Case Studies
A selection of projects carried out by the Food Innovation Service is listed below:
- Case Study 1. Process Improvements Leading to Increased Output
A Dorset business processing a range of premium quality snack nuts was directed to the Food Innovation Service by the South West Manufacturing Advisory Service. The business had identified new sales opportunities but needed to upscale their manufacturing process to enable them to exploit them.
The Food Innovation Service was asked to conduct a review of the existing process and make recommendations on how to create a process flow capable of higher output without the need of increasing shifts or personnel levels.
The Food Innovation Service carried out the review and put forward a range of recommendations, providing specifications and cost estimates, to transfer the current manual process to a more automated one with additional capacity. The Food Innovation Service will support the project going forward through the implementation phase.
- Case Study 2. Commercialisation of Fruit Drinks
A new Cornish business wishing to process fruit based drinks contacted the Food Innovation Service for assistance in commercialisation of their product concept.
The business previously marketed fruit products and was looking to diversify into manufacturing of premium, high value 100% fruit drinks.
The business worked with the Food Innovation Service team to develop a manufacturing process that could be easily carried out at the Agri-Food Centre.
This enabled the production of ambient stable beverages that were used to complete a test market and assess if investment in production facilities was merited.
These products are flying off the shelves and the company is currently looking to open their own production facility with continued technical support from the Food Innovation Service.
- Case Study 3. Yield Increase Through Process Improvement
The Food Innovation Service was approached by a producer of premium meat products. The Devon company specialises in the traditional production of a range of meats but is well known for its cured meats. The company were experiencing an ongoing undesirable colour defect in one of their high value products.
Despite long-term attempts to eliminate the problem, the company had so far been unsuccessful. This resulted in product wastage and reduced yields and lost revenue. An expert from the Food Innovation Service visited the production site to review the process.
Suggestions for process improvement were provided by FIS and were implemented by the company. The result: By tightening the process control the occurrence of the colour defect was successfully eliminated, providing increased yield of the product, reduced wastage and improved profit.
- Case Study 4. Improvement to Quality Assurance and Product
Specifications
A specialist food importer looking to expand their retail and food service sales recognised they did not have the in-house technical capability needed to manage their increasing quality assurance demands.
The Food Innovation Service was engaged to provide on-going technical support and now routinely manages the technical aspects of the business.
The Food Innovation Service provides the business with a technical link between customers and suppliers ensuring that all technical standards and requirements are met as well as maintaining the technical specification system. This has allowed the other business personnel to focus on their commercial roles.
- Case Study 5. Ready-to-Drink Hot Chocolate Development
An organic milk processor who has a trading relationship with a national coffee house chain recognised an opportunity to expand their product range and build a stronger relationship with their customer by developing some innovative products. Although the business had ambition they lacked the in-house product development resource and contacted the Food Innovation Service. By outsourcing the project to the Food Innovation Service, the company was able to benefit from the expert product development experience within the Food Innovation Service team with a minimum impact on their own resources. The Food Innovation Service was asked to develop a ready to serve drinking chocolate, with a potential sales volume of 6 million litres per year. The target was to provide a product that can be manufactured on existing plant that gave enhanced flavour and texture for the consumer versus the current product whilst also enabling the chain to sell a consistent product from each outlet. This development was carried out and product manufactured by the Food Innovation Service is being used for in store taste tests.
- Case Study 6. Product Benchmarking
A major UK branded bakery business partnered with the Food Innovation Service to review its full range of products. The company had carried out some activity previously but wanted to develop a product benchmarking protocol that gave them independent data that could be used as a means of tracking their products through the eyes of the consumer.
The Food Innovation Service worked with the company to develop a questionnaire that could be easily tailored to suit the whole range of products, providing the ability to collect consumer data using product purchased from a variety of retail outlets and a consumer panel guided by a panel leader.
The data acquired for each product was presented in a comprehensive report that could be used by the business to highlight any production issues or development opportunities.
- Case Study 7. Development Gluten-Free Bakery Products
A bakery company with shops throughout Cornwall recognised a growing customer demand for gluten-free products.
For some time the company had attempted to develop a gluten-free pastry which could be used to make their traditional Cornish pasty and other products but had been unable to develop a pastry which was resilient enough to be handled and crimped effectively.
The company owner contacted the Food Innovation Service and commissioned a project to develop a gluten-free pastry formulation which was successfully accomplished. Since this project was completed the Food Innovation Service has carried out additional projects expanding the gluten-free range products for the bakery company.
