By Sharon Omahen
University of Georgia
Green and purple ketchup, mayonnaise from a squeezable bottle,
soup you can eat while driving your car. New food products like
these aren’t just flights of fancy.
“Food product development is critical to the survival and
growth of the companies within our vast and vigorously
competitive, $800
billion American food industry,” said Aaron Brody. “Probably a
quarter of a million different food products are available, with
15,000 to 20,000 or so new items introduced annually into the
crowded mix to try to satisfy consumer desires.”
Brody is an adjunct food science and technology professor with
the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and
Environmental Sciences. He shared his knowledge of product
development and packaging with food industry managers during a
one-day short course June 24.
The course was organized by the Food Product Innovation and
Commercialization Program, formed by UGA researchers.
New product development changing
“In the past, and to a degree, even today, to develop new food
products, we went to the kitchen or laboratory or pilot plant and
whipped up a recipe, which was sent to marketing to sell,” Brody
said. “Or we assembled a group of creative people to brainstorm
ideas that were sent to the lab. Or we waited for farmers to grow
a new crop.”
Today’s food industry leaders have to know the consumers’
wants,
create the right packaging and generate a profit, he said.
John Lord, a food product development and marketing researcher
from St. Joseph’s University and member of the FOODPI&C
program,
said the high number of new products announced each year is
actually much smaller than it seems.
“There may be 20,000 new UPC codes … each year, but a very,
very small number of these are really new to the world,” he said.
“Many are just new adaptations of existing products or temporary
or seasonal products like Oreos with a different color
icing.”
Few new products really new
Of each year’s new products, Lord said, only one-third will be
considered successful in two years.
“This is called ‘product churn,’” he said. “The industry puts
a
lot of products out there and waits to see which ones stick.”
Why do so many fail? What drives shoppers to buy new
foods?
“Consumers want products that taste good, are good for them
and
are convenient,” Lord said. “Thanks to the food industry, we now
have cereal bars with milk in them so we can now eat the
equivalent of a bowl of cereal while driving a car.”
Successful new foods are being developed, too, to reduce the
time
we spend cooking. “Look at bowl meals,” he said. “We can now heat
it up, eat it and throw away the dishes. If you have a plastic
spoon handy, there are no dishes to wash.”
Indulgent products are another trend on the rise. “Ben and
Jerry’s ice cream and Hershey’s upscale chocolate products are
being sold so we can reward ourselves for living stressful
lives,” he said.
Some products before their time
Lord said some new products are introduced before their time.
Cereal with freeze-dried fruit, for example.
“In 1965, the technology wasn’t good enough,” he said. “By the
time the fruit was ready to eat, the cereal was too soggy.
Thirty-seven years later these cereals taste great and the fruit
attracts consumers because it adds a health notion.”
Mark Thomas, a research chef with MDT, Ltd., and a
FOODPI&C
member, was a member of the team that made the hugely successful
decision to add baby-back ribs to the Chili’s restaurant
menu.
“If you can’t get it to the consumer, it’s not a new product,”
Thomas said. “To be successful, you have to be sure consumer
needs are met during the entire development process.”
Thomas compared new foods to a human life.
“You have to be willing to support the baby from birth to
adolescence and on to maturity,” he said. “And if it dies, you
perform an autopsy, evaluate what went right and what went wrong
and what you could have done better. And you get ready for the
next baby.”
More than 30 food industry representatives attended the UGA
new
food products development seminar.
