Computers: Yesterday's Novelty,

By: Scott L. Hegenbart
Contributing Editor

  Years ago, a food scientist's only contact with computers often was a computer-generated copy of his company's current ingredient pricing list. It wouldn't be an easy-to-read, laser-printed table, either. Instead, the norm was a crude, nine-pin, dot-matrix printout on green-and-white, tractor-fed paper. Today, though, product designers' desks commonly feature personal computers performing many critical tasks throughout the product-development process.

  Then: Marketing staff would study consumer habits and conduct market research to determine product needs. They then would take this information and brainstorm several concepts refined through focus groups. With these results and a healthy dose of intuitive planning ("guessing"), the final product concept was ready for R&D to commence preliminary research.

  Now: Preliminary legwork is accelerated, thanks to the power of the Internet. Many government agencies and private companies offer data on the World Wide Web. A few mouse-clicks easily can take the place of days trying to track down industry statistics the old-fashioned way.

  For example, the U.S. Department of Commerce web site (www.doc.gov) contains a "what's new" section detailing the department's latest happenings; a database of agencies; an online information server; and links to other government agencies. The U.S. Bureau of the Census site (www.census.com) contains reports on such topics as population statistics and projections, as well as the text from such documents as the Annual Survey of Manufacturers, and the Census of Manufacturers.

  STAT-USA (www.stat-usa.gov) is a fee-based ($150 annually) site providing daily economic news; information on different areas of trade and economics; access to various publications; and links to detailed information databases. Finally, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economics and Statistics System (www.econ.ag.gov/) features three different dairy outlooks analyzing the U.S. and international markets, and provides projections.

  Because interpreting market-research data relies heavily on statistics, computers now are required for such calculations. However, they now also are being used to guide and conduct market research in a way significantly cutting concept-development time. One example of this is the IdeaMap®, created by Moskowitz Jacobs Inc., White Plains, NY.

  Rather than picking and choosing various elements of a concept to study, IdeaMap's analytical engine considers and assesses all potential characteristics of a product concept. IdeaMap presents concepts to consumers sitting at networked computer terminals. Their responses are instantly measured and calculated, and revised concepts can be presented within minutes. The technique is said to trim months of market research down to a few days.

  This keys into the most important luxury that computers have brought to this area of product development: time. In spite of computerization, product concepts still rely heavily on intuitive data interpretation. Nevertheless, by gathering this data more quickly and efficiently, marketers can present ideas to R&D much earlier. Because all market research measures consumer needs at the time the study is performed, reducing the lead time before formulation helps get products to market before the winds of consumer demand move on to something else.

  Then: Product designers would scour annual reviews of trade journals to find research relevant to their product area.

  Now: Many product designers already are familiar with computer-based literature searches for technical information. Newer technologies, such as World Wide Web, however, make accessing such information much more user-friendly.

  For basic research into chemistry, for example, the American Chemical Society (ACS) maintains ChemCenter (www.acs.org). This site offers a gateway to various resources, including ACS journals and magazines, as well as the databases from ACS's Chemical Abstracts Service.

  For broader scientific searches, there's STN Easy (http://stneasy.cas.org). This site offers point-and-click access to information not only on chemistry, but other life sciences, patents, physics, mathematics, computer science, engineering and general science. STN Easy requires a flat fee for each search, plus a fee for each answer displayed in detail.

  Of course, many other familiar resources also are available online. These include: The Code of Federal Regulations (www.pls.com:8001/his/cfr.html); Food Chemical Codex (www2.nas.edu/codex); Food and Drug Administration (www.fda.gov); The National Science Foundation (www.nsf.gov); and the National Technical Information Service (www.fedworld.gov/ntis).

  For food-science-specific sites, a good starting place is the Institute of Food Technologists (www.ift.org). This site features links to the web sites of many university food-science departments.

  Using a computer to search for background research doesn't require an Internet connection. For the past several years, many companies have been offering research abstracts on CD-ROM. Philadelphia-based Biosis offers abstracts and indexing for the life sciences. The International Food Information Service (IFIS) also offers CD-ROMs with abstracts more specific to food science. In addition, IFIS offers Food Science Profiles on diskette. This monthly service allows companies to build a custom information database on food science and technology.

