Product Development Portfolio

This portfolio discusses the product development in the ready-to-eat meal industry, including market trend research, unique selling point, food safety measures, preferred sensory characteristic maximization, and scalability. It provides insights into the importance of ready-to-eat meals and offers nutritional food to target audience. The study covers various aspects such as market trends, consumer preferences, packaging ideas, and food processing techniques. It also highlights the role of sensory characteristics and the use of eco-friendly packaging materials. The portfolio concludes with the importance of meeting customer demand and attracting a wide range of customers.

Product development portfolio

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................3
1. Market trend research ........................................................................................................3
2. Unique selling point...........................................................................................................7
3. Food safety measured.........................................................................................................7
4. Preferred sensory characteristic maximization ..................................................................8
5. Scalability...........................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION........................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES.........................................................................................................................11
Appendix..................................................................................................................................13
Questionnaire........................................................................................................................13
Nutritional label....................................................................................................................13
Packaging ideas....................................................................................................................13
Recipe (10 portion) with CCP highlighted...........................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
The present study is based upon the product development in which ready-to-eat dish
will be consumed which is cold or reheated name as “free from” range. The main purpose of
this portfolio is to let the people understand about the importance of dish (ready to eat meal)
and also offered the nutritional food to target audience i.e. business professionals. For that the
study will consider the 5 key areas such as market trend research in which both primary and
secondary research will performed. Then it determine unique selling point, food safety
measured which helps to prevent the food. Lastly, report will discuss preferred sensory
characteristic maximization and scalability of ready to eat meal.
1. Market trend research
From the market research it is analyzed that the ready to eat meals is projected to
grow at a Compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.3%. Therefore, it is consider as a
closest alternative to regular food that can be consumed by any time.
Figure 1: Statista: Forecast adjusted for expected impact of COVID-19, June 2020
From the chart it is analysed that the growth of ready to eat meal is increases and the
consumer preference is also changing in order to meet the demand. From the study it is also
analysed that in Europe the majority of population is in between 18-35 years and they all

prefer to ready to eat food products because it is more convenient (Thienhirun and Chung,
2018). On the other side, in US North America is occupy the largest market share of ready to
eat food in which people prefer this food. In addition to this, it is also analysed that the
packaging trend is also consider under market trend research in which people are attracted
towards the materials which are offered by the company in order to attract the visitors. As
ready to eat meals are more convenient and the dishes are presented in colour theme then it
will attract range of customers. Hence, it is stated that consumer behaviour driven are focused
upon the packaging material which in turn increase the demand in market.
For benchmarking visit, primary research has been done in which 20 people are
selected who preferred ready to eat meals and have to be answer the questions asked during
survey and the results are as mention below:
Theme 1: Majority of them prefer ready to eat meals
Theme 2: Most of the factors are consider by the people while purchasing the products
Yes No
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16 15
5

Theme 3: They preferred both cold and reheated products
Theme 4: Company comply with different food safety measures
4
5
4
7
Price
Quality
Packaging
All of these
5
4
11
Cold
Reheated
Both

Theme 5: Hygienic factor is also consider by the company
Yes No
0
2
4
6
8
10
12 11
9
16
4
Yes
No

Discussion: From the primary research it has been interpreted that most of the employees
preferred to both cold and reheated products in ready to eat meal and that is why, the new
product should also be consider this as a unique selling point. Moreover, it is analysed that
customer consider price, quality, packaging and hygienic factor while purchasing the
products. Hence, the benchmarking visit clearly reflected that while developing ready to eat
meal products, make sure to comply with such factors because it encourage people in order to
purchase the products and also eat nutritious products as well.
2. Unique selling point
The dish (ready to eat meal) has its USP i.e. it offer the product at low price so that
customer are attracted. Hence, it offered nutritious products to the customers and it is free
from fat and high calories. Also, the packaging material used to wrap the dish is also eco-
friendly and do not cause any negative impact upon the environment, as a result it leads to
Eco-satisfaction as well (Aviles and et.al., 2020). In addition to this, the price of the dish is
minimal such that it uses penetration pricing in which low cost of product is offered to the
customers as compared to other cafes and restaurants.
In addition to this, it is also analyzed the ready to eat dish offered new flavors and
taste to their customers or target market (business professionals and office). Also, this dish
are offered to the selected market because professionals do not have enough time to prepare
the food and that is why, this unique concept will help to meet the need of customer. Further
this is more convenient to its target market and it also offered the cold and reheated product
to their customers with an aim to increase the customer base. So, this unique selling point
assist to increase the market and keep grab attention of many customers towards it.
3. Food safety measured
In order to provide ready to eat meal products to the customers, it is necessary to
provide proper instruction to them regarding the shelf life i.e. it is last for 3 days and that is
why, do not put the food after such days. In addition to this, there is a need to ensure that
food is eliminate from the bacteria and microbes and for that different techniques should be
adopted. Such that in order to remove bacteria, make sure that proper temperature
management for storage is used that in turn reduce the microbe growth (4 primary food safety
hazard and preventing foodborne illness, 2019). Also, an effective sanitation practices
through distribution chain should be performed which in turn reduce cross contamination of
food products.

