What does innovation mean for research and development teams in today’s challenging, consumer-lifestyle-focused markets? A recent article in Food Engineering & Ingredients, entitled “No Easy Task: successful R&D in saturated markets,” asks this question and explores some of the available tools, resources and approaches that can assist product developers in successfully launching products.
Amongst the tools and resources covered are research provided by ingredient suppliers, independent institutes, the Prospector online database, and IT solutions, like product lifecycle management systems. The article takes a closer look at how expertise from ingredient companies like GoodMills and Beneo help food product manufacturers work more efficiently and avoid legislative hurdles.
And independent institutes like the KIN Institute offer up consulting services that are ideal for “small and medium-sized food manufacturers, who can profit from the comprehensive services on offer and can request project-specific assistance.” According to the article, small and medium companies do indeed require additional help. They are often overlooked by large ingredient manufacturers who are focused on larger clients.
Prospector is also listed as a relatively new and innovative tool for product developers to achieve “rapid conversion from initial idea into market-ripe product.” Industry expert Jill Frank tells Food Engineering & Ingredients, “My discussions with R&D formulators from different companies revealed again and again that researching ingredients is still a very time consuming process – and it’s incredibly frustrating because it takes valuable time away from product development.” Prospector helps to ease this pain point by listing technical information for thousands of food ingredients and giving formulators the ability to search by many different criteria including application and category.
Finally, the article discusses the use of PLM, or product lifecycle management, systems in the food industry. Highlighting Selerant, a provider of industry-specific software, the article points out that PLM systems help to “ensure there is only one single version of the truth across the product development lifecycle.”
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