Kraft’s New App Brings Recipes to iPhones and iPods

Kraft Foods is making it easier for busy consumers to plan meals, search recipes and even locate the nearest store through a new downloadable application for iPhone an iPod touch users.

The application, iFood Assistant, was developed in conjunction with interactive agency Genex, a division of Meredith Corp. It is available on the Apple App Store for 99 cents and is billed as the first of its kind for a food or consumer packaged goods company. Similar Web applications link users with external Web sites, where iFoodAssistant is considered a resident program installed on any iPhone or iPod touch.

“People’s lives are becoming increasingly complex and they’re looking for relevant content and solutions to make their lives easier,” Ed Kaczmarek, director of innovation, new services at Kraft, said in a statement.

More than 7,000 recipes can be found on the app. Once the recipe is chosen, iFoodAssistant creates an itemized shopping list, the ingredients can be viewed by which grocery isle they are located in and can be deleted as they go in the shopping cart. The recipes and shopping lists can be shared with others. Another click locates the most convenient store and promotional offers if available. Video cooking demonstrations can be viewed or shortcuts located like the “Dinner Tonight” and “Recipe of the Day” sections.

Kraft designed the application to include partners that provide relevant content or tools. At www.iFoodAssistant.com, people can also download the application and check out how it all works by watching videos on how to find the recipes, how the store locator works, how to make a personal recipe box and other information.

Kraft Foods the world’s second largest food company, has annual revenues of about $40 billion and sales in more than 150 countries.

Early this year, KraftFoods.com was re-launched to focus more on occasions and daily challenges, like entertaining or dinnertime. Special sections were developed such as “Budget Dinners” with options to prepare meals for a reasonable price and a shopping bag tool called “One Bag, Five Dinners,” where users can generate a shopping list with all the ingredients needed for five dinners. Message boards were moved to the forefront so visitors could more easily exchange recipes and chat about meal times.

The tools are “all different ways for people to save time or money or both,” said Basil Maglaris, a spokesperson for Kraft Foods. “People are leading more wireless lives so that’s the opportunity for us to provide food ideas, and more interactive experiences.”

At a new site this year people register to learn about new products and receive occasional offers and other information. This site is built on social media tools like profile creation and message board posting.

Kraft is also sponsoring the Cooking Zone at Yahoo Groups and has a group called Kraft Foods Made Simple.

“The idea is to provide people with communities where they can exchange their points of view and learn more about what we have to offer,” Maglaris said.