Baking & Snack - July 2022 - 22

INNOVATIONS & INGREDIENTS
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
RECOVERY CENTERS ON SAVINGS
PRE-PANDEMIC
HEIGHT OF THE PANDEMIC
NEXT 12-18 MONTHS 90%
Ingredient cost savings
65% | 69% | 90%
Innovation
88% | 46% | 76%
Formulation
58% | 44% | 71%
Supplier rationalization
47% | 54% | 63%
New ingredients
61% | 48% | 60%
Invention
73% | 41% | 59%
ideas also grew from 27% to 38% during the past
three years.
" This is a huge opportunity for ongoing partnerships
with suppliers, " Ms. Hellmer pointed out. " It's
related to the workforce gap and the lack of knowledge
in the bakery. Bakers are working so hard just to
fulfill orders, so they are turning to the supplier base
asking them how to use new ingredient technology
and ramp up as soon as possible. "
In fact, survey respondents were asked to rank how
helpful different types of ingredient supplier support
would be, and the seven areas listed remained within
10 points of each other. Edging out in front of the
pack were supplier supports in helping " identify new
solutions via collaborations between ingredient suppliers "
and " R&D/innovation troubleshooting " with
65% each and " supplier R&D support for reformulation
or prototype development " with 62%.
" These data represent bakeries saying it would be
helpful if ingredient suppliers provided these supports
for us, " Ms. Hellmer explained. " I'm sure many
of them are already doing these things, but these insights
serve as a signal that bakers are looking to their
ingredient suppliers to support their R&D efforts.
This will only grow in importance given the workforce
gap, the pace of business and the lack of available
talent. "
This was also reflected in the narrative responses
from bakers, both as a positive and an area for improvement.
Bakers looking for suppliers to improve
noted that they needed technical support for reformulation
and more agile product launches. They also
wanted consumer insight from suppliers. On the positive
side, one baker noted how their company leans
on suppliers for product development assistance.
" We continue to utilize their skills and knowledge
to improve our products, develop new products and
assist in training our future bakers, " the respondent
wrote.
Clean label dominated in terms of specific formuimportance.
When asked to name the most important
sources of inspiration for new product ideas, internal
R&D teams, consumers and bakery customers all
remained the top three and only grew in importance
over the course of the pandemic.
Interestingly, though restaurants - long considered
the test kitchen for future product ideas -
was only No. 5 on the list, both during the height of
the pandemic and currently. In fact, as restaurants
have recovered, they only gained 10 points. The No.
4 source, on the other hand, was ingredient supplier
research/ideas, and this source grew in importance by
20 percentage points. Equipment supplier research/
22 Baking & Snack July 2022 / www.bakingbusiness.com
lating priorities for the next 12 to 18 months. Seventythree
percent listed it as their top priorities. The next
highest priority was health and nutrition improvements
at 45%. Seventy-nine percent of respondents
said their companies are focused on cleaning up current
products, whether that's making them natural,
organic or removing negatively perceived ingredients.
Taken as a whole, more and more baking companies
are paddling out to ride the wave of product development
again. R&D is seeing an optimistic recovery, but
they're choosing smaller waves to ride, taking fewer
risks and letting the market challenges guide them to
cost savings and better supplier partnerships.
*
SOURCE: 2022 Trends in Industrial Baking Industry Product Innovation & Development Survey
http://www.bakingbusiness.com
Baking & Snack - July 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Baking & Snack - July 2022
