Navigating Compliance and Innovation in the Food Industry: A Conversation with Eden Butvinik, Food Scientist

Episode Summary

In this episode of the Food Tech Talk podcast, host Lydia Adams speaks with Eden Butvinik, a business owner, food scientist and photographer. Eden works for herself through Eden Butvinik Consulting, and in this conversation, she shares how her work in the food industry works in tandem with her creative tendencies. Her grasp of the consumer-led trends moving through the industry with regards to flavor and product development gives us a thought-provoking insight into not only the food technology landscape today, but how it may shape up going forward.

With Eden’s background in art and photography offers her a uniquely visual perspective into product development that she uses to help her customers envision their product as it will look at the very end of the product development process. She notes that the rise of AI could impact the work of food scientists as food business owners look for AI-designed recipes for inspiration – how up to scratch these recipes will be in terms of handling and compliance is an area of concern for Eden. But she is clear about how she sees the future of development going, with an ever-increasing move to inhibiting ingredients that are seen as unhealthy – sugar for example, which Eden almost assumes her customers will not want in their products at this point.

The conversation concludes with Eden’s advice for individuals in the food industry, emphasizing the importance of recognizing the inherent instability that working for yourself creates. Listen to the full episode now for more sage advice from Eden.