  Then: A product designer would first take a rough stab at a preliminary formula, or even a model system comprising a few key functional ingredients. To identify ingredients, the product designer would make phone calls to suppliers for information, specification sheets and samples. Through either exhaustive testing with a huge number of variations or creative guess work, the product designer would start to inch toward the elusive product formula. Along the way, the product would be evaluated for sensory characteristics, shelf life and safety. Well, most of the time, anyway. Or rather, only if it was absolutely necessary.

  Now: Computers can speed formula development in many ways. Tracking down supplier information and requesting samples might eat a good couple of weeks out of a product schedule. Many suppliers now own web sites offering product information and starter formulas, as well as provisions for ordering evaluation samples. In addition, many ingredient-information resources now are available on CD-ROM or diskette. One example of this is the Food Chemical News Guide on CD-ROM (www.foodchem.crcpress.com). With just a few keystrokes, food scientists can find all pending petitions and petition withdrawals for new ingredients; all additive clearances, whether by FDA, USDA or the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms; all processed food and feed pesticide residue tolerances; and all agency proposals on additive status.

  On the other hand, not all ingredients in a new product will be new to the company. Dedicated multipurpose software packages now allow companies to maintain a database of their in-house ingredients. These not only track what's available, but items can be linked with cost information, specification and Material Safety Data Sheets, and available inventory.

  Many companies also maintain an existing library of flavors already used in other products. Frequently, product designers find it easier to select new flavors because they can rely on supplier input to choose the right ingredient. Flavor Selector™ 4.6 from FKS, St. Louis, helps food manufacturers offer the same assistance for already specified flavors. The software manages flavor-sample information by listing physical properties, sensory information, shelf-life data, pricing and regulatory data. The program's query feature allows the retrieval of flavor information based on specific product-development needs.

  Guideline, from CAMO AS, Trondheim, Norway, is one such software tool. This program speeds product-development time by simultaneously analyzing multiple-process variables. To improve loaf volume in bread, for instance, Guideline examines the relative influence of nine potential variables - including resting time, mixing speed, mixing time, dough temperature and proof time. After a preliminary series of only 20 experiments, the program identifies the key process parameters affecting loaf volume most significantly. Subsequent testing, guided by the software, then leads to an average loaf volume increase of 11%, with improved product uniformity.

  Such programs aren't yet available for every conceivable type of food product. Still, the chemical interaction of ingredients can be more efficiently studied with computers. Product designers can use molecular-modeling software to create computer models of functional ingredients. Such software packages don't just draw the molecule, they can predict how substances will interact on a molecular level.

  In addition to knowing how ingredients interact, product designers also must study microbial growth in many products to ensure safety. The USDA's Agricultural Research Service has developed an updated software package that helps predict the fate of harmful microorganisms in foods. The user types in information on the food formula and storage conditions, such as temperature, salt levels and acidity. The program then graphically predicts the pathogen's growth or death. The fifth version of the Pathogen Modeling Program currently is available and contains growth models for Aeromonas hydrophilia, Bacillus cereus, E. coli 0157:H7, Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella, Shigella flexneri, Staphylococcus aureus and Yersinia enterocolitica. It's available for free downloading from the ARS Eastern Regional Research Center, Wyndmoor, PA, at www.arserrc.gov.

  Sensory testing is perhaps among the first product-development functions to use computers. After all, performing statistical analyses is a well-established computer application. Newer software, however, is moving sensory analysis beyond the basic calculation of test results. Computers now can take the acceptance and difference data they calculate, and use a mathematical model to predict the product's potential shelf life. Computers also can more effectively track trends in a series of sensory tests and can more effectively connect formula adjustments with the acceptance of the product.

  Computers certainly no longer constitute a luxury in product-development laboratories. They've evolved from being remotely related to the product designer's work to a multipurpose development tool. In some situations, computers have moved beyond even this role to become full-fledged partners in the product-development process.

  Scott Hegenbart is the multimedia production specialist for the Department of Food Science and Technology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (foodsci.unl.edu). He can be reached via e-mail at: shegenbart@foodsci.unl.edu.

  How can the good information be sorted from the cyber-chaff? Start by using some common sense when evaluating information from web sites, incorporating the following guidelines: