Oreo’s owner is using AI to create new snacks — and get them to shelves 5x faster

It’s not exactly cookie cutter technology.

Mondelez International, the snack giant that makes Oreos and Chips Ahoy, is using artificial intelligence to create delicious new recipes and bring them to market at lightning speed.

“We’re doing things more efficiently,” Kevin Wallenstein, who works in cookie research and development, told The Wall Street Journal of the futuristic technology first deployed by Mondelez in 2019.

Mondelez’s AI tool was developed by software consulting firm Fourkind, which was later acquired by Thoughtworks. It uses machine learning, rather than the generative AI made popular by ChatGPT.

Machine learning is a subset of AI where a computer system learns from data and improves its performance over time by identifying patterns and making predictions based on the information it receives.

Mondelez’s food scientists tell their tool to create recipes “by specifying desired characteristics, including taste, aroma and appearance.”

According to The Wall Street Journal, “the tool also takes into account parameters such as the cost of ingredients, their environmental impact and their nutritional profile.”

Previously, recipes were created primarily through a process of trial and error.

Each of the recipes is still human taste-tested, but the products “are moving into pilot or production trials four to five times faster,” the company claims.

“The thing is, we get there faster,” Wallenstein declared. “The consumer wants the product to taste like X. We won’t stop iterating until it tastes like X.”

The tool has been used in the creation of 70 different products made by Mondelez, which also owns Ritz, Tate’s, Toblerone, Cadbury and Clif, including the Gluten-Free Golden Oreo.

Meanwhile, AI also helps refresh recipes for existing products, which are “assessed every few years for potential changes, such as whether to switch to a new chocolate chip or vanilla extract supplier.”

And it seems innovative AI is giving Mondelez an edge over its cookie competitors.

Despite a crowded grocery market and a sluggish economy amid inflation, sales rose 5.4% in the latest quarter compared to the same period last year.