8.1 INTRODUCTION

Product development and launching are complex operations yet they are happening every day in every food company, from producer, processors and manufacturers to food service organisations and retailers. The food system changes all the time - as we find in the fascinating histories of food and its production.

Nowadays changes take place faster - it has taken many of us thousands of years to develop from a hunter-gatherer society to a supermarket society but some have done it in 30 years.

Food product development is not new, but what we are trying to do is to fit it into an information and technology age. The aim of the industrial age - to produce large quantities of foods in continuous processes, using marketing techniques to distribute those large quantities, and so providing basic energy needs at low prices - may not be the correct aim for the information and technology age.

If the aim is to provide a balanced and healthy diet, then the methods of food product development need to change - they need to be based on the knowledge that is now widely available. It is a knowledge-based technology not an empirical craft. It is a complete technology based on science, engineering, nutrition and the social sciences, with an understanding of the global technology of food production and food eating.

Product development requires knowledge of society and consumers as well as of the technical aspects of production and products.