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.: Issue in Food Product Development :. |
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Power
Lunch to Power Launch -
When tailoring products
for a multi-market rollout, chefs and others responsible for new product
formulations have many variables to consider, not the least of which is a
product’s flavor profile.
Rising
Stars of the Food Industry -
Inspired by her own
children, Fran Lent started a company that would offer healthy eating
options for children too old for baby food. As Lent recalls, “When my
children were babies, I was giving them a natural and organic baby food
called Earth’s Best. After that, I did not feel like there was anything I
could give my kids that I would feel good about and that they would want to
eat.”
Reducing Costs
While Improving Quality
-
Products not only have to taste good to consumers, they have to add bulk to
the manufacturer’s bottom line. Since these two goals often appear in
diametric opposition, product designers need to know how to effectively
balance the best of both worlds.
Feast for
the Eyes - Part One -
A product's appearance contributes markedly to its overall
acceptability. Also essential to new product design is a combined effort by
technical, culinary and marketing groups, with each sector offering
solutions as to what makes an appealing product.
Feast for
the Eyes - Part Two -
Products must have the same visual effects on a prospective
customer three months into the deep freeze as they do prepared the first
morning of a consumer test. How does the designer ensure the product can
perform after storage?
The Seven Deadly
Sins of Product Development
-
New-product development is a lot like raising kids. Nothing works for sure,
but some things work a lot better than others…
Cutting Time to a
Successful Product Launch -
No matter
what the company size, project management is about more than just using the
right software program to produce nice-looking implementation plans for the
project team.
Finding
Innovation for Product Development
- Many believe that innovation can’t be managed. While it’s impossible to
predict exactly where the first spark that leads to a significant
breakthrough may originate, an organization can manage and develop the
process of innovation.
Consumer Tests
and Product Design -
Product
designers get inextricably involved with marketing people and consumer tests
while producing new products. As part of the interface between development
and the consumer, consumer tests are the diagnostic tools that gauge if the
product and the concept are "on target" during the entire process.
Big Success Start
From Small Beginnings -
Every
food product goes through some form of scale-up. Admittedly, laboratory
design may not yield the perfect formula or provide all of the processing
answers, but creative, conscientious laboratory efforts can ease the
eventual (read: inevitable) product scale up.
Piloting a New
Product -
In the process of constantly generating new brands or line
extensions, food processors stay competitive by juggling the
investment/production equation.
Obsession for
Detail: Sensory Sample Preparation
- An oversight or mistake will turn the work of the sensory analyst to
naught and invalidate thousands of dollars worth of research. Experimental
planning for sensory testing is best done in collaboration with a sensory
statistician.
Where Has All The
R&D Gone? -
Companies are cutting back
on R&D because it's hard to justify the expense of basic research - it
doesn't actually produce a product, so non-scientists don't see its value.
Then, because technology development has been essentially halted, the new
products that do come out are pretty lame…
Multivariate
Analysis Improves Product Design Efficiency
- Generating
data is easy. What's needed is a better understanding of what the data
really means - that is, a tool to find significant meaning in the mountains
of data we already have. One tool an increasing number of food scientists
are turning to in order to help them get the most useful information from
their data is multivariate analysis. It has proven to be one way to work
smarter, faster and more efficiently.
Experimental
Design: Stacking the Experimental Deck
-
Experimental design provides the ability to determine how systems work,
allowing the scientist to correct undesirable product changes with a high
degree of success.
Project Planning
- Removing the Confusion of Product Design
-The amount
of planning is directly proportional to the technical complexity of the
product - less if the product is a line extension, more if it is a
complicated project requiring new technology development. Whatever the level
of complexity, designing new products requires balancing the key elements of
time, dollars and expertise.
Devising a
Formula for Successful Reformulations
- Reasons
behind the decision to reformulate fall into two general areas: low return
on investment and declining sales, especially if eroding market share is due
to competition. Still, a properly focused and executed reformulation can
breathe life and profit into a sagging franchise.
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