The FBN Blog ... see What's Happening!!!
| Kirin Brewer Innovates with Frozen Frosty Beer Machine |
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Beer drinkers listen up. A Japanese brewer has come up with a novel way to keep cool this summer by designing a machine which adds a frozen froth to your beer.
When the notoriously hot and sticky Japanese summer kicks in, many in the country reach for a cold beer and the air conditioner’s on switch. However, with all 54 of the country’s nuclear plants currently offline following last year’s disaster at the Fukushima facility, parts of the nation are facing the prospect of intermittent power outages in the coming months — which could well lead to summer days steamier than a Swedish sauna.
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Friday, 30 September 2011
Vending machines reinvented
Hip, cool and amazing aren't words people often use to describe vending machines.
But that may be changing soon.
The National Automatic Merchandising Association is currently on the road, showcasing its latest and greatest vending machine innovations.
Indeed. Bitter coffee, stale candy and cigarettes are out. Meanwhile machines that spin cotton candy, make fresh pizza and let users "gift" a soda to a friend to, are in.
It was time for an overhaul, said John Healy, spokesman for the association, adding that the $40 billion industry took a hit during the recession.
"The idea behind the road tour is to showcase these new concepts and also attract the attention of younger consumers who are our ideal consumers," said Healy. "We have to remind them why we are so convenient for them, both as a quick shopping option and possibly also as an industry they would want to work in."
Following are eight newfangled machines, which are either in the United States or probably on their way.
money.cnn.com/galleries/2011/smallbusiness/1109/gallery.innovation_vending_machine/
Sunday, 18 September 2011
The Quick Zip pouch innovation opens up a wide variety of uses for frozen and dry food products, pet food, and other powder and seed-type applications. It’s convenience offers improvements that will benefit all consumers.
Ampac, a global leader in the retail, food, pet food, and medical packaging markets, introduces the Quick ZipTM pouch innovation with a self-gripping fastener system.
The innovative Quick Zip pouch utilizes an easy-open, resealable zipper closure method that encompasses self-mating hooks and/or loops. Available in any style pouch where press-to-close standard zippers are currently used, the Quick Zip pouch provides the ultimate in convenience with its ease of closure due to minimal requirements for zipper alignment.
Quick Zip pouches are contaminant resistant and readily seal through powders and fine particles. With a sturdy and robust structure, the Quick Zip pouch allows for numerous openings and closings without damage to the pouch. The opportunity to differentiate from other pouches creates a unique and fun innovation in pouch capabilities from Ampac.
Suggested applications for the Quick Zip pouch innovation include dry food products such as nuts, trail mix and dried fruit, pet foods such as dog, cat and bird food and treats, frozen vegetables, dairy products such as shredded cheese, fine particle foods including sugar and sugar substitutes and protein powders, as well as lawn and garden applications for seed and fertilizers.
“The Quick Zip pouch innovation opens up a wide variety of uses for frozen and dry food products, pet food, and other powder and seed-type applications. It’s convenience offers improvements that will benefit all consumers.” said Dave Bartish Ampac’s Marketing Director, New Business Development.
Learn more visit website: www.ampaconline.com
Monday, 12 September 2011
Experience wine at the perfect temperature every time.
Keeping your wines at just the right drinking temperatures—it’s a great dilemma. Too cold and it could mask the vintner’s uniquely crafted complexities. Too warm and the flavors may take a back seat to the alcohol. The answer to this perplexity? Corkcicle.
Placed inside the bottle, Corkcicle chills the wine from the inside.
www.corkcicle.com
Wednesday, 07 September 2011
SK Telecom is testing a Smart Cart service in China that synchronizes with consumers’ smartphones to offer position-relevant information in real-time.
There seems to be no end to the innovations designed to improve the grocery shopping experience. Not long ago we spotted an effort enabling grocery shopping by smartphone in South Korean subways, for example, and now — from the very same country — SK Telecom is testing a Smart Cart service in China that synchronizes tablet-equipped shopping carts with consumers’ smartphones to offer a wide array of position-relevant information in real-time.
