I love those times when you get to see two competing tensions face off simultaneously.

I’m at the North American Food Technology and Innovation Forum. It’s an event designed to bring together the heads of R&D and New Product Development from leading companies across North America. It’s a smorgasbord of speakers and displays featuring leading edge thinking about the future of food, health & wellness, retailing, and innovation. I’m being exposed to fascinating opportunities in food ingredients (phytonutrients, prebiotics, omega 3’s, phosphorus), technologies, processes and packaging that will be a part of the next generation of products we prepare and serve to our families. It’s all about fortification, shelf life, attributes of health and technological platforms.

At the same time, I received an announcement about kidfresh (www.kidfresh.com), a new childrens’ food retail concept in NY. Kidfresh sells a huge variety of healthy, fresh, organic prepared foods made just for kids. The concept was developed by a chef, dietician and pediatric nutritionist. Foods are available in Grab ‘n Go or Mix ‘n Match, color coded and portion-sized by age for 4 age groups, merchandised to appeal to kids, and cost only $4.95-7.25 per meal. They emphasize fruits, vegetables and fiber in age-appropriate shapes and colors. The store is built to be child-friendly, with a special door and kid size carts. They offer childrens’ cooking classes in order to teach good nutritional habits and have an in-store counter where they can serve kids while they learn.

Two sides of the same issue: health and wellness. One is fresh and local, the other is technological and specialized. Two waves of the future.

Michael Pollan’s thought-provoking essay in yesterday’s NYT magazine (see the link below), examined the practice of Nutrionism, the science of deconstructing and evaluating food, outside of its natural eco-system. As with any industrial advance, innovating within a vacuum has a tendency to give rise to many unintended consequences.

Pollan writes about the dietary shift from Food to Food Products. He points out that with each incremental food science discovery (Antioxidants! Fat! Carbs! Sterols! Probiotics!), manufacturers have jumped on the bandwagon, but despite the increasing availability of “nutrient-smart” food, our overall health has steadily declined. The more we know, the more Food Products are constructed to deliver more of the good and less of the bad, the less healthy we seem to become.

This is not meant to be a diatribe on processed food. Instead, it’s an observation on the need to innovate within the eco-system. The whole of the ecosystem - supply, manufacturing, distribution, marketing, sales, experience, support - must be involved for innovation to succeed, just like the context of the food, diet and lifestyle must be considered to understand the impact of nutrients. As we aim to solve problems and exploit opportunities, we must be broad-sighted and look at innovations in light of the consumer’s life, adoption and use. Does it function as it needs to? Does it fit within behavior patterns? Does it solve a problem? Does it create others? How does it work within their entire basket of purchases and alternatives?

When we stop looking exclusively at the small bits of the equation and start looking globally and in context, our ability to innovate becomes stronger. Remember, you need to measure the right stuff, not just the easy stuff.

By the way, Pollan’s main thesis: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

Smart.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/magazine/28nutritionism.t.html