Efficient New Product Development
HOW TO EFFICIENTLY DEVELOP NEW PRODUCTS
We are all under pressure to develop new products, to make changes to an existing product, maybe reduce the cost of a product or even adapt a product to fit a new process. It does not matter if you are in the dairy industry, baked goods industry, a meat processor, snack foods, the vegan market, confectionary or nutritional products, the need to perform product development is a fact of life in our modern food industry.
Processors are always time and resource constrained. So how can you meet expectations with limitations in time, ingredients, equipment, ideas and in some cases experience? You can turn to a partner company that is able to add resources where your organization may be limited.
In this newsletter, we will discuss what to look for in a product development partner to develop new products, how to plan for it, what an optimal plan could look like and what to expect.
DECIDE ON WHAT YOU WANT TO ACCOMPLISH
A great result starts with a clear idea of what you want to accomplish, your development goal needs to be clear. With a defined end point of success, it usually becomes quite simple to establish a path on how to get there.
Types of end goals for typical product development:
- a completely new product or product line that your company has not produced before
- a line extension adding new visuals, flavours or base proteins
- reducing the cost of an existing product
- learning and adopting new ingredient technology and its effects on food products
- adapting existing products to meet new regulations or markets
- cleaning up labels
Whatever your goal is, your development partner needs to have the capabilities to assist you in achieving success.
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT & TECHNICAL CAPABILITIES NEEDED
Key values a development partner needs to have
- Expertise, know-how and experience
- Quality products and ingredients
- Speed and quick turnaround times
- Flexibility through team effort
- Technical on-site support and troubleshooting
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
Once you have decided on a development partner that offers your company the best capabilities to enhance your project success, then it becomes time to establish a plan. This is usually performed in unison with the development partner and that the effort will have the best chance of success, you will need to have a clearly required end result.
You also require a list of development criteria or limitations that can be provided to your partner:
- ingredient limitations
- potential flavours
- regulatory limitations
- your processing equipment availability
- timeframe for samples and potential start of production date
- cost targets
- target market
With this information, you can then create a plan.
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS – QUALITY & SPEED
1. Project Goals – Marketing requirements, target pricing 2. Functional Properties – Protein matrix 3. Available Equipment – Plant equipment to produce product 4. Ingredient Constraints – Allergens, claims, natural, clean label 5. Project Timeframes – Sampling time, start of production date | Information Gathering |
6. Initial Samples – Hela Spice Canada produced for concept review 7. Revised Samples – Adjustments to initial samples | Development |
8. Approval – Customer authorization to proceed 9. Processing Instructions – Usage and process information for best product outcome 10. Nutritional – Nutritional fact tables of final product and blended unit 11. Ingredient Declaration – Ingredient list for final product and blended unit 12. Production Quotes – Finalized pricing established and ready to launch | Approval & Documents |
GREAT PARTNER, GREAT RESULTS
You now have a goal and a plan to get there. It is up to a jout development process to actually create the product. This where your Selection of a partner really needs to prove its worth. Af Hela Spice Canada, we have over 35 years of success developing new products with our customers. And we are not resting on our past successes Every year we continually improve our facility to increase our capabilities of servicing our customers’ needs better and more efficiently
Hela Spice Canada Research and Development Centre
- Fully staffed with a broad range of technical capabilities across a wide range of food products
- Experienced R&D specialists who combine creativity and science
- R&D centre that is very well equipped to develop most types of food products ranging from meat to vegan to baked goods to dairy
- Regulatory team that is knowledgeable in both Canadian and U.S. product regulations
- R&D team works with a sense of urgency to get your project completed on time, on budget and on target
Easy to work with and adds value! Hela Spice Canada R&D would be glad to assist.
TECHNICAL CAPABILITIES (EQUIPMENT AND FACILITIES)
The right tools for the job.
- Pilot plant dedicated to food processing
- Vacuum stuffer, brine injectors, bowl cutter and blender, meat grinders and slicers, vacuum tumblers, state of the art smoke house and combi ovens, deep fryers and grills, blast freezer, dough mixers, dough proofing capability, vacuum packaging equipment, walk-in coolers.
- Flexible and ready to use
- Broad ingredient library
- Customer engagement and collaborative development approach
WHY SHOULD YOU WORK WITH HELA SPICE CANADA?
- Over 35 years of experience in the Canadian and US marketplaces
- R&D team experienced in many different product categories
- Ability to create products based on customers’ ideas
- Ability to bring new product ideas and fully developed concepts for review
- Real plant production experience that enables Hela Spice Canada to create an easy to produce system of blends and raw materials including processing instructions. This makes processing simple for companies just entering a new category or the marketplace
- We can adapt procedures to best utilize available plant processing equipment
- We can provide finished product samples for review, as well as blended units for processing at our customers’ facility
WE WANT TO BE YOUR FOOD PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PARTNER
We recognize that there are many choices available today and that it can be difficult to decide on a development
partner. We want your experience in working with us to be simple and mutually beneficial.
We strive to:
- be efficient
- operate with urgency
- offer high quality ingredients
- provide strong technical capabilities
- collaborate with you
- and mostly we offer “creativity” and bring forth ideas and concepts to assist your product development team, to bring your projects in on time and on budget
Have a product idea? Tell us all about it and your search for the perfect ingredients. Find it all at Hela Spice. Let’s talk about your next best-seller.
