AI for ‘predictive food’, especially ice cream, is the focus of this new startup

Michelin stars, celebrity chefs, cooking competitions — the foodie world has become ever more high-tech. Now an ingenious young company called Brainwave Growth seems poised to add one further technology, predictive food.

Brainwave, founded in 2017, is the brainchild of Colette Smith, a veteran food technologist from Italy with experience at restaurants, fine dining kitchens and spas. According to those who know her, it is just one more step in Smith’s journey from a childhood spent eating the staples of Italian cuisine (tomato soup, pasta with olive oil and tomatoes, heirloom pasta), to home cooking her family’s own vegetables, to her years working in the kitchens of Italy’s most prestigious restaurants.

But the idea for Brainwave came while she was a culinary fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health, working with chefs to develop recipes for people with food allergies.

“At that time I was at quite a critical point in my life,” Smith told TechCrunch. “It hit me that it was possible to help others, specifically people with food allergies, by taking your allergy-responsive food and using machine learning to optimize that food so you eat it the best you can eat.”

Her partners were Dr. Iliana Fiori, an Italian-born scientist who has pioneered the use of machine learning in food fields since the early 2000s, and Dr. Marco Marziani, founder of Another Time, a nonprofit, infrastructure and IT company that has made its name in bringing computer vision to the table.

Today Brainwave, headquartered in New York City, has 10 employees including the former geneticists, genetic engineers and neuroscientists who work alongside Smith.

Brainwave technology is the result of an algorithm that measures a person’s ability to self-regulate reactions to foods, and different actions that can induce those reactions. As a result it can utilize machine learning to find reliable food calibrations and control preferences for food allergies.

Because their approach is based on self-soothing, Brainwave’s clients want products that are protective and comforting to their clients even if the person has eaten that food before. “Ultimately, all our products are manufactured to fit a client’s specific needs,” Smith said. “Food, in this case, is a prime example.”

Brainwave is currently focused on identifying foods that would best avoid reaction to their clients’ family members or loved ones, and its products can correct the food prior to delivery.

Its first test product was a tool for two kids, now ages six and 11, with food allergies who were effectively suffering from brain decay as their enzymes were getting worse. The product prevented the need for dietitians and ophthalmologists, instead delivering feedback of what was accurate to cook as well as cool foods, to prevent brain decay.

Brainwave’s clients tend to be restaurant chains and independent restaurant owners whose vendors are themselves preparing to process a growing array of foodstuffs that can be reliably adjusted. This is part of the reason why the range of products available from Brainwave is so promising.

“From one to 10 parameters you can select the food to suit your client’s preferences,” Smith said. “At any given time there are many products in the market that have different products that can be adjusted. The scope of the tech is different according to the food we are talking about.”

Smith said that more broadly, Brainwave intends to use its technology to assist people who do not have allergies in food safety and to help people with cognitive problems. All “cases are the same,” she said. “Our tech is specific.”