Food Forum - Being a Food Product Developer 2

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About Case File 2
This case study is about Grainne Allen, a product development specialist who works for a manufacturer (Riverside Evesham Foods) supplying supermarkets with own label products.

Unlike the example in Case File 1 Sarah Lee at Sainsbury's who works on many different projects at any one time, Grainne starts at the beginning from either a retailer's brief or an in-house idea and manages every stage of the product development. This includes monitoring product quality, consumer feedback and modifications throughout the product's life.

About the company
Riverside Evesham Foods have two manufacturing sites, one based in Evesham producing baked products, mainly pies and hand held snacks. The second site is in Nottingham where production of traditional meat, poultry and vegetarian recipe dishes, quiches, flans and tarts takes place.

Riverside Evesham Foods plays an important role in supplying foods to Marks & Spencer and Grainne's development team are dedicated solely to them. The team works hard to ensure that the highest quality products are produced at all times with emphasis on technical innovation, quality assurance and product creativity.

The development of a new product is never carried out by one person alone, but relies on a number of specialists. Think of a three-legged stool with technical, commercial and development legs - take away one aspect and the stool falls over. Behind the scenes a number of people, each with an individual role to play, work alongside each other making 'it' all happen - from the production team, hand placing roasted vegetables on the top of a Mediterranean tart, to the operative who sets up the coding machine to make sure the right date and price goes on each box.

About Grainne Allen
Name: Grainne Allen
D.O.B:5.11.1966
Qualifications:
1983 7 'O' levels
1985 2 'A' levels (Home Economics, Art and History of Art)
1990 (BA Hons) Home Economics with diploma in Industrial Studies, University of Ulster
Work history:
1988 Food Selection Assistant, Marks & Spencer plc:
Included comparative product sampling and Quality Control, Sensory testing of products:
One-year industrial placement based at M&S head office in Baker Street, London. Included packaging origination, comparative shopping, product analysis, quality control sampling. Main degree project was developing a range of rice products from concept to launch. Marks & Spencer then sponsored the final year of Grainne's degree.
1990 - 1992 Food Selector, Marks & Spencer Pie Department:
Included all aspects of developing ranges of new pies, quiches and party foods, from concept development with teams of chefs both in-house and at suppliers to packaging projects including food photography, co-ordination of on-pack information, attending factory trials and launches at manufacturing sites
1992 Food Selector, Marks & Spencer, In store delicatessen project team:
Intensive 3 month secondment, working on ultra fresh concepts ranging from Chinese dishes to doughnuts.
1992 - 1998 Food Selector, Marks & Spencer Recipe Dishes:
Accountable for all aspects of product development, from strategy to delivery. Product ranges included traditional recipe dishes, French, Mediterranean, American, Top tier restaurant range, Healthy choice dishes, Fresh soups and cook in sauces as well as poultry, meat and fish added value recipe dishes. Travelled Europe and America to research authentic recipes and ingredients.
1998 - 1999 Freelance Food consultant:
A year working for several companies, on many different projects, from food writing to organising innovation forums, training and packaging design.
1999 - 2000 Development Director for Riverside Evesham Foods:
Although still freelance, Grainne is working on a long term contract for Riverside. Her current job combines many aspects of her previous experiences with retailing. She manages a team of five chefs across Riverside Evesham's two manufacturing sites, researching and developing unique ideas for Marks & Spencer.

About NPD at Riverside Evesham Foods
New product development work is led from the Riverside site for both manufacturing units. A team of five chefs develop new ideas across all the current ranges as well as working on brand new concepts for the future. A team of process development technologists work alongside this creative team, ensuring that the products can be mass produced in the factory. Grainne manages these people across the two sites.

