Costly decisions to be made

With papers reporting that ingredients and energy costs are reaching record highs, it's no wonder that processors are looking to make savings wherever they can. And from a new product development perspective, there is a great need to reduce the cost of finished goods.

There are a number of ways to approach this and various challenges to overcome, but the main obstacle is resource. There aren't enough development staff who have the time or skills to carry out efficient cost engineering. Anyone can develop food but the trick is to be able to develop the best food, at the lowest cost, within the shortest time. It's very rare for developers to reformulate a product that costs less, but tastes as good, or even better than, the original.

In the food industry we always push our people resources to the limit and don't often consider the importance of redefining what we currently do. The problem is that time is of the essence and both our business and our customers are always pushing everyone to stick to tight deadlines.

The majority of food products that are developed today are based on recipes, that have been around for many years and some businesses will follow what they know, working on a blueprint of how things have worked in the past.

But times are changing and we all need to re-focus on what we do today for the future. In development terms that means staff need to look backwards and not forwards! Instead of always rushing to the next product, developers need to reflect on what the business does and where cost savings can be made, both within the product and also its packaging.

For large manufacturers, shaving a penny off the basic recipe cost can save millions of pounds and it's easy to do if you take the right approach. There are a lot of wins to be made when times are hard by efficient and effective cost engineering.

Mark Rigby​​ is director of the Development Chefs' Network (DCN) and business development chef for Premier Foods​