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96% Fat Free Carrot Cake California Cake & Cookie Ltd is a speciality bakery business, based in Glasgow since 1985. Originally it produced American-style and traditional British cake slices. Its main customers are the large retail multiples, independent food shops and catering outlets. Supermarket 'own label' products are also manufactured by California Cake & Cookie Ltd and distributed throughout the UK. In June 1996, they launched an innovative range of low fat cakes of which the 96% Fat Free Carrot Cake is one. The company is keen to foster innovation and holds weekly meetings as a way of generating and supporting innovative ideas. The product development department and the test bakery have introduced many new products and have earned the reputation for innovation. The company now employs about 85 people, and the annual turnover target is £2,500,000 and rising. About the product About the design and
development process The company decided to take this idea forward because it wanted to move into the market for healthy eating and to be a market leader with a desirable product. In 1996, the company realised that to get a competitive edge, on the large cake manufacturers who dominate the full fat cake sector, it would need to come up with something quite different that would not be easy to copy. Discussions outside the company, with colleagues who were researching a high fibre yogurt, resulted in the discovery that one of the materials being investigated could also be used as a fat replacement. So the company began to work on finding out how much of the fat content of the cake recipe could be replaced and whether this would provide a solution. The ingredient is a naturally occurring starch that has some of the characteristics of fat. The starch is derived from a specific strain of barley and is patented. The nature of the fat replacement material was a key factor in the development process. This controlled everything since the objective was to produce a cake which 'tasted like the real thing'. The sugar content has remained the same as the original recipe. Aesthetic factors were critical, such as the texture, taste, aroma and appearance, because cake eating is an indulgence in the mind of the consumer and these attributes determine how pleasurable this sensory experience will be. The sensory attributes would need to convince consumers so that they would buy it. About the manufacture Raw materials are sourced from standard bakery ingredient suppliers, except the fat replacement which comes from a special mill in the Borders of Scotland. This is the only non-standard cake ingredient used, the others being flour, sugar, water, icing decoration, flavours. Traditional baking methods are used so that the products retain the 'hand-made -home-made' look. The manufacturing processes used do not differ greatly from traditional cake making. All the raw ingredients have to be checked as part of the quality assurance procedures. Production on a typical day is 60 racks with each rack holding 18 pans. Each pan will produce 168 pieces. About the marketing It was important to get the price point right for the product. The retail selling price must not carry a premium. The recommended retail price (RRP) for the snack pack is 69p. This meant looking at the marketing techniques that would be used. The pack design was submitted to consumer research and the results of this led to the current pack design. The packaging is used to market the product, as well as to maintain its safety and quality. The message on the package needed to show that it is 'light & moist' as well as '96% fat free' because this is what the consumer will expect from carrot cake. If they are not convinced of this, they are not likely to try it or make a purchase. The product is sold through supermarkets, health food shops and catering establishments where a healthy menu is adopted. California Cake & Cookie Ltd is an approved supplier to an impressive list of companies in both the retail and food service business. It is promoted at Food Trade shows, in food and health magazine articles, through competitions, and supermarket special offers. It is marketed under a ''hand made-home baked' image and positioned away from today's 'big plant-made' products produced by the multinational manufacturers. The Unique Selling Points (USPs) of the product are that it is: Sales and profits are tracked weekly and help to determine the success of the product. The 96% Fat Free Carrot Cake is judged to be a very successful product, in terms of both the total sales value achieved and also the number of key supermarkets that have listed the product. In independent consumer taste tests, the 96% Fat Free Carrot Cake was preferred to competitive products due to its flavour and moistness. The company is introducing the first range of convenience dessert cakes on the market under the name Valentinos. The range is targeted at both the 30% of UK households that are single and the increasing number of working families where the parents may eat separately. There are four products in the range: Tiramisu, Passionata, Cappucino and Zabaglione. Each pack contains two large individual dessert size slices and is marketed as an evening shared indulgence with the slogan 'All you have to decide is which one and with whom!' More cake recipes are planned to extend the range, as are similar flour-based products, like biscuits and cereal bars. About issues and values Foods are often marketed to appeal to the consumer's concern for health and nutrition. A food manufacturer or retailer may decide to alter recipes during development to create foods that will have a particular appeal, egs. 'reduced fat', 'high fibre', 'low salt'. If they do so, they are then likely to make a claim about the product on the packaging. Products manufactured in the UK that make claims about their nutritional content have to meet the UK Guidelines for Nutritional Claims. For fat this means It is worth consumers understanding the guidelines, otherwise they cannot be sure that the product they are choosing is any better than another. The way in which information is presented on food labels can be confusing or misleading. Just because a claim about fat is made, does not necessarily mean that the product is the healthiest choice, eg. even a low fat product could be high in sugar or calories. Making use of the case
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The development of the original concept to first product launch took
12 months. Each stage in the product development involved tasting, ingredient
analysis and shelf life testing. This was led by the company's technical
and product development teams in conjunction with the scientists who
had developed the fat replacement.
Per slice the California Cake and Cookie Ltd's cakes have:
