We are pleased to announce that Ajinomatrix will be combining its data integration approach for the food and beverage industry with Hebrew University's patent-pending AI technology for modeling the relationships between recipes and taste targets licensed under Yissum, Hebrew University's Tech Transfer Company. "Food and Beverage companies compete to develop products to serve the wide variety of sophisticated consumer preferences.
For years, consumers have needed products to serve their dietary restrictions due to health concerns. Diabetes, obesity, high-blood pressure, food allergies (eg. nuts and gluten), autoimmune disorders. Consumers have become more strategic with their purchase capabilities, including the growing concerns for environmental and human rights regulations, like deforestation, carbon emissions, freshwater depletion and exploitation of vulnerable communities around the world," said Professor Amit Zoran, Digital Gastronomy Laboratory, Hebrew University. "As companies adjust their brand implementation, the current geopolitical instabilities in Europe, Asia and Middle East further complicate efforts for procurement, manufacturing, quality assurance and new product development.
The instability of potential long-time suppliers and back-up suppliers, is no longer reliable, including new or relocated production facilities, that add another element of high-risk. The resulting inconsistencies threaten brand reputation if product recalls are required, along with the challenge of targeting well-known brand names to localize taste preferences. Alternative ingredients have to be rapidly evaluated, and longstanding recipes modified, to accommodate all these moving pieces of the puzzle," said Ajinomatrix, CEO, Francois Wayenberg.
"At Ajinomatrix ("Ajino," taste of, in Japanese), we developed a sophisticated data integration schema and now, combined with the Hebrew University'scutting-edge machine learning and meta-recipe heuristics, we can help our clients maintain the quality of their branded products in these complex times," adds Joel Lloyd Bellenson, Ajinomatrix co-founder.
Bellenson is renowned for having developed the first digital scent synthesizer, the iSmell, with DigiScents. Previously, another company he co-founded in 1991, DoubleTwist, was the first to assemble and annotate the Human Genome; they also pioneered data integration and algorithm analytics for the biopharmaceutical industry.
Wayenberg rose to success as part of the founding management team of the world's first CyberTheatre, twice awarded with world leading cyberculture website Nirvanet by the UNESCO as "Best of the Web" and featuring an early VR space, precursor of the metaverse as early 1997, with Apple, Cisco, Barco and Digital Equipment. He then initiated the present project after meeting Bellenson when co-leading European Food Department at Mitsui and Co Benelux, one of the two world's largest and also oldest trading company in the world, with activities as early as 1620. He is currently industrial collaborator at the AI laboratory of the University of Brussels (ULB). Bellenson and Wayenberg have recently decided to unite force to co-found Ajinomatrix.org