Head of R&D for NotCo, Catriel Giuliano, introduces Talking Plant Protein to AI Chef Giuseppe. With the use of Giuseppe, NotCo accelerates plant-based dairy formulations to bring products to market faster than ever before.
Nicole Astra:
Welcome to Talking Plant Protein. I'm your host, Nicole Astra. Joining me today is head in R&D for NotCo, Catriel Guiliano. Welcome to the show.
Catriel Guiliano:
Thank you, Nicole. Very pleased to be here with all of you.
Nicole Astra:
So I understand you have a very unique team member named Giuseppe. Tell me more.
Catriel Guiliano:
Yeah, it's a unique colleague and the most famous. Giuseppe is NotCo first of its kind patented AI technology, which create plant based product that deliver taste, texture and functionality than any other product on the market. Giuseppe uses its proprietary artificial intelligent technology that allows the company to create true plant based alternative faster, better, and more accurate than anyone else in the industry, the algorithm analyze thousand of plants to come up with a unique combination that replicates the animal target almost to the perfection.
Nicole Astra:
And how long did it take to implement this technology for Giuseppe to become part of the team?
Catriel Guiliano:
I wasn't in the company at that moment, but I was told that it took between one year to two years to develop the algorithm and to train and make it accurate enough to use it in the design of the... On the products.
Nicole Astra:
And I can only assume you can't take his word for it. So walk me through the R&D process when it comes to formulations and testing the findings.
Catriel Guiliano:
Absolutely. Well, everything starts when we provide Giuseppe with a full item that we want to create. Giuseppe come up with different formulations and then Giuseppe clusterize this formulation by attribute. So we have one group that is the best formulation in term of taste, a second group that is the best formulation in term of texture, functionality, and so on. Then we take one formula of each group and with a group of chef, food scientists and engineers we replicate this formula in real life, we analyze the formula in the lab in testing session with the group and we provide feedback to Giuseppe, that Giuseppe uses afterwards to improve the formulation. And that is a [inaudible 00:03:03] loop when we iterate many times with Giuseppe with the artificial intelligence to be closer to the animal target.
Nicole Astra:
And I read that it took 10 months to perfect your first milk product, but only two months for the second, so that's quite a learning curve. Tell us what's next for NotCo.
Catriel Guiliano:
NotCo has super exciting updates on the horizon, including very testing coming later this year. And also we have many products in five different countries in Latin America that the team wants to introduce in the U.S. Market very soon. So please stay tuned for updates by following NotCo on Instagram.
Nicole Astra:
We absolutely will do so. Thank you so much for your time today.
Catriel Guiliano:
Thank you Nicole.