Product development ideas are generated in a number of ways and Grainne's work involves many of these:

customer briefs

strategy discussions

internal brainstorming of ideas

comparative shopping

books and magazines

eating out

research and development of products in the test kitchen

discussing the logistics and fit of each product with the factory

presenting to customers

selecting products that fit customers' needs

making repeat samples to customers' specifications

Grainne describes the creative process of design and development as being dependent upon six main factors:

Inspiration: from many sources to generate ideas

Clarification: by regularly reviewing the original strategy, ensuring that ideas fit the vision and consumers' desires for the new or existing range

Distillation: decisions are made on which direction to take the idea depending on the manufacturing capabilities and/or investment needed

Perspiration: in the test kitchen, making and remaking the product concepts until the quality, portion size, ingredients, price, packaging and concept are right

Evaluation: internal decisions are made about whether to present to the customer - can it be made at the right price, with the available equipment and in the time scales required?

Incubation: is there time, after presenting to the customer, to reflect and compare the idea to others from competitors?

The product design process
This process can take many months to complete before the product is handed over to the process development technologists. They are responsible for ensuring the product is launched on time, and that it can be made to the agreed quality standards. Once the concept is handed over to the technologist and production team, the delivery time can be as little as eight weeks.

The key elements for success must be evaluated before launch and include:

does it provide value for money?

is it of the required quality?

will the consumer understand the product? (many products fail because this element is not met)

is it attractive?

is it convenient and innovative? (does it offer something different, and unique, rather than more of the same)

During development the product is extensively trialled to ensure that it meets the brief.

Once the product is launched it is up to the consumer to decide on its success. It soon becomes clear, via sales and feedback, if products have the criteria for success. This process is carried out to a seasonal programme to allow for changes in eating patterns during the year. Launches of new products are planned to coincide with Autumn and Spring.

Examples of Grainne's recent projects
Grainne has worked on many successful product ranges, including two for this season's Marks & Spencer's autumn/winter range, launched in September 2000. These are:

Pot Roast Casseroles

Crispy Savoury Puddings

Pot Roast Casseroles
Riverside Evesham foods are lead supplier to Marks & Spencer for all Casserole products. One of their key objectives is to continue growing their business through innovation as well as by maintaining existing ranges. It is important for manufacturers that new products create new customers and not just achieve good sales to the detriment of other current products. A gap in the market existed to offer larger casserole style products, ideal for entertaining or family sharing. So the pot roasts fit a niche market that was not previously being met by the ready meal market.

This market concentrates on dishes that take a short time to reheat in the oven or microwave. Grainne and her team set about creating dishes that would serve four people for under �10. This concept is unique in the market place and combines many of the existing strengths of the business, especially in manufacturing expertise.

This product is designed to provide the ultimate ready meal, fully cooked and ready to reheat - whole chicken, joint of beef or lamb with the trimmings, ready in under an hour. Pot-roasting is slow cooking by moist heat in a covered casserole. The serving size is for a family of three or four.

The product is considered to be innovative as a new packaging concept has been used. This is a foil tray which holds over 1 kilo of food, for which a new seal had to be developed to make it travel safe. The pot roasts are designed to provide good value for the family. Prices range from �5.99 to �8.99, providing a meal for as little as �2 per person. These products represent a traditional-style meal that may no longer prepared by many at home on a regular basis because of the preparation and cooking time involved. It provides an alternative for those who want it.

The casseroles are cooked for three to four hours in the factory and then blast chilled. The reheating time for the consumer is one hour. This sounds like a long time, but making the same meal at home from scratch could take around four hours, so the saving is significant.

The dish is designed to taste 'home made' and does not contain modified starches, preservatives or colouring. The development team feel that they have delivered the product according to the brief. In trials, one outcome was that the casserole continues to improve in flavour during the re-heating process. So, although loss of flavour and freshness can be flavour an issue with manufactured foods, it is not considered to be so here.

