1 – Sustainability: We Stop Wasting Food

“The National Resource Defense Council estimates 40% of food goes uneaten each month in the United States. Not surprisingly, the Eco Pulse Survey from the Shelton Group reports 39% of Americans feel the most ‘green guilt’ for wasting food, almost double the number who feel guilty about not recycling.”

Earlier this year, we reported on how food is lost at each step in the supply chain, illustrating facts about the costs of food waste through data-packed infographics. We’re seeing large food companies and entrepreneurs developing technological solutions to improve efficiency and minimize waste, as described by  NRDC in this report.

Two innovative waste reduction projects we followed this year were Halfsies, a social initiative giving restaurant diners the ability to eat a half portion of their meal and donate part of the plate’s cost to a charity, and Sian’s Plan, a new meal planning tool. Given rising food prices, coupled with the significant cost saving potential outline in the NRDC report for manufacturers, restaurants and consumers, we expect there will be even greater attention on food waste reduction technologies in 2013.

Trend #3 – The Boomer Reality of Diabetes, High Blood Pressure and Heart Disease

“Studies by the NPD Group show that nutrition and healthy eating habits are top meal-planning priorities for Baby Boomers…Boomers will focus on their intake of antioxidants as they continue their search for the fountain of youth. Boomers will control more than half the dollars spent on grocery foods by 2015, look for more heart-healthy antioxidant-rich foods including oily fish such as salmon, as well as green tea, sweet potatoes, dark leafy greens, popcorn, berries and whole grains to take over supermarket shelves.”

We couldn’t agree more with this prediction. A staggering two-thirds of adults and one-third of children in the United States are overweight or obese. Earlier this year, the Institute of Medicine reported that obesity-related illness treatments cost an estimated $190.2 billion annually  and cost businesses $4.3 billion in losses as a result of obesity-related absenteeism. Food Marketing Institute and Prevention Magazine’s annual “Shopping For Health” annual survey also indicates that consumers are increasingly looking for healthier food options.

A number of startups launched new products to meet this growing demand for healthier food choices. Some of the companies we reported on this year include:

• Massive Health launched the Eatery, an iPhone app that helps users track and analyze their eating patterns to better understand their strengths, weaknesses and the best places to make changes in their diet. In just 5 months, users from 50 countries contributed over 7.68 million food ratings
• Nutritionix launched a suite of tools that allow restaurants and food brands to organize and publish their nutritional data. They also announced plans to release an API for developers. At the time of our interview, the company had over 150 developers on their API waiting list.
• Maya Design launched Maya Food Oasis, a virtual grocery marketplace to improve access to healthy and affordable food in food deserts. Sanofi Aventis provided the company with funding after they presented at the Health Data Initiative. Sanofi is also committed to supporting the next generation of diabetes prevention and management technologies, while also reinvigorating their business model, through its Data Design Diabetes competition.

Trend #4 – The Economy: The New Proteins

“The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates the cost of both beef and chicken will increase by at least 5% due to the 2012 drought and declining supply. A major shift is anticipated in the nation’s protein food s

medieval furniture plans

upply away from meat-based proteins and shifting to meatless proteins like eggs, nut butters, tofu, beans, legumes, with an increase in awareness and consumption of vegetarian and vegan meals.”

With tech investors like Vinod Khosla and Biz Stone betting on fake meat, we agree that the dialogue about consuming new proteins will flourish in 2013. But during our online conversation “Hacking Meat,” we found it’s not all about substitutes. Recipe development startup Foodpairing is seeing a growing interest among chefs to develop dishes that incorporate more vegetables and smaller servings of better meat, without compromising flavor and satisfaction.

Similarly, Cookstr’s Kara Rota sees technology as critical to reducing meat consumption, but not “ in the form of in vitro meat.” She advocates for using technology to provide home cooks recipes that emphasize quality over quantity. And Haven Bourque of HavenBMedia invites “meat lovers to sit at the table with committed vegans and dream up farm-fresh, seasonal meals that anyone would enthusiastically eat.”

There is also growing demand for sustainably and humanely raised meat, but farmers and chefs face significant barriers to making these kinds of operations economically sustainable. Following the success of Hack//Meat, you can be sure to expect more conversation and events to help help support the development of technologies that can address some of these challenges.

Trend #8 – Mobile the Next Generation: Tests for Allergens, Ripening Produce, Organics, and Start Cooking Your Meals

“The newest wave of technology includes smartphones that network with kitchen appliances and allow consumers to do everything from checking how much milk they have left in the refrigerator, to turning the oven on from another room. The next generation of mobile apps may determine if fruits and vegetables are ripe, if refrigerated and frozen foods have been kept at the correct temperature farm to freezer, and even test for foodborne bacteria.”

