Mattson unveils free AI platform to boost F&B research and consumer trend intelligence

US-based Mattson has launched an AI-powered platform to offer F&B professionals expert-level insights related to food, beverages, and product innovation. The “free to use” tool, MattsonIQ, is said to support food scientists and chefs’ access and use of industry knowledge through simple prompts.

The innovation comes at a time when AI is rapidly making inroads into various aspects of product innovation, such as concept ideation, speeding up R&D, and data-driven profiles reflecting evolving consumer expectations around health and nutrition.

MattsonIQ helps companies address the challenge of “fragmented information and slow research cycles” by helping F&B product developers and strategists move from “questions to insights in seconds,” says the Chicago-based F&B innovation firm.

For Mattson, the digital tool is “not a generic AI tool trying to be everything to everyone,” says Steve Gundrum, the company’s chief AI officer. “It is focused on the way food professionals think about ingredients, cuisine, nutrition, culture, trends, product development, and innovation,” he tells Food Ingredients First.

“The approach to content was shaped by our collective experiences and wisdom at Mattson since the company was founded in 1977. As a result, the deep value is that it helps users get smart fast in a food-specific context, without having to start from a blank page, or translate generic AI answers into something useful for our industry.”

“We made it free to use because we want everyone in the food industry to have the opportunity to learn how AI can help them work better and faster,” Gundrum emphasizes.

AI platform for F&B trend analysis

Users can prompt MattsonIQ, with even a single word prompt, about an ingredient, a cuisine, or a nutrition topic, and the tool generates “useful structured insights” very quickly.

Steve Gundrum: MattsonIQ helps food professionals “get smart fast” with AI-powered insights for product development and trend discovery.“The interaction with MattsonIQ feels very natural. You prompt the model, ‘get smart,’ then go deeper if desired for more insights. You can also challenge the response to fit your needs, ask for applications, or explore adjacent topics,” Gundrum says.

The food intelligence platform helps F&B companies and culinary teams identify industry trends for informed NPD as well. 

“Food trends rarely come from one place anymore — they emerge from culture, restaurants, social media, health needs, global cuisines, retail behavior, and consumer emotion all at once,” notes Gundrum.

“MattsonIQ helps innovators explore what is ‘new’ faster and with more context. For example, a user could get smart fast through the lens of Korean, Sonoran Mexican, West African, or one of the Mediterranean cuisines.”

They can then use that learning to understand how an ingredient they just learned about could impact nutritional needs across life-stages and apply that learning to snacks, beverages, meals, or foodservice applications, he explains.

For instance, the company recently used the platform to generate insights for food innovation professionals into the rapidly growing “ube” phenomenon in the US, popular for the ingredient’s vivid purple color and social media appeal.

“That kind of cross-cultural and cross-referenced exploration is where MattsonIQ becomes really exciting because it helps professionals see applications they may not have considered, with just a few prompts and in a few minutes, not hours or days,” he adds.

How AI speeds up food R&D workflows

Experts say that while AI can help food scientists’ work through improved workflows, human involvement remains vital in product development.

For Gundrum, AI is a “24/7 thought partner that helps expand the creative and technical surface area of an innovation team.”

The AI-powered food intelligence platform helps F&B companies track emerging food trends and evolving consumer preferences to guide NPD strategies.“Traditionally, a lot of early innovation and R&D work starts with searching, reading, synthesizing, and then trying to connect dots across ingredients, consumer needs, food culture, nutrition, and technical feasibility. MattsonIQ changes the starting point by helping teams move much faster from curiosity to insight,” he says.

“It does not replace food scientists, chefs, or developers — human judgment is essential — MattsonIQ simply gives them a smarter, faster way to explore possibilities.” A combination of real intelligence and AI is what the company’s core belief supports.

Gumdrum emphasizes that food scientists should use MattsonIQ for guidance, not as an answer machine. “Using a search engine on a topic may indicate and deliver millions of hits, yet you only have time to read a select few and summarize. Your selection process is long and inherently biased.” 

MattsonIQ pulls this summary together with “no bias, just pure objectivity.”

“The best use of MattsonIQ is to sharpen thinking, then apply professional judgment, technical validation, and ultimately sensory and quantitative consumer testing where it matters,” he adds.

The company tested MattsonIQ using cross-referencing to non-AI sources and trusted third parties to ensure the insights it provides are accurate and actionable for companies.

Advancing AI adoption in F&B

Mattson partnered with the Culinary Institute of America in February to help students combine AI and creativity to advance the technology’s use in the future of food. The company has received positive feedback from beta testers and the institute, says Gundrum.

“I expect the strongest feedback over time will come from professionals who start using it in their daily workflow and discover how much faster they can explore, learn, and create. And, with the rapid improvement in AI model capabilities, MattsonIQ will now inherently self-improve at the speed of AI.”

Mattson recently used AI-powered insights to explore the rise of the vibrant purple “ube” phenomenon in the US market.Gundrum emphasizes that the company’s approach to AI is that it becomes part of its “operating system for food innovation.”

MattsonIQ is one element in the company’s suite of AI capabilities that includes ProtoThink, Chef Insights, Food Studio AI, and other custom AI models that help reduce some of the friction that slows down innovation and workflow decisions.

“Our long-term goal is for MattsonIQ to become a trusted daily resource for people across the F&B industry, unlocking their ability to be more capable, more curious, and more effective. We also have MattsonIQ Pro, a custom version of MattsonIQ programmed and optimized specifically for our clients’ needs that understands their brand, categories, competitors, and business goals.”

“We simply want the global food industry to create the products that truly make people happy, now and in the future. Satisfy their needs for great products and meals they can afford, with the nutrition needed to promote healthy lives. We’ll keep enhancing MattsonIQ in a way that enables professionals to explore food more intelligently and creatively,” Gundrum concludes.