Food Product Development - Chapter 1 - Keys to new product success and failure

1.1 Food products - the basis of innovation

What are food products? What are new food products?

Everyone agrees that a food is material eventually consumed by humans to satisfy physiological and psychological needs, but the food company and the consumer can have quite different descriptions of the food product presented for sale. The company defines a basic functional product to which it has added packaging, aesthetics, brand, price and advertising, to give a total company product. The consumer describes the product as a bundle of benefits, relating its tangible and intangible attributes to their needs, wants and behaviour. For a basic food product, for example flour, the description can be simple and pragmatic, but for products such as a meal at a restaurant, it can be complex and emotional. The company defines a new product as having some difference in the basic functions and aesthetic presentation; but consumers compare it with the 'old' product and competing products and if they recognise a difference then it is a new product to them (Schaffner et al., 1998). Product development is all about reconciling these two points of view.

There are many thousands of food products and they can be grouped together into product categories according to:

food system position;

market they serve;

processing technology used to manufacture them;

basic common characteristics such as nutrition and health;

product platforms;

level of innovation.

Grouping products is a useful method of developing new product ideas using techniques such as product platforms, product morphology and gap analysis. One can identify spaces for new developments, methods of product improvement and indeed innovation related to changes in food system or technology.