food product development

what is food product development?

Food product development is the process of bringing new products to market or enhancing existing products. This complex process involves many steps including brainstorming, selecting ingredients, taste testing, designing packaging, following regulations, planning a marketing strategy, and distributing the product.

During product development, food and beverage entrepreneurs strive to balance quality, efficiency, sustainability, and customer satisfaction.

who works in food product development?

Food entrepreneurs

Food entrepreneurs are the individuals (like you) who are starting or managing food- or beverage-based businesses. Their primary goal is to develop innovative solutions for tackling the various complex challenges facing the food industry.

Food entrepreneurs often have a range of responsibilities, including product development and testing of recipes and prototypes, as well as market and competition research. They’ll also often have to find manufacturers or packagers, identify potential funding sources, and manage the day-to-day business operations of the food business.

Co-Mans and Co-packers

Co-mans and co-packers are terms often used interchangeably to describe manufacturing partners that produce, package, and distribute products for their clients. Specifically, contract manufacturers are the food production facilities that make brands’ food and beverages, while co-packers are the facilities packaging the food products to be sold.

food scientists

Food scientists use their knowledge of chemistry, biology, and engineering to guarantee the safety, quality, and nutritional value of food–as well as create new food products that meet the changing needs and preferences of consumers.

They may also conduct studies for food sustainability, research ways to make food production more efficient, monitor safety protocols and enforce quality assurance protocols, test food, and more.

nutritionists

A nutritionist is someone who has earned a degree in nutrition and works in the food or health industries. Nutritionists are often added to the food development process early on to help you find the best ingredient for your target audience. They often help with product formulation, especially if the food product aims for anything organic, gluten-free, keto, etc.

Nutritionists will conduct research and work with the labeling staff to analyze numerical data, finalize the nutrition facts panel, and confirm the nutrient content of products. They can also collaborate with marketing teams to ensure that all nutrition-related advertising is factual.

food marketers

Marketers for food brands are responsible for promoting food and beverage products to build awareness and attract customers. They create, manage, and execute marketing strategies guided by consumer analysis, the R&D process, and branding goals.

Food marketers may also work on product design–including the packaging and labeling of a product–distribution, and new product development.

key stages of the food product development process

This process has changed the way businesses manage their product development and it can be helpful when creating a new product, so we used their ideas as a jumping-off point to create this guide.

We wrote this assuming you already have a larger team in place. If you are still a one- or two-person team, don’t worry, the same steps apply!

brainstorming

At this stage, anything goes, but do keep in mind the direction of the company and its current capabilities. Look for blue sky ideas that push the boundaries, but fit within the overall company mission. Pulse players in the surrounding environment and get early feedback on ideas that could be potential “winners” in the market.

Before moving on to the next stage, make sure the entire team is excited and passionate about the idea, including leadership!

Market Identification & Research

Market research and identification can give you an idea of your target audience and what food products are popular with the public. Market research often involves researching competitors’ products, and learning about consumers’ preferences, lifestyles, personalities, and opinions.

Understand what else is out there and who your competition is. Will this be a viable product in an already crowded space? If so, what differentiates you from the competition and is that enough to bring it to market?

Know the product inside and out, and what makes it better than the rest. How will the consumer respond?

This is a critical stage and doing your homework is a must! Ensure the product passes with two thumbs up before moving through to the development stage.

conceptulization and formulation

Build a timeline that sets you up for success. Incorporate all functions of the business (Brand/Sales, Product (R&D), Sourcing, Production & QA) and ensure all milestones are fully vetted and achievable. At this point, your project plan becomes a tool for the entire team to follow across the finish line.

The process of conceptualization and formulation involves obtaining ingredients and creating a few versions of the product in small quantities. This is also known as the prototyping stage and is done either in the company’s test kitchen or in a test kitchen facility outside the company.

Begin with bench-top samples, start with the basics to work up something simple, and then move on from there. As you begin to develop and formulate, understand your financial targets. Try to work within them, but never compromise taste for cost at this point in the timeline. You want to develop a product that has that yum factor, and you only want to put the best of the best in front of your targeted accounts.

The main goal of this stage is to find and combine ingredients in the right proportions to create the perfect food product recipe with the desired taste and texture. While you may already have a recipe, having a formula is just as important. Being able to turn your food recipe into a formula to quickly and precisely increase or decrease your production without compromising the quality is essential.

