New food product development

Food companies large and small introduce thousands and thousands of new food products each year. The time spent developing new food products ranges from 6 months to 5 years. The development of new food products is a wonderfully complex endeavor that utilizes the skills, patience, assets and commitment of an entire company.

Larger companies rely on a product development team that includes food scientists, food engineers, regulatory specialists, marketing experts, and purchasing gurus, while smaller companies may not even have a researcher and development department.

Some in the organization view the development of a new product as ‘art’ where the brilliant idea is conjured in the brain of the inventor and brought to fruition by force of personality and perseverance.

It was suggested that there are four stages:
*Product strategy development
*Product design and process development
*Product commercialization
*Product launching and evaluation

Product design and process development stage is important because a unique product is a key element in product development success. A new product is one that not has been presented before in any market-place anywhere. This is a rare occurrence.

A food product may be new to a company that has not sold it before but is not necessary new to a marketplace: other companies elsewhere might have sold it or product conceptuality similar to it before.
New food product development