Briefing
Description of customer requirements
A customer has successfully launched a sugar-free cereal product with a chocolate flavour. Now he wants to expand his range and bring two more low-sugar cereal products to market. The flavours are to be reminiscent of established products from various market leaders. The flavours used are to be powdery and natural.
Framework conditions + tasks:
- Assortment definition
- Flavour specification through well-known branded articles
- Development of flavour components
- Cooperation with the customer's contract producer
Product development
The development process in detail
The task begins where our colleagues also get their inspiration: At the point of purchase. We buy market samples of the products of the market leaders and present them to the flavourists of STOCKMEIER Food for evaluation in the laboratory. Then a special meal takes place: the flavourists sensory dissect the products into their flavour components. In most cases, complex flavourings are built on many individual notes. It is the start of every flavour development to recognise and weight these notes.
Technology supports the flavourists in this work. A gas chromatograph (GC/MS) enables qualitative and quantitative determination of individual components. To put it in layman's terms: It measures the gas of vaporised individual components. However, this does not do justice to the very complex process, because it also works with very complex mixtures of substances and only in conjunction with people who can also interpret the results correctly. In addition, the sensory skills of the flavourists are extremely important for the fine-tuning and success of the project.
The team writes the first framework recipes with the help of the results and the sensory determination and starts with the first tests. In most cases, the aroma can be composed of other building blocks. To do this, the specialists taste the aromas in small doses in a liquid medium (e.g. water). Afterwards, the team samples two drafts for each of the customer's two applications.
Now it is important to have a good working relationship with the contract manufacturer, because he produces the finished product on his production line with the help of the newly developed flavour. Only with a lot of coordination can we then ensure that the flavouring is used correctly. With the customer's feedback, the flavourists and the contract manufacturer then optimise the flavours and the application dosage until a 0-series of the products can be run. The product is now ready for launch.