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Speakers Corner FI Europe: Healthy Foods & Consumer Acceptance
Do you wish to develop a healthier product composition, with equal or even better consumer acceptance? Please join us at our speakers corner at the FI Europe 2017 in Frankfurt to learn how you can become a partner in our subsidised consortium project aiming for breakthrough innovations in this field. Every exhibition day at 4:00 pm at stand #0F51 in hall 8.0, Joost Blankestijn will present this unique initiative.
The food industry is still looking for cost-effective solutions for lowering sugar, fat and salt content of their foods without any compromise to the product quality. Although many solutions are commercially available it is not an easy job to make sure the consumers prefer a reformulated product. To overcome these challenges TNO and Wageningen University & Research are setting up a consortium on healthy product composition.
In this project both a technological approach towards products and a psychological approach towards consumer acceptance and behaviour will be followed. The technological approach focusses on how to formulate the food product. At each step of the technological development, the relevant aspects of the sensory and consumer studies will be connected to the concepts under investigation. In particular, the complexity of sensory perception, consumer acceptance and consumer journey will build up progressively as relevant insights are gained during the project. Such approach allows both parts to operate in parallel and secures good interaction between them at key moments in the project. In the final stage of the project this will allow to establish concept optimization approaches which integrate both the technological and consumer aspects.
The proof is in the pudding: showcase Peijnenburg Zero
The Dutch company Peijnenburg was aiming at a reduction of 40% sugar content in its traditional breakfast cake when it joined a research consortium of TNO and Wageningen University & Research. At the end of the three-year project, a sugar-free breakfast cake had been achieved that still retained the desirable sponginess, moistness and softness of the cake. The product was launched commercially in late 2015 and is currently a huge commercial success for Peijnenburg, with a household penetration of 13% (expected to grow to 25% by 2020).
If you are not able to attend the FIE exhibition please feel free to reach out to me at joost.blankestijn@wur.nl or +31 6 51 51 41 23