The formulation must also meet food safety regulations and nutrition guidelines to ensure a safe and nutritious product. Food scientists and nutritionists will examine the nutritional value of food, explore new food sources, and research methods to make processed foods safe and nutritious. Nutritionists focus on ensuring that the food product meets all the requirements to be considered healthy and nutritious, while food scientists work to create a formula that is edible and has a viable shelf-life.

finalizing a product

The next step is perfecting the product. This entails optimizing the taste, texture, and look of the product. The previous testing and formulation stage allowed you to gather outside feedback. You and your food product development partners can now implement any changes required to finalize your food or beverage.

Each change may require some additional testing–and more adjustments–so make sure to include that in your timeline.

create packaging and labeling

Designing a label requires both careful attention to detail and creativity. This stage can happen during various phases of developing your food and beverage. Make sure to work closely with marketing to ensure the artwork and design of the product speaks to the target market.

Create a survey with different design options and send it out to existing customers or influencers in the industry. Figure out which designs resonate with the customers (post coming on packaging design soon!).

The packaging of a food product is a major part of its marketing. This will build the food company’s brand and is one of the first things that consumers and retailers will observe. The packaging’s color, design, and logo significantly influence how the product is perceived in the market. It must be attractive enough to stand out from the other products on the shelves. As artwork nears closer to the final design, submit it for a cross-department review. This will catch all errors in the design before going to print.

You’ll also need to consider all the factual information that will need to be included, as well as any branding.

work with a co-man or co-packer

Working with a co-packer can come at any point in the process. You may need turnkey manufacturing services, which would require a manufacturing partner in the beginning stages of food development. Or, you may have your product and packaging all set and are seeing significant sales before you realize you’ll need to work with a copacker to help scale production.

No matter what point of food product development you’re at, the right co-man or co-packer must be able to meet your product’s needs and grow with you and your product.

Once you have the right co-packer lined up you can move into full-length production trials. It’s important for you and your co-packer to understand the goals of the trial since these trials will mimic a full production run, giving you an idea of the product’s true look, taste, and feel.

Retrial as needed, until the team is comfortable with all aspects of the product. This will be your last shot at changing any attributes before going to market.

determine pricing

After finishing trials, do a deep dive to understand your product costs. Pricing your food can get complicated because ideally, you should be able to cover your expenses while still offering an attractive price point to customers. Expenses include everything from your raw ingredients to production to even the time you spend creating the product.

As you have moved through the stage-gate process, your product will have changed significantly. Make sure you are pulling the trigger on a product that will bring you financial success. Ensure your co-packer is in line with these costs, as they will be heavily involved in managing these over time.

It’s also helpful to determine the minimum price you’re willing to sell your product for while achieving the desired profit margin to keep your business running. After that, start testing the market to decide how much consumers will pay for your item.

Rally the sales team one last time before launch. Have them provide final feedback on a launch forecast and a 12-month look forward.

consumer testing and analysis

Consumer testing is a common practice in the food industry. Through this feedback, companies can learn if a product is acceptable to consumers and if further development is required. This testing involves looking at the physical aspects of the food, such as its texture and consistency, as well as its sensory features, like its flavor and aroma.

Consumer testing can take place during multiple stages of the food development process, from the initial market research to recipe formulation and package design. Some companies even launch the food product for a limited time to see how it performs with an audience.

Once the testing stage is approved, the company will take on financial liabilities, ordering materials for launch against this forecast. Review product trials, COGs, and final forecasts with the executive team before going into the launch phase!

food product marketing

Develop an initial sales and marketing plan and understand who the targeted sales accounts will be. Begin executing those plans, getting preliminary specs, flavors, and designs in front of buyers.

Start selling early, since most customers work around 9-12 month reset dates. If an opportunity is missed, don’t expect your product to be on shelf at the time of reset.

Consider taking advantage of today’s social climate by investing in social media. Announce the upcoming product through popular social media channels or work with food product influencers to spread the word in advance of your launch.

creating distribution networks

A food distribution channel involves negotiators moving food items from producers to shoppers. Those involved in food distribution are responsible for taking care of the transportation and storage of food while it goes through the supply chain process.

Many food distributors use warehouses for temporary storage, while others use refrigerated trucks to deliver food products to foodservice operators.

There are different types of food distribution channels which are wholesalers, cash and carry distributors, specialty distributors, and broad-line distributors.

