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| Profile Views: | 116 views |
| Friends: | 14 friends | | Last Update: | 7 months ago | | Signup Date: | May. 15, 2008 |
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First Name:
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Lucy
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Last Name:
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Needham
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Story:
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One evening in January 2003 I was dining in an Italian restaurant, wondering the nutritional content of each dish on the menu. I debated between Carpaccio and prosciutto-wrapped asparagus and then I thought to myself, “what if I were diabetic, or had a specific dietary need, I’m completely in the dark here.” This inspired my lifelong fascination with food and nutrition information and I plan to change the face of the food industry one analysis at a time.
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Company:
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Founded in 2003, FoodCalc® LLC develops online nutrition solutions for a healthier America. Our personal and professional motivation is to improve public health and to educate consumers by providing nutritional data that allows them to make more informed dietary selections. We have developed a range of cutting-edge web-based tools designed to do just that, in a revolutionary, unique and market-leading fashion.
-----Our goal is to create education and awareness at every point of purchase - grocery stores, restaurants, delis, school dinners etc. FoodCalc offers two innovative nutrition analysis applications: LabelCalc®, which serves small to medium-sized food manufacturers; and CookedApple®, which caters to restaurants and culinary professionals such as chefs, dieticians, food writers and recipe authors.
-----Our impressive client roster includes well-known brands such as leading international airline caterer Gate Gourmet, award-winning specialty cheese manufacturer Sartori Foods, fresh produce provider Fresh Express and soy yogurt producer WholeSoy & Co. CookedApple’s services have been utilized by top-tier food media such as Supermarket Guru® Phil Lempert and NBC’s The Today Show.
----Our current focus is on CookedApple, which successfully takes nutrition analysis to the next level by supporting restaurants who want to offer healthier dishes. When an estimated 65.2 percent of U.S. adults, age 20 years and older - and 15 percent of children and adolescents are overweight (30.5 percent are obese), I'd say there's not enough healthy alternatives available for people.
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Company Name:
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CookedApple
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Product Description:
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Nutrition analysis has historically been a difficult process since solutions were restricted to complex, expensive and time-consuming sources such as laboratories, CDs and consultants. FoodCalc has revolutionized the marketplace with the only online nutrition analysis tool that instantly generates accurate, up-to-date United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-compliant nutrition facts panels. We offer a convenient, one-stop solution that is very easy to use without any specialized training, complicated manuals, and expensive new software or elaborate computer set-up procedures.
Plus, we pride ourselves on offering the most knowledgeable and specialized customer service in the food industry to help our clients navigate the complicated arena of FDA rules. We constantly educate and advise clients regarding compliance regulations, current industry issues and developing food trends. In contrast, laboratories and consultants routinely charge exorbitant fees for this service, sometimes as much as $500 per answer to individual questions!
FoodCalc also makes new product/recipe development much easier, since clients can experiment with different ingredients online and create sample analyses and menus.
Furthermore, FoodCalc’s clients are not restricted to business hours – for greater convenience, they enjoy 24-hour access to our nutrition calculator and FDA facts panel design module.
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Difference:
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We give consumers the nutrition knowledge that is essential to their health and well-being. This is very relevant today since there is a lot of misunderstanding regarding the nuances of healthy/unhealthy foods. For instance, although salads and soups are perceived as healthy, this is not true if they are high in sodium and saturated fats. Our mission is to clear this confusion.
We’re in the process of designing an algorithm that will be displayed as symbols for restaurants to use on their menus and websites. We’re pleased to see that restaurants are taking the initiative to post nutritional values, but for the average diner ‘680 Calories’ means nothing. Our thought process is to design a market leading family of symbols to assist the individual when dining out.
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Passion:
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I’m passionate about health. Seven percent of the U.S. population has diabetes – that’s 20.8 million children and adults. There are just not enough healthy alternatives available for these people. When I go to a restaurant and see that the menu has no information to assist diners in making their selections, it inspires me to find new and innovative ways to help restaurants design healthier dishes.
My goal is to create education and awareness at every point of purchase - grocery stores, restaurants, delis, school dinners etc. I get frustrated when I see people trying to do the right thing, i.e. choosing the “light” salad without realizing it contains 1800 calories because of all the dressing, blue cheese and bacon bits. Other examples include buying “fat-free” yoghurt that is sky high in sugar, or selecting a “healthy” soup that actually contains 140% of daily saturated fat value.
