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British Food Journal

ISSN : 0007-070X

Article publication date: 23 March 2021

Issue publication date: 29 June 2021

The purpose of this paper is to propose an agile methodology for the development of food products that has two key characteristics: (1) consumers are included as co-creators and (2) the assessment of environmental impacts plays a central role.

Design/methodology/approach

In collaboration with a French small-to-mid-size enterprise, a research-intervention approach was used to test the agile methodology designed, which features three iterative runs of food product development. In each run, prototypes were presented and modified with consumers during focus groups. Life cycle analysis assessed the relative environmental impacts of the prototypes. The research data from consumers were mainly qualitative.

The main result of this work is the implementation of a methodology to develop new food products in an efficient way by integrating consumers' insights and environmental concerns simultaneously. The method was successful in integrating consumers as co-creators and in drawing attention to the potential environmental effects of different prototypes for the decision-making process.

Research limitations/implications

The research is based on a single case study. Thus, generalisation to other companies is limited. The authors invite further research focussed on different types of companies. The methodology and the tools could be modified to suit a variety of contexts.

Originality/value

This work addresses the need for guidelines to integrate consumers and environmental considerations into the food development process by testing an agile methodology with a company. It contributes to the scope of sustainable and consumer-oriented food innovation management.

• Intervention-research
• Open innovation
• Sustainability

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the contributors to this project: the Région Bretagne for the financial support, the company GlobeXplore for allowing these experiments and the researchers Vincent Boly, Anne Saint-Eve, Catherine Renard, Jean-Marc Ferrandi, Gaëlle Pantin-Sohier, Gwenola Yannou-Le Bris, Cécile Grémy-Gros, Anthony Delamarre, and Aurélie Perrin for their academic support. Funding : The research project was financed by the Région Bretagne. Conflict of interest : The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Thomas, C. , Maître, I. and Symoneaux, R. (2021), "Consumer-led eco-development of food products: a case study to propose a framework", British Food Journal , Vol. 123 No. 7, pp. 2430-2448. https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-11-2020-1050

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• Posted in in Technology

Food Product Development Process: Steps & Flowchart

• Posted by by Pranav Ghule
• March 14, 2021

Table of Contents

Food product development in food technology (processing) industries is a continuous and never stopping process. Have you observed different Flavours in the chips? Like Tomato, Cheese n Cream, Magic masala, Sour cream & Onion etc. Or take an example of Vegan Milk ( Plant-based milk ) made from entirely plant-based ingredients.

All this we can say is a result of the food product development process. Like developing different flavours in an already present product. Then, entirely developing a new product which is not present in this world before.

Sounds interesting? So, we will look into the Food product development process, including New product development.

What is New food product development (NPD)?

New product development is the process of developing new products by any food company, to begin to need to create a new product because of changing in new food technologies or the introduction of the competitive product in the market.

A food company can process a new product development, whether that food company is a part of changing the market or not — the new product based on the already existing one and act as a complement or improvement in existing products. Or may new products based on the latest technologies without a need of suffered from others.

There are several types of classification for the new product.

Classification of new food product development

New product development is classified in four categories :

1. Major innovation

Significant innovations are new in the market—the Food products created with the latest technologies, ingredients and provide a unique experience to the customers.

For example- Beyond meat developed, completely plant based-meat products which are free from any animal best ingredients.

Read More about Beyond meat: The Beyond Meat story – Vegan Alternative to meat

2. Product improvements

In this classification, the food products developed without considering creating a new market. But, Instead targets customers from competitors.

For example- In food products such as fat-free allergen-free products, which are already in the market and compete with competitors.

3. Product additions

In this classification, the food products developed by food companies known as imitation products. In fact, The food producers create products from available resources to develop the original product. which already produced by the original producer of that food product.

For example- the local snacks processing industry produces snacks products (chips, namkeen), imitating large companies in the snacks market.

4. Repositioned products

Repositioned products are promoted in a new way, such as attracting different kinds of customers. These are not new products, formulations nor having any new features, but they positioned in the other way to attract different groups of customers.

For example, – The Lucozade energy drink business changed the product’s image from a drink to recover people from an illness to a drink for people interested in sports. [Source: Superbrands case studies: Lucozade ]

After understanding the new food product development classifications, let’s look at the food product development process.

Food product development process : 8 steps

The food product development process consists of following 8 steps:

• Idea generation
• Evaluation & Screening
• Market research
• Product specification
• Feasibility study
• Production process development
• Prototype development & testing
• Launch & Commercialization

However, We will look into this food product development process, from starting to finalising and commercialisation one by one in detail.

1. Idea generation

Two product development process start with an idea. This idea can come from any place or any source. Typically a company generate hundreds of Idea by brainstorming. Still, a handful of good ideas come to an end, and there are two sources of Idea generation from where we get an idea.

• Internal source- the company finds new ideas interior utilising research and development and also, from the contribution from its employees.
• External source – new ideas from external sources such as distributors, suppliers and competitors. But the most important external sources are customers because the new development process should focus on creating customer value.

2. Evaluation and Idea screening

The next step in NPD is idea screening. However, Idea screening means filtering the ideas to pick a good one. In Idea generation, we find different ideas, and in this stage, we screen to choose a good one. The reason is that product development cost rice greatly in later stages; therefore, the company e would like to go ahead only with the ideas that will turn into profitable products dropping the flawed ideas.

3. Market research

In this research, the company will know about consumer preferences and also the acceptance of products. all the primary and secondary markets study used to collect data. 

• Primary research – is a method of taking surveys and getting original data.
• Secondary research- analysing the data gathered in the primary survey investigating what found in the primary study.

Taking a survey to ask consumers what they want, what they need and whether they will accept the product. Also, The survey conducted to gather data & analyse, focusing on groups, gender, age, economic status, & geographical location, the research conducted to collect data.

Market research concludes that the products survive in the market or not. The company can decide whether to continue or discontinue the product.

4. Product Specification

The product specification method is a lengthy and complicated process. The process includes a description of a new product’s characteristics, including product description (forms and style), features and attributes such as flavour, texture, nutritional value, packaging, shelf life , raw materials, and supplier& Target market. 

Further, Consumer benefit includes nutrition, cost, convenience, quality. 

Pricing strategy- Pricing strategy includes selling the product price depending on the cost of competitive products, target market, and the ability to pay, company image, and product benefits.

5. Feasibility study of food product

The feasibility study conducted to check the viability of new products. In addition, The product should be technically and financially feasible. Determine whether the sales forecast’s production cost will achieve its break-even point and ability to make the new product using existing resources—availability of ingredients, new processes, cost of ingredients, microbiological safety test.

6. Production process development

A new product can be unique and different from the existing line or a simple line extension. So, according to that, the process is to developed. Involves converting factory to accommodate new product; line extension products only need minor changes. If the product is new, equipment and factory layout need to alter, involving raw materials, tasks, equipment, processing, quality management, packaging, labelling, and storage.

7. Food product Prototype development and testing

Prototype development is necessary to get an idea about large scale processes. Large scale production helps to manage production and storage. 

Prototype testing- Testing of a new product carried to see if it satisfies food standards. After the prototype undergoes testing, commercialisation (full-scale production and manufacturing) take place.

Quality testing -checks the effectiveness of quality management parameters and hygiene standards.

Sensory evaluation test market of field based on texture flavour colour and Aroma.

Packaging test – Test conducted to determine effectiveness handling storage durability e interaction effect of packaging. Storage trials to stimulate distribution retail in-home storage condition safety and quality after storage and establish shelf life.

8. Launch & Commercialization

Finally, the launching of the product in the market. Commercialization of developed product into the market and doing its marketing and advertisement is the next process. However, to check whether the launched product making enough sales and generating profits is required.

Conclusion- Food Product Development

In conclusion to our new food product development process. And we can say that this NPD process is lengthy. But Every food manufacturer has to follow this process to grow, sustain and compete in the market.

However, This product development process may vary from manufacturer to manufacturer according to their products, services, market and area of study.

What do you guys think about this process? If you liked this article then comment below your thoughts. If you have any suggestion or feedback please comment below.

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Perspective article, involving consumers in food product development: perspectives on the application of circular food design.

• Wageningen Economic Research, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, Netherlands

Consumers and the food they choose, along with the actors providing the food, play a crucial role in the transformation toward a more sustainable food system. The circular food design model is a tool that supports consumer orientation in food product development and shows that it is not a static one-way direction but includes feedback loops and co-creative processes. In this study, circular food design was applied in two cases. Specifically, the following was explored: (1) How the application of circular food design can be carried out in different phases of product development? (2) How creativity and interaction can be stimulated? and (3) How different business disciplines can be involved? Learnings from a series of workshops were described from the perspectives of company and consumer research. The results showed that to make consumer research valuable in this development process, there was a need for interaction in different ways, including focused consumer research and understanding by food production actors in an interactive and iterative process supported by a creative approach and visualizations, and with cooperation between different departments within companies. Using this interaction for combining consumer- and market-driven thinking delivers more tailored and technically feasible innovations with engagement among all actors.

Introduction

Dietary change in areas with an affluent diet could play an important role in reaching environmental goals, with up to 50% potential to reduce GHG emissions and land use demand ( Hallström et al., 2015 ). To reach environmental goals, a transformation toward a circular economy (CE) is needed, which requires a rethinking of both the supply and the demand sides of the “linear” and fossil-based economy ( Repo et al., 2018 ). Such a food system transformation of production and consumption requires the involvement and commitment of consumers, policymakers, and actors in the food supply chain ( Willett et al., 2019 ). On the demand side, consumers have a crucial role in the transition toward a more sustainable food system in their role as buyers and consumers. In addition, the circularity in CE requires them to be involved throughout the consumption system as users, re-users, sharers and reducers, and perhaps even participators in the production process ( Camacho-Otero et al., 2018 ; Sijtsema et al., 2019 ; Gomes et al., 2022 ). At the same time, consumer food choices are shaped by the food environment, including access to healthy foods ( Turner et al., 2021 ). Therefore, on the supply side, the production and processing of food also need to be more sustainable when innovating. Ingredient selection and sourcing should be more diverse, have a lower environmental impact, and should make use of upcycling food, as well as more regeneratively produced food, in addition to packaging elimination, reuse, and material circulation ( Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2022 ).

The relevance of including the consumer in innovation started in the 1990s, with the publications of a consumer-oriented approach by Jongen and Meulenberg (1998) . It received an even higher priority in current studies about CE, proposing a new way to think and design products in which consumers should be integrated into the design process, including innovations and insights from consumer studies which should be available to actors in the food system ( Heidbreder et al., 2019 ; Gomes et al., 2022 ). However, only a few studies have explored the integration of user and consumer perspectives in the design process in terms of factors to be included in design and infrastructure to facilitate an understanding of complex relationships and methods to integrate the consumer ( Camacho-Otero et al., 2018 ). Thus, there is a lack of literature studies about the application of frameworks and tools in practice. This issue was also already stated by Costa and Jongen (2006) when recognizing that there is a lack of concrete guidelines for the effective implementation of consumer-led food product development in everyday industry practices. Recently, a model was developed as a tool to structure innovations toward a more circular food system ( Sijtsema et al., 2020 ).

The circular food design model ( Sijtsema et al., 2020 ) supports the idea of involving consumers in innovation and structures according to the phase of product development and elements of the food system. Consumer orientation is central in the model: When developing new food products, insights from consumer studies have to become available to actors in the food chain who work on innovations in product production, processing, and development. In addition, the framework shows the need for the involvement and interaction of actors from different disciplines in each phase of product development. The process follows the deductive and inductive way of thinking by means of design thinking with the support of creativity, visualizations, and rapid prototyping.

The circular food design model is based on experiences within several consumer studies as part of innovative projects, but although its relevance has been mentioned in reviews about models and tools to support the transition toward CE, it has not been applied thus far in the everyday innovation practices of companies. In this study, the aim was to provide an example of the process of consumer-oriented innovation by putting circular food design (CFD) into practice and providing learning opportunities. The application of this model was explored from the current perspective: is the circular food design model a helpful approach to ensure consumer involvement in product innovation? More specifically, this study presents specific approaches related to three central elements of the food system and experiences with applying these approaches: first, tailoring to the stage of product development; second, co-creation and interaction in each stage of development; and third, interaction between different disciplines. For this, we describe and reflect on the application of the model to use consumer insights in two food innovation cases: tomato packaging and bell pepper shelf life.

Application of circular food design

Case description.

In two different companies, CFD was applied; for each company, one case was selected: a tomato case and a bell pepper case. For the tomato case, the general question to be answered was how to position and package the concept. This concept was placed in the optimization phase of product development because the product itself was already there but developing the packaging and positioning for the launch needed to be performed. This case focused on the positioning and therefore considered packaging in the following food system elements consumption, processing, and transformation ( Figure 1A ). During the workshops, participants from both marketing and quality control were included. In the bell pepper case, the possibilities of a more sustainable and/or healthy fresh product concept were explored. In this company, different departments had several ideas about specific intrinsic product characteristics, but the exploration of these opportunities was still needed, along with defining which ones to focus on. The company aimed to define the most interesting options from innovations in agricultural production from the perspective of consumer preferences for consumption. Thus, this concept was in the phase of opportunity identification and focused on food consumption ( Figure 1B ). The involved disciplines and departments within the company were research and development, marketing, and sales. The workshops were jointly prepared between the research institute and the company and were organized with the participation of various departments; together, ~30 colleagues from the company participated, representing the following disciplines: R&D, breeding, and marketing.

Figure 1 . Circular food design applied to tomato (A) and bell pepper (B) .

Workshop approach

The overall approach consisted of two workshops for each case. The first dealt with the introduction of participants and the CFD model. It also included an inventory and selection of questions to demarcate the innovation case and provided input about which food system element to focus on first. The second workshop included sharing results and discussing insights to further focus on the concept and define questions to be answered in the next step of innovation. In between, data gathering and analyses were performed and presented in such a way that colleagues outside the field of consumer science were also able to interpret and discuss the data. From this perspective, for reasons of confidentiality, only general consumers' insights were included, although production, technical, and technological issues were also addressed during the sessions and taken into consideration during the discussions and demarcation. Below, a more detailed description of the approach applied in the workshops is provided, which is structured along the three central elements for exploring and demarcating innovations in CFD. The approach and methodology used are described, as well as how this was experienced and what the outcomes of the different elements were in the following three perspectives.

Perspective: Tailor to the phase of new product development and food system elements

After an introduction to the CFD model, the participants of the workshop were challenged to share their ideas about their innovations. The questions related to these innovations or concepts were discussed to obtain a more detailed description of the information needed, and then, the main questions that had to be answered and further discussed in the second workshop were selected. Based on the description of the questions, the phase of new product development (opportunity identification, development, optimization, and launch) in which the innovation ideas were positioned could be defined. This is relevant since the phase of development defines the type of consumer involvement or input that is needed. In addition, the same table was used to map the questions according to the relevant elements of the food system (production, distribution, processing, retail, and consumption), which require specific disciplines to answer the questions.

For each case in the first workshop, the main questions were selected. When discussing the insights during the second workshop, new questions were raised during the discussion and were also categorized into phases of product development and food system elements ( Table 1 ). The bell pepper case started in the opportunity identification phase, considering the food consumption and agricultural production food system elements. The tomato case starts in the optimization phase and shows a need for insights into consumption and food processing and transformation. Each phase has its own specific questions provided in the publication of the CFD model ( Sijtsema et al., 2020 ; Table 1 ).

Table 1 . Questions raised in product innovation cases by the product development phase and food system element.

Perspective: Design thinking process, discover, and define

Other topics in the workshops provided approaches that support the actors' interactive and continuous involvement through the different phases of product development by facilitating the processes of discover, define, develop, and deliver (the 4Ds). Discover is the process of inventory and exploration; define is the process of selection, choice, and focus; develop is the process of the design of technology or concept; and deliver includes the final concept. The design thinking processes are followed in each phase of product development, although the way of discovering, defining, developing, and delivering addresses different questions in each phase. Similarly, the methods for gathering consumer insights also depend on the phase and the process.

Discover: In the first workshop, the actors from different departments in the bell pepper case jointly discussed which research questions were relevant to their case. The methods and use of consumer insights were chosen to stimulate consumer-oriented thinking and creativity as well as inspire. The methods included brainstorms, a supermarket safari task, and the presentation of outputs of earlier consumer studies. To create a common mindset toward consumer-oriented thinking, we also presented several consumer research models. In the tomato case, the first workshop was also focused on the discover process, but this case was further along in the phase of product development, namely, optimization, and the exploration was focused on packaging rather than concept development.

From Discover to Define: In the bell pepper case in the first workshop, after the discover process, there was a need to define what concepts of product development were needed to focus on during the opportunity identification phase. We used a combination of methods to facilitate discussion and interaction within the group and between the disciplines and backgrounds: group discussion, pitching of ideas, and voting. In the tomato case, a similar approach led to a joint decision to focus on the motivations when buying tomatoes and on the perception of the packaging.

Define: For both cases in the second workshop, the companies were provided with consumer insights that help to make the questions more concrete and define target groups and packaging options. Specifically, for the bell pepper case, secondary data analysis was presented related to the research questions on consumption patterns, consumption moments, target groups, and lifestyles. For the tomato case, since it was already at the phase of optimization, insights more focused on the innovation of packaging were presented, including insights into packaging perception of convenience, less packaging, what type of materials were preferred, hygiene issues, and product quality.

After Define: When discussing the consumer insights in the tomato case during the second workshop, the questions raised were on the develop and deliver processes. The insight into consumers' needs showed that in further development of the packaging insights in the target group, their interest in specific product characteristics, how to position it in the supermarket, and how to communicate about it were needed to optimize the concept.

Perspective: Involvement of and interaction between different disciplines

To ensure interaction between different disciplines during the workshops, attention was given to bringing a diversity of people to the discussion and facilitating interaction. First, there were one or two contact persons of the company involved in developing the process who decided which colleagues should attend the workshops to ensure the involvement of different departments: research and development, marketing, and management. In addition, during the process, colleagues from all relevant disciplinary backgrounds were included: agricultural production (e.g., breeding), processing, quality control, food technology, marketing, and consumer research. Attendance was flexible for both workshops, and individuals could be replaced by colleagues as long as the different disciplines and departments were involved during the process. High involvement from these contact persons, as well as their enthusiasm when recruiting colleagues, resulted in a variety of participants from different departments and countries.

Facilitating interaction and understanding between actors of different disciplines and departments needed attention, for example, the use of the same terminology in discussions and when selecting the most relevant questions and topics. Participants also became aware during discussions whether questions from a certain disciplinary perspective needed more attention from other disciplines. The discussion moderators challenged the workshop participants to formulate their questions as specifically as possible and think about what is needed in terms of expertise to answer questions, i.e., whom to address the questions to. For example, during the second workshop on the tomato case, the discussion on research questions was further specified to best position the concept on the shelves of the retailer and which concept was preferred. This meant that in the next phase, other food system elements had to be involved, namely, food retail and provision.

Finally, an interactive and creative approach was used to support the right mood. Therefore, at the beginning of the workshop, an assignment was used in the form of a supermarket safari. Before the workshop, participants were asked to select innovative food products on their own and another food category to have an open-minded approach from different perspectives. The possibilities to exchange experiences, as well as other creative approaches, resulted in high involvement and many ideas.

There is a need for the implementation of more sustainable production and processing models and the consequent increase of actors' responsibilities and awareness for both producers and consumers, as well as the need for tools to support this ( Hamam et al., 2021 ). The applications in our study provide an example of such a tool and show that consumer orientation and interaction between actors while structuring food innovation by means of the phase of food innovation and food system elements, support taking the next steps in product development. The integration of consumer insights was experienced as being of value since it provided a better understanding in terms of eye-openers and inspiration, support to define which topic to focus on, and being able to be more market-oriented and targeted. An important learning was that this was not a one-way direction but an interaction and iterative process. Once the discussion was started about consumer insights, learning from those insights raised further questions that could be related to different food system elements or that became relevant when moving into the next phase of innovation. This shows the continuous process of innovation supportive of the involvement and commitment of actors in a creative, flexible, interactive, and iterative process of product development.

Consumer food choice is a complex system of interrelated variables. Consumer research models were introduced in the workshops and were shown to be helpful in facilitating consumer-oriented thinking for actors from other disciplines. Examples of models that could be of help in this were the food quality model ( Grunert, 2005 ), the DONE model, which represents all levels and subcategories of variables influencing food choice ( Stok et al., 2017 ), and the circular food consumption practices (CFCP) framework, which is helpful in analyzing circular food consumption in everyday life practices related to CE strategies ( Borrello and Cembalo, 2022 ). During the workshops for these two cases, consumer insights were gathered from available studies or secondary data. In product development, including new consumer studies is also needed, for example, regarding testing circular concepts or more concrete concepts in the optimization and launch phases, as well as co-creation sessions, in the opportunity identification phase. For example, for the tomato case, research insights related to choosing consumers in supermarkets and questions relevant to other disciplines were raised, such as automizing the packaging process that could be tested in consumer studies. In addition to insights from consumer studies, there is also a need for including circular consumer behavior when moving to circularity ( do Canto et al., 2021 ), and this was not considered in the case studies presented in this study but could be the next step in future application of the CFD model.

Overall, the experiences with the involvement and interaction of different disciplines showed the need for the integration of insights from different departments and disciplines in each phase of product development. It was experienced as fruitful to the engagement of various actors of different departments since it resulted in a better understanding of other departments and joint innovation. This approach is an example of more alignment with the comprehensive and multidisciplinary agenda which El Bilali et al. (2021) present in their review of how to support more sustainable agri-food systems. The interactive and creative approach was supported by everyone. This experience underlines the need for a creative approach during innovation processes which has been recommended in an editorial for future research in agricultural systems ( Berthet et al., 2018 ). The two cases presented in the current study differed in their phases of development. In the case positioned in an earlier phase of new product development, there was an apparent need for more departments to be involved compared to the later phases, in which work is more focused. This needs further exploration.

The most important limitation of the cases was that they did not cover the whole process of product innovation. The cases were limited to the phases of development processes, food system elements, and disciplines included. First, we only reflected on one phase of innovation per case, while it would be interesting to also describe the product development and launch phases. Second, in the two cases, the processes of discover and define, in particular, were used, and there were fewer activities focused on develop and deliver. Thus, in the future, it is necessary to apply CFD to all the phases of new product development using the processes of discovering, defining, developing, and delivering. In addition, the combination of different food system elements, from production and processing to resources and recycling, should be considered. Efficient use of resources and recycling needs also cooperation between different chain actors, according to Ciccullo et al. (2021) and, in addition, insights into consumers' perception of novel products made from waste ( McCarthy et al., 2019 ). The case study applications were in a phase in which we focused mainly on consumer-related food system elements, such as food retail and provisioning and food consumption. When developing a more sustainable food system, there are additional steps representing the circular process in which all elements from the food system, from production, processing, retail resources, co-products, and recycling, will be considered from both consumer and technological perspectives.

In conclusion, the application of circular food design in two case studies supported the use of the CFD model in practice for food companies. It provides a structured approach to food innovation in which interaction and involvement are especially key in a consumer-oriented approach. The experiences confirmed the idea that innovation toward a more sustainable food system is an iterative continuous process moving through different phases of innovation and addressing different food system elements making use of creativity. This stimulated the involvement of actors and the interaction between different disciplines in consumer-oriented innovation.

Data availability statement

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

Ethics statement

Written informed consent from the participants was not required to participate in this study in accordance with the national legislation and the institutional requirements.

Author contributions

SS and HS: conceptualization, methodology, and writing of the original draft. SS: project administration and investigation for both case studies. HS: investigation of the bell pepper case.

This study was funded by the TKI Horticulture and Propagation Materials foundation (in Dutch stichting TKI Tuinbouw en Uitgangsmaterialen) of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs (TU18098 and TU18022).

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Anne Marie Schoevaars and Liza Schoenmaker from Enza Zaden B. V. and Arjan van Steekelenburg from Hazera B.V. for their contributions to the workshops and for reviewing the study outcomes. We acknowledge the support of Groentenfruithuis.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher's note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Keywords: food innovation, design thinking, consumption, consumer, circular food design, sustainable, circular economy, case studies

Citation: Sijtsema SJ and Snoek HM (2023) Involving consumers in food product development: Perspectives on the application of circular food design. Front. Sustain. Food Syst. 7:1069278. doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2023.1069278

Received: 13 October 2022; Accepted: 01 March 2023; Published: 30 March 2023.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2023 Sijtsema and Snoek. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Siet J. Sijtsema, siet.sijtsema@wur.nl

This article is part of the Research Topic

Agro-Food Systems, Citizen Science and the Sustainability Transition Volume II

Consumer-led eco-development of food products: a case study to propose a framework

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to propose an agile methodology for the development of food products that has two key characteristics: (1) consumers are included as co-creators and (2) the assessment of environmental impacts plays a central role.Design/methodology/approachIn collaboration with a French small-to-mid-size enterprise, a research-intervention approach was used to test the agile methodology designed, which features three iterative runs of food product development. In each run, prototypes were presented and modified with consumers during focus groups. Life cycle analysis assessed the relative environmental impacts of the prototypes. The research data from consumers were mainly qualitative.FindingsThe main result of this work is the implementation of a methodology to develop new food products in an efficient way by integrating consumers' insights and environmental concerns simultaneously. The method was successful in integrating consumers as co-creators and in drawing attention to the potential environmental effects of different prototypes for the decision-making process.Research limitations/implicationsThe research is based on a single case study. Thus, generalisation to other companies is limited. The authors invite further research focussed on different types of companies. The methodology and the tools could be modified to suit a variety of contexts.Originality/valueThis work addresses the need for guidelines to integrate consumers and environmental considerations into the food development process by testing an agile methodology with a company. It contributes to the scope of sustainable and consumer-oriented food innovation management.