In addition to this, to protect the food from chemical hazard there is a need to provide
effective training system to their employees which in turn improve the results. The biggest
issue is physical hazard and to prevent the same, proper inspection should be done and strict
adherence to food safety regulation is performed i.e. Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point
in which all the specific guidelines are provided to employees in order to protect food from
any hazard.
Food processing is that technique which is used to convert the raw food items into
well-cooked as well as preserved eatables. Thus different techniques are as mention below:
 Freezing: Modern way that helps to preserve the food for long lasting in both
commercial as well as domestic manner. It is a wide range of product that assist to
store the products in refrigerators and with the help of this method the ready to eat
meal will keep the food for long term.
 Drying: One of the oldest method which is used for ready to eat meal that helps to
preserve the products for long term. It reduce the water content in a product that
reduce likelihood of bacterial growth and keep the product up to 3-5 days without any
harm (5 common method of food preservation, 2020).
 Pickling: With the help of this method, food is cooked in chemicals that further
destroy micro-organism. This method include brine, vinegar, vegetable oil that assist
to attain maximum efficiency and preservation. In this, eggs and dairy products are
preserve that helps to extend their shelf life, that can be used for ready to eat meal as
well.
 Dehydration: Another technique in which food can be preserved for indefinite period
because it assist to extract moisture and also reduce the growth of micro-organism.
Thus, it is the oldest method and used by people in order to sun-drying foods.
Therefore, with the help of such method, different types of fruits and rice, dried fish
can be preserve for longer term.
4. Preferred sensory characteristic maximization
Sensory characteristic includes the texture, color and smell that helps to attract the
customers towards it. In the same way, for ready-to eat meal, these all plays an important role
in the success of food development. Such that if the taste of the product is delicious then it
will assist to improve the results and mouthfeel texture and smell are also important to

overall eating experience (Baskaran and et.al., 2017). Hence, it is analyzed that food must
smell fresh and ripe, also the shape and size will grab the attention of many customers. In the
same way, ready to eat meal should also be packed in an eye- catching manner so that it will
assist to provide better eating experience to their customers. The texture of the offered
product is eye catching and this in turn grab attention of many customers towards it.
However, there are different packaging techniques which are used in order to present
the food that catch eye of consumers. Such that for ready to eat products, dish are available
and the entire food is covered with multilayer plastic films, which are made of heat- resistant
plastics that helps to maintain the temperature (Fajardo, Alonso-Aperte and Varela-Moreiras,
2017). This type of packaging material is heat seal-able and also has a good barrier properties
too. In this type of packaging, medium and low moisture food are preserved because their
temperature is bearable. Hence, this in turn helps to protect the food from any microbes and
bacteria. Moreover, the oil used for the making the food products must be edible oil and this
in turn control the cholesterol level and that is why, preferred by business professionals and
offices.
5. Scalability
In order to invest in defined dish, it is quite necessary to determine the source of raw
material. For that, the company should contact and hence uses outsourcing so that raw
material will be provided by third party. This in turn assist to save the time and as the dish
offered the nutritional product and that is why, all the ingredient should be high in quality so
that range of customers are attracted. In addition to this, workers are also used to offered the
dish to their customer instead of using automatic machines so that money is saved (Bhuyan
and Govindasamy, 2020). Also, to develop this unique concept, there may be chances of
financial risk such that the demand of the product is keep fluctuating and this in turn affect
the market in adverse manner. That is why, to minimize the decline, there is a need to
offered nutritional food which in turn assist to attract the customers towards it i.e. ready to eat
meal.
In this modern era, every process become easy by using technologies and in the same
way, for booking purpose, the current concept will uses online booking process which in turn
assist to improve the results. This process is cost effective and also assist to let most of the
customer know about this unique concept. As the ready to eat meal market is fluctuating and
to meet the demand of customers, there is a need to examine the results and keep providing

