“Their first reaction was: you want our job! "
For Éric Saracchi, digital and information director of the Swiss perfume and aroma giant Firmenich, the small revolution that has just developed this group of 4 billion euros in turnover is not trivial.
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After two years of work and several tens of millions of euros per year invested in R & D, the more than 100-year-old group has just developed the first flavor for the food industry designed by artificial intelligence (AI).
Namely, a grilled beef stock cooked by a taste definition algorithm, developed in-house.
“We have chosen this symbolic taste for the growing market of alternatives to meat
,” explains Emmanuel Butstraen, head of the group's flavors division.
It is a basis on which our flavorists will then work to add what is missing according to the customer's desire. ”
Seven master flavorists are already working for the Swiss group out of 35 active people around the world.
In fact, with the explosion in demand for personalized tastes among the food industry players, Firmenich wants to avoid exhausting his nose skills on the job… today rarer on the planet than astronauts.
Seven master flavorists are already working for the Swiss group out of 35 active people around the world.
Thanks to AI, already used for perfume flavors, they should be able to meet two or three times more requests per year by 2023, and satisfy consumers who want natural, less sugar and more. salt.
A huge playing field for Firmenich's algorithm… that the group did not patent for fear of revealing its secrets.