You are employed in the regulatory affairs department of Fabulous Foods Ltd. The company has several production plants inEuropeand products are designed for the EU market.

M.Sc. Food Regulatory Affairs

Assignment 2a –Semester 2, 2021 

NUT705 – Farm to Fork Regulation of the Food Chain

Assignment 2a- Individual assignment (30%)

1,500 Words

You are encouraged to collaborate closely with your class members on this assignment since all will benefit from pooling expertise.  However, each student submits an individual assignment.

You are employed in the regulatory affairs department of Fabulous Foods Ltd.   The company has several production plants inEuropeand products are designed for the EU market.  Market research has identified strong consumer demand for development of a new “Get Healthy” range of products. Your group is asked to develop a fruit smoothie with a proposed name of

‘Berry Delicious’ 

Fabulous Foods Ltd also produces a new plant sterol , compound x  which has been demonstrated to lower cholesterol in a series of  human, randomised, double blind, placebo controlled trials.

It is proposed that a combination of strawberries, raspberries, blackberries   cranberries and compound x is one possible option for the fruit smoothie. Other ingredients may be added also. The product will be sold in the chill compartment of supermarkets throughout the EU.

Prepare a product dossier for the Management Board of the company,

Issues to considered are

• Product Composition
• Ingredients (Novel Ingredient?)
• Production
• Efficacy of novel ingredient
• Safety issues and  risk management
• Regulatory Pathway-  CompetentAuthorityMemberStates/Europe
• Relevant legislation

Nutrient Composition/100g

Blackberries ( Raw)
Energy	25kcal/104kJ
Protein	0.9
Carbohydrate	5.1
Of which Sugars	5.1
Fat	0.2
Of which Saturates	trace
Fibre	3.1
Sodium	3mg

 

Raspberries  ( Raw)
Energy	25kcal/109/kJ
Protein	1.4
Carbohydrate	4.6
Of which sugars	4.6
Fat	0.3
Of which Saturates	0.1
Fibre	2.5
Sodium	3mg

 

Strawberries ( Raw)
Energy	27kcal/113/kJ
Protein	0.8
Carbohydrate	6.0
Of which sugars	6.0
Fat	0.1
Of which Saturates	Tr
Fibre	1.1
Sodium	6mg

 

Cranberry Juice
Water	85.5
Energy	61kcal/259/kJ
Protein	Tr
Carbohydrate	14.4
Of which sugars	N
Fat	0
Of which Saturates	0
Fibre	N
Sodium	N

NUT705 – Farm to Fork Regulation of the Food Chain - Online Tutorial:

Co-Ordinator advise: So this assignment is very much applied and gives you the opportunity to use much knowledge that you have gained from the programme so far. Essentially, you`re being asked to consider all angles for bringing a new product to the market. However, only half of the topics are included in this assignment, the other half are in assignment 2b.

It is supposed to give you some sort of insight to working on product development and bringing new products to market, but I suppose the challenge is that you are the whole R&D department as well as the FRA and marketing department!

• 19:09

So, in answer to your question Gaia, yes, the format will be somewhat different, you will be looking at dividing the dossier into sections, as outlined in the title page...

• 19:11

I`m not going to give out sample dossiers, though, it is up to you to create your own. I`m sure that everyone will create something slightly different, which is fine, there isn`t a `single solution` for this task.

Adriana, I think what we`re looking for is a hybrid. So it`s like a product dossier, but like you describe, we are also looking for the rationale for your thought process..

Co-Ordinator advise:

For example, you can include statements such as... `the addition of honey for added sweetness was considered, but then rejected as it was considered that the use of the artificial sweetener x would fulfill the function to sweeten the taste without increasing the sugar content in keeping with our promotion of this product within the healthy drinks range with no added sugar.....

you need to develop the rationale, BUT it should be an entirely reference based, i.e. evidence based decