Free IFI Insider Webinar: Snack Innovation in a Health & Wellness World

AMSTERDAM, July 1 /PRNewswire/ -- International Food Ingredients magazine is proud to present the fourth of their monthly series of editorially-led webinars, the IFI Insider. The IFI Insiders, which will take place every month throughout 2010, will each focus on a key category within the food & beverage industry. They are researched & produced by the IFI editorial team, ensuring that you can now benefit from IFI's lauded content in a new, innovative format.

The inaugural IFI Insider takes place next week and focuses entirely on the Snack Foods Industry.

Viewing the webinar is free, you can register by using this link:

http://w.on24.com/r.htm?e=222903&s=1&k=5CDFD1DA66E424427D01C0401CDAB45B&partnerref=free

Session Description:

With society's increasing focus on health and wellness, food manufacturers are paying more attention to making products that are better for consumers – yet we know people still want indulgent flavors and textures. Can health and indulgence co-exist, or must we choose one or the other? This presentation will review examples of products in the marketplace around the world and consider how and where manufacturers are improving nutrition while maintaining the attributes consumers find pleasurable.

16:15 - 16:20 – Delicious AND Nutritious: the Globally Craved Almond

Shirley Horn, Chief Marketing Officer, Almond Board of California

Session Description:

In the food manufacturing world where ingredients are often highly specialized, almonds are one of the few "multi-tasking" ingredients that deliver many benefits at once. The almond industry in California, where 80% of the world's almonds are grown, supports extensive nutrition research and consumer studies to help educate manufacturers about how they can formulate with this versatile tree nut to meet today's demand for healthier products. This presentation summarizes how almonds add a winning combination of flavor, crunch and wholesome nutrition.

16:20 - 16:50 – Snacks Health and Innovation via Open Innovation at General Mills

Jenny Maack-Mcaab, Innovation Entrepreneur, General Mills

Session Description:

• Introducing General Mills' world famous Snacks brands – Nature Valley, Fiber One, Betty Crocker, Bugles and Chex Mix
• Building a portfolio of healthy snacks using open innovation and supplier collaboration
• The role health is playing in snacks at General Mills
• What have you got to offer? Could you hold the key to General Mills' future snack pipeline?
• Driving innovation through the General Mills' Worldwide Innovation Network (G-Win)

16:50 - 17:00 – Closing Q&A

Featuring the following expert speakers:

Lu Ann Williams

Head of Research, Innova Market Insights

Lu Ann Williams is Head of Research at Innova Market Insights. She started her career in The Netherlands twenty years ago with Wolters Kluwer before moving to leading science publisher Elsevier. For the past fifteen years she has been involved in the international food industry where she works with the world's largest food and beverage companies on product development and marketing strategies, trends analysis, open innovation projects and technology scouting. She comes from Georgia (USA) and graduated from Georgia Tech and got her MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management.

Shirley Horn

Chief Marketing Officer, Almond Board of California

Shirley Horn is the Chief Marketing Officer for the Almond Board of California. She is responsible for creating consumer and industry awareness and preference for California Almonds, and increasing global demand. She joined the Almond Board in September, 2006, an era of unprecedented growth as the industry ramped up for a 50% increase in production to over 1.5 billion pounds per year, 80% of the world's commercial production of wholesome, natural almonds. Ms. Horn has over twenty-five years' experience in global brand management, corporate communications and public affairs and has worked in international marketing for a range of companies from large multi-nationals to small start-ups.

Ms. Horn, former Senior Director of Global Brand Management for Agilent Technologies, was responsible for creating a new global brand when Agilent was spun-off from the Hewlett-Packard Company in 1999. She joined Hewlett-Packard (UK) Ltd. in 1989 as Director of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs in Bracknell, Berkshire, UK. A dual citizen of the United States and the European Union, Ms. Horn returned to the U.S. in 1996 to manage global marketing communications for HP's Healthcare business.

Jenny Maack-Mcaab

Innovation Entrepreneur, General Mills

Jenny Maack-Mcaab is an Innovation Entrepreneur for the Snacks Division of General Mills. She has 11 years experience in General Mills. She is currently working on connecting multiple internal teams with external solutions in spaces that range across the Snacks product portfolio. Prior to this role, Jenny worked as an R&D process engineer for the Snacks and Yoplait divisions, working on developing unique products and processes that were enabled externally from around the globe.

This IFI insider is sponsored by the Almond Board of California.

http://www.ingredientsnetwork.com

SOURCE Ingredients Network