unique product to their customers as well (Sennati and et.al., 2017). Hence, it is analyzed that
the dish concept will attract the range of customers and this in turn improve the financial risk
because in this busy schedule, most of the people will prefer to ready to eat products. So in
the same way, current dish concept is also assist to improve the results and keep attracting the
range of customers towards it.
CONCLUSION
By summing up above report it has been concluded that this new concept is attracted
the range of customers and it also uses eco-friendly product to packaging the food product so
that it will not cause any negative impact upon business. Also study concluded that the dish
uses different ingredients which are enrich of nutrition and that is why target customer
preferred the same. In addition to this, report also concluded that there are different food
safety measures used that helps to extend the life of food for some days. Along with this,
study also concluded that there are different sensory characteristic maximisation has been
used in which effective packaging material are used that helps to protect the food from
bacteria. Overall, the study concluded that by opting such measures, the ready to eat meal is
easily preferred by many people and meet their demand as well.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Thienhirun, S. and Chung, S., 2018. Consumer attitudes and preferences toward cross-
cultural ready-to-eat (RTE) food. Journal of Food Products Marketing. 24(1). pp.56-79.
Aviles, M.V. and et.al., 2020. Effect Of Familiarity Of Ready-To-Eat Animal-Based Meals
On Consumers' Perception And Consumption Motivation. International Journal of
Gastronomy and Food Science, p.100225.
Baskaran, S. and et.al., 2017. Understanding purchase intention of ready-to-eat food among
Malaysian urbanites: A proposed framework. Int. J. Acad. Res. Bus. Soc. Sci, 7, pp.566-
579.
Bhuyan, S. and Govindasamy, R., 2020. Factors Affecting Consumption of RTE (Ready-To-
Eat) International Food in The United States. International Journal of Food and
Agricultural Economics (IJFAEC). 8(1128-2020-1531), pp.257-269.
Sennati, S. and et.al., 2017. Citrobacter braakii carrying plasmid-borne mcr-1 colistin
resistance gene from ready-to-eat food from a market in the Chaco region of
Bolivia. Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. 72(7). pp.2127-2129.
Fajardo, V., Alonso-Aperte, E. and Varela-Moreiras, G., 2017. Total folate content in ready-
to-eat vegetable meals from the Spanish market. Journal of Food Composition and
Analysis. 64. pp.223-231.
Finten, G. and et.al., 2017. Irradiated ready-to-eat spinach leaves: How information
influences awareness towards irradiation treatment and consumer's purchase
intention. Radiation Physics and Chemistry. 130. pp.247-251.
Online
5 common method of food preservation. 2020. [Online]. Available through: <
http://blog.equinoxlab.com/5-most-common-methods-used-in-food-processing/ >.
4 primary food safety hazard and preventing foodborne illness. 2019. [Online]. Available
through: < https://blog.smartsense.co/food-safety-education-month-hazards-prevention
>.

Appendix
Questionnaire
1. Do you ever use ready to eat meals?
 Yes
 No
2. Which of the following factor you consider while purchase ready to eat product?
 Price
 Quality
 Packaging
 All of these
3. Which type of dished you preferred?
 Cold
 Reheated
 Both
4. Do you think that ready to eat meal companies are comply with food safety measures?
 Yes
 No
5. Do you think that ready to eat meal products maintain hygiene?
 Yes
 No
Nutritional label
The nutrition facts label assist to determine what food a candidate is easting and it
also helps to determine the healthy and balanced die. Therefore, every packaged or processed
should be label and tis in turn helps to present the nutrition facts information which is
available during the product. In this, the % of the carbohydrates, fats, saturated fat,
cholesterol are properly defined which in turn let people know about the percentage of
calories.
Packaging ideas
 In order to promote the product at high level, it is suggested to use the packaging
material which recyclable and eco-friendly in nature so that it will not cause any
damage to the environment and this in turn attract the customers.
Recipe (10 portion) with CCP highlighted
 For preparing the fresh meat, it is required to have a raw material and then cut it down
in the pieces in order to generate the best outcome.

 Cook the food at 160 degree F and make sure that it is not over or under the
temperature (CCP). Hence, it is analyzed that this if the food is overcooked then it
will lose its actual performance and this in turn create negative impact upon
customers.
 After cooked, present the meat in a better manner so that it looks delicious and serve
the same in front of customers that attract them.