We also believe mobile and sensor technologies will reshape the way consumers interact with and purchase food. We are particularly excited about some of the innovative technologies retailers, technologists and researchers are developing that bridge the digital and physical worlds. Three of the more interesting projects we covered include:

• Peapod created a virtual store in a Chicago transit station, lining the walls with product images and QR codes. Customers could, theoretically, order items while they waited for a train.
• Lapka launched a “personal environment monitor” device and app that allows you to test the “organicity of your food.
• An interactive cheese, meat & fish counter designed by German interaction design students provides customers with detailed product, origin and recipe information for food items.

Read about more of the R&D projects we covered this year here.

Trend #10 – Transparency: Who is making our food?

“2013 will be a transitional year as on-package claims proliferate and confuse. Look as supermarkets take on the role of gatekeeper and actually demand proof and transparency of claims before they will permit products to be sold on their shelves. Consumers are reading labels selecting their foods more holistically based on all the ‘food factors’ including taste, ingredients, source and nutritional composition, as well as who is making their food.”

In 2012, consumer distrust of food grew as reports of “pink slime,” antibiotic overuse in animals and arsenic in rice made their way across the Internet. California’s Proposition 37 fueled a growing debate about food labeling, and even though the proposition was not passed, the debate will likely continue into 2013.

A number of startups and NGOs developed mobile apps to help meet growing consumer demand for information about what's in their food. For example,  Fooducate launched a GMO app to help consumers determine which foods are made with GMO ingredients; Real Time Farms launched the FixAntibiotics Food Finder to help consumers find meat raised without antibiotics; and Center for Science in the Public Interest  launched Chemical Cuisine to help people understand additives in our food. Additionally, NRDC launched the Label Lookup iPhone app.

But without public databases available with data about GMO use, for example, companies like Fooducate are only able to offer a level of probability that a product contains GMO ingredients. This is not ideal for the consumer, and it's certainly not ideal for manufacturers. But there are glimmers of hope. This year, Kraft and Nestle opened up their recipe and ingredient data. And while these are just small first steps, we hope it’s an increasing trend that will give rise to new applications that improve transparency and the customer experience.

What are your trend predictions for 2013? Let us know in the comments section below, and we will feature your ideas in our weekly newsletter read by the top food and technology investors, executives and startups.

We will also inviting the individuals with the best responses to contribute a guest post on the topic of their choice to Food+Tech Connect.

The post 2013 Food Trends Favor the Tech Savvy Consumer appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

 #1: Lapka

Lapka is a “personal environment monitor” that allows people to collect, measure and analyze information about their environment via their smartphone. Lapka offers a series of sensor peripherals to measure organicity (how organic your food is), radiation, temperature, humidity and electromagnetic fields. Using the companion app, people are able to make sense of their findings through data visualizations and ratings. Lapka tests organicity of fruits and vegetables using a stainless steel probe, plugged into the phone via the headphone jack, to measure electrical conductivity. The level of conductivity relates to the concentration of nitrate ions from nitrogen-based fertilizers. Lapka is already available for purchase.

#2: iTube

Researchers from UCLA have developed

t used to determine the concentration of colored compounds in a solution. In as little as 20 minutes, the device and accompanying app can identify the presence of peanuts, almonds, eggs, gluten and hazelnuts. Aydogan Ozcan, a professor at UCLA, and his colleagues have successfully tested the technology on various types of commercially available cookies.

“This automated and cost-effective personalized food allergen testing tool running on cellphones can also permit uploading of test results to secure servers to create personal and/or public spatio-temporal allergen maps, which can be useful for public health in various settings,” write Ozcan and his colleagues in a paper published last month in the peer-reviewed journal Lab on a Chip.

#3 Rapid Testing of Food Quality

Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute is developing a miniature spectrometer that will allow consumers to determine the quality of food – if it's ripe or water-logged – before making the decision to buy it. The device uses near infrared technology to assess starch, protein, water, and fat content in food. Fraunhofer explains in a press release, “In the future, all you will need to do is hold your smartphone near the product in question, activate the corresponding app, choose the food type from the menu – e.g. “pear” – and straight away the device will make a recommendation: the fructose content of the pear is high, so buy it!” The device is currently being prototyped, but may be ready for market launch in three to five years, according to the press release.

The post 3 Mobile Technologies to Test Food's Organicity, Allergens & Quality appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

There have been not one, not two, but three papers published in the last six months, the last one published last week, encompassing an impressive body of work around behavior change and weight loss, from the same research group led by Bonnie Spring, PhD, at Northwestern University.