Be sure to think about how much you can produce. You’ll need to find outlets that match the amount of product you can create. Sometimes, small specialty stores with only a few locations can buy all of your initial output.

The shops carrying your product need to make a profit from these sales. The amount of money stores expect to make will vary depending on the type of store. Consider these margins when calculating the price the customer will have to pay.

You can use that data to narrow your search and make the best decision regarding your food product.

product launch

The launch should encompass all of the work that has been completed throughout the life of the project. The product should be ready to hit the shelf. Each department will have completed the following: Sales have lined up buyer and the product will be ready to scale at launch. Marketing has built an extensive campaign to back the launch and gain product awareness.

R&D and Finance have built a tasty, quality, and profitable product. Creative has designed a product (and packaging) that will connect with the consumer. Operations & Quality is in place to execute initial production and hit the planned start of shipment.

videos on food product development

A Day In The Life - Research & Development Chef

A research and development chef creates new flavours and food products based on consumer trends and preferences. Meet Patrick Clifford, a Principal Research and Development Chef at PepsiCo. Patrick tells us about his job to create some of our favourite snacks to be sold in supermarkets worldwide, as part of the EIT Food ‘Day in the Life’ video series.

The predicted labour shortage in the agrifood industry by 2030 coupled with the lack of careers information young people receive on food and farming roles has driven the development of this series. The agrifood industry has a variety of exciting jobs on offer throughout the food value chain. As such, this video series aims to inspire young audiences to consider a career within the agrifood sector.

We recommend this video for teenagers and young adults to learn more about a career as a research and development chef.

Innovating New Food Products

Innovation is the backbone of the food industry and includes innovating different types of foods as well as enhancing different nutritional qualities in the same foods. It requires a deep understanding of food nutrition processing and how products will be taken to market. As part of New Zealand’s innovation ecosystem, Plant & Food Research provides access to R&D for small and medium companies and collaborates with universities and research institutes across the country.

Developing A New Food Product: From Kitchen To Shelf

Harvest Public Media visits Iowa State University's Food Science department's capstone class - Food Development and Human Nutrition. Students have one semester in which they conceive a new food product for mass distribution and consumption. Students must develop the product, scale production up to industry standards for mass production, test their product on the shelf and with consumers and design packaging.

Developing A New Food Product: The Art + Technique Of Food Science

Nestlé R&D lead on the products and packaging of the future

CNBC's Julianna Tatelbaum gets special rare access to Nestlé's research and development center in Lausanne, Switzerland, where scientists are working to increase sustainability across the entire portfolio.

We Built Olipop: A $20 Million A Month Soda Company In 5 Years

Olipop has skyrocketed to prominence in the multibillion-dollar soda market with its healthy prebiotic soda. Leading the way to this success are the founders of Olipop, Ben Goodwin and David Lester. Learn how they turned a $100,000 investment into a multimillion-dollar soda company.

How I Built KIND Into A Multibillion-Dollar Business

What does it take to transform an idea into a multibillion-dollar business? It starts with passion, perseverance, and most of all—kindness. Daniel Lubetzky has always believed that businesses are a vessel for social change and that each entrepreneur pursing their vision has a higher purpose to bring people together.

Tour of the Food Centre's Product Development Suite and Services

The Food Centre is a leader in developing innovative food products and offers a variety of services for food and ingredient development. With projects ranging from single products to a diverse product line, formulations from concept or reformulation of existing products, we can help. Our clients are at various stages in their business, from start-up to multi-nationals.

in conclusion

A brand new product is entirely new to the market or the company manufacturing it. It’s become increasingly difficult to come up with food products that don’t already exist, let alone create one that consumers will actually adopt in the long run.

Most food product development centers on refining, iterating, and improving existing items to open up new avenues in terms of audience and marketing.

There’s a real cost conundrum when creating food products. Margins can be small and if prices of ingredients change, this could have huge consequences for a food brand. Make sure you test enough scenarios and do thorough pricing research to find the sweet spot for your price point.

Pro tip: as useful as it can be during your consumer testing, remember that pricing testing can be an imprecise science. There’s nothing quite like looking at a product in a store, alongside other products and in the context of that shoppers economic circumstances—answering a price testing survey online will always lack a bit of that context.

Consumers are more critical than ever, and finding sustainably sourced ingredients can also be a plus for times when your key ingredients are hard to get by. Make sure you carefully select the right ingredients and the right suppliers, by keeping an eye on the future and the environmental impact.

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