P 2 - 1 Food Design : Trends and Changes

Food design, or designer foods, or functional foods, or nutritionally modified foods, or genetically modified foods --are some of the myriad of terms that appear in the popular and scientific food and nutrition press. The similarities and differences in the meanings of these terms, and the implications for nutritional composition are not always clear. The goal of this paper will be to explore the motivation for and consequences of food product design in the highly dynamic, ever changing food industry. Factors that are considered by food industry marketing departments will be characterized as to how the ever present need to provide food products that consumers want is realized. Food product development trends over the past five years will be established to help understand the motivation for new food products. Future trends will be projected. Technological innovations will be highlighted and the impact of food design on nutritional composition will be examined. Approved for publication by the Director of the Louisiana Agricultural Experiment Station as manuscript number 97-21-0013 . The ensuing is the text of a plenary lecture given at the 21st National Nutrient Databank Conference. The author was asked to provide local color and perspective for this conference that was held in Baton Rouge at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center. Lest one wonder why a Yankee from Pennsylvania be asked to give such a perspective, it is said that "a Yankee can become a Southerner but a Southerner can't become a Yankee --not that any Southerner would ever want to be a Yankee." In keeping with the charge, the author would like to invoke his honorary status as a Cajun, bestowed on him by the Cajun French Music Association, Baton Rouge Chapter, of which he is a charter member. Cajuns provide an interesting cultural backdrop for such a conference given their renown for creative cuisine and food usage. Although not everyone is enamored with this penchant; for example one disenchanted patron stated that " some of the stuff that stares out of gumbo should not be allowed out except for Halloween... ugly makes Cajuns hungry. The Elephant Man wouldn't last ten minutes in Louisiana... these people eat anything that moves. They don't even bother selling Raid in Louisiana except as a seasoning." Cajuns like to tell jokes on themselves, and of course, there is the famous Cajun Zoo joke with the punch line that the difference between a Regular Zoo and a Cajun Zoo is that in the Cajun Zoo the sign in front of the animal exhibit contains, in addition to all of the normal information like common name, Latin name, habitat, etc., a recipe for how to cook it. The given topic, i.e. Food Design: Trends and Changes, will be covered relative to terminology, trends, technology and what this author terms the tyranny of data, which of course is the ultimate master of this particular audience.