--- title: "With Utter Self-Seriousness, Maker of Oreos Admits It’s Using AI To Create New Flavors, Even Though Machines Cannot Taste" description: "The company behind Oreo cookies has, by its own admission, been quietly creating new flavors using machine learning." date: "2024-12-21" modified: "2024-12-21" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/oreo-manufacturer-ai-flavors" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "cookies" - "food" - "machine learning" - "the digest" --- # With Utter Self-Seriousness, Maker of Oreos Admits It’s Using AI To Create New Flavors, Even Though Machines Cannot Taste ![The company behind Oreo cookies has, by its own admission, been quietly creating new flavors using machine learning.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Flavor Discovery The company behind Oreo cookies has, by its own admission, been quietly creating new flavors using machine learning. As the [*Wall Street Journal* reports](), Mondelez — the processed food behemoth that manufactures Oreos, Chips Ahoy, Clif Bars, and other popular snacks — has developed a new AI tool to dream up new flavors for its brands. Used in more than 70 of the company's products, the company says the machine learning tool is different from generative AI tools like ChatGPT and more akin to the [drug discovery algorithms]() used by pharmaceutical companies to find and [test new medications]() rapidly. Thus far the tool, created with the help of the software consultant Fourkind, has created products like the "[Gluten Free Golden Oreo]()" and updated Chips Ahoy's classic recipe, per the *WSJ*. Mondelez's research and development AI was, it seems, trained to optimize certain sensory factors. The tool was told to dial up scent characteristics like "burnt," "egg-flavored," and "oily," as well as flavor factors like "buttery,” "in-mouth saltiness," and "vanilla intensity," among others. It's unclear how nuanced the AI's perception of these flavors really is, since machines lack taste buds or noses, though the company does employ human taste testers to check it all out — and as "[biscuit modeling]()" research and development manager Kevin Wallenstein indicated to the paper, Mondelez is *very* thorough with that aspect of its flavor creation process. "The number of tastings we have is not fun," the biscuit baron told the *WSJ*. "I used to work in Sour Patch Kids, and if you did a tasting every day for a week, it was a nightmare." ## History Matters Though the company didn't indicate how long it had been using the flavor discovery tool, it told the *WSJ* that the machine learning algorithm had been in development since 2019, a timeline that jibes with a 2023 interview in which Mondelez R&D exec Joe Manton teased the tool's existence [to the magazine *Just Food*](). As Manton suggested when speaking to the industry magazine, Mondelez's R&D team used historical recipe and ingredient data when creating the AI. In that same interview, he added that new flavors "go through a series of internal and external consumer testing" as well. In the more recent *WSJ* article about the tool, Wallenstein admitted that in its earlier days, the AI would offer unhinged suggestions. "Because \[baking soda is\] a very low-cost ingredient," he said, "it would try to just make cookies that were very high in baking soda, which doesn’t taste good at all." By bringing in human "brand stewards" to oversee the process, Mondelez seems to have fine-tuned its machine-learning tool. Much like pharmaceutical drug discovery, it's an undeniably fascinating — if not admittedly bizarre — use of AI. **More on AI and food:** [*Someone Made a Deranged Version of Coke's AI Holiday Ad and It's Way Better*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()