EnTrends

on to work for Central Soya, a soy
processing company, in their
sensory evaluation laboratories after
college. While there, she specialized
in descriptive analysis, a
foundational science that wine
tasters often utilize. A few years
later, she went to work for Swift &
Co., where she coordinated one of
the most successful consumer
feedback programs of all time, the
Butterball Turkey Talk- Line.

Rodriguez left Swift & Co. in 1985 to
start her own company. The idea for
the company was an outgrowth of
downsizing that occurred in the food
industry in the late seventies and
early eighties. Rodriguez says, "The
first people to go were the people
who were conducting functional
product performance-the data
gatherers, many of whom were
scientists. They supported the
exploratory and applied science
groups."

When she first started, Rodriguez
worked out of a separate kitchen area
that she had built in her home,
designing products for various food
companies. One of the first products
she designed was a refrigerated
pasta sauce. Today, Rodriguez's
company is called Food Marketing
Support Services, Inc. (FMSS) and is
located in Oak Park, Illinois.

FMSS is a contractual research and
development company that services
the entire food industry. Rodriguez
and her team of 19 employees create
product designs and develop
collateral marketing support materials
for both the retail (supermarkets) and
food service (restaurant) industry.
The company currently has two
laboratory facilities

Another successful product was a
line of nutritional food designed for
women that FMSS collaborated on.
The line was advertised in the center
section of the very first issue of
Oprah Magazine.

FMSS is located in an area where
many of Rodriguez's employees have
lived for years. This was done very
deliberately so that a majority of the
employees would be close to the
grade school that their children
attended while growing up.
Rodriguez says, "We have been very
available to our children and flexible
and supportive of one another."

Now that Rodriguez's children, along
with those of her colleagues, have
grown up, FMSS's new focus has
been in building financial security for
its employees, many of which had
not worked before joining FMSS.
Therefore, a profit sharing program
has been put in place.

Rodriguez says that continuing
education and training for her
employees is also very important to
her. She sends each of her
employees to experimental design
courses, specialty food shows, and
every staff member has attended
culinary workshops in LaCrosse,
Wisconsin. "I really like being able to
offer creative growth opportunities
to our employees." In the seventeen
years that Rodriguez has been in
business, she has only had three
people leave the company. "I like to
think we provide a nurturing and
creative environment with an
emphasis on quality and
responsibility."

A typical workday for Rodriguez is
regimented and extensive. She is a
morning person, meetings are
scheduled during the first part of the
day. Rodriguez then allocates call
back time for clients between 2 P.M.
and 4 P.M. This allows her private
work time between 12 and 2 and then
4 and 7. Responsibilities include all
the proposal development and the
task of supervising any projects that

Rodriguez says that the most
successful food products, from
concept through commercialization, use
industrial ingredients and processes
from the beginning. Therefore, the
equipment and processes utilized at
FMSS parallel those used in industry.
In addition, what sets FMSS apart from
other companies in the same industry is
a fine-tuned sensory methodology that
is involved in analyzing all the
attributes of particular products.

What Rodriguez really loves, is the
ability to integrate science, culinary
studies, and technical performance into
her profession. Currently, her company
does a combination of 80 % innovative
and technical work and 20%
promotional work. These proportions
have fluctuated over the years based
on clients' needs.

While FMSS has a long list of
successful products in its portfolio, one
of the most successful was created for
an American popcorn manufacturer.
The product, theater style popcorn,
increased in sales by 23% after it was
redesigned and promoted by FMSS