13-14th week ~~~Final Presentation

Final week of the food product development will end with a final presentation to present our product from scratch to the final product. First phase of food product development will be the idealization of the product concept during semester 5, and prototype production would be the final semester.

Content of the presentation would be all the necessary information and process of the food product development on how to develop a product and test it out on the market. And also to showcase our product =P... and get feedbacks on further improvement on our studies. In future studies, we would be glad if we are able to modify our product towards a healthy direction and also a lower cost for our dumpling product in terms of packaging. Also to have machinery to facilitate on our products as manual handling will not be as accurate as machinery and to achieve a consistency as well.

Finally, acknowledgement to a very noble and sweet but scary lecturer Dr Chong for giving us endless patient and SCOLDING to enables us to perform better in our task. =) Thank you so much ahhhh. And of course, My classmate especially my Dumpling Group mate for collaborating with each other and work together to achieve the same result, which is SUCCESS. Goodluck in your futures and always be proud of what we did. =D   

so cute arrr ChonPling hahaha

12th week ~~ Marketing Strategy

During this week, we were required to conduct a promotional campaign selling our commercial product to promote and spread the awareness on our dumpling product to allow more people to aware on our dumpling products. We are required to produce a large bulk of dumpling and sell it in order to allow people to know about our product and the taste of it. 

Marketing strategy is essential in food product development to enables profits and business to the company and provide a good reputation to the company. Good marketing strategy will minimizes cost and brings in profit for the company. Marketing strategy consist of 5P's.

1.Product

2.People

3.Place

4.Price

5.Promotion

Product value propositions is essential to be known to up sell our product, People will be known as target market whereby we need to determine which target consumer that we are aiming to sell to. Place would be the location where we place our dumpling production. Price would be the selling price of the commercial dumpling product after calculate the cost and profit. Promotion would be the advertising technique to allow more people to know about our product. One of the technique is through media networks, creating sell sheet and also promotional campaign. 

In between 9th - 11th weeks Packaging

During these weeks, we are required to produce a packaging for our frozen commercial dumpling product and for the promotional campaign of the commercial dumpling product which will be held on the week 12th. Packaging is essential to act as a protection barrier and also provide nutrition information to the consumers as well.

Methodology of packaging design prototype.

We have finalized the concept of the packaging for frozen product and promotional campaign before we select for our raw materials used for commercial product packaging which is polystyrene plastics as inner layer and white paperboard as outer layer of packaging. Materials chosen was based on the type of storage condition of the product and the type of food product and also the characteristic properties of the materials.

Front Packaging of outer layer

Back Packaging of outer layer

Inner layer of packaging

In food packaging, it is essential to label the required information based on food laws and regulations to ensure consumer to obtain the correct nutrition information and allow consumer to gain more understanding on the product.

~~ 7th week - 11th week Sensorial test & storage study for Gold standard dumpling and Commercial dumpling product~~

This week, we are required to conduct an sensory test on  Gold standard dumpling and Commercial dumpling product to compare the two products and which one is better. We are required to find 20 different panels to conduct the test at Thyme restaurant. Objective of comparing both gold standard product and commercial product is to find out the similarities and differences between the two products and feedback on the products as well.

Chart comparison between gold standard and commercial product

After sensory, we found out that all of panels prefer commercial product more than the gold standard dumplings. Furthermore, they felt that there are significant differences in terms of texture and taste of the dumplings based on result of hedonic test. Commercial product have a juicier and softer texture compared to gold standard product

We were required to conduct storage study test on gold standard and commercial product as well in terms of water activity, moisture content and texture profile analysis (TPA) to determine the shelf-life of our product and also to compare the differences between gold standard and commercial product during storage study in terms of the taste, appearance and texture for both products for 4 Weeks.

It appears commercial product  have a better and brighter green colour compared to gold standard whereby it has a dull and dark-ish green colour. This is due to the technical ingredients added which retain the colour of the spinach even though it has been stored for few weeks. Water activity of commercial product is lower than gold standard same as moisture content due to the addition of technical ingredients. Hence commercial product is able to store for longer period compared to gold standard.

TPA test =P 

6th week~~ commercial product study (Filling)

This week, we were require to study the technical ingredients and choose the suitable technical ingredients to be use in our dumpling filling. The type of technical ingredients we are using is the Coyote Brand "Locus Bean Gum" and " Coyote Brand Stabilizer "CT-D100" from Gum Technology. 

These two were used due to the function of the both ingredients provide are able to prevent the water juice to leak from the meat filling and causes the meat to shrink to a smaller size, and also provide a juicy and firmer texture to the beef filling itself. 

Locust Bean Gum

Stabilizer CT-D 100

After various test, we found out that Locust Bean Gum (LBG) provide a better results than stabilizer CT-D100 (SD 100) as it have a better capability to trap water and provide a firm and juicy texture to the meat filling. In this week, we decided to pre-cook our filling before freezing as it is easier to prepared during assembling the 3 layers of filling and the layers will attach with each other so it will not separate easily. After sensory test among our group, we agreed that 0.3% of LBG used for the filling as too high amount will cause the meat to be too soft and too little amount of LBG will have a dryer meat.

This week we have finalize our technical ingredients used in both dumpling skin and fillings, we decided to use Crisp film on our dumpling skin and locust bean gum on our dumplinf filling.  On the following week, we are required to conduct a sensory test to compare our gold standard product and commercial product.

5th week ~~ Commercial product study (SKIN) ~~

This week we are required to study on the technical ingredients in terms of the name, usage, brand, amount and the effect of the technical ingredients added. Technical ingredient can be defined as addition ingredients added with small amount to improvise the food in terms of appearance of the product, texture of the product and the taste and flavour of the product. Function of technical ingredients varies based on the food products, some might work well, some might need extra medium to disperse and mix into the food product. 

This week we will be emphasizing on the technical ingredient used in dumpling skin. The technical ingredient we are using on skin are "Crisp Film" and "Batter Bind"  from Ingredion Brand.  

                   

We have tested on different percentage on the technical ingredient and observe the effect of technical ingredient on the food product. After that, we were require to cook some of the dumpling to compare the sensory attributes and which skin is the best among all the different percentage of technical ingredients used. The chosen skin will used as the wrapper of the commercial product dumpling for the next following week.

This week I am able to improve my skill on discipline specific knowledge as I am able to apply the theory of the fundamental knowledge about technical ingredients into the food product and observe the effect of the technical ingredients on the food product.

4th week domain 1 gold standard!!

This week we were required to conduct sensory test and product formulation alteration on the FILLING of the dumpling. We were required to choose the best filling out of the 4 types of gold standard with different filling formulation. The skin of the dumpling were the previous week gold standard where we pick out the best skin based on the sensory test and the feedback of the panels. The type of filling we chosen were two types variation of mushrooms, Portobello and Button mushrooms.

1st type of filling : ~ Portobello Mushrooms ~

2nd type of filling: ~ Button Mushroom ~

After evaluation of the panels feedback and ratings, we found out that most of the panels prefer button mushrooms more than portobello mushrooms. As portobello consist of a heavier taste than button mushroom, panels think it is overpowering the other ingredient and it is not that suitable for the dumpling as filling.

3 layer Filling dumpling ~~ (Mushrooms top, Cheese filling middle and Beef Filling at bottom)

We have encounter many of the unforeseen problems during the assembling fillings of the dumpling and molding as we are unable to see a 3 layer concept on the dumpling filling as heat causes cheese to melt and split, cheese layer was gone and left only meat and mushrooms. Besdies that, we also encounter a shrinkage problem for the filling of dumpling after cooked as beef will shrink almost double of it's size after cooking.