Feed Your Journal Search

jopml.org - get food technology journal feeds

Developer Scott Wilson has created this website that gives you an OPML of RSS feeds for online journals. Type your subject matter into the search box and locate journal feeds. I've typed in "food technology" to locate 9 results. I can now subscribe to these through Google Reader.

I used a screen catcher to preview this search for you. The search text box is not live.

Some questions

Locate an article (topic guided by your product development research) from each of these sources, 1 newspaper article, 1 magazine article, 1 website article, 1 blog article. Compare the content, writing style, verification of both url and author's authority, copyright, date last modified.

• How are journals different from newspapers?
• How are journals different from magazines?
• How are journals different from websites?
• How are journals different from blogs?
• Why would you search a food technology journal?

Ubiquitous Consumption

Image courtesy of Will Lion Flickr

The Future Internet: Service Web 3.0 Video

Some questions

• Watch the video link above in full then replay. What questions does it bring up for food providers and consumers?

• What is the ubiquitous web?

• Can you locate articles that link with and explain this future scenario further?

• Who does the 'Internet of things' best serve? How might it function?
  

• How will accessing products anywhere anytime change food marketing? Packaging design? Farming practices? Transportation?
  

• How will it change food production?

• How might it impact on the environment?
  

• Will it change human culture? Why/not? If so how?
  

• Who else will be effected by this future web? In what ways?
  

Twizza Hut

Image courtesy of TCM Hitchhiker

Tweeting Becomes a Summer Job Option - NYTimes.com

Today I found this link via @NLearning on Twitter. Pizza Hut is advertising a job for a Summer Twittern (a summer intern who uses Twitter).

This looks to be both a preemptive and defensive publicity move by Pizza Hut, following on from recent bad publicity wreaked by former employees of Dominos Pizza chain on Youtube.

Monitoring Twitter for feedback and simultaneously marketing in 140 characters job applicants must "demonstrate social-media skills through some kind of creative response". Pizza Hut anticipate plenty of YouTube video uploads from savvy students vying for this unique opportunity.

Some Questions

• How does this reflect on your social media practices? Do you think using social media will assist your prospective employment opportunities? Why/why not?
  

• How else might Twitter/micro blogging be used for food marketing? Give 3 examples.

• How should Dominos Pizza have best responded?

• Can you envision applying for work by uploading a Youtube video? Why/why not?

Lesson Idea

• Create a 3 minute video application for your dream (hospitality) job. Who are you directing it to? What do you know about them? How can you further find out about this person? Who else might know? Who can you ask? How? What qualities do you think are needed for the job? How do you best meet these yourself? What qualities do you still need to develop?
  

Even Faster Food-Pizza Vending Machines

Image courtesy of Gio JL Flickr
Pizza-making machine has chefs in a spin | Oddly Enough | Reuters

Pizza made within 3 minutes from a vending machine is baked using an infra-red ray technology developed by the University of Bologna.

Some questions

• What niche does this product fulfill?
• What might this mean to local pizza shops?
  
• Would you eat it? Why?/Not?
  
• What health concerns might be raised?
• What might this lead to in the future? What other products? Are they necessarily all food products?
  

Edible Gardens

Ann Cooper's essential TED Talk for all of the whys to get nutrition into schools, but significantly why gardens need to be a part of the school lunch agenda.

Community food gardens are flourishing as people the world over link food, climate and economic chain reactions, and where better than schools to implement these? For schools 'Edible' gardens are an immersible learning opportunity, linking health, relaxation, community and fun-for life. 'Victory' gardens such as promoted by Michelle Obama recently at the White House, were originally grown by citizens of the USA,UK, Canada and Germany during World Wars I and II.

My own local playgroup have recently successfully won a grant to create a 'sensory' garden for our young children while the neighborhood centre further up the road are also planning a community garden. We're thinking fruit trees including quince (hardy as) and scented herbaceous borders being careful not to attract the bees! But vegies will be a fully sensual experience. We'll start planting May.

• The Department of Education in Tasmania are promoting a series of kitchen/garden workshops for teachers entitled From Seed to Plate.

• Setting up and running a school garden

• Schools 'Kitchen Garden Program'-Run by Australian Chef Stephanie Alexander

• Edible Schoolyard

• video inspiration

ps Here's a link to a couple of gourmet vegetable recipes inspired by Michelle Obama's Victory garden.

