The Process of New Food Product Development

Before you jump into the process of food product development, it’s important to understand how it all begins and why it’s important. Let’s begin by focussing on the process of food product development in the UK.

Screening 

Screening is all about constraints that are required for the development of new food products. Line extensions have major constraints, me-too products have fewer constraints and new-to-the-world have a greater amount of constraints. The feasibility study is done for product specifications and the objective is to determine whether a new product idea is profitable or whether its manufacturing is technically feasible? If these questions are unanswered, new product development will be discontinued. With the best food product development consultant in the UK, the screening process becomes brighter and easier.

Technical Feasibility 

This requires the study and assessment of both external and internal factors. Analysis of – 

• • Adept staff, technology, and equipment

• • Availability of suppliers of ingredients 

• • The necessity to develop new products/equipment 

• • Money and time requirements 

• Time and cost to develop quality products with innovative processes 

And the constraints could be –

• • Processing 

• • Financial 

• • Product 

• • Marketing 

• • Company 

• Ethical and legislative requirements

Financial Feasibility

It’s the determination of a break-even point that’s based on costs of marketing, development, production, delivery, and the volumes of sales that are required to make a profit. Predicting the realistic level of sales is essential. Everything from market demand to market shares and competing products is considered. Constraints in financial feasibility can be – 

• • Recipe

• • Skills

• • Equipment 

• • Ingredients 

• • Time 

• • Competitors 

• • Distribution 

• Market 

Idea Generation 

Most of the time, new products in the market arise from research and good feedback can easily provide insights into the market requirements and gaps in the product ranges. Product development involves all the crucial changes to adapt to the manufacturing resources. There’s a mission statement that relates to the organization’s goals and policies that further provides guidance to the new food product development, processing methods, and level of training. When you talk about ideas, these can come from recipe books, media items, or brainstorming sessions. Food product development in the UK will make the best use of these phases for outstanding results. 

Market Research

It’s a process that assesses the likelihood of consumer acceptance of all the products that are considered worthy to continue the staging process. It helps in interviewing a sufficient number of consumers who are statistically meaningful. Sampling is done for the same. You can go for non-probability or probability sampling depending on your market research requirements. The marketing information system includes –

• • Gathering ideas of internal organization data including sales and accounting records. 

• • Market intelligence regarding retail sales and prices. 

• • Market research using secondary and primary data. 

• Promotional strategies and their effectiveness currently in the marketplace. 

The market research process includes consumer market features like demographics that include gender, age, family size, economic status, geographical points of sale, like rural, suburban, urban, remote and so much more. Market research is helpful in indicating the success or failure of the product. Discontinuation may be because the market is too small or there exist multiple competitors or development costs too high and other things. The research and development process gets smoother if the quality assurance and quality control are met and the right ingredients are used to ensure the quality of factory output. Get ready for the process with the most amazing food product developer in the UK!

Development of a Prototype 

Testing happens when commercial batches of the prototype become available for the deeper market evaluation and target audience. There are extensive market and product researchers that identify whether the ingredients will perform well under all the manufacturing conditions or not. Any modifications are important in this step. Testing of a product prototype in a new form that can be felt and tasted in terms of consumer evaluation and subjected to laboratory testing along with modification. There are processes like sensory testing, Michael Tell focus group interaction, small-scale product launches, financial risks related to the products, and so on. 

To briefly paraphrase, with the help of the above steps you can easily sort out the food product development process in the UK. So, what are you waiting for? Make the best use of all the information that’s provided to you and get ready for the golden opportunity!