There’s a lot of stuff in here – everything from financial incentives to the way you coach people about behavior change to the use of mobile devices. If you don’t read them all (or don’t read any of them all the way through), it’s highly likely that you’ll come to the wrong conclusion, in my opinion, so I’m going to break it down here:

1. The way you counsel people about behavior change makes a difference

This is actually the most important part of the first two papers linked here, not the up to $730 incentive (more on that later). What the authors studied was competing theories about how to talk to people. They looked at four different ways, which I’m going to summarize, because it’s important – these are things that are cost-free and don’t require any capital expenditure to deploy .

• Theory 1: Familiarity hypothesis, I’ll call it “MOTS: More of the Same” – “Decrease your saturated fat intake, increase your physical activity”
• Theory 2: Behavioral Economic hypothesis: Crowd out an unhealthy behavior with a heathy one – “Eat more fruits and vegetables, decrease your sedentary activity” < - This was the winner
• Theory 3: Low Inhibitory Demand, I’ll call it “Don’t be a downer, tell people what they CAN do rather than what they CAN’T” – “Eat more fruits and vegetables, increase physical activity”

People coached with the winning theory had significantly higher changes in a calculated “Diet-Activity” score compared to others. If you break it down a little more, it looks like it was far more likely that they could eat more fruits and veggies, than that they could increase their physical activity, across all groups. The winning group, though, dramatically decreased sedentary leisure,  almost by half, which persisted 20 weeks later.

2. Paying people is a background activity to the above

In the first two papers, people were paid $175 to go through 3 weeks of intervention and point incentives along the way up to 20 weeks of follow up, for a total of $730. It seems like this got them through to recording their information. I don’t think it’s the most important feature of the study, and as the authors point out, probably not a realistic approach moving forward.

3. The mobile technology itself doesn’t help in isolation

Notice, I keep saying “mobile technology” not “smartphone.” That’s because these studies used PalmPilots (!) to support entry of data and target feedback. All of the study participants in the behavior change theory study improved their diet-activity score. There was no control group there, the goal was just to compare the theoretical approaches. The first study relied on self report of food intake and physical activity, which the authors sought to keep accurate by deploying a “bogus pipeline” approach where they told people to submit their grocery receipts and accelerometer data that were actually not used – clever.

The second study, which is in the third paper linked to this post, was more focused on weight loss itself rather than behavior change, and in it, the authors planned at the start that the mobile technology would be part of intensive coaching for all study subjects – they didn’t even try to have the mobile device make this happen for people. And in fact, the mobile device by itself didn’t make it happen for people – the one group who were randomized to get the mobile device and didn’t go to class actually gained weight. They gained more weight than the control group who had no mobile device.

What did happen for people was weight loss when they (a) used the mobile device to track and get feedback AND (b) they went to classes, in person. That was the requirement – that both happen, and when it did, this group lost more weight initially, and kept it off – average of 6.38 pounds at 12 months. The people with the mobile devices that didn’t go to classes, gained about 5 pounds at 12 months, which is more than the people who went to classes by themselves, and more than people who didn’t do the classes or get mobile devices.

There’s another really important piece of information in all of this, which is that the people who were randomized into the study were selected after a two week trial of recording their information. About 35% of the people that went into this gate didn’t make it, so in the end, this was a study of people who can use mobile devices to record their information.

As I said, there’s a lot here

I’m looking at this from a population/social determinants perspective, and I would ask the question, “Should mobile devices or apps be deployed to the entire population to make weight loss happen compared to other approaches?” The answer for me would be “no.”

I think what the authors are demonstrating is the answer to this question, “Should mobile devices or apps be deployed to people who are motivated to use apps to lose weight and participate in intensive behavioral interventions?” to which the answer is more of a “yes.”

Also, “Should we get smarter in communicating with people, with technology and not, about their choices?” – answer is “yes.”

I think we still need to think about technology as an enabler at the right time / place , everyone is necessary, and the hard work of looking at the causes of the causes of poor health is not going to go away (see: Now Reading: Why a focus on lifestyle behavior change may not improve health: The Marmot Review | Ted Eytan, MD).

The reason I love technology and have been invested in it for so long (and will continue to be) is because of its role in facilitating communication and connecting people to people. The best.app.ever is the human brain, the most important innovation in health information technology is listening. Oh, and prevention is the new HIT.

I communicated with Dr. Spring before writing this post to help me understand what we can take away from this research, which is very important/timely/useful (and I of course invited her to Washington, DC to the Behavior Change Summit in 2013  – More info on that here: Behavior Change: What can we learn from other industries? – EXAMPLES | Ted Eytan, MD). I learned a ton here that I didn’t know before, which makes me happy that talented behavioral scientists are working in this area.

This post originally appeared on Ted Eytan's blog. 

The post Does Mobile Technology Support Weight Loss and Behavior Change? appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

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