The many possibilities of honey – product

The many possibilities of honey –

product development course for food technology, materials engineering and business students creates real products

The product development course supports small entrepreneurs and gives students an opportunity to develop while working on real assignments.

Text | Eija Kulju, Senior Lecturer, Chemical Industry, Turku UAS and Jarmo Ahonen, Principal Lecturer, Entrepreneurship and Sales, Turku UAS

Would you like to try a refreshing honey-flavoured Kuplamesi drink? Or a honey-ginger shot to give your day an immunoboost? How about a Honeytaffee candy to satisfy your sweet tooth?

A product development course jointly organised by Turku University of Applied Sciences and the University of Turku aims to support product development among small entrepreneurs operating in the local food chain.

During the course, students conduct a market survey, brainstorm a novelty product for a company, prepare a product for consumer research, develop an innovative package for the product, and carry out a consumer survey. The products developed in consumer research are tasted and sniffed as part of the sensory evaluation.

Innovating future food items in a product development course

Students taking joint studies in food product development get the chance to work with partner companies to innovate product solutions suitable for the needs of real companies. Product development is carried out in accordance with the principles of the CDIO Initiative, taking the circular economy perspective into account and drawing on

the multidisciplinary perspective provided by different fields. Course participants work in groups and learn to collaborate with students from different fields, which can involve significant cultural challenges – at least at the start.

Real-life product development

The first product development course was organised as a joint implementation in 2020, when the participants included Turku UAS students in the fields of food technology, materials engineering and business. The joint implementation created a situation similar to working life, in which a company's sales and marketing functions, product development and production representatives all participate in the process of developing a product.

In autumn 2021, food chemistry students from the University of Turku also took part in the implementation. It was impossible to avoid collisions between the cultures and operating methods in different fields.

In autumn 2021, the product development course partner was Hunaja-Aitta, a local producer from Iittala. The partner’s aim was to expand its family of honey-based products, including products suitable for export in the future.

During the course, students from different fields (75 students in total) were divided into seven multidisciplinary project groups. Each project group included students of food chemistry and food development research from the University of Turku and students of food technology, materials engineering and business from Turku UAS.

The work done by these project groups covered all stages of the product development project. The sub-stages included theoretical surveys for product development, brainstorming for a new honey-based product using the Lean Canvas tool, market research as a basis for product brainstorming, developing and testing recipes, conducting sensory evaluations, modifying the manufacturing process, calculating product costs, designing and developing product packaging, and designing and implementing a consumer test.

The course culminated in a mini-fair organised in December 2021, with members of Turun elintarviketutkijain seura (the Turku branch of the Finnish Society of Food Science and Technology) and representatives of the partner company invited to taste and evaluate the products.

The strength of a multidisciplinary course of this kind, which is based on a real business assignment, was reflected in the products presented at the mini-fair. The groups approached product development in very different ways, and the products were quite distinct from each other. Each group succeeded in developing a potential food product, some in more and some in less competitive market segments. All of the products had features that demonstrated innovativeness and the strong effort that went into achieving a good end result.

It will be interesting to see which product idea(s) will eventually go into production and end up on the shelves of a store in the future. In some cases, it was already clear that the product was ready or nearly ready for production, and these were considered to have realistic market potential.

The products developed in consumer research are tasted and sniffed as part of the sensory evaluation.