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• Part 1 Introduction: New product development: systematic industrial technology. Part 2 Product development strategy and management: The multinational food business - strategic, organisational and management issues for product development
• The Food Research Centre - assisting small and medium sized industry in Southern Thailand. The Supermarket Industry - private label brand development
• Rural Agroenterprise - cassava development in Latin America. Part 3 Product development process: From farm to consumer - pioneering an early nutraceutical, Stolle milk
• From concept to international company - development of a new pet food product
• From kitchen to market - first came the oat cake, now the oat bake, a traditional product for today's consumers
• From basic research to marketable product - success and failure of instant baked potatoes. Part 4 Technological development: Radical process development - cutting techniques for an aerated sugar confectionery
• Process innovation from research and development to production in a large company - development and commercialisation of a low temperature extrusion process
• Up-scaling from development to production by small manufacturers - fishing, baking and sauce industries
• Spirit of entrepreneurship in commercialisation - product and process development of coconut beverage mix. Part 5 Consumer and market research: Sensory testing in the product development process - the sensory researcher as a trusted advisor
• Consumer research in the early stages of new product development - market-oriented development of meal compliment beverages
• Consumer research in product design - market-oriented development of healthy vegetable-based food for children
• Customer-centric product development - supermarket private label brands. Part 6 Product development in practice: Product design, process development and manufacturing - a roadmap for the technologist
• A roadmap through marketing and launching in product development. Part 7 Education for new product development: Effective education for product development - building new product development courses in Thailand.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

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1 Introduction to Food Product Development

To start, let’s think about what product development is:.

• How new things show up in the grocery store or in foodservice
• The process of creating, processing, and commercializing a new food product
• The process generally takes a group of people from different disciplines working together to develop (or improve) a product.

Product Development Key Stages

Formulation, commercialization.

At each stage, or even within the stages, there are checkpoints to decide to continue or stop the project. This can be done through a Stage and Gate System like the example shown here or it can be done in a modified system. The principle is the same, though, to develop new products strategically and use time and resources wisely.

Typically this Stage and Gate process works like a funnel. You may start with 12 to 15 ideas and then research and evaluate those ideas. Some ideas will get discarded because you will find the product concept already exists. Others will get discarded because the ingredients or processing will cost more than what consumers are willing to pay (based on products in the relevant category). Some ideas will seem great, but will be too niche and will not have a large enough target audience to be successful. Once the ideas have been narrowed down, the best 3 to 5 ideas may be moved to the Formulation stage. In this stage, the product will be made on a small scale and consumer testing will be done to confirm interest. Then products will go through the second gate to determine which products have enough consumer interest to continue. During the Processing stage, 2 to 3 products are scaled up on larger equipment. This helps determine production costs and efficiency. Food safety and quality testing also are done to determine how to produce a safe and consistent product. Shelf-life testing is conducted at the end of the Processing stage to make sure the product will remain at an acceptable and safe quality long enough for the product to made, shipped, purchased, and consumed. The third gate evaluates production, food safety, quality, and shelf life to decide which products can actually be made efficiently and consistently. The Commercialization stage includes work to get the product ready to sell on the grocery store shelves. Typically this includes the final costing, additional consumer sensory testing, and package design. The final gate makes sure that no errors or significant drawbacks have been missed before the product is launched. Through the Stage and Gate process, 12 to 15 ideas may get narrowed down to 1 or 2 products. The Stage and Gate process allows many ideas to be considered efficiently. The more viable the idea, the more time and work is needed. When an obstacle is found at a gate, no more time or resources are committed to that idea.

Each company may work through the stages of product development a bit differently depending on resources, timelines, and product types being developed. In a product development course, a product is likely developed from start to finish, so more market, consumer, and product research will need to be done during the ideation stage to catch significant drawbacks.

Often the most difficult part of product development is coming up with the initial idea. Many food products exist in the marketplace, so coming up with a new food product that does not exist and consumers are interested in buying can be a challenge. It is best to simply jump in and start generating ideas. From there, concepts can be refined and narrowed down. Ideas can come from a variety of sources. Some ideas are for a brand-new product and some are for a line extension of an existing product. Once ideas have been generated, it is important to identify the target customer. Trends are followed closely to determine what is new and upcoming. Trends often spark ideas for new products. Trends change over time, so it is difficult to list current examples, but convenience products, comfort foods, and plant-based foods have been trending over the last few years. 

Some issues with ideation include regional vs. global preferences and market size vs. target market. Flavors that are commonly known and liked in the Midwest may not sell well in other parts of the country. Consumers outside of the Midwest may not like those flavors or may simply be unfamiliar with the flavors. If your target market is a small part of a product category and the product category itself is small, there may not be a large enough market share for your product. It also can be a challenge to realize that just because you like something, many others may not. We tend to develop products we like, but sometimes you may have to develop a product for a target audience that does not include you.

• Procure ingredients and make them into a product on a small laboratory scale
• Produce a “gold standard” of the new product
• Sourcing ingredients and ingredient costs
• Product shelf life (often not tested in formulation, but needs to be considered early in the process)
• Can the product really be made on a large scale?
• Avoid Patent and Copyright infringement
• The formulated product process is “scaled up” to produce greater volumes
• Pilot plant testing
• Plant testing
• There are always product changes with scale-up.
• Quality & Proximate Analysis testing done to set specifications, determine food safety concerns, and estimate shelf life
• Processing experiments and runs allow a more accurate product cost to be determined (include processing efficiency, rework used, etc.).

Processing Key Questions:

• Sensory Attributes
• Nutritional Profile
• Product Specifications
• Overall Functionality
• Once the new product has been made successfully, it is sent to commercialization to launch the new product into the store for sale.
• determining packaging
• creating a label (logo, nutrition facts, etc.)
• finalizing costs
• developing advertising and/or literature for the product

Commercialization Key Questions:

• How should the product be positioned for the best sales?
• What attributes do you highlight?
• Where does it go in the grocery store (should consider this throughout the development process)?
• What effect will the distribution system have on product quality?

After the launch of a new product:

• Determine if the new product was successful.
• Growing interest, increase in sales
• Market share
• Company sales revenue

Key Team Members

It takes many roles to develop a new food product. A product development team can be very successful with all members contributing an expertise. The challenge is communicating effectively to make sure everyone is on the same page with the status and goals of the project. Key team members include product development, engineering, production, purchasing, quality, regulatory, marketing, sales, and upper management. Their typical roles are laid out below.

Product Developers

• In charge of developing new products, especially in terms of the hands-on testing and managing the development process
• May be the Team Leader
• Formulate Product
• Determine Sensory Attributes
• Run Shelf Life Testing
• Know Food Safety Concerns
• Test the Process
• Consider Nutrition
• Calculate Costs (may need input from others)

Engineering and Production

• Equipment Design and Maintenance
• Process Controls
• Production Costs (line speeds, overhead cost)
• Employee Training
• Consumer Safety
• Consumer Handling
• Ensures consumer expectations are met
• Sensory and Quality attributes are tested to make sure the product meets specifications
• HACCP and Preventative Controls plus Prerequisite Programs
• Microbiology Testing
• Foreign Material Testing
• Process Checks
• Incoming ingredient and packaging safety checks
• Makes sure the new product is legal and safe
• Coordinates a Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) dossier if necessary (typically for ingredient development)
• Product Name
• Standard of Identity
• Nutrition Labeling
• Product Codes

Marketing & Sales

• Defines product market and positioning
• Confirms consumer need for a new product through surveys and consumer data
• Develops advertising strategy
• Monitors competitor’s sales and new product introductions
• Helps design product packaging, especially tied to attracting the target audience
• Has input on the product name

Challenges of Product Development

• Just because you think it is a good idea, does not mean everyone else does.
• Sometimes things just do not work like they are supposed to (scale-up changes product characteristics, shelf life is not long enough, low consumer acceptance, etc.)
• Ingredient sourcing and costs
• Processing and equipment limitations
• Area of Expertise
• Goals and Objectives
• Ability to understand other disciplines
• Can be overlap or gaps in functions depending on company structure

Timeline for new product development

• A line extension for an already existing product
• Example: A new flavor of a popular soda
• A new product, but still can be made on existing equipment
• Example: A new type of cereal
• A brand new product – could be hard to make or new equipment may need to be designed/purchased.
• Examples: co-extruded snacks and plant-based meat alternatives
• Developing a new ingredient often takes longer than developing a finished food product because there are more regulatory and sales hurdles involved. 

