From recipe to product: six stages of new food product development

A client arrives with a recipe. It works in the kitchen, it tastes good, family and friends love it. They ask how long it will take to “move it to production”. The honest answer: it depends on how many of the following stages have already been done, and how many of them will still turn up surprises.

1. Concept and brief

Everything starts with a written brief: what the product is, for whom, in which market, at what target price, with which nutritional claims, which raw materials are allowed, which regulation applies, in what packaging, and with what shelf life. Most problems later on trace back to a brief that was never written, or that did not answer one of those questions.

If all you have is an idea, or a tidy answer from an AI model, that is fine. It is a good starting point. Our job is to turn it into a brief a lab can test. Details in What to prepare before approaching a food product developer.

2. Formulation

The first formulas are built around what will decide things on the line and the shelf, not around taste alone: raw-material cost, availability at industrial volume, allergens, stability. Water activity (aw), pH and moisture-sorption behaviour are set as targets here, because they will decide how the product keeps. With us this stage starts in a simulation model, to arrive at the bench with an understanding of the trade-offs.

3. Benchtop trials

Here the recipe meets equipment that mimics the line: a high-shear mixer instead of a spoon, a homogenizer instead of a blender, a freeze dryer, an extruder, UHT. Every prototype is recorded in numbers (aw, pH, Brix, viscosity, time, temperature) and measured on a texture analyser where relevant. We taste together, and iterate. Usually several rounds.

4. Process design

We define the sequence and its operating window: order of addition, temperatures, mixing, heating, cooling and holding times. For safety and stability we design with hurdle technology, several barriers working together (pH, aw, heat treatment, packaging) rather than relying on one. For heat-treated products we calculate P and F values from temperature-probe data.

5. Scale-up readiness

This is where most developments stop working, so with us it starts at the first prototype. We identify the critical parameters and ask: what happens to shear, heat transfer, mass transfer and geometry when the mixer is a hundred times bigger? The heating rate in a 5-litre pot is nothing like a 500-litre vessel. The output of this stage is a product file: raw-material specifications, process parameters, production instructions and packaging recommendations. We can also support the first production trials at the plant.

6. Shelf-life validation

Find what limits shelf life and test against it. Accelerated testing gives an early read; real-time storage confirms it. Accredited microbiological and nutritional tests go to external laboratories. Details in Five shelf-life failure mechanisms.

Why you loop back

The stages are not linear. A shelf-life test that shows softening sends you back to formulation. A line trial that shows a different viscosity sends you back to process design. That is not the process failing, that is the process. The difference between a good development and an expensive one is where the problems surface: in the lab, or on the line.

How long does it take? A first prototype usually within weeks. A market-ready product takes longer, and depends on how many of these stages reveal surprises. We define that in the proposal, after the brief. More on our development process.