About 33 new food and drinks appear on supermarket shelves each day, senior consultant at Promar International Matthew Incles told FoodManufacture.co.uk in this exclusive video.
However, a large proportion of the new products were existing items with minor changes made to them, he said.
Big break
Although it was important to make changes to products in response to new legislation and customer demands, as well as to keep them fresh, manufacturers could be missing their big break if they focused too much on refreshing products, Incles added.
“The balancing act is to make sure those big ideas are being developed and nurtured without losing focus on what’s going on in the market place,” said Incles. “So make sure that your products are being developed at the same time as working on those big ideas for a break-through revelation, which is difficult because people’s resources are limited.”
Listen to this podcast to hear Incles talk about product innovation and development.
Meanwhile, subscribe to Food Manufacture magazine to read exclusively in the May issue why Incles says the UK’s food and drinks industry has got a lot to be proud of.