Recap on the Product Development Process

• Product Development is the process of creating, processing, and commercializing a new product.
• New products need to be of interest to a target market.
• The timeline can range from 3 months to 3 years.
• Product development teams are made up of members with a variety of backgrounds.

Product Development Scope

It is important to be able to ideate openly & creatively.  However, ask yourself, “Does the product already exist?” and “What are our company’s new idea limitations?”. Below are common limitations for product development courses:

• Avoid mixes, line extensions, and assembly products.
• Avoid expensive ingredients or be ready to discuss how to pay for them.
• Typically a course does not have an alcohol license.
• CBD oil is not yet legal in food items in some states.
• Processing equipment availability needs to be considered for your new product idea.

Food Product Development Lab Manual Copyright © 2021 by Kate Gilbert and Ken Prusa is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

The quality function deployment (QFD) as a strategy for food product development: Case study in chocolate drinks

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Sekar A. Indraswari , Gusti Fauza , Setyaningrum Ariviani , Hari Prasetyo , Dimas R. A. Muhammad , Dian R. Affandi; The quality function deployment (QFD) as a strategy for food product development: Case study in chocolate drinks. AIP Conf. Proc. 23 February 2024; 2838 (1): 020005. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0179701

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The voice of customer (VOC) is one of the key factors in product development. This study aimed to design a strategic plan for developing a chocolate drink. The quality function deployment (QFD) method was used to transform the voice of customer into measurable and practical parameters. The performance of five samples i.e., the developed product and its competitors were examined. To analyze the level of consumer-perceived attribute importance, the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) method was employed. The AHP result showed that customers ranked appearance as the most important (0.27), followed by viscosity (0.21), texture (0.2), aroma (0.18), and taste (0.15). Moreover, based on the performance evaluation, one of commercial brand excelled in all quality attributes and was used as the benchmark for product development. From the results of the QFD matrix, it was recommended to improve the sensory properties of the developed product e.g., cocoa flavor, sweet and bitter. These sensory attributes are related to quality attribute ‘taste’ where consumers perceived that the developed product had lower performance than the commercial brand product.

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Open innovation in the food industry: trends and barriers — a case of the Jordanian food industry

Mohammad alawamleh.

1 Business Administration Department, Faculty of Business and Finance, American University of Madaba, Madaba, Jordan

Mohammed Al-Hussaini

Loiy bani ismail.

2 Graduate School of Business Administration (GSBA), German Jordanian University, Amman, Jordan

Associated Data

Not applicable.

This paper aims to provide an overview of open innovation (OI) and the food industry, examine the main drivers of this model in the food industry, and consider the impact of applying open innovation strategies by companies. A single case study method was conducted with expert interviews with one of the largest food manufacturers in Jordan. Even though the food industry is considered a somewhat mature industry and low-tech, there are a lot of trends and unexplored potential that could permit the application of OI. This is the first study examining OI in the food industry in Jordan and one of the first in the MENA region. It is meaningful for the application of open innovation in countries with a lack of resources and small market size, especially SMEs that lack awareness of the importance of open innovation strategies and their applications. The findings also indicated that small and limited markets could be a huge barrier that hinders the application of open innovation and also indicated that Jordanian culture plays a major role as well.

Introduction

We are living in a time of constant change and technological breakthroughs, and seeking innovation is becoming very complex and costlier to pursue individually as a business to introduce unique products. The concept of open innovation has been introduced by Chesbrough ( 2003 ); this concept promoted the idea of using internal and external ideas and sharing them to find solutions for mutual implications and work in sync with even competitors. The beauty of the concept is that collaboration does not only make us more efficient but also helps in finding new solutions. The more diverse people you have trying to find solutions, the more likely you are going to find something incredible; scarcity breeds innovation but more importantly, different perspectives breed innovation as well (Wolpert, 2002 ). We tend to think of breakthroughs as lone geniuses but it is never true that innovation is usually additive.

Nowadays, organizations that use the traditional innovation (funnel Fig.  1 ) develop ideas then turn them into concepts as well as find solutions to develop prototypes internally without external help, spend a lot in the R&D department, then measure the ratio of their spending with their innovation, but they usually run into a lot of problems like the following:

• Incomplete information: since they tend to rely heavily on internally gathered ideas, concepts, and solutions as shown in Fig.  1 , this will not be enough especially when the technology is evolving fast and the product life cycle is getting shorter by the day.
• Innovation is slow: with the technological breakthroughs that are happening every day, slow innovations and knowledge do not make it into the market simply because the knowledge becomes obsolete or the business plan changes completely as we witnessed from recent events especially COVID-19; many organizations went out of business faster than they could come up with a solution to keep up with the change.
• Prioritizing keeping the same resources with minimal budget changes is not as effective as it used to be, since globalization allowed new competitors to compete internationally with their new innovative products.

Traditional innovation funnel

adapted from ennomotive.com/open-innovation

External innovation was viewed as collaboration with the competitor, but the introduction of the open innovation model allows businesses to leverage current external expertise instead of rediscovering the wheel, in this fashion allowing organizations to build collaborations between them and other companies, universities, and other external information sources improving their innovation success rate and boosting their productivity.

Over the past few years, this traditional innovation practice has stalled as organizations have steadily realized that not every innovation should originate from inside organizations (Alawamleh et al. 2019 ; Chesbrough et al. 2006 ).

The external ideas gathered through the external sources are enhanced and related closely to the market and the customer, and the solutions are firmly aligned with the technological advancements which in turn allows faster innovation, lower risk, and provides a superior understanding of the challenges to evaluate the solutions (Fig.  2 ).

Open innovation rocket model

Till now, open innovation has been widely connected with rapidly growing, technically demanding sectors such as knowledge and communication industries as they require more innovation in comparison with other industries (Alawamleh et al., 2018 ; Pellizzoni et al., 2019 ; Sarkar & Costa, 2008 ); the question remains whether the open innovation concept welcomes more industries which are less technologically intensive (Chesbrough 2006 ). On the other hand, Sarkar and Costa ( 2008 ) and Franceschelli et al. ( 2018 ) point out that in the light of constant changes in the demand and supply of the food industry and the escalating competition between companies in the food industry, these have made innovation not only inevitable but profoundly crucial to the overall growth and profitability of the food industry.

In the past, the food industry appeared to only focus on lowering both waste and production costs with a little or no attention to customer satisfaction; naturally, human beings are brilliant in terms of finding efficient ways to operate; hence, lately, we can observe that the industry shifted in emphasis towards the customer and it is oriented towards producing goods that are in line with customer demands.

Contemporary consumers want different flavors, and with the progressive concern over health and diet, consumers demand foods that align with their dietary guidelines; such increasing demands require a complete shift in production or at the very least tackle new innovative solutions and technologies that would help adapt and keep up with the competition. There are many examples of open innovation applications in the literature and their implications for a sustainable strategy. These applications are important for reducing cost and time to market and for a company’s impact on the environment and food security (Arcese et al., 2015 ).

Literature review

Open innovation.

The classical approach to innovation by companies was carried out by investing heavily in their R&D departments; after that, they have started to realize that not all bright ideas come from the inside (Chesbrough 2006 ); Chesbrough ( 2006 ) defined open innovation as the use of purposive inflows and outflows of knowledge to accelerate internal innovation and expand the markets for external use of innovation, respectively.

With the introduction of globalization which increased the competition, companies started looking for ways that can support their R&D (Huston & Sakkab, 2006 ). Therefore, getting hold of outside knowledge to help with the internal innovation process is considered a must by many companies to keep up with the competition (Lichtenthaler, 2008 ); Desouza et al. ( 2005 ) suggest that without externally accrued knowledge, companies cannot compete effectively.

Gassmann et al. ( 2010 ) suggest that OI was originally based on the following nine perspectives in Table ​ Table1 1 .

Open innovation perspectives

Source: elaborated from Gassmann et al. ( 2010 )

As mentioned in the previous section and according to Gassmann et al. ( 2010 ), open innovation started to emerge in the technology-intensive industries; however, there is a growing trend in less technologically based industries to exploit the benefits of open innovation. Bigliardi et al. ( 2021 ) suggest that future research requires greater investigation of the impact of technologies on the OI paradigm, considering not only the possibility to improve the inward flows of ideas but also the implications for people’s behavior.

Open innovation in the food industry

The food industries are described as somewhat mature and displayed rather small investment in the R&D department and are very cautious when it comes to the type of innovations that it introduces to the market (Costa & Jongen, 2006 ); this sector’s end-consumers tend to be very cautious of the introduction of widely differing products that alters their consumption patterns along with the safety-related regulatory criteria and makes food goods and process invention highly complex and risky venture which should not be carried out lightly. Fortuin and Omta ( 2009 ) suggest that firms in the food industry are pursuing the demand approach rather than the supply approach.

Open innovation in the food industry is becoming crucial in the light of recent and drastic changes in the end-customer demands. The adoption of an “open sustainability innovation” approach could be a source of strategic advantage for food companies (Bigliardi & Filippelli, 2022 ; León-Bravo et al., 2019 ). According to Sarkar and Costa ( 2008 ) after the introduction of nutraceuticals and functional foods, the barriers that are preventing various industries from working together are vanishing rapidly for example food and cosmetics as well as pharmaceuticals to take advantage of this new segment. However, as we said, food industries tend to have limited investment in the R&D and have limited expertise when it comes to clinical trials to satisfy the health regulations while the pharmaceutical companies can provide those missing skills and expertise for example sports nutrition company collaborated with Dutch chemicals company to improve the utilization of their whey protein (Bröring, 2013 ). Therefore, it can be described as companies working together to take advantage of the knowledge and expertise in particular sectors that can help in the food industry (Chesbrough & Appleyard, 2007 ).

Functioning in an open innovation environment relies on participation from the network of stakeholders, starting from the raw materials suppliers, and R&D departments, to the end consumer.

Uttama ( 2021 ) suggests the health and wellness food business development through a consumer-driven open innovation strategy. Consumer-driven open innovation appears to be a novel opportunity for driving health and wellness food consumption. Consumers can play a major role in the innovation process and help in identifying what the customer demands (Vargo & Lusch, 2004 ); hence, new advancements in preservation tech and biotechnology present a huge opportunity that can be applied and used in the food industry to satisfy the customer demands (Juriaanse, 2006 ); therefore, companies which integrate customer demands quickly into their products gain competitive advantage and market share; Huston and Sakkab ( 2006 ) described the implementation of the innovative practices that procter and gamble (P&G) used to reduce the production time and cost by printing edible photographs on cakes and they were able to do that by applying their “Connect and Develop Strategy.”

To date, the findings of existing surveys have shown that the adaptation of Chesbrough’s innovation model remains low (Van de Vrande et al., 2009 ), the barrier of entry for new firms in the food industry is low, and achieving product differentiation is not simple. Hence, the innovation process is more typical in the food industry than product innovation (Capitanio et al., 2010 ).

The stakeholders involved in the food industry are many and scattered across different sectors and opening channels and collaborations with them are needed to achieve successful innovation in the food industry (Faems, 2008 ; Ferraris et al., 2021 ).

There is an increasing growth in the open innovation projects in the food industry that can be explained and linked to the fact that 90% of the sector includes small and medium enterprises which are commonly known to be extremely versatile and creative. Because they tend to allocate minimal resources to the R&D department, therefore, they cannot compete in the global market, as they find it difficult to allocate the resources required to hire experienced professionals; therefore, they should establish a vast network of collaborators to provide them with science and technical feedback since they lack time and knowledge (Knudsen, 2007 ).

The SMEs have taken advantage of OI and share the cost of innovation rather than incurring the expenses on their R&D; lowering the overall cost, Sarkar and Costa ( 2008 ) empirically proved that innovative ideas in the food industry often do not have to pay off, specifically when businesses do not introduce recognized original product advancement to the field. More precisely, for food manufacturers to be able to compete globally, new, customized, and differentiated commodities should be brought and introduced into the extremely crowded food market constantly, and to achieve this would be by collaborating with users, retailers, distributors, and other participants in the food industry. Also, Costa and Jongen ( 2006 ) suggest that including firms, final consumers, and policymakers closely in the innovation process will complement the likelihood of consumer adoption of innovations and thus ensure the success of that product.

Bigliardi and Galati ( 2013a ) stressed and highlighted the value of collaborations between players in and beyond the food industry, i.e., academia and R&D centers, rivals, customers/consumers, innovation intermediaries (Fig.  3 ).

Models of adoption of open innovation within the food industry. Bigliardi and Galati 2013a , 2013b pp. 19)

Adapted from

Bigliardi and Galati ( 2013b ) argued that the integration of this model carries risks but also presents a tremendous opportunity for improvements. Benefits that could occur involve cooperation with professional consultants, as well as speeding innovation and time to market process. Furthermore, they added that the open innovation model is not for everyone as not every organization is ready to share its innovations with others as risks are coming along with sharing their knowledge, and ensuring their intellectual rights require agreements with their partners. As mentioned before and with the success of Procter and Gamble’s (P&G) open innovation strategy “Connect and develop” as Huston and Sakkab ( 2006 ) described its success and pointed out that it reduced the time to market for Pringles brand successfully, many companies started to follow their steps implementing OI into their strategies for example (Table ​ (Table2 2 ):

Open innovation implementation examples.

Source: elaborated from IFF, Celgene website, (Bigliardi & Galati, 2013a , 2013b )

Therefore, it can be inferred that businesses in the food industry are commonly engaged in open innovation strategies, but there are many hurdles and complications for this sector to engage this model effectively. On the other hand, Sarkar and Costa ( 2008 ) argued that the introduction of innovation into the food industry has become quite an inevitable organizational practice to keep competing in the market and gain an advantage in the light of recent changes in the supply and demand related to the food industry rendering innovation crucial despite the risks.

To maintain stability and competitiveness in the global economy, companies have started to weigh a range of aspects. The key reasons that may contribute to an open invention according to Sarkar and Costa ( 2008 ) are the following:

• Consumers expect distinct flavors which ultimately change the demand in the food industry
• Increasing demand for healthy food
• More distinct market demand in terms of consistency, choice, and simplicity

These aspects encourage companies to search for creative technological concepts, strategies, and innovative technologies.

Methodology

Pre-understanding scholars are mainly constructed through knowledge from others and numerous intermediaries, such as books, academic papers, and discussions. The synthesis of one’s understanding and the knowledge of others form a store of wisdom that reflects pre-understanding.

This paper aims to identify how the opportunities open innovation offers may help in redesigning the food industry in the future; develop an understanding and identify the challenges facing managers when adopting the OI model and discuss how SMEs can benefit from this concept. Second is to develop an understanding and identify the challenges facing managers when adopting the OI model, and finally, to discuss how SMEs can benefit from this concept.

To achieve the purpose of this research, single case study method was the most suitable (Yin, 2009 ); using a case study approach, questions of “how” and “why” can be answered (Eisenhardt & Graebner, 2007 ). It “uncovers areas for research and theory development” and uses in-depth field observation (Voss et al., 2002 ). The analysis of a single case might be a limitation, but at the same time, it is a strength of the research design, as it sacrifices generalizability in support of a more in-depth analysis than it is possible to obtain from multiple case studies. It is equally well adapted to exploratory research and for theory building in new and emergent research areas (Voss et al., 2002 ). To circumvent the inconveniences of single-case research, the design of the study followed the components of case study research recommended by Yin ( 2009 ).

The purpose of a case study is “to tell a big story through the lens of a small case” (Yin, 2009 ; Tan, 2004 ). Case studies are undertaken to focus on what is typical and this then leads to meaningful generalization and scientific abstraction, which would be prevented by uniqueness (Majumdar & Gupta, 2001 ). The case study method is suitable for those situations where the phenomena, as well as the context in which they occur, are difficult to prize apart.

Case studies are meant to shed light on a variety of approaches by describing why those decisions have been taken, how they have been applied, and what outcomes have been found.

Although case studies present disadvantages as they are hard to generalize when finding directly applicable companies, case studies are ideal for OI research. Chesbrough ( 2003 ) established his research on the foundation of case studies; Sakkab ( 2002 ) also conducted their research based on a case study.

Firstly, we investigated the cases arising from published studies, primarily academic articles, then collected data using online search such as annual reports of firms that have engaged in open innovation projects to clarify that adopting OI even in low-tech industries can lead to success.

To explore the issues further, the case of Nabil Foods was considered because it is one of the largest food companies in Jordan with more than 800 employees and their engagement with the international market as their foods are being distributed throughout local and 20 international markets as well as they are adopting the OI model with their adaptive strategies; therefore, they possess the knowledge and information that are applicable and useful for this paper; it will also assess the extent of accessibility for field research due to their location and willingness to schedule an interview; the decision was made by choosing Nabil Foods due to their engagement in OI and their enthusiasm to help in this paper.

Both qualitative and quantitative analyses can be conducted to address the research questions. While quantitative analysis requires a larger sample to provide a conclusion about OI and more generalizable findings, a qualitative analysis methodology allows for developing an insight into the mechanisms of open innovation and the possible obstacles to a specific implementation. In this case study, we collected data and information from the literature and expert interviews were performed to collect the knowledge required to address the study questions.

Interviews can clearly overview the human perceptions and viewpoints on open innovation in general as well as reveal the barriers and trends of OI in the food industry from their point of view.

As both structured and unstructured interviews could provide us with answers to our questions, we have settled on a semi-structured interview style as structured interviews typically offer no space for originality and allow only a small range of feedback; as we want to understand the individual’s thoughts and perceptions, a semi-structured interview would be the most suitable.

Semi-organized interviews provide a significant level of learning while enabling insight in form of similarity due to their structured emphasis (Gillham, 2005 ).

This study is based on a personal interview conducted with the managers and head of departments in Nabil’s factory for food products.

Before the interview, the chosen respondents were informed of the purpose of this research by phone and handed them general questions to prepare them for the nature of the questions to follow up on the questions more freely; later on, the first step of the interview was to present a brief introduction about the research and explaining the aims and briefly discussing the similar literature.

Discussion and results

Throughout the whole research procedure and data collection from literature and individual interviews, we have concluded that the open innovation era in the food industry has just begun. A big change towards a modern model has started. After thorough investigations and discussions based on our interviews and literature, we have concluded the main the trends and future opportunities of this model as well as the barriers and challenges of large firms and SMEs.

Innovation in the food industry can occur at any stage across the food chain mainly at the following:

• Unique ingredients
• Natural food innovations
• New production process
• Food quality improvements
• Packaging techniques and preservation technologies
• Innovative ways of delivery or marketing

The data on the future and trends in the food industry OI applications can be obtained by the study of modern literature regarding the food industries and by building on our current research.

Throughout our research process, we conducted deep expert interviews with the R&D department in Nabil’s factory for food products regarding the trends of the application of the OI model; we concluded that there are main trends in the industry that lead to applying this model; we have summarized interviews’ data in Table ​ Table3 3 .

Answers to the question regarding the trends in the food industry during our interview

Increased demand for specialized food

End consumers are developing food awareness regarding their health; they are requiring products closely tailored to their diet due to many reasons for example the increasing cost of health care, and the hope of old and young people for greater well-being later on the years of life has led people to demand functional food.

The term functional food definition based on Food and Nutrition Board ( 1994 ) is “Food that encompasses potentially helpful products, including any modified food or food ingredient that may provide a health benefit beyond that of the traditional nutrient it contains.” With that being said, more and more customers are becoming aware of functional foods and growing to accept them to fill missing nutrition’s in their strict diet. A good example would be that lactose-intolerant people can gain the missing calcium from calcium-fortified functional food. The research also identified some of the reasons that are linked to the success of functional foods which is linked to the positive image amends, the customers, and the extensive research on probiotics which lead to the introduction of new dairy products.

Dining at home

Since the outbreak of COVID-19 and while individuals keep working from home until 2021, the trend of dining at home instead of restaurants does not seem to be slowing down.

During the coronavirus lockdown, restaurants started operating as e-commerce sites; looking back 20 years ago, there were only a few delivery options available but nowadays, there are no limitations on the type of cuisine; all of that is made possible by third-party services such as Careem-Now and Talabat.

With that being said, the trend of innovation did not stop here; since these third-party services were successful, they created more demand; therefore, SMEs started to take advantage of such service; hence, the emergence of the term dark kitchens emerged, which meant that restaurants of even chefs can rent a small space offering no dining place inside the restaurant and only relying on delivery services, therefore, saving costs on renovations and staff.

Our research and discussion with small business owners in Jordan that were affected by the coronavirus lockdown and had to close down their main restaurant location clearly showed that they also took advantage of their services since Talabat allowed them to continue operating from home without the need for a formal kitchen.

With that being said, third-party delivery services and the food industry are finding opportunities to integrate innovative applications and contactless food-ordering advantages into their existing services.

Plant-based protein diet instead of meat-based

The trend in vegetarianism has steadily gained traction in recent years. Young people are becoming more health-conscious and environmentally aware. They are choosing a plant-based diet to reduce their carbon footprint and take better care of their health. They are demanding more vegetable-based recipes and ready meals with interesting tasty ingredients. And they are not satisfied with a few average vegan choices on the market and demanding quality and consistent improvements in the vegetarian-based food market. Hence, the food industry needs to innovate to satisfy the demand of the current customers and take advantage of this new market and attract new customers.

It all started with soy and almond milk and nowadays, the food industry is collaborating with different industries and experimenting with new concepts for example vegan ice cream.

The vegetarian trend has moved towards the frozen food market and now, the frozen food section in the supermarket has a section dedicated to it; Nabil foods took advantage of that and introduced a variety of products to satisfy the customers’ demand starting from vegetarian beef and chicken burger towards more culture-related foods in Jordan like vegetarian kubbeh and vegetarian eggplant stew to more international cuisine like samosa and spring rolls.

Environmentally friendly packaging

We are seeing nowadays that there is an incredible increase in the demand for packaging alternatives as a consequence of traditional plastic packaging’s negative impact, and companies are already starting implementing solutions and partnering with companies that provide “green Packaging.”

In that sense, bioengineering, nanotech, and looking for new innovative ways of preservation and fortifying food products with nutrition offer the path to meet modern customers’ demands. To fully exploit these current innovation cycles, the food industry, as a result, must enter into more or less formal relationships with other industries in the innovation system since many of the technologies, and solutions lie outside the food industry; therefore, the food industry sector should experience a notable increase in OI strategies extending from access to external knowledge and skills to external labor talent and services.

Food industry sector innovation challenges

Indeed, there are many successful and promising innovation categories for the food industry, agriculture Bio-Tec, biomaterials, and innovative foods just to name a few; nevertheless, they always experience high technical complexity and must conduct a structural research approach in animal nutrition, Bio-Tech, and biomaterials, to address a wide range a barrier to innovation that affects the food industry.

From our research and interviews with Nabil foods, we summarized some of the barriers that hinder the OI in the food industry as follows:

Particularly in big organizations, culture is very influential and incredibly difficult to reform. Even if management strategies of tackling innovation were exceptional, culture always takes the win, and to overcome this barrier, culture has to start supporting OI practices and strategies and think not with the ordinary way of competition and keep in mind that the rewards of the OI strategy would justify the risks.

Especially in Jordan, we asked the question during our interview whether the culture is considered a barrier to OI and the answer was yes because Jordanian culture is competitive by nature; Jordanian as well as the whole Middle East culture, in particular, is unforgiving; mistakes are remembered and there is no clean slate; therefore, managers hesitate to apply OI strategies.

Characteristics of the food industry as a whole

Firms are thinking about improving existing products and extending the line of an existing product is more favorable than dramatically changes; therefore, managers are not motivated to adopt a new strategy that allows the implementation of the OI model.

The elasticity of the industry

When huge companies are competing internationally in the food industry, they are categorized by their high sale volume and low margins; additionally, they face a challenge adopting OI due to the long food industry value chain which renders them inflexible; hence, revenues may be severely affected by any failed experiment.

With that being said, SMEs have a better chance of implementing radical changes due to their small sale volume; therefore, they can take advantage of experimenting.

Short product life cycle

As the customer needs and demands are changing regularly, companies are not focusing on the long run and are primarily interested in achieving a higher volume of sales with the same if not lower price; therefore, innovation only plays a small role in their strategy.

While large companies may see this as a barrier, SMEs can look at it as an opportunity to innovate and differentiate their products from major companies.

Cost of external knowledge

Hence, the profitability and margins in the food industry are low acquiring that external knowledge can be costly and managers will less likely to turn and look for external knowledge and they will only do so if they are positive that it is necessary due to the reason that externally acquired knowledge usually requires familiarity with the company internal environment which is not the case usually. In that sense, managers get hold of external ideas and technologies from suppliers since they are more familiar with the internal environment.

Open innovation for SMEs

While the food industry is categorized as a mature industry and research has barely touched the investigated OI in full, the adaptation of the model seems to offer a huge opportunity to SMEs; it can help them to overcome their poor sources of intelligence and information gathering expertise as well as help with their financial capital.

We concluded from our research that the engagement in the open innovation process for SMEs is closely linked to cost reduction and their low investment in the R&D department and their need to share the uncertainty of innovation and externalize it.

There are different ways that startups and SMEs can work with larger companies since larger companies are more hesitant about experimenting.

SMEs possess a significant advantage when it comes to open innovation due to their flexibility as well as the means of meeting the consumer’s changing demand and market needs.

