3.5.4 Food service development

In food service, there are three participants - the food manufacturer/food processor, the food service organisation and the customers - and two product development processes - the food manufacture and the food service.

The two product development processes may be working in parallel or in sequence.

The supplier's product development usually follows the standard sequence of the industrial product development process; in food service, product development is a major part of menu planning. The food service product involves the dishes offered and the service delivery of those dishes in the dining/eating environment. Both the food service operator and the customer want service as well as the product. Therefore food service development is a complex interweaving of product and service, through two development projects.

There may even be another commercial customer between the food service and the customer; for example, in flight catering there are food manufacturers, flight caterers, the airlines and then the passengers. In developing new in-flight meals, the airlines regard new meals as service development, the catering services as service and product development, the food manufacturers as product development with some service development. Some new developments for in-flight meals are shown in Box 3.2 to illustrate the variety of development taking place.

Box 3.2 Developing new products and services for in-flight catering Product: Meal components Delta Daily Foods are a medium-sized food manufacturing company based in the Netherlands producing food items for both flight catering and super- markets. They have developed a system for freezing individual vegetable and meat products, moulded in specific shapes that can be assembled by hand and even robot machinery into main dishes for in-flight trays. Service: British Airways 'well-being in the air' concept Based on extensive research into food trends, nutrition, macrobiotic diets and the oriental art of well-being, this takes the form of an advice pack for passengers on how to prepare for air travel, what to eat and do on board, and ideas concerning exercises and relaxation. Meals are designed to blend with this concept. Process: Materials-handling system SAS Service Partners and British Airways central production unit at London's Heathrow airport applied technology developed in the motor industry to flight catering equipment handling. This entails moving food trolleys on hooks suspended from a moving beltway from the unloading dock, through the wash-up area and into storage. Software: Electronic reproduction of meals Abela/Gate Gourmet developed a software package that produces electronic reproduction of images for catering. This system stores detailed recipes and dish specifications, along with full-colour digital menu pictures originally captured on video camera. The coded, kitchen-proof, keyboard enables chefs to access any menu or dish and enter the number of meals required. The system then computes the amount of each ingredient required and provides full specification and digital image on a colour printer. Source: After Jones, 1995.

Food service development is usually based on menu planning, which has five major aims: creative, nutritional, marketing, economic and logistical (Roberts, 1997). This food design is strongly aesthetic, but there is also a price direction and a serving need.

Today, there is an increasing inclusion of nutrition into the design aims. The basis for the new development is the design of dishes, which are combined to give the new menu or in the case of institutions a whole meal structure (Ngarmsak, 1983; Roberts, 1997). In some instances such as takeaways, there is only one dish to be designed, although this has to be related to the overall takeaway product mix. Usually there is an existing menu, which can be improved by adding new dishes, or which can be used as part of a new menu.

Development of new dishes is the basis for the menu change as shown in Fig. 3.20.

Fig. 3.20 Menu planning for new menu (Source: After Roberts, 1997).

The supplier can give the new ingredient to the menu planner and let them take this through their PD Process of ideas, idea screening, recipe formulation, trial dishes, trial dish evaluation, standard recipe, menu design, menu trials, menu launch, or they can work with the menu planner in developing the meal ingredient or meal part.

This combined product development occurs in stages as shown in Fig. 3.21.

Fig. 3.21 Developing meal components and menus.
( - click to enlarge)

These are the overall activities in the two interacting PD Processes, but of course there are variations caused by the different situations.

The menu planner in the PD Process can be the product development manager for a large chain, the owner of a restaurant or the senior chef managing a hotel, restaurant or institutional kitchen. The wants and the abilities of the menu planner are important in planning the activities in the PD Process.

Two other important groups are the consumers and the providers of information to the menu planners, such as other suppliers and their professional associates. The management of the food service company strongly influence the overall product and service, particularly as regards price and choice of supplier.

There are two important relationships: supplier/food service and food service/consumer. In designing an ingredient, the supplier has to bring these two relationships together, preferably by conducting research with both consumers and food service outlets; or if this is not possible, by obtaining consumer information from the food service company. Product development activities in food service are also influenced by:

     menus - menu analysis, menu planning, menu changes (type,
        timing - periodical, continuous);

     food service company - outlet type, meal periods, size, development
        capability, skills and knowledge, needs, wants;

     supplier company - type, size, development capability.

The products from the supplier to the food service include basic ingredients, meal components, partially prepared-not cooked meals, and pre-cooked, complete meals. The benefits of new products that the menu planner/chef usually identifies are in the areas of ease of use, safety, prestige of product and reliability. Two fundamental needs are value and risk; increased value of the dish or decreased costs is wanted, but risks of failure and indeed food poisoning are always present.

The benefits identified by chefs at the product concept and product development stage for two meat products in the hotel and restaurant market in Melbourne, Australia, are shown in Table 3.10 (Roberts, 1997).


Table 3.10 Product benefits identified by menu planners for two meat products

Percentage of respondents scoring highly   Tender beef in thin slices Fricadelle   Product concept Product prototype Product concept Product prototype Save time 94 81 61 70 Versatility 68 68 42 40 Value for money 65 58 55 27 Quality 26 55 23 23 Need 55 32 39 17

Source: From Roberts, 1997.


The study compared a meat product with little processing (thin beef slices) with a meat product with moderate processing (fricadelle, an alternative to the beefburger). The sliced beef was a basic ingredient, and the fricadelle was already prepared and only needed grilling. The chefs were looking for ingredients that would save time but also could be used for different dishes. In this situation with chefs selecting the products, beef slices were favoured over the fricadelle. It was interesting to see that there was a change in attitude between the written product concept and the actual prototype. The quality of the beef slices increased, but that of the fricadelle went down.

The risks were also studied in these two products. The important risks identified by the chefs were increased staff costs, food safety risk, too high use of one piece of equipment, increased storage capacity required, high financial losses, chef skills vulnerability, poor peer recognition and failure of the product in the marketplace.

The stages in the adoption process used by menu planners are product awareness and interest, product concept, prototype trial and product adoption (including post-purchase evaluation).

For awareness and interest, direct word-of-mouth communication between developer and adopter is important. Concept evaluation is a vital stage in the new product development process for satisfactory development of product specifications. The decision to try the new product is often based on cost, quality, need to save time and risk involved. The quality is often related to the consumers' needs as well as the chef's needs, so consumer testing is necessary. It may be organised by the supplier so that the food service has evidence on how the product is accepted by the consumers, but of course the chefs will also trial it themselves, probably in a blackboard menu. Product adoption by the food service company may not be systematic, but a case of trying it in the kitchen and giving opinions on the dish's acceptability and the cooking benefits and problems.