Developing new Recipes: Product Research and Development

DEVELOPING NEW RECIPES

• Eating habits of people have changed around the world. To be on top of the business and to be modern and updated, one must constantly develop new products, new processes and new ways.
• Developing new recipes is a common feature in almost all business houses and food chains, to constantly evolve their products to suit the different market segments. Example- McDonald’s serve beef burgers all over the world but in India, they had to change their product recipes due to sensitive religious constraints
• The recipe developers work as a separate team and may consist of chefs, food technologists, scientists and each of them has a distinctive role play.
• Recipe development comprises various stages, which may differ from organization to organization.
• Chefs create new recipes by different methods. The most common is the trial and error method. Based on his culinary skill and knowledge, a chef combines flavours and ingredients to create a new product.
• The product is offered to a panel of food tasters.
• The feedback is collated and the recipe is further refined and then standardized.
• Many factors are built into the new recipe when it is ready to be listed on the new menu. The factors include production planning, forecasting the number of portions to be sold and also creating the menu specification sheet.
• Developing recipes for a food chain, which is to be launched in various outlets across the globe, may take more than 6-8 months before the process is complete.

Methodology to develop a recipe or a new product –

1. Evaluate the objective of the organization as to what it wants to develop, whether the product is for short or long term.
2. To develop an action plan, to be able to plan in a sequential manner.
3. To develop the product in small portions, in the kitchen.
4. Thereafter, the team of developers will figure out how this product to be made in bulk, deconstructed and reconstructed, at the different outlets.
5. In order to achieve this, the product is tested for the temperature changes that it has to undergo, and the time it will be cooked for.
6. During the various stages, the judgement of the physical factors such as environment, communication, marketing has to be kept in mind for the success of the launched product.
7. The recipe is thus created in a monitored environment, to see how it is stored and dispensed to avoid microbial growth and contaminations.
8. The biggest challenge is to obtain a product, which despite having gone through an immense number of processes, is flavoursome, moist and as fresh.