PRODUCT IMAGE KEY INGREDIENTS

Chicken Pot Roast
1500g Whole roast chicken, button onions, bacon, flat cap mushrooms, potatoes Chicken juices used in sauce, seasoned with thyme and sage

Beef Pot Roast
1200g Rolled brisket of beef, onion wedges, carrots and potatoes
Meat juices and fresh vegetable stock used in sauce

Lamb Pot Roast
1200g Leg of lamb, roast onion wedges, carrots and potatoes
Meat juices and fresh vegetable stock used in sauce

The Market Research
The process of design and development for the pot roast product range (from the initial concept to final launch) took just over one year. This included a large scale consumer research project in order to:

gauge customer preference to type of protein they felt was most popular for roasting

decide upon the most likely serving/eating occasion for the product

evaluate price expectations

gauge customer's response to the packaging format

The research was undertaken in six stores across the country representing a mix of city, out of town and local stores, and 352 customers were interviewed.

The research showed that:

70% serve joints every week, 85% at least once every 3 weeks

chicken is the most popular protein, followed by beef then lamb

a majority of those questioned prefer joints to be off the bone and unsliced

a high percentage found the packaging to be robust and suitable

a majority of those questioned said they would eat the product for Sunday lunch and an equal percentage saying would eat it midweek

Most customers questioned found the products to be very convenient

Perception on prices indicated that customers would pay up to �7.99

This positive customer information and feedback gave the development team confidence to take the product forward to launch.

In the test kitchen
Once the products were approved for launch they were trialled in the factory so that all elements of production could be checked before going into full scale manufacturing. This also ensured that products were available for photography, nutritional information and travel testing in time for the launch.

The on-pack information for this product was important. During manufacture, string was used, which is a traditional way to keep the meat in shape after boning. This also increases the attractiveness of the cooked product and makes it easier to carve and serve. But the string must be removed by the consumer prior to eating. The best way to communicate this, to make it clear to the consumer, was investigated as part of the market research.

Preparation of the various meal components for Pot roasts

Ingredients are weighed Onions are roasted

Potatoes are roasted Sauce/gravy is deposited by turbo

Chickens are de-winged Chickens are bagged for roasting

Unit operations and equipment involved in product trialling

The trial production line The sauce/gravy is cooked in large vessels

Sauce/gravy is deposited and controlled by turbo Chicken is roasted on racks

The Packaging challenge
Sourcing the packaging was difficult. A search around the world was carried out by phone and email to find a suitable container. After several weeks a suitable foil pot was discovered in Europe. The time scale to get delivery of the packaging also affected when the product could be trialled in the factory and launched. Luckily Grainne had built in extra time to the project. The dimensions of the foil pot restricted the size of chicken that could be used. By removing the wing pieces a suitable weight of chicken could be used. The lamb and beef joints used did not represent such a problem as they were boned and rolled and the shape and could be manipulated to fit.

Problems arose during travel testing before the product launch. The packaging needed to be strong enough to protect the product on its journey to stores and then to the consumer's kitchen. The particular foil that was being used had a loose lid format, but the seal was found to be inadequate. Initial attempts found that either the seal was not secure enough (simple tape formats) or over- packaged (card-board lid in between foil and top lid).

A commercial packaging design company was briefed to develop a unique sleeve for the foil container. They came up with a range of innovative ideas some of which may be used for other products at a later stage. At a cost of �2,000 this was a worthwhile exercise for Riverside. Products have to look good to compete on a busy supermarket shelf alongside other products. It is also important for them to be instantly recognised as being different for which the packaging is the main means of communication.

Riverside then briefed a company producing shrink-wrap collars who initially said they could not a secure seal with the foil pots. On challenging them further they came up with a collar that pops over the top. The product is passed through a shrink wrap, heated tunnel to give a very tight, safe seal.

Crispy Savoury Puddings
The product is a crisp, savoury pudding filled with either:

Chicken and sweetcorn with a veloute style cream and chive sauce, or

Norfolk minced beef using 95% fat free mince, served with an onion gravy

Both products have some sauce incorporated into the pudding, but also come with separate 100g sachets of sauce to heat and serve alongside. The puddings are manufactured to have a 'hand crafted' feel, made without the use of modified starches, preservatives or colourings.

