Food Product Design

Food Product Design: From Consumer-Driven Innovation to Blue Sky Innovation

• Food product design focuses on thinking rather than trial and error, starting from raw materials.
• Consumers are the most important factor today, and their perceived quality drives their purchasing decisions.
• Food categories cannot be invented, and products must be designed with a target consumer in mind.
• Societal trends, such as sustainability, influence new product development.
• The goal of idea generation is to be unique, not better, and products should have a clear target and personality.
• Three specific rules for successful products include belonging to the respective food category, beating the best or being as good, and excelling in one specific need of the target.
• General technological strategies for innovation include modification of starting materials, adaptation of processing, and formulation solutions.
• Specific strategies for innovation include me-too, line extensions, repositioned existing products, new forms of existing products, reformulation of existing products, new packaging of existing products, use of innovative ingredients, and blue sky innovation.
• Me-too and line extensions involve low-level innovation or copying others.
• Repositioned existing products involve changing a traditional product to meet a new need.
• New forms of existing products involve changing the form of a product, such as from canned to dried soup.
• Blue sky innovation involves more rigorous changes, such as cell agriculture opportunities.