The Food Innovator's Dilemma
The challenges of driving innovation in the food industry, where tradition and emotional attachment to legacy products often hinder change. (Written for partner site, evokeAg)
Today I’m sharing a short excerpt from a new article that I’ve written for evokeAg, Asia Pacific’s premier agrifood innovation event, which I’ve spoken at and have been writing for. There will be more coming on their site from me, as well as here on this Substack in the following months. Stay tuned for more! -Mike
In technology, it’s expected that every couple of years our apps and digital devices will be upgraded.
The fact that the version numbers on our mobile devices and operating systems consistently goes up reminds us that someone is hard at work making these tools better over time.
We may moan about being forced to buy a new phone case or charging cable, but we don’t expect our technology to become stagnant.
In food, the expectations of innovation are mostly the opposite of what we have for technology. For the things we love, we want them to more or less stay the same.
Like how the formula for Coca-Cola hasn’t changed since 1886, save for an unfortunate debacle in April 1985 where the company reformulated it and simply called it “New Coke.” Backlash to this new formula was strong and swift.
To be fair, the fear of change mostly applies to foods that have some form of nostalgia or longstanding affinity.
Coke is one of those things (recipe invented in 1886). The Big Mac is another (recipe invented in 1967). Oreo Cookies are yet one more (recipe invented in 1912).
The original iPhone (2007) sits in the Smithsonian Museum as a marvel of innovation but would be totally useless in 2024.
Yet when it comes to food, millions of people each day still go to McDonald’s and eat a hamburger whose recipe was invented in 1967.
Where does this dynamic leave innovators in the food industry who want to catalyse change?…[CONTINUE READING]
Read the rest of the article on evokeAg’s website here: https://www.evokeag.com/the-food-innovators-dilemma-2/