Where did the idea come from?
As part of the strategic development programme at Riverside, Grainne introduced a time slot for product research. The brief from Grainne for the team was to research old and traditional pudding recipes. Steak and Kidney pudding is the most well known savoury pudding, but was beginning to be seen as dead and new interest and revival in this format was needed. Experience in the hot eating pie market at Marks & Spencer has shown that, to be successful, this market needs to include many traditional British ingredients.

Anything that is perceived as being too trendy would not work here. In other sectors, eg. the Marks & Spencer 'Cafe' range of products, this is not the case but some markets have a less adventurous consumer base. It is important to realise that supermarkets cater to the needs of very different consumer groups who may purchase in very discreet areas of the store. Someone who regularly buys Sushi may not ever buy a Cumberland pie and vice versa. Both product ranges have equal importance in encouraging consumers to visit the store, since once inside it is rare for a single purchase to be made.

The market research
The research for this product took two months and included a close study of menus at traditional pie restaurants, visits to farmers markets and intensive book research. The research team came up with 200 ideas of which 40 were taken forward to the test kitchen. Samples of these ideas were produced in the development kitchen and taste tested. After this phase of the work had been undertaken ten different pudding ideas remained. By the time the concepts were first shown to Marks & Spencer this had been further whittled down to five.

The criteria for the brief was led by two factors:

would the kitchen samples transfer to the factory and be viable and consumer acceptability, eg. Prune and Bacon pudding was seen as not having a broad enough consumer appeal, although part of the original objective was to present very traditional ideas in a more up-to-date format

would the pudding transfer successfully from snack to main meal component which was one of the original ideas behind its development - the team wanted the pudding to be seen as more up-market and special occasion rather than everyday

Technical Difficulties During Development
It was decided that to make the pudding more up-market it needed to have a crispy outer. Trials showed that a crispy outer casing could be achieved by coating a traditional pudding case with butter and breadcrumbs, chilling the pudding and then baking it upside down outside of its mould.

The factory trial production area Pastry is fed into the hopper

Pastry foils are lined A measured quantity of filling is deposited

The filling is levelled off by hand The pastry cutting machine

The pastry lid is rolled and pressed into place The excess pastry is removed

And the puddings are hand-finished The puddings are trayed and racked ready for baking

To achieve this the pudding was to be assembled in foil pudding trays which had been coated evenly with melted butter. Two problems arose here. Firstly, the butter started to reset quickly on the factory floor and it was realised that it would not stay liquid long enough for all the foils to be greased in a product run. This was overcome by adding a percentage of vegetable oil to the melted butter. Secondly, how could the pudding foils be evenly coated inside with butter? Like many stages in ready meal production, the most efficient method was for this to be carried out by human hands. The human wrist action is hard to replace with machinery.

Once the greased breadcrumbs are placed in the base of the foils, the pastry is then placed inside and a block forced down which pushes the pastry to line the inside of the foil. This action also forces the breadcrumbs up between the foil and pastry which in turn is coated with butter.

Other challenges
Another difficulty which had to be overcome was finding a supplier of large enough sachets for the gravy/sauce component. There are many suppliers of sachet sauces, but the size of this sachet was to be for 100g of product. The sauces and dressings normally found, eg. in salad kits, typically hold 25-30g which is too small. There are companies who produce cold blended sauces who may have been able to provide the right size sachets, but who would have been unable to produce the sauces which need to be cooked and hot filled.

When developing products on fairly short time scales it is important for companies like Riverside to source from suppliers who are already Marks & Spencer approved, otherwise gaining approval can take too long. Eventually, after extensive research a company was found who were Marks & Spencer approved and who could produce the sauces to the quality required and in the right size sachets. Having the right amount of gravy/sauce in a product of this nature is crucial to its success and therefore an important component to get right.

This point demonstrates the importance of research in product development - both as part of the initial creative process as well as in delivering the final product. It also demonstrates that product development is as much about making and trialling as it is about designing.

Switch back to Being a Food Product Developer 1 for:

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