Practical implications that face managers when adopting OI

We raised the question during our interviews regarding the implications that face managers when implementing the OI model and we concluded that most SMEs in Jordan are not motivated enough to implement OI and adapt new strategies mainly because the market size and share for each company are relatively small in Jordan and it is even smaller for SMEs due to the introduction of new competitors daily and they are categorized by their sales volume and low margins; hence, they tend to overlook the potentials of OI and the possibilities that the model can introduce for them.

As for larger companies, the adaptation of this model is growing but companies still tend to rely mostly on their R&D and apply the model mostly to gain external information and ideas mainly from their supplier and marketing insight and on a lesser scale from their customers, and as for the implications that face them when adopting the model, this has been summarized in Table ​ Table4 4 .

Managerial implication regarding OI implementation

Conclusions, limitations, and scope for future research

This research aimed to identify trends and practices of open innovation that are currently applied within the food industry, as well as to provide a general idea of the barriers and difficulties that managers of the food industry face while applying open innovation strategies, and we have concluded from our interviews that the adaptation of this model within the industry is gaining popularity and this leads us to believe that the confusion-built concept is vanishing especially with the current pandemic situation; however, considering the food industry characteristic, many barriers need to be solved especially with large international companies mainly because as we mentioned before, it is a low-margin and high-sale industry.

However, the developments and the introduction of new and innovative foods and technologies do not appear to be slowing down with the constant changes in society and demand trends; therefore, the competition in the sector is becoming more intense, and to survive this competition, the industry needs to look at open innovation strategies more seriously and change the traditional competition concept and start looking for more beneficial alliances.

Future research could apply different research approaches which can help generalize results. It is also advisable to repeat such studies periodically, to account for pedagogical, societal, economic, and technological developments affecting innovation in the food industry.

The present research is not free from limitations as the list of established OI activities is not a comprehensive list. Past reports have suggested other strategies and practices were not included in our study, since our findings are related to a specific country.

Biographies

is an Associate Professor of Business Administration. He obtained his BSc in Computer Engineering and MSc in Digital Communication Systems from Loughborough University and his PhD in Engineering Management from Coventry University (UK). His research interests include managerial and technical solutions for collaboration between enterprises, and supply chain, project, operations, and innovation management. He serves as an associate editor of the Journal of Modelling in Management, and on other journals’ editorial boards. He has been published in many leading peer-reviewed journals and has delivered keynote addresses and speeches in various countries.

holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the American University of Madaba. His research interest includes leadership management, human resources management, and innovation.

is a Doctor of Total Quality Management at the German Jordanian University. He obtained his PhD in Total Quality Management from Huddersfield University, UK. His research interest includes applying total quality management to all kinds of organizations using different kinds of techniques and applications, applying the best practices of knowledge management for effective leadership management and human resource management. He has published more than twenty refereed journal articles and conference proceedings.

Author contribution

All authors (MA, MA, and LBI) contributed equally to this work. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Data availability

Code availability (software application or custom code), declarations.

The authors declare no competing interests.

Contributor Information

Mohammad Alawamleh, Email: [email protected] .

Mohammed Al-Hussaini, Email: [email protected] .

Loiy Bani Ismail, Email: [email protected] .

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The Food Company New Product Development Group Case Study

What is your opinion of gerry’s approach to evaluating the output of the new product development group.

I support Gerry’s approach to evaluating the output of the new product development group. Apart from changing new ideas into tangible products, developing new products comes with several other challenges. Wheelwright (2010) contends that insufficient funding is one of the crucial challenges that hamper the development of new products. In most cases, people charged with the development of new products fail due to a lack of sufficient funds to support market research among other procedures that should be followed prior to developing and introducing new products in the market. Furthermore, new products need further funding in a bid to remain in the market prior to generating sufficient finances to support production and marketing (Wheelwright, 2010).

With reference to Gerry’s approach, he offered Maria as much budget as she and her group needed to facilitate the development of successful products. With such a provision, it is evident that Gerry had provided sufficient funds for the project. Furthermore, the significance of the project to the organization could be gauged from Gerry’s move to choose the most creative person within the company to head the new project. However, the idea was not clear as characterized by Garth’s move to seek clarification.

Do you think that Maria is getting too sensitive to criticism?

Maria is getting too sensitive to criticism. In my opinion, Maria should accept Gerry’s criticisms concerning the new product ideas. Constructive criticism is good for any form of development (DuBrin, 2012). First, Gerry has invested a significant proportion of the company’s revenues to enhance the development of successful products. In most cases, managers fail to venture into the production of new products for fear of failure.

However, Gerry decided to take the risk as characterized by investing in new ideas. Furthermore, Gerry believed in Maria’s success by dismissing Garth’s remarks, which highlighted the possibilities of Maria’s failure in developing new products. According to research, creativity and innovativeness form a significant part of maintaining an organization in the market (Tillman & Cassone, 2013). With the prevailing competition in the market, organizations need to engage in innovativeness and create new products in a bid to gain a competitive advantage.

Such an argument is evident in Gerry’s comment as he recognizes the possibility of Manchester Foods’ stagnation if the company fails to venture into the development of new products. With the dire need for new products, it is crucial for Maria to accept Gerry’s criticisms as a way of saving Manchester Foods from stagnation or collapsing. Furthermore, Gerry’s criticisms are positive and they are aimed at improving Maria’s ideas. For every idea that Maria gives, Gerry gives a reason to reject it, which underscores constructive criticism.

How do constraints on creativity enter this case?

According to Kaufman and Sternberg (2010), identifying problems entails a crucial step to enhancing creativity. However, it can also cause constraints, especially when it is difficult to highlight the prevailing problem (Kaufman & Sternberg, 2010). With reference to the case study, Gerry paved the path to creativity by identifying the company’s problem. Manchester Foods needed to venture into the development of new products in a bid to avoid stagnation.

As a senior manager in the company, Gerry moved further to facilitate his new ideas by creating a new centralized group that would deal with development. In the second phase of product development, researchers advocate the need for a creative leader, who will guide other employees in the execution of the new project. In an organization that is planning to undertake the development of a new product, it is the responsibility of the executive management to follow up with the project leaders to check on the progress (Trott, 2011). In the course of follow-ups, the management gets the opportunity to respond to the rising challenges and advise project leaders on the way forward (Kerzner, 2013).

With reference to the case study and by considering creativity, Gerry chose Maria Sanchez to lead the group that would be tasked with the development of new products. Furthermore, Gerry chose Maria on the grounds of her previous experience and success. With the experience, it was evident that Maria would advise her colleagues in the course of developing successful ideas. Nevertheless, Gerry made routine visits to Maria’s station to enquire about her progress. By evaluating Maria’s ideas, Gerry identified the need for additional information that gave insight into solving the group’s challenges. Furthermore, through Gerry’s comments, Maria knew what to improve with respect to the group’s ideas.

What is your hunch about the potential success of sudden Seafood and Razzle Razzberry?

The instant Seafood and Razzle Razzberry are not wise ideas, especially considering the changes in the consumption trends in recent times. Brownstein (2006) highlights that most people are cautious with their health status, and thus they are shifting preferences from processed to organic foods. Both instant Seafood and Razzle Razzberry are highly processed foodstuffs and they do not match the current consumption trends. With reference to the current changes in consumption, it is evident that Maria’s ideas cannot lead to the creation of successful products. The ideas will not translate into scalable businesses due to a lack of enough cash flow.

Brownstein, D. (2006). The Guide to Healthy Eating. New York, NY: Healthy Living.

DuBrin, A. (2012). Leadership: Research, Findings, Practice, and Skills. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.

Kaufman, C., & Sternberg, J. (2010). The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Kerzner, H. (2013). Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling. New York, NY: Wiley.

Tillman, A., & Cassone, T. (2013). Strategic planning and new product development . Upper Saddle River, N.J: FT Press.

Trott, P. (2011). Innovation Management and New Product Development. Harlow, UK: Pearson.

Wheelwright, S. (2010). Managing New Product and Process Development: Text Cases. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.

• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2021, April 25). The Food Company New Product Development Group. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-food-company-new-product-development-group/

"The Food Company New Product Development Group." IvyPanda , 25 Apr. 2021, ivypanda.com/essays/the-food-company-new-product-development-group/.

IvyPanda . (2021) 'The Food Company New Product Development Group'. 25 April.

IvyPanda . 2021. "The Food Company New Product Development Group." April 25, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-food-company-new-product-development-group/.

1. IvyPanda . "The Food Company New Product Development Group." April 25, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-food-company-new-product-development-group/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "The Food Company New Product Development Group." April 25, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-food-company-new-product-development-group/.

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Top 10 Product Case Study Examples with Templates and Samples

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