Using Digital Technologies to Accelerate Healthy Snack Product Innovation

Snack Creations is a leader in B2B snack pellet manufacturing. Snack pellets are a versatile ingredient that acts as a foundation for our customers to create their own innovative snack products. Snack Creations has been making snacks for over 50 years and has a very strong reputation across the world, distributing products to over 40 countries. The company's ambition is to build on its existing reputation and increase its market share through the development and efficient manufacture of new healthy and nutritious snack pellets. The world-wide market in healthy and nutritious snack products is growing rapidly and Snack Creations is in a prime position to capitalise on this opportunity.To stay ahead of competitors, the automation of data-driven decision-making through Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) technologies is an essential milestone in the development path of the company. The opportunity to innovate using AI and ML would be transformational to an industry that is relatively traditional in its manufacturing methods. The main aim of the project will be to use AI and ML technologies to explore and establish patterns and correlations between raw materials, recipes, processing conditions and sensory attributes of products. It will provide the necessary infrastructure for effective data capture and provide full visibility of end-to-end manufacturing of the products. This will result in the ability to fully understand every element of the production process and enable swift and accurate decision making to improve the process. It will make our new product development process quicker, and the manufacturing of products much more efficient.The additional knowledge and in-depth understanding that will be gained from this project will also offer the opportunity for Snack Creations to be more flexible and source locally produced and upcycled raw materials. Currently, Snack Creations has a limited raw material supply base, but the information and understanding gained from this project will enable Snack Creations to expand the range of raw materials it can use. This will open new opportunities for local agricultural collaborations that we have identified but cannot currently engage in.Finally, implementing this extended knowledge in our factory and ensuring the successful opening of our new site will also open the opportunity for new skilled jobs. Software Engineering, Data and Process Analysis opportunities will be created, which is an exciting prospect for people within the Norfolk and Norwich areas and supports the UK Governments Levelling Up agenda.