SPECIAL
REPORT
25
DEC 2017 FOOD FOCUSTHAILAND
with non-heat tolerance rawmaterial especially in the
high level. The food may not be able to maintain the
good tasteandappearanceas it shouldbe.Therefore,
the successful New Product Development (NPD)
requires knowledge and understanding in choosing
food processing technology appropriately with the
products before start NPD process.
Another important thing that theentrepreneurmust
realize is the direction of innovative processed food
products that itmatcheswith targetedconsumer ornot
(market oriented). It is frequently found that theSMEs
food entrepreneurs want to produce new product by
adapting the existing products in themarket (product
oriented). But theydidnot set upaproductionconcept
to create the difference of products and response to
consumer’sactualneeds,whether theexisted targeted
ornew targetedconsumers.Thisnegligence is reflecting
the non-attraction and similarity of products in the
market. The entrepreneurs must realize their
organization’s potential, strengths and weaknesses,
including assessing the situations, opportunities and
obstacles in doing business (SWOT Analysis). Also,
theymust preparemarketing information todetermine
thedirectionofproductdevelopmentclearlybeforestart
researchingand developingby external units.
Gap in the Process of Manufacturing
Development in Lab-scale to Industrial-
scale (Scale-up)
In order to launch new developed products to the
commercial market; SMEs food entrepreneurs must
have the scale-up ability i.e. to expandmanufacturing
capacity in lab-scale to industrial-scale. The
entrepreneurs may carry out such process by
themselves or hiring the OEM to do it. Obstacles of
scale-up generally found are, for examples, choosing
seasonal produces as rawmaterials; the product will
not be able to be manufactured for a whole year, or
insufficiencyof rawmaterialsper oneproductioncycle
which can be usually found with organics or new
agriculturalmaterials,etc.Moreover, there isaproblem
of choosing technology; it does not conform to actual
manufacturing conditions, such as the OEM cannot
supply the products due to technology chosen by the
entrepreneur is rarelyused in that area.Also, theymay
have problems of high cost of products formed by
increased cost of manufacturing technology. It effects
to the products’ price and acceptation among
consumers (market adoption).
The important things thatSMEs foodentrepreneurs
should pay attention on is to consider the production
development process consistently, from lab-scale to
industrial-scale. This is because these 2 production
scalesmay result indifferentways.Therefore, thestep
of trial production in industrial-scale is necessarily
required i.e. using rawmaterials in the actual amount
of industrial production, including manufacturing by
actual toolsandequipmentused in the factory.Thiswill
help toget thesuitable food formulaandmanufacturing
process for each product.
In thesteps from trial production in industrial-scale
until theproductscanbeable tosell incommercialization
market, SMEs food entrepreneurs should realize that
there ishighpossibility to run the trial productionmore
than one time to obtain the right results, same as the
trail production in lab-scale.
Gap in the Process of Registration for
Commercialization to Comply with the
Law
Many times thatSMEs foodentrepreneurshaveability
to develop new innovative products successfully and
ready for industrialmanufacturing,but it isashame that
theseproductscannot beput on themarket legally. Its
obstacles are, for example, the entrepreneur or OEM
possesses the licenses that donot cover typesof new
products, so additional registration from government authority is unavoidable. This is
because the innovation of the product causing changes in product manufacturing
classification, or due to its classification is unclear. Besides, the request for registration
from theFoodandDrugAdministration (FDA) isdelayedbecauseof unclear regulations
for ingredients theychose, e.g. new imported rawmaterials, etc.Also, the regulationsdo
not specify about the change and control of using such material. It indicates that the
SMEs food entrepreneurs need to study related laws and regulations thoroughly to be
information for products’ research and development in every step to prevent problems
related registration issuemay occur.
Other than these major obstacles have mentioned above; there are many minor
factors that canbeobstacles for SMEs foodentrepreneurs todevelop their products as
commercialization.Thosecanbecontrolledanduncontrolled factors, including themarket
rejectionof thenewproductseffecting incustomer’spurchasing respond.Therefore, the
bestway toprevent failure innewproduct development is theSMEs foodentrepreneurs
mustmanage, study, andconsider obstaclesandproblems inmanyaspectsasmuchas
possible, inorder todeterminedirectionof productionanddevelopment of newproducts
effectively.
