Manufacturer seeks partner to create smoky, glittery, glowing and effervescent ice cream

In a posting​ on the website NineSights, open innovation expert NineSigma says its client seeks “innovative materials, methods and/or processes” ​that can create“novel sensations such as smoke/vapor, glittering, glowing and effervescence”.​

It adds: “Usual sensorial effects are taste and texture, but to provide effects such as visual (glittering, glowing), would bring a novel experience in ice cream consumption.”​

Innovative and surprising sensorial effects ​

Potential partners should have an ingredient and/or technology that can be incorporated into water based or extruded ice cream (with or without fat) and added to the mix before freezing for water based ices and before or after freezing for extruded ice cream.

Any approach must also be stable in the pH range 3.5 to 7.2, while the sensorial effects should be “perceivable at the beginning of consumption and last as long as possible during consumption”, ​says NineSigma.​

The resulting solution must be stable for up to two years at temperatures between -20°C and -13°C, while any new ingredient must be GRAS (generally recognized as safe), and cost effective at commercial volumes.

Ingredients might react when they hit hot saliva in the mouth​

Possible approaches might involve novel ingredients that can be encapsulated into stable forms and react together when consumed, or new ingredients that react to the heat in the mouth or saliva.

Responses are due by May 24, 2013.

Click here​ for more details.