The perfect is simply not good enough – Fifty years of innovating in the world of traditional foods

Abstract

The paper presents a personal history of the author's efforts and experiences to innovate traditional foods in the intertwined worlds of science and business. The history divides into five sections. One: The prelude to today's world, including the evolving importance of product quality and product acceptability in an increasingly peaceful, prosperous first world. Two: The emergence of technique for product evaluation as a tool from the world of applied science, and the growing ‘processization’ of the tool, with scientific efforts lagging, and the processes leading. Three: The emergence of psychophysical thinking, and experimental design, leading to the emergence of systematic product optimization to improve product quality and consumer acceptance. Four: The taming of variability across people to reveal underlying basic differences in patterns of food preferences. Five: The wholesale transference of the systematized approach from ingredients of products to ideas about products, creating new opportunities for science and business.