FoodCalc is not just a faceless software company; we’re made up of humans who are in the food business because we care. We know that one of our tools can help restaurants and dieticians create a healthier recipe which will in turn help someone’s well-being. Plus, we help them do it easily and cost-effectively.
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Inspiration:
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That’s a tough one. The truth is, everyday there’s a fresh inspiration. Perhaps it’s one of our clients calling on the phone to thank us for saving their business, or perhaps it’s when I tell a school teacher that she can get instant nutrition analysis for the diabetic student in her cooking class by logging onto our system, or maybe it’s when I’ve been told in the past that I’ll never make it and it’s my inner voice that inspires me to prove them wrong.
I see inspiration for my work everywhere – when I walk outside and see the eight-year-old that weighs three times as much as his friends. Or in a grocery store, when I watch a loving mother unwittingly pick up cereal that is loaded with ten times the amount of sugar that a child should eat.
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Motivation:
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The client calls that are waiting for us when we come into the office, the emails thanking us for being so knowledgeable regarding FDA regulations, the eyes getting bigger and bigger as Alyson (our company’s registered dietitian) and I demo our software to teachers who work hard every day to educate children and parents about making healthy eating choices.
However, I think my main motivation is knowing that one day soon, CookedApple will make a difference in the life of American families – whether it’s in restaurants where a menu symbol will denote “A Healthy Choice” per our calculations, or a food manufacturer requesting our help to make a healthier soup, entree or dessert.
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Success:
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I created FoodCalc out of concern for a healthier America, since I wanted to make easily-accessible nutrition information available to everyone. I brought together my two core skills of nutrition expertise and IT development knowledge to design a technologically-advanced online solution that makes it easier and more affordable for companies to create healthier foods.
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Challenge:
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Not creating a plan from the beginning and sticking to it.
Your business direction will change as the market does. If there isn't a plan in place to protect the wondering thoughts you can go down blind alley after blind alley.
We have action lists, monthly plans and if we're off our plan then we sit down and ask ourselves: "Where to now? Plan A didn't work, but what about trying planning B"
It's amazing how much you can get done with a well thought-out plan.
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Advice:
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I can tell you to be motivated, passionate and dedicated (you most likely already know this otherwise you wouldn’t be starting your own venture). I can also tell you to ignore the negative and concentrate on the opportunity that presents itself when you think outside the box.
However, there’s absolutely no substitution for a well-thought out plan. It doesn't have to be perfect and it doesn’t have to be on fancy Business Plan 2.0 software - it just has to be true to your market, successfully identify and solve your client’s pain, and provide a roadmap for sustainable growth.
Keep throwing the ball around. Don’t be afraid to change things. If it’s not working the way you first did it, try another route.
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Website:
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www.foodcalc.com
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Calling:
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Is it anybody’s? I understood from day one that I would face inherent risks and the outcome of my work isn't always easy to see in the crystal ball. But I’m driven by my need to create a valuable offering for the health-conscious individual -
I know that I'll never be satisfied until I see my business driving changes in the food industry.
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Business Model:
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Both of our applications utilize a subscription-based model. Clients can either purchase a single label/recipe or an account with unlimited access. In addition, on a case-by-case basis, we license the application and offer our in-house services to clients for a fee.
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Pain:
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For the individual we want to assist and educate. There’s no point telling someone how many calories are in a dish if the lack of education about Caloric values is there. People do try to eat healthy but misleading label statements such as “low fat” but its sky high in Sugar makes it hard to understand what is good and what is bad. If we supplement the numbers with easy-to-read symbols that educate individuals at an instant what they’re eating and how many times a day/week they should eat it, we may have a chance to reverse some of the levels of obesity. Or at least prevent new cases.
For food manufacturers, you were dependent upon complex, expensive and time-consuming options such as laboratories, CDs and third-party consultants. We provide the necessary tools to make the Nutrition Labels themselves, so they never have to worry about waiting endlessly for someone else. The simple five-step procedure takes approximately 20 minutes (depending on the recipe and ingredients), and delivers immediate results.
With instant nutrition results we are able to support all of our clients’ desires to meet market trends, offer healthier options and even specify a target audience (such as diabetics).
You find out the nutrition information before you market it. Clients can be proactive when formulating their recipes. Within a matter of minutes restaurants and companies can re-think a formula to be better for you.
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