Whether it’s finding the right ingredient and sourcing sustainably or the best packaging material, many CPG manufacturers can all agree on one thing: product formulation is a ton of work. In order to appeal to consumers and stay afloat in a highly competitive market, it is often required to sink immense amounts of time and money into R&D that end up becoming quite costly to businesses. 

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Because of this, one of the ultimate tools that CPG manufacturers can use to streamline this labor-intensive process is the use of an online database. These usually come in the form of platforms run by tech companies that have gathered extensive amounts of data all in the name of helping you get your product out of production and into consumers’ homes. These databases can:

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• Help manufacturers get in touch with ideal suppliers
• Generate recipes that could garner ideas
• Provide nutrition information
• Keep track of costs and analyze performance
• Find healthy ingredient substitutions that save money

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These platforms are huge time-savers on all aspects of new product development, which is why we’ve assembled a list of smart food supply chain platforms that CPG companies and manufacturers can rely on. Take a look at our top seven compiled below!

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1. Journey Foods

Journey Foods is an AI-driven ingredient and supply chain platform founded in 2018 to help businesses create healthier, more efficient products. Working with several large brands in the CPG world, Journey Foods has been praised for its access to over 1.7 billion insights regarding cost, sustainability, and nutrition. 

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Journey Foods also has data on up to 9,200 suppliers and is perfect for helping CPG businesses get their unique needs met. The platform also has seamless integrations that allows data to be downloaded and imported into tools such as Excel and Google Sheets.

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Journey Foods is able to provide exceptional data and recommendations when it comes to sourcing, production, and distribution, including the use of novel ingredients that are both healthy and affordable. Every step of the product life cycle is accounted for, making Journey Foods’ database a reliable and encompassing tool for many businesses.

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2. Tastewise

Tastewise helps food & beverage brands develop their product every step of the way, from vision to execution. Their AI-powered database offers actionable recommendations and market insights that help businesses stay ahead of the game.

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TasteGPT also generates AI-driven reports that pertain to consumer diets and patterns, popular recipes, and more. 

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3. Gastrograph

Gastrograph allows businesses to see how their products are doing on the competitive landscape, comparing their performance to global product benchmarks and market maps that show drivers of preference and flavor. 

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Gastrograph also predicts consumer perception through AI analysis. Their predictions come from a large pool of data points collected from many countries and demographics. 

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4. Foodpairing

Foodpairing empowers CPG companies by improving NPD workflow through prescriptive analytics. Their platform uses data to speed up product formulation and change their portfolio into one that suits their sustainable goals.

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Foodpairing also implements a Digital Twin of target consumers that helps companies evaluate how their product would perform with them.

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5. AI Palette

AI Palette’s platform contains data points from 24 countries around the world, using its foresight engine to make sense of consumer trends and helping accelerate innovation. Their generative AI is also able to create new product ideas.

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AI Palette also offers FoodGPT, an AI co-pilot that helps work out ideas and test concepts.The chatbot is able to be integrated with data sources and remains conversational 24 hours a day.

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6. PartnerSlate

PartnerSlate is a platform that connects brands with manufacturers, acting as a meeting ground for those who wish to get their products out the door. The platform offers 6,000 contract manufacturers for brands to sign with, and by that same system gives manufacturers a list of projects to choose from.

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PartnerSlate utilizes a Matching AI called Slater, which notifies companies of projects that match their interests. Many companies use this AI to conduct dozens of monthly searches and find a plethora of partners to work with.

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7. Spoonshot

Spoonshot utilizes AI techniques such as Natural Language Processing and Computer Vision to extract data that has been gathered by their crawling engine, providing insights through their assistant #foodbrain. The assistant provides innovation opportunities and product concept recommendations, among many other services.

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Spoonshot’s data helps provide insight into consumer trends, marketing strategies, and R&D. The results are highly curated for each individual company that uses them.

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For CPG companies, it is always important to think about one's specific needs and review the wealth of options they have available when it comes to food supply chain platforms. We hope this list was helpful and provided you with some of the answers you were looking for!

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