Personalise me

Even though we already spoke about the culinary 2008, perhaps you have wondered what else is new for the future of food? From functional food, flexible food, "Nouvelle Chimie", food in tablets (even though this is something which none of us like to think about), to already present personalisation trend. So this leaves you to wonder what personalisation?

Today consumers create the products and manufacturers enable them the level of individuality and personalisation for food of guaranteed quality. However this trend is not new to the food industry, as it is shown by many custom made products which are sold on the internet. The leaders of this trend tend to be manufacturers of muesli, chocolate, snack bars, tea and others are also following.

A good example of this trend is the manufacturers of M&M's candies, who decided to offer their consumers more autonomy. On their web site the users can choose between 21 colours of M&M candies, and on each candies instead of having the logo "m", have the option to print their own logo, personal message or anything else they desire as well as choosing their own wrapping.

Customer-blend teas are sold by the Design Tea. Their web site allows users to choose between the green, black, oolong and rooibos tea, as well as choice of taste such as amaretto, apple, banana, vanilla and many others. They also offer the choice of loose tea leaves or tea bags, the choice of creating the packaging with personalised message as well as the choice of size of the packaging and quantity.

Dominos pizza also offers pizza fans, via their internet sites, to create their own ideal pizza. They can choose the level of "crispiness", quantity and type of the sauce, cheese and different toppings. Users can also register their individual design of the pizza and give their creation a name. This pizza then becomes part of the menu and other consumers can also try. Up to now there has been a total of 12,000 pizza's registered.

The web site also offers the option to view how many of each type of pizza's have been ordered, search according to the popularity, alphabetically and many other options.

Finally our last example of personalization is: Bill McCarrick - the great master of chocolate who allows his users to create one of a kind, via the www.sirhanssloane.com/bespoke. The chocolates are then simply packaged in a wooden box, via which it becomes an ultimate gift.

Drawing the conclusion for all of this "Power to the people!" and we like it. Maybe one day there just may be a custom made Vegeta!