On assignment developing a feature story for Food Dive called Recipe for food innovation success: Blending experts and technology, I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Joel Warady, chief sales and marketing officer for Enjoy Life Foods. Great people producing great products that just happen to be gluten free!
The following is an excerpt from my Food Dive feature story, which can be read in full here.
On the evolution of food innovation…
The turn of the 20th century marked a monumental milestone for food innovation. More precisely, it was 1913 when refrigerators, previously available only for commercial purposes, were made available for at-home use. This forever changed food manufacturing and retailing.
With rising demand for shelf-stable goods and refrigerated and frozen foods, food innovation in past decades was radically different.
“The idea of innovation 20 or 30 years ago was ‘How can we add this flavor to a line extension?’ or ‘How can we process this to give it longer shelf life?’” Joel Warady, chief sales and marketing officer for Enjoy Life Foods told Food Dive. “Today, innovation is so much more than that. It’s all about how can we create a better product that will help balance an individual’s overall well-being.
“Imagine the different types of people you need in innovation. It’s not just food scientists, but also nutritionists and other medical professionals. All of these people need to come together as we look at food innovation over the next 10, 20, 30 years,” Warady, who heads innovation for Enjoy Life, said.
On “healthy” driving a new era of food innovation…
“If you look back over the last 20 years, where companies really have started to focus is on better quality ingredients and healthier ingredients,” Warady said. “Enjoy Life is 15 years old and when we started the company, all of our ingredients needed to be natural with no artificial colors. It was very much niche back then.
“What’s happening now, and what continues to evolve is that mainstream manufacturers — the Krafts, Unilevers, Mondelez[es] — are all moving in this direction. Small, emerging brands were the trailblazers in the healthy and natural ingredients area. But now we’re seeing that become more mainstream and the emerging brands are moving onto ‘what’s next?’” said Warady.
Warady said that Enjoy Life Foods uses innovation to improve its products’ health profile. Recently, he said, the company added shelf-stable probiotics and algae protein to some of its items.
“We wanted the probiotics to help with people’s immune health, and the algae protein — not only because of the importance of protein — but because algae is the most sustainable protein available on Earth,” he said. “So we married those into a line of baking mixes. We’re still providing an indulgent dessert, but marrying functionality into this indulgence. It’s been well-received by the consumer. We look at that as true innovation.”
On using outside experts as building blocks of food innovation…
Enjoy Life uses outside innovation groups, mostly because Warady said it’s the best way to bring together all of the needed expertise.
“We work closely with nutritionists and medical professionals who understand the challenges that people have from a medical standpoint. We then bring in our innovation groups to help us develop products understanding the challenges that people have,” he said.
But the company’s innovation isn’t just working with scientists and in the lab, Warady said.
“We talk with our consumers on a one-on-one basis,” Warady said. “We care about what their daily challenges are. This helps us understand not only what they need today, but what they’re looking for tomorrow in the foods that they eat.”
On gaining consumer acceptance…
“I go to new product trade shows and when I see something like camel milk, I think the consumer’s not ready to drink milk from a camel,” he said. “…I imagine 20 years ago that’s what was said about drinking milk from soy or almonds.”
Warady said that Enjoy Life is conscious of the slow acceptance pattern of many consumers. For example, he said, the company has added algae protein to its brownie mix — a functional and innovative ingredient that might make consumers a little leery if it were played up on the front of the package. After algae protein is more widely accepted, the package presentation may evolve as well.
“We need to be careful about over-innovating too fast, and need to understand that innovation is a progression,” he said. Even if we could do something today, it doesn’t mean we should because the consumer might not be ready for it. We try and judge when we think the consumer is ready. We do this by having conversations with them. Sometimes we get it wrong, but fortunately, most of the time we get it right.”
On future food innovation…
Warady said that he sees current trends in food going beyond healthier ingredients to the concept of food as medicine.
Enjoy Life stays on the forefront of innovation by exploring, experimenting with, and testing different types of ingredients, Warady said. The company is pursuing plant-based proteins, fermented and sprouted ingredients, seeds like sacha inchi as nut replacements, and spices like saffron, which has been found to have medical benefits.
Read the complete Food Dive feature story here: Recipe for food innovation success: Blending experts and technology
To learn more about Enjoy Life Foods, visit the company website at enjoylifefoods.com