In the world of big food, artificial intelligence is nothing new.
McCormick
, which owns brands including Frank’s RedHot, Cholula and Old Bay, has been using AI in flavor development for nearly a decade, with the company saying its development timelines have been cut by 20% to 25%, on average, by identifying promising flavor combinations and narrowing down which ideas are worth testing in physical prototypes.
It’s a similar story at Unilever
, where AI is deeply embedded across food research & development, with systems able to test thousands of recipes digitally in seconds and get to viable concepts with fewer physical trials. Unilever’s Knorr Fast & Flavourful Paste, as an example, was developed in roughly half the usual time. On the packaging side of the business, AI modeled how formulations behave in Hellmann’s Easy-Out squeeze bottle — which the company says saved months of physical lab work.
