➥ We’re back
Hey {{first_name}}, I just returned from attending the Food Processing Expo in Sacramento. A 6 hour drive one-way. Can you believe it?
I listened to a few podcasts on the drive, but mostly couldn’t stop thinking about all these AI food ideas I’ve been testing with these newer AI Food Product Development tools.
I’m going to share about IFT’s tool below.
➥ Food News
What's New in the World of Food?
Forget white bread—heritage grains and sourdough are winning 2026.
Bamboo steps up as the next big superfood discovery
Brands are finally turning factory waste into premium product packaging.
A peak into what Tastewise can do
➥ Small Bites
What Co-Developer Solves
We're continuing our series on AI tools reshaping food and beverage product development.
Last week we covered Proxy Foods, which helps food teams see which ingredient changes will actually work before they spend weeks testing them in the lab.
This week, I got access to a different type of AI food researcher.
Now, we're going upstream. Not to formulation, but to the research layer: how do you find the right food science knowledge when you're racing a deadline and your team is spread thin?
That's the problem IFT's CoDeveloper was built to solve. Peer-reviewed science at your fingertips—without another database login or generic AI hallucinating answers.
Where IFT Co-Developer Comes From
The Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) was founded in 1939 and serves as the voice of the global food science community, with over 200,000 members across 90+ countries.
Co-Developer is their AI platform built by IFT's team of food scientists—specifically for food scientists. It accelerates formula development and helps overcome technical roadblocks in food product development by providing science-backed guidance drawn from IFT's 85+ years of peer-reviewed research and published content.
Key Features:
Sous™: A built-in generative AI "co-scientist" that speaks food science fluently and provides expert-level formulation and processing guidance
Advanced Formulation Tools: For iterative product development
Science-Optimized Reverse Engineering: To analyze and recreate existing products
Enterprise-Grade Security: Keeps proprietary data safe while connecting users to scientific knowledge
Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) System: Combines information retrieval with generative AI for accurate, science-backed responses
At its best, Co-Developer functions as a research accelerator. It helps teams:
Access peer-reviewed food science insights in one place
Explore ingredient functionality and processing concepts faster
Validate technical assumptions during early concept exploration
What Makes This Different From ChatGPT
Here's the question every CEO asks when they see another AI tool: "Can't I just use ChatGPT for this?"
Short answer: No.
Long answer: ChatGPT is pattern-matching. It can predict what words should come next based on billions of examples it's seen before.
But it doesn't know if those patterns are scientifically accurate. (It just knows they sound right)
CoDeveloper uses something called RAG—Retrieval-Augmented Generation.
In plain English: before it answers your question, it searches IFT's library of 85+ years of peer-reviewed research. Then it generates a response based on what it actually found, not what it thinks sounds good.
When you ask ChatGPT about emulsifier stability in plant-based milk, it gives you a confident answer that might be wrong.
When you ask Sous™ the same question, it pulls from published studies on emulsifier behavior, cites the sources, and tells you what the science actually says.
Who Should Actually Use This
Let's get specific about who wins with this tool.
You should be paying attention if:
You're running a mid-size brand without a 15-person innovation lab
Your "R&D team" is one overstretched person who's good at their core category but now you're asking them to reformulate for keto, gluten-free, and clean label all at once
Your team is Googling food science questions at 11pm
You're pivoting into a new category and need to get up to speed—fast
This isn't for Nestlé. They have research centers and PhD-level scientists on staff.
This is for the brand doing $1M-$10M who's being asked to innovate like a $500M company. The team that's one person deep in every function. The founder who knows their product inside-out but is now facing technical questions they've never had to answer before.
If your bottleneck is access to expertise—not budget for ingredients or equipment—CoDeveloper was built for you.
That difference matters when you're six weeks from a production run and your R&D lead just quit.
➥ Know Your Food
Food Science Tip of the Week
The color of your packaging changes how your product tastes—literally. Studies show the same orange juice tastes "more natural" in a green bottle and "sweeter" in an orange bottle.
Crazy right? Your formula didn't change. Your customer's brain did! This is the importance of sensory sequencing.
Inspired to develop a new product? Let's chat!
Reply to this email and let me know, do you want to try IFT’s Co-Developer?
