SYSTEMATIC EXPERIMENTAL-DESIGNS FOR PRODUCT FORMULA OPTIMIZATION

Food product development is a market-driven process and as such it is influenced by current consumer needs and trends, thus forcing food com panies to respond rapidly to market-place changes. The application of scientifically sound experimental designs enables companies to decreas e the time between concept and markeplace. The ultimate objective of a ny product development, no matter how it is executed, is to generate p roducts that perform as they were designed to do. A large number of ex perimental designs are available for the optimization of food product development. Fractional-factorial designs, especially Taguchi methods, have proved very useful in other industries as a quality improvement tool, and their use in the food product development area may be benefi cial. Techniques such as response surface methodology and mixture desi gns are also effective in formula optimization. New optimization techn iques are also emerging as alternative tools for the development of ne w foods.