SK Telecom’s Smart Cart is the world’s first shopping cart service to use smartphones to deliver in-store information using indoor positioning technology, the company says. There have already been RFID-based cart services, of course, but SK Telecom’s Smart Cart goes a step further to provide a wide variety of shopping tips, product information and coupons in real-time based on the consumer’s position in the store. Shoppers begin by downloading the Smart Cart application to their smartphones. Next, they can search for product information and store coupons and draw up a shopping list. Then, once they’re at a participating retail store, the customer’s smartphone is automatically synchronized with a tablet PC installed in the shopping cart. After that, as they move about the store, shoppers receive a variety of product information and coupons relevant to their specific location in the aisles. The system’s indoor positioning technology uses both UWB and Zigbee to offer location information that’s accurate within one meter, SK Telecom says, and delivered to the shopping cart’s tablet via wifi. Once they arrive at the checkout counter, the tablet screen on their cart shows the list of purchased items, membership points and available coupons.
Following its pilot tests in China, SK Telecom plans a similar testing phase in Korea later this year. Ultimately, the company expects to further integrate consumers’ shopping history into the service for personalized product recommendations and individualized target marketing, it says. Retailers and brands alike: one to get involved in early?
Website: www.sktelecom.com
Contact: globalbusiness@sktelecom.com
Source:
http://www.springwise.com/telecom_mobile/grocery-store-coupons-delivered-real-time-shopping-cart-tablets
Tuesday, 06 September 2011
Although lab-grown meat may sound like an unappealing, almost perverse alternative to regular beef, take a minute to reconsider all the possible implications. Animal cruelty, industrial cattle ranches, unnecessary hectares of grazing land and megatonnes of methane emission could all be part of the past.
The only barrier? Getting over that icky feeling that comes with the knowledge that your meal was grown in a laboratory. But cows aren’t the only animals lucky enough to avoid the chopping block; Mark Post of the University of Maastricht has successfully grown “pork” in laboratory conditions. By pork, of course, he means replicated muscle tissue from pigs combined with horse fetal serum (aka, secret sauce). Yummy! Even if you ignore the pale, anemic look of lab-grown meat, it still seems altogether unsavory, especially to people already distrustful of GMOs.
However, let’s make it clear: Laboratory meats require much less water, 99% less land and produces 96% fewer toxic emissions than regular meats. If it’s genuinely that beneficial to the environment, everyone can stand to take a bite. Who knows, you might even like it!
Source: www.trendhunter.com
Friday, 02 September 2011
Only last week we saw New York company BrightFarms offering a service to supermarkets that designs, finances, builds and operates hydroponic greenhouse farms either on the supermarket roof itself or atop distribution centers. Now, on a slightly smaller scale, Dakboerin in the Netherlands are working with residents, schools, offices and restaurants to build rooftop kitchen gardens in areas where growing space is scarce.
Founder Annelies Kuiper was always interested in sustainable living and organic food, but was inspired to start Dakboerin earlier this year after reading an article in Green Amsterdam about the number of food miles being travelled to meet the growing demand for organic produce. Dakboerin designs the vegetable gardens for roofs, generally in urban areas, and works with other experts during the construction — calculating building materials, applying for planning permits, and designing hives and chicken coups. Organic seeds are used to grow a variety of fruit and vegetables which are planted in lightweight natural substrate and can be maintained by Dakboerin if required. Dakboerin believes kitchen roofs will help businesses improve their green credentials, as well as providing employees with an attractive outdoor space and nutritious food. Dakboerin won second prize in the Biodiversity Innovation category at the New Venture Business Plan competition in London last month.
Hardly a week goes by without a new innovation in urban gardening and farming emerging, and with food prices increasing, along with demand for organic produce and concern for air miles, could your company save money and go greener with a kitchen roof garden?
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