INFLUENCE OF CONSUMER PERCEPTION ON NEW FOOD PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

Benefits and risks

1.0 ECTS AIM: To give you the ability to make the balance between benefits and risks as you try to develop new products in food industry

After succesful completion of this unit you should be able to: Describe the main benefits of new product development Describe the main risks of new product development List the main types of product development

Is the new food product development in food science necessary?  Yes : to fulfil the consumer’s desires  For the long term survival and growth of a food company  To satisfy the growing demands of nutrition and ecology aware consumers  To increase the profit margins in a competitive future market environment

Introduction  Health is an argument used by food companies to promote their products  Arguments based on scientific basis but incomplete information given to consumers  2 questions :  does the use of health claims induce new risk via modification of dietary patterns  does the use of health claims result in the expected health benefits in a long term normal use in humans

Risks/benefits of new food product  Improvement of longevity partly linked to food sufficiency and a better food safety  Cretan and Japanese diets are better to ensure a highest longevity : low content in saturated fat, calories and no cholesterol, increase of consumption of vegetables and fruits (containing food fibbers, polyphenols and vitamins)

What could a new food product be?  New composition of ingredients (better dietary pattern)  functional food (with health claim)  neutraceuticals (with therapeutic properties)  having benefits for the consumers :  for his health  in terms of organoleptic properties  and for quality/price ratio each consumer choosing food products according his own criteria

Which risks have to be avoided?  Risk linked to misuses :  for the health (dietary pattern, toxicity, allergens, long term effects)  decrease of authentic taste (by standardisation)  increase of price for specific and not useful products (neutraceutical for « normal » consumers)

Classification of new products good for health (neutraceutical, pharmafood, functional food)  Dietetic products : products for people with particular nutritional requirement (regulated)  Functional food : products modified by addition or elimination of a nutritive component or by technological process, to give them a determined action or function of the organism to improve health or to reduce risk of some diseases  Complementary food : products to be ingested by Human to the exclusion of pharmaceuticals and destined to prevent real or supposed deficiency of daily allowances

Benefits linked to new food products  Enriched food to prevent deficiencies (vitamins, nutrients...)  addition of vitamins in milk products (A, D, E)  soybean products (with good biological value) from soybean milk (new-born) or highest consumption of soybean by adults  new food oils (mixture of several oils, selection of new colseed variety...)  new margarines (vegetable fat with lower content of saturated fat, no cholesterol, enriched in essential fatty acid and/or in phytosterols with effect on cholesterol level)

Benefits linked to new food products  Light products to decrease calories content (fat content or simple sugar content)  Products without some specific substanes to prevent illnesses or symptoms (phenylcetonuria, diabete, coeliac illness, allergy...)  Enriched food to prevent deficiencies (vitamins, nutrients...)  Replacement of a substance by another (chemically produced substance replaced by a natural one)  Protective and preventive effects of antioxidants rich products (vitamins and/or mineral antioxidant) used as supplementary food

Benefits linked to new food products  Modification of animal feeding (enriched in Linseed oil to modify the fatty acid pattern of meat)  Creation of food products including GMO as ingredients to provide drugs for specific pathologies or vaccines via food

Risks linked to new food products  Misuse of new products by consumers by misinformation about the product and its potential effects :  hypervitaminoses (over the safety level for example for vitamins A, D...) by excessive use of supplementary cocktails of vitamins  overconsumption of minerals (used as preservatives in food industry or added to novel food product to prevent underconsumption)  use of light products in anorexia...

Risks linked to new food products  Wrong feeling of safety for health :  recommendation of enriched margarines and oils, especially in polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3) very unstable at high temperature or by peroxidation by free radicals  components enriched with phytosterols or conjugated linoleic acid without a good knowledge of their secondary effects when eaten at non nutritional concentrations for a long time

Risks linked to new food products  Wrong feeling of safety for health :  use of light margarines (40% fatty acid), difficult to lay down so that the consumer uses a greater quantity of product on the same surface.  use of margarine to decrease the level of exogen cholesterol introducing higher quantities of trans fatty acids maybe more dangerous for consumers with a normal cholesterolemia

Risks linked to new food products  Appearance of cases of allergy : GMO producing new substances, presence of new allergens in a well-known food product, introduction of exotic food products, presence of additives like glutamates or sulfites...  Secondary effects linked to products present in the food product : oestrogen-like effects produced by phytooestrogen of soybeans, decrease of immunity linked to genitsein of soybean in mouse experiments, useless ingestion of drugs or vaccines  Addition of chemical substances in the formulation, for which chronic effects are not well known

Some perspectives in developing new functional food  To ameliorate intestinal discomfort linked to food fibbers : incorporation of bacteria able to limit the production of hydrogen and methane during cellulose degradation in the gastro-intestinal tract  Use of lactic bacteria from fermented milk to prevent some infections : probiotics as protection against pulmonary infections