Creating New Foods. The Product Developer's Guide - The product development project in the company

Certain product characteristics are defined in the product design specifications. The technologist designs, makes and tests the product against these product standards. Product design specifications cannot be rigidly maintained: there has to be the opportunity for creative design of the product. Product concept engineering continues in the design stage, as more information is gathered to define the product characteristics quantitatively.

The raw materials and the processing conditions are investigated as the product is developed. Important considerations during this product design/process development stage are the test procedures used; these are related to the qualities required by the customer/consumer and not to arbitrarily chosen standards. As early as possible in the development, some of the future buyers and users of the product use and eat some of the product prototypes. It is comparatively inexpensive to change a formulation or a product form at this stage, but expensive if done during the plant trials and even more so during final production. Therefore, it is important to experiment as much as possible with the product and the process at this stage.

The basic packaging design is started at this time as it is usually an integral part of a food product, giving protection and use. This is also related to the proposed physical distribution, including storage and transport, which really is a continuation of the processing design. The product prototypes are tested under the conditions expected in the physical distribution so that the shelf-life of the product can be predicted.

Finally in product design, preliminary production trials are organised and the final product prototype put through a large consumer test so that the level of technical success and market acceptability can be predicted.

At the end of this stage, there is an assessment by senior management of the product, the target market, the compatibility with production and marketing, the predicted capital investment, the time/costs for the remainder of the project, the risk of failure in the next stage and the continuing harmony with the business strategy. The decision - to go on to product commercialisation, a much more expensive stage - is an important one.