RECIPE FOR SAFER FOODS
Food safety innovation at The National Food Lab is driven by a fresh
approach to product development—anticipating a product’s potential
food safety risks before they become a reality.
Anyone who bakes knows that the precise combination of ingredients is necessary to yield the desired result. Too much
baking powder can lead to a fallen cake;
too little makes it soggy. Kevin Buck,
who witnessed many food failures during
the 14 years he spent in the ingredients
industry, was committed to getting the
recipe right when he arrived as CEO of
The National Food Lab in Livermore,
California. However, according to his experience, the viability and success of new
food products didn’t involve recipes or
ingredients…it meant involving the right
mix of people at the right time.
The Key Ingredient
The National Food Lab (The NFL) is a
food and beverage industry consulting
firm whose website advertises “expertise
in new food product strategy, com-
mercialization, process development,
food safety, consumer research, sensory
evaluation, chemistry and microbiol-
ogy.” While the organization is full of
experts within these disciplines, their
value proposition does not lie with the
individual services they offer. Rather,
they have an integrated approach
whereby experts from different areas are
involved throughout the entire product
life cycle. According to Buck, “It isn’t
the talent itself that is our core com-
petency…it’s linking them all together
effectively.”
Adding Food Safety to the Mix
So, what does an integrated approach
to the food lifecycle mean and how
does it involve food safety? In practice,
it means that a client involved in a
culinary innovation session to develop
a new product may find himself seated
next to a microbiologist and discussing
which ingredients could present shelf-
life problems later on. Or, a new prod-
uct could go from an idea on paper to
a production run of a hundred samples
which are analyzed immediately to en-
sure the product will be safe when it hits
the market…all before a client leaves the
building. The value in assessing a prod-
uct’s stability, safety risks, and behav-
ioral characteristics up front means that
better decisions can be made during the
design stage—which will ultimately lead
to safer foods being produced. It also
shortens a product’s time-to-market and
increases the chance that the product
will be viable with consumers.
Controlling the Batch
Once production begins on a new
product, support services such as
ingredient profile management, supply chain monitoring and laboratory
testing are performed to continually assess a product’s risk and make
modifications as needed. If the group
becomes aware of an emerging food
safety issue, such as economic adulteration occurring in a certain type of ingredient, they proactively consult with
their customers and develop a plan to
respond. Buck states, “A successful
product launch must be followed by
diligent supply chain monitoring and
manufacturing controls. Our total
familiarity with both of these critical
issues, derived from our involvement
with the product’s creation, makes for
a sustainable total system surrounding
the product from both consumer appeal and safety perspectives.”
P6;Food Safety INSIDER