Social Site For Food Redistribution

Image courstesy of Jeffrey Beall

Dell Social Innovation Competition

Food2.org

Students from the Universities of UC Berkeley and of Texas have pulled together a team to compete for a $50 000 prize. The competition is being held by Dell in order to reward an innovative social venture model that solves a pressing world problem. Entries must be in by 6th April 2009.

So far the university Food2.org team is a semi finalist.

"Food2.org will close the information gap that prevents fresh nutritious foods from reaching hunger relief organizations.

"Food2.org is an online tool that will match non-profits feeding low-income individuals with the produce from groceries, markets, and farms that would otherwise go to waste."

This solution to food waste and hunger simultaneously tackles climate change as food that ends up in landfills produces methane gas, a major cause of global warming.
You can register to vote for this social venture and ensure its success.

Here's a link to a recent article on this critical issue if you wish to become more proactive. America's Food Banks Shortage. Also review other articles on this blog under Food Activism.

I believe food activism will become incredibly high profile as global warming collides with economic collapse. As a chef I've often grappled with the conundrum of food waste within the hospitality sector. When visiting the kitchen at The Gleneagles Hotel in Scotland I've never forgotten the words of a chef there that there is nothing left in the fridges at the end of the day...I looked! Everything is fresh, no waste.

Some Questions

• What questions come immediately to your mind reading these articles? Write them down.
  
• Find 3 examples of food activism local to your city.
  
• Contact one of these community social activists/groups. With any further questions in mind (listing them beforehand) interview them for a blog post.
• Record it as a podcast and or write your post, being clear to state your questions and their response. Include your personal opinions and any supporting images.
  
• What can you do now to reduce food waste in your own home? Workplace?

D.I.Y Tea Infusions

Green Tea Image courtesy of bkajino Flickr

Design a Tea : Design Your Own Custom Blend!
A similar business and marketing model to the Custom Food Bar. But with the added intention of using both Fair Trade and organic ingredients, "where possible".

For your very own D.I.Y cuppa start with your base tea, add up to two flavours, choose loose leaf or bagged, customise your packaging (custom labeling is free) select either small bag or large carton and ship.

Some Questions

• How does the merchant market this particular product?
• What language, colours, styles, images does he use?
• Who do you think he wishes to attract?
• What other marketing models does he use to sell his tea?
  

Cadbury Dairy Milk Bars Fairtrade

Image courtesy of publik15 Flickr
Cadbury builds Fairtrade awareness, bar-by-bar
Fairtrade sourcing is moving mainstream as business responds to the ethical climate shift that consumers are leading. For Cadbury this means that their milk chocolate dairy bars only will be sourced from Fairtrade cocoa beans. The recently formed Cadbury Cocoa Partnership mediates the certification process for Ghanaian farming cooperatives to ensure Fairtrade traceability, accountability and transparency.

Some questions

• In your own product development are there ingredients that can be sourced as Fairtrade? Why/not?
• If they were available how would Fairtrade ingredients effect your marketing campaign?
  
• Why do you personally think Fairtrade is going mainstream? What social, global, economic, environmental factors are contributing to such a shift in the marketing of goods?
• Where is Cadbury's sourcing their dark cocoa from?
• What would it take for Cadbury's to fully source Fairtrade?
• How do you personally feel about eating chocolate that is Fairtrade vs non Fairtrade?
• Just today ask people around you if they buy Fairtrade and which products?
• What would help you to buy more Fairtrade?

A Customised Food Bar? C/o the Niche Web!

Image Courtesy of MontanaRaven
Flickr


Customized Nutrition Bars - You Bar - Build-a-Bar

The current trend for bespoke and DIY customisation is the direct result of the web's long tail. The Long Tail is ecommerce jargon for how unique and individual products are served to the masses via websites. There are enough people searching for unique niche products that somewhere someone can cater for them and still make money. As well consumers and producers can collaborate because costs on the web are lower and both access and exchange is so immediate.

Amazon has this business model-they provide books that may only get a few searches a day but the totality of all those rare book sales make up the majority of Amazon's overall revenue.

In the You Bar DIY mass customisation business model, customers build their own energy bars. First choose the base from a range of nut butters. Next add up to 3 protein powders, 2 seeds/nuts, add dried fruit/berries, sweeteners, tasty extra options (chocolate), grains, fibre or vitamin infusions, special requests and many further customised options available.

