Internship Philips Austria

Techniques and technologies for preparing and cooking food

Taking a look in the modern home kitchen of today and the use of tabletop electrical devices for creating dishes therein, we see technologies being applied to take away manual hassles. For example there are blenders for cutting and pureeing, or kneading machines and mixers for dough kneading. Also in combination with heat we can see this, like steam ovens and self-cookers. For clarity we distinguish here between preparation and cooking. With preparation we mean bringing ingredients into portions for further usage, e.g. cutting a big apple into pieces before it can be used with a juicer. And with cooking we mean all ways of transforming the ingredients on a cellular and molecular level not necessarily under the application of heat, e.g. kneading dough to create gluten strands.

However it is not only about taking away hassles anymore. Modern devices can prepare food in a way that would not be possible in a traditional way. They make more efficient use of the ingredients, deliver healthier or more nutritional results, or help less-experienced cooks to get acceptable dishes. Juicers can extract more juice and nutrients than by hand; air fryers can do with less or no oil. And in the future it can be expected that people will have even higher demands on getting more healthy and nutritional results in an efficient way.

The conventional techniques and technologies will be atsome point in time at their maturity level, and might then not reach the increasing consumer demands. Therefore it would be good to also look into non-conventional techniques and technologies, and assess their potential to deliver more enhanced results, in combination with conventional ways or as an application on their own.

Goal Statement

Overall goal: Identify all technologies that people or industry are using / proposing for the preparation and cooking of food.

Within these technologies, we expect to find non-conventional techniques and technologies with the potential to efficiently:

• set more nutrients free and available to the body, or
• set another nutrient composition free and available to the body, or
• make that ingredients can be easier digested by the digestive tract, or
• obtain desired results with less application of unwanted ingredients like fat, sugar or salt, or
• prepare more recipes or process more different ingredients, or
• increase the tastiness

than with conventional techniques and technologies.

The further exploration and definition of this list of desirable characteristics will be part of the master thesis’ project.

However, as a starting point it will be needed to create an exhaustive overview of known and applied home preparation and cooking techniques as well as technologies used at home for applying these techniques. Information on regional relevance, frequency of application, user expectations on results, advantages and disadvantages, working principle and other to be defined assessment criteria will have to be gathered and made accessible in a way thatquantitative analyses and data extension later on is possible.

It is expected that based on an analysis of the overview a first distinction between conventional and non-conventional techniques and technologies can be made. The identified non-conventional ways is to be extended based on scanning and exploring various relevant channels. A few to be mentioned are interviewing experts in the field, looking into scientific and non-scientific literature dealing with food preparation and cooking, checking developments in the food industry including the one focusing on ready-to-serve dishes,scanning for spin-off and kick-start activities.

Important in the evaluation of all the non-conventional techniques and technologies identified will be to come up with ways to estimate the potential to deliver efficiently on at least one of the desired  characteristics mentioned.

Analyses of the insights gained and discussion with Philips’ parties, a recommendation for the most relevant topics for future investigations is to be deduced.

Project Scope

Preparation and cooking techniques and technologies for creating food for human beings.
Investigation of own or competitor products as far as supportive to reach the goal.
Database set-up fit for future use.
Experts’ identification via Philips CL Open Innovation means.

Not Scope

Development of new preparation and cooking techniques or technologies.
Developing demonstrators.
In-depth analysis of products.

Project Plan

Wish would be to realize the goal before the end of 2014.

Operating Principles

Although we think of a master study, the way of working is to be agreed upon together, and should fit to opportunities and needs of the University. Alternatives could e.g. be team assignments as practice for related study fields, or as research project for single students.

To reach the goal, a multi-disciplinary approach might be needed. For this we would like to use the opportunity of contacts that exist with other departments and universities to bringstudents from different faculties together, if needed. On request, Philips is willing to supportactively in this aspect (e.g. identifying experts via internal Open Innovation means or setting up contacts between different disciplines).

Where needed, support will be given by Philips staff. Especially to further define relevant boundary conditions, assessment criteria, scope boundaries.

Competences

Bachelor degree in food science or related area.
Affinity to preparation and cooking techniques and technologies.
Capability to gather, work with and structure large amounts of data.
Sees it as a challenge to start from a broad scope and develop clarity along the path in a dynamic and interactive setting with multiple parties.

Contact

Erik van der Linden: erik.vanderlinden@wur.nl

Bettina Srebotnig: Human Resource Management, Tel.: +43 463 3866 552; Fax: +43 463 3866 550, E-mail: bettina.srebotnig@philips.com

Frans Starmans: Advanced Development and Patents, Tel.: +43 463 3866 250; Fax: +43 463 3866 217, E-mail: frans.starmans@philips.com

Address: Philips Consumer Lifestyle Klagenfurt
Koningsbergerstrasse 11
9020 Klagenfurt
Austria

Additional Philips mentoring staff

Freek Suijver: Philips Research, Tel.: +86 21 24115236; Assistant Tel.: +86 21 24128897

Haley Watson: Consumer Marketing, Tel.: +31 6 30853881