Scale up process in new food product development

Developing new products and ingredients often begins with a small-scale bench-top exercise. A prototype is
developed using laboratory or kitchen-scale equipment.

The challenge then becomes: how to go from a small, experimental production run to produce enough
material for plant trials and, eventually, consumer acceptance trails? This is loosely termed 'scale-up', and is
more challenging than it may appear. The reason for this is both simple and complex.

……………………………………………………………………….

Simple, because the process approach used at bench top scale to produce a few grams of material may be
impractical for production of kilogram quantities needed for the next steps. And complex, because the
prototype resulting from the bench-top process may not be repeatable at plant-scale.

This may be due to issues of engineering scale-up , or simply challenges in handling material on a larger
scale.

Scale-up issues are typically overcome by using intermediate steps in the process of translation from bench-
top to plant-scale processes. These may be at the level of a pilot-plant or, further into development, at the
semi-works or demonstration works scale.

………………………………………………………………………..

The design activities in the Product Design and Process Development process are organized into steps such
as,

‘getting the feel’,

screening,

ball-park studies,

optimisation,

scale-up (production) and scale-up (marketing).

This allows control of the design process as the consumer, product and process activities are coordinated
into small mini-projects with specific objectives.

…………………………………………………………………………

Implementing the design in the five sequential steps outlined above helps to avoid making the mistakes of
choosing the incorrect design and creating new products on a large scale when little is known about the
processing system.

Scale-up is the last stage before commercialization to check if the product is accepted by the target market
segments, that it has the attributes wanted by them and that they will buy the product at the suggested
price.

…………………………………………………………………………….

Scale-up (or ramp-up) of both the production and the marketing is the last stage of the product design and
process development.
The production scale-up is the in-plant test to verify that the product can be made at the quality and
quantity required, and the marketing scale-up is a large consumer test to verify that the target consumers
will buy the product and what marketing strategy will encourage this buying.

The final prototype product from the production scale-up and the various parts of the marketing strategy
are tested in a large-scale consumer test where the consumers test the product in their usual environment
and are interviewed about the marketing strategy.

…………………………………………………………………………………………….

The aim of the processing scale-up is to determine the optimum production process for product quality,
product yield, process control and costs.

If the previous design research has combined the product and the process, this can be achieved without too
many problems.

But if the process has been ignored, then there can be disastrous problems. For example, if some of the
intermediate materials have never been pumped during the design experimentation, then they could break
down during scale-up.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

The scale-up can be either on a pilot plant or short production runs on the main plant. If it is a new process,
or requires extensive experimentation, the scale-up is conducted on a pilot or small-scale plant.

If the process is only an adaptation of the present production, then the scale-up is conducted on the main
production plant.

The decisions on the type of scale-up are often much influenced by cost; the production trial can cost a
great deal if the product cannot be sold and this restricts the use of the production plant until the final
stage. But if there is no investment money to build a pilot plant then the production run may be the only
scale-up available.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

A great deal of time can be spent perfecting a product in the laboratory, only to find that it is impossible to
duplicate this in the plant.

If the product is rushed from the laboratory to the production line, then there can be a great deal of raw
material and product discarded at a substantial cost.

Understanding the interrelationship of the processing variables and product qualities can help to reduce
these failures.

………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Process testing in the plant, yield studies, EVOP (evolutionary operations), and HACCP are all used to
optimize process variables, especially when using the production line in scale-up.

evolutionary operations (EVOP) is a way of plant operation that tests small changes in the process variables
in a simple factorial design.

It continuously changes the process variables until optimum product qualities are reached, but only slowly
so that the product can be used for large scale testing or even sold.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………..
The marketing scale-up aims to define the market, describe the market strategy to reach this market and
predict the possible sales revenues for the product. Possible market channels are studied and the market
channel suitable for reaching the target consumers and for the company is chosen.

The price range related to the production costs, competitors' pricing and company policy is tested with
consumers to see how it affects their buying intentions.

Consumers can be asked to predict how much and how frequently they will buy the product at different
prices.

However, buying predictions are more accurate when consumers are presented with the product in a
buying situation.

There are issues with asking consumers if they will buy the product, which can be overcome by using small
buying tests.

…………………………………………………………………………………………..

Also the final product concept is built up from the final prototype product, the packaging design and
consumer studies.

The definitions of the product, price and market channel are used not only to develop the aims and
methods for the promotion of the product but are also the basis for planning the marketing mix during
product commercialization.

The validity of consumer testing in predicting the outcome of a product development project improves as
the product progresses from product concept to prototype product to commercial product, product
measurement progresses from acceptance to purchasing, and more consumers involved in product testing.

Generally the numbers of consumers taking part increase as the development progresses; there may be
only 30 at the 'mock-ups' but gradually building to 200 or more at the last step of scale-up.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Conclusions

▪ Scale-up is the last stage before commercialization to check if the product is accepted by the target
market segments.

▪ Developing a strategy for the production scale-up of a new product is a challenge for many Food
and Drink manufacturers.

▪ The production scale-up is the in-plant test to verify that the product can be made at the quality
and quantity required.

▪ The marketing scale-up is a large consumer test to verify that the target consumers will buy the
product and what marketing strategy will encourage this buying.

▪ Because of the expense of scale-up, there may also be a critical point after the laboratory or small-
scale trials to find the optimum product and process.