Rethinking the Product Development Cycle: Faster Innovation, Tailored to You
Industry Trends, Ingredient Trends
In product development, moving fast is a competitive advantage.
A Solution to Stressed Out R&D Teams
There’s a widening disconnect between what consumers want and what food brands can realistically deliver. Let’s start with consumers. They want it all. The trendiest flavors…immediately. The zaniest collaborations….yesterday. Virtual TikTok food trends….in a packaged format and at the supermarket.
Food manufacturers and brands understand these demands, but are swimming upstream against a nearly impossible situation: Consumer demand is evolving faster than product development timelines. They want “fast food” from their packaged foods.
Today’s trends go from social media to supermarket shelves in months, and R&D teams have limited time to investigate and keep up with the rapid evolution of consumer trends. Essentially, most companies’ internal R&D timelines are too long to keep up, especially when approvals, pilot testing and supplier checks can take months. Throughout the food industry, we’re seeing the same pain points again and again that have led to an untenable state of product development.
Pain Point One: R&D teams are stretched too thin
Since the pandemic, most food companies are running lean, leaving R&D teams juggling everything from innovation to quality control to chasing supplier specs. That’s causing a significant gap between what consumers want and what food brands can deliver.
Pain Point Two: An imbalance between an R&D team’s ambition and expertise
We love that product developers are getting younger and more diverse. It’s been a breath of fresh air in the industry. But with youth sometimes comes inexperience, and it’s hard to focus on true innovation and keep up on the latest in ingredient technology.
Pain Point Three: Little time for true innovation
California was the first state to launch its own food labeling regulations, causing labeling and reformulation headaches to many companies distributing to the Golden State. Now, Texas, West Virginia and Louisiana have joined the fray, each requiring different labeling regulations concerning very common ingredients. This has drawn R&D teams into a reformulation and regulation blackhole.
Pain Point Four: Off-the-shelf ingredients don’t always fit
Unique applications require unique solutions. However, sourcing ingredients that meet flavor, texture and label needs is easier said than done, and can rarely be found in an off-the shelf solution. This causes delays in product development timelines.
Alas, not all hope is lost for food brands seeking to rapidly bring innovation to their product line.
Bridging the Gap: The Bluegrass Ingredients Solution
Our Innovation Solution Strategy is designed to close the gap between consumer expectations and what food brands can realistically deliver. It’s a scalable system that combines consumer insight, agile processes and ingredient expertise to help food brands overcome their pain points and quickly bring innovative products to market. Here are the four key elements of our Innovation Solution:
- Culinary Innovation Center: Real chefs, real-time innovation. Our culinary team prototypes trend-forward applications to show what’s possible with insight, flavor and function.
- Ingredients R&D Center: We engineer unique, black-box custom dairy concentrates, blended powders and fruit-forward solutions that solve real formulation problems.
- Agile Ingredient Innovation: We rapidly respond to requests, developing market ready prototypes in weeks, not months.
- Exceptional Service Teams: Think of Bluegrass Ingredients as your field-level innovation partners. Whether you’re troubleshooting a formula, seeking custom or matched ingredients, or looking for speed-to-market opportunities, our team works collaboratively with yours.
Built for R&D Teams
Our Innovation Solution Strategy isn’t a rebrand on ingredient sales. This is Agile Ingredient Innovation. This is truly rethinking your relationship with an ingredient supplier. We’ve already helped leading food brands move faster, simplify development and scale smarter. And, we’re available to help you. Contact us today.
