Session Overview: 

Explore how San Francisco's dynamic food ecosystem is shaping the future of the industry in this engaging virtual panel discussion. As the epicenter of food innovation, San Francisco continues to drive transformative changes across sustainability, technology, consumer behavior, and product development. This session brings together three industry leaders who are at the forefront of upcycling innovations, emerging analytics technologies, and trend forecasting to provide insights into what's next for food innovation.

Join us as we dive into:

• The growing upcycled food movement and its commercial applications
• How data analytics is revolutionizing CPG brand strategies and market expansion
• Emerging food trends and consumer behavior shifts
• Sustainable solutions and waste mitigation in food manufacturing
• The intersection of technology and taste in product development
• Future opportunities in San Francisco's food innovation landscape

Speakers: 

Barb Stuckey has been at Mattson since 1997 and is currently Chief New Product Strategy Officer at North America's most successful independent developer of foods and beverages. Mattson provides insights, strategy, innovation and product development services to Consumer Packaged Good companies, foodservice suppliers, ingredients suppliers, chain restaurants, and dietary supplement companies.

Barb is known as a taste, food trend, innovation, consumer insights, and product development expert. As part of Barb's role in the innovation projects that make up her daily job, she is required to taste food and figure out how to make it better. After more than 2 decades doing this, she's honed her tasting skills and ability to help others make food taste better. She shared this insight with the world when her book Taste: Surprising Stories & Science About Why Food Tastes Good was published in 2013. Barb splits her time between San Francisco and Healdsburg, in the heart of Sonoma wine country.

Alice Mintz is co-founder and CEO of Sous, an agentic analytics and insights platform transforming how CPG brands leverage data for growth. With experience guiding scaling startups and Fortune 500 companies across every aisle of the store, Alice specializes in turning syndicated retail data into actionable strategies for market expansion, product innovation, and competitive advantage.

As Senior Director of Brand Strategy at SPINS, Alice built and led the insights team that partnered with brands to unlock their growth potential. She founded Sous with the recognition that data holds immense power, but analysts need faster ways to deliver complex analyses with the cultural context that drives compelling, data-supported narratives. Today, Sous gives brands the speed and clarity they need to decode consumer behavior, stay ahead of emerging trends and maximize their distribution.

Daniel Kurzrock is the Founder & CEO of Upcycled Foods, Inc., the leading innovation and ingredient platform powering the upcycled food economy. He's a vanguard of the upcycled food movement who championed its potential among consumers and food businesses alike. Dan's informative talks and papers outlining challenges in the food industry and his passion for sustainable solutions have elevated him as a leading voice and thought leader in the industry, advancing upcycled foods and waste mitigation initiatives. Dan and team have passionately applied those solutions to manufacturers' byproducts and have developed patented technology and many commercial applications to advance the cause. Dan is also a co-founding board officer of the industry trade groups Upcycled Food Association and Upcycled Food Foundation.

Moderator: Angel Tekriwal is a Beverage Scientist at Botrista in San Francisco, where she has led the commercialization of multiple product lines. With experience spanning product development roles at San Francisco food innovation companies, including Endless West, Angel brings deep expertise in flavor chemistry, sensory analysis, and bringing innovative products to market. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Research Chefs Association.

Questions? Reach out to Angel Tekriwal for answers!

1 CEU to be offered for this event

RCA Disclosures:

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