Name your bar and receive a box full to give to your friends!

Some Questions

• How might this business model be applied to your own food product ideas?

• If this is a model that appeals to you then locate 3 more examples.

• How might you take this business model Offline?
  

• Does it lend itself to bespoke packaging design? How? Why/not?

• What other questions does this idea raise in your mind? Note them down in your blog and go ask an expert foodie/blogger.

The Value Added Blog Post

Image courtesy of codepo8 Flickr



Adding Value

When posting to your food blog quality is important. The point is not whether you are a success to your readers/peers. What is far more important than your personal blogging style is the quest for quality. How can I make the information better?

The habit of quality is the habit of finding a better way, a better possibility, a better view, a better choice, a better alternative, a better outcome, a better attitude, a better opinion, a better life.

The net is not the place for the 'whatever-I-can-get-away-with' attitude. When you add your video, audio, poll, image, graphic, widget, opinion, review, product ask yourself how am I contributing and improving upon what is already available? Your contribution is indelibly inscribed into the data-stream. Professional Bloggers always return to posts tweaking to improve upon them. By your adding value to the whole we are closer to solving both global and local problems.

Thinking Coach/author/speaker Dr Michael Hewitt-Gleeson emphasised the 'Habit of Quality'
"Quality is better. Quality is improvement. Quality is general excellence."

Some questions

• What is your blog's 'vision'?
• How can you create a better vision for your blog?
• What is better about your favourite Blogger?
  
• How can you improve the overall quality of your blog?
• How can you raise the quality of your posts? Be specific, make a list. Do one item straight away.
  
• How can you raise the quality of your comments?
• How can you raise the quality of your information?

Food Market Research

Centro Commercial Food Market, originally uploaded by auntjojo.

Growers, chefs and factories market their food to those customers who really want to buy their products. Market Research enables food producers to create products that their customers will buy. Alot of this research is interviewing, polling and observing customer's buying and eating habits. Sophisticated software including data visualisation tools have sped up and refined this consumer information gathering process.

HealthFocus International Trendscan. This 2007 USA report has been compiled by a team of market researchers for the food and beverage industry. This group particularly focus on consumer health and nutrition. The HealthFocus Trendscan is a biennial publication this is a source from which food media reports . The 2009 report is yet to come out however . It will cost $US thousands. Instead use Basic Trend Search and Beyond Basic Trend Search to discover for yourself what might be covered in Trendscan 2009.

In summary-HealthFocus has identified 7 major areas of interest in health and wellness in the 2007 HealthFocus Trend Study.

The areas tracked are:
1) The Pursuit of Balance in Life & Diet, Daily Energy & Stress Reduction
2) Growth of Functional Foods & Functional Ingredients
3) Interest in Organic, Sustainability & Fair Trade
4) Weight Management
5) Food Safety Concerns
6) Well-being of Kids
7) Prevention & CAM (Complementary and Alternative Medicine)

Lesson Idea DIY Trend Scan

Oh no, here come the Food Bloggers

Oh no, here come the Bloggers, originally uploaded by Brett L..
Why use Blogger?

Blogger Video Privacy Settings

You can use the Google Blogger platform to create class blogs. There are several boxes under settings that can be adjusted so that no one but your fellow classmates/teachers can view your blog. I highly recommend Blogger for Food Trend Spotting because of the interactive feeds, plugins, comments, free hosting etc but also ease of use.

How to Blogger Videos

Set up Blogger within minutes.

Blogger Features

Blogger is constantly being added to by a team of Google developers. Here are the current reasons to use Blogger for your project. Including customizable drag and drop templates, spell check, group blogging, post from mobile phone and third party apps.

How to Foodie Blogging

Inspiration to get you started.

Lesson Ideas

• using Blogger and various search tools and resources identify and aggregate the new trends and distill how they affect children/youth. Include marketing and advertising, childrens health, school lunches, product descriptions, packaging design, ingedient analysis etc.

Food Trend + Product Development Assessment

Image courtesy of WonderMike Flickr

Assessment for the Food Trend and Product Development Unit

Your Assessment is made up of your:

1. Food Blog
2. Food Product Development Plan
3. Product Pitch Video + Presentation
   
4. Promotional Materials
5. Sample Product and Packaging
   

Start Date:____.
Deadline: _____.

