Innovation drives business growth and is an essential part of business strategy in the fast-paced modern food industry. FBDC can help drive your ideation to deliver product ranges with unique selling points, helping you create a fresh and exciting proposition to your consumers. Our team are dedicated to keeping up with local and global trends in product, packaging and process.
We attend trade shows and industry events and have a wealth of in-house experience, as well as a network of industry contacts, chefs, and centres of excellence in development. The services we offer include:
We offer technical support and advice in the following areas:
We can assist with a variety of tasks at short notice and with a quick turnaround. These include
FBDC operates internationally providing a range of services to its Clients tailor made to their requirements. These can be conducted as a mix between remote support and in situ activity.
Some of our International clients include:
Bulgarian Food Manufacturer
FBDC has been providing services to match existing products currently co-packed as well as advising on the capital programme to deliver a manufacturing facility on their site in Bulgaria. This project has involved both remote and in situ support.
Jumbo Supermarkets – Netherlands
Jumbo is the second largest supermarket in the Netherlands. FBDC is has been operating as an embedded resource at a senior level within the Jumbo organization for the last 2 years through Susan Pieterse by providing food development expertise in execution and process as well as insight research on food trends developing in the European market.
Northern Ireland bakery manufacturer
This project gave the client ongoing support for 18 months for a range of activities on the development and delivery of a number of product launches for major high street retailers in the UK.
Saudi Arabia
Supported client based in Saudi including factory visit to complete trials and follow up assessment of raw materials, packaging etc.
India
This project was all about ideation and conceptual project work. FBDC created new novel concepts to increase the clients product portfolio.
The food industry is rapidly changing, with abundant innovation in ingredients and increasing focus on healthy, functional and ecologically favourable products. Our team regularly attend trade shows and stay up-to-date on the latest trends and ingredients used in the industry. We have worked with products as diverse as insect snack bars and dairy alternatives, and have carried out our own research into alternative baking ingredients, finding ways to reduce sugar and fat and create gluten-free alternatives in multiple formats.
FBDC’s product development is always underpinned by research, and an understanding of the function of each ingredient. This enables us to incorporate modern and relevant ingredients, and improve the nutritional profile of existing products, without compromising on taste or quality.
We have substantial experience of reformulation, having modified entire ranges of products to comply with government recommendations for sugar and salt levels. With the level of nutritional regulation set to increase in the near future, FBDC can support reformulation across all categories.
Promotion and advertisement on food and drinks high in fat, sugar and salt (HFSS) in retailers will be restricted from October 2022. Regulations will require medium and large business: those with 50 or more employees; to phase out multibuy promotions such as ‘BOGOF’ or ‘3 for 2’ offers on HFSS products. Additionally ‘less healthy’ products and any promotions on those products can also no longer be featured in key locations, such as checkouts, store entrances, aisle ends and their online equivalents. Free refills of sugary soft drinks will also be prohibited in the eating-out sector.
Do these restrictions affect your product range? We can help you to review your products against the Nutrient Profiling Model used to determine if a product is ‘healthy’ or ‘less healthy’ and therefore if it is affected by the HFSS restrictions. We can also help you to reformulate products where possible to meet requirements of ‘healthy’ products to be free from the HFSS restrictions.
We are capable of validating cooking/reheat instructions as well as providing assistance in creating the instructions for use on pack. Our development kitchen contains a wide range of equipment that covers most cooking methods, including:
A validation report will be provided for each cooking instruction along with cooking loss data if required and any recommended changes. Our kitchen is equipped with food temperature probes that can monitor the internal product temperature during cooking to ensure all safety requirements are met. All of our equipment is calibrated to industry standards.
Our development centre includes a fully equipped development kitchen and presentation room, both of which are available for hire. We can accommodate presentations for up to 30 people, or add a boardroom table to provide a meeting room for up to 10 people. These facilities are often used by food and beverage companies to host PR events, use as a studio for photo shoots, and by smaller enterprises who require a well-equipped kitchen for production and development purposes. Our facilities can be booked by the day, half day or evening, with refreshments and staff assistance available on request.