Food Product Development Plan

The Food Product Development Plan is the written strategy of how you will develop your new food product. The plan details the steps you will take to decide, test, create and market your product. The template below is your guide. Please email all questions unanswered in class.

Your Food Product Development Plan document should be an attachment on your blog clearly labeled 'Food Product Development Plan'. In order to be assessed please submit by e-mail in Microsoft Word or PDF format no later than 5 p.m on____. Plans must be limited to 20 pages, NOT including appendices-add them on bound together with your Plan. Plans should be typed double-spaced, 12-point Georgia or Ariel font, one-inch margins, and include:

1. Cover Page (1 page) Product Title, Team Names, Date
   
2. Executive Summary (1 page brief synopsis) Summarize the following:
• Your USP or unique selling point (Can you state it in a 1-2 sentence pitch?)
• Product/service description (Your food innovation!)
• Market description and size (What segment of the population will buy your product? (One paragraph, basic summary of what your market looks like and the size)
• Who are your 'target' customers?
• What if any are the barriers to entry and or competitive advantage of your business?
• Timetable for Product Development (Template timetable hand out/upload.)
  


3. Table of Contents (1 page)
• Page numbers for headings, subheadings, graphs and indexes


4. Product Overview (1 page)
• Product description and business model
• Value proposition (A value proposition is a clear statement of the tangible benefits a customer gets from using your product or service.)


5. Market Analysis/Market Strategy (2-3 pages)
• Market size (How big is the overall market?)
• Target market
1. What segments are you targeting with the product or service you're offering?
2. What is the current and projected market share in numbers?
3. Customer profile and segmentation - demographics and psychographics (the behaviors of your customers-Template Graph)
• Competitive analysis (Who are your competitors? What are their strengths and weaknesses? this is your SWOT analysis use SWOT Template)
• Market plan (What is going to make you stand out from the competition?)
1. Positioning analysis (Explain your position and how you do it better than the competition.)
2. Pricing strategy (Explain your pricing position compared with the competition.)
3. Advertising/promotion plan(where, how, budget)
   
4. Timetable for marketing plan (Template when will you achieve each step?)


6. Product/Service (2-3 pages)
   
• State customer need
• State major feature/benefits/limitations of product or service (what it's all about)
• Supporting information (photos, drawings, etc.)
• Research and development ( what why where when how who when-cost, time requirements, ingredients, sourcing, packaging)
  


7. Social Impact Analysis (1 page)
• Any product sourcing/supply chain impacts
  
• Any environmental practices that may impact include ingredients, manufacture, packaging and waste.
  
• Include preferences for ingredients that are currently unavailable to you, describe how and why they might change your social impact and marketing campaign?
  


8. Mentor (1 page)
• Mentoring with outside experts is encouraged. Please identify mentors and detail their involvement in the development of your food product. Have them give their personal feedback here.
  


9. Appendices (Not counted toward 20 page total-but bound with your Plan)
• Product/service sample brochure/advertisement/etc.
• Market studies/polls
• Articles supporting your product choice
  
• Photographs/illustrations documenting your food product development over project time.
  

Food Product Presentation:

The Product Pitch Video

As part of the marketing module each team will create a video pitch of their Food Product to present in front of the class. Each team will introduce their product by way of the video alongside finished product samples, including any crockery/glasses, packaging and promotional materials.

Ensure to save video on your flash drive with a copy also on your blog. Give it an identifiable tag 'Product Pitch Video'.

A brief three-minute video pitch of your idea allows your team to tell a story. What is your product, how is it made? Who are your target market? Where did you get this product idea? What emotional/mental/physical/health/status/other benefits are gained by your target customers?

Final Product Presentation Guidelines:

• This is not a competition. Each team gets 5 minutes to present their final Food Product, followed by a 5-minute question-and-answer session between the presenting team and the class. Product samples will be placed on the presentation table. Ensure plated foods are clean and free of smears (paper towel.)
  
• Equipment needs: The presentation room will be set up with an LCD projector and video presentations will be loaded via flash drive on the event laptop prior to the start of the first presentation. Special equipment needs should be discussed well ahead.
• Class members will sample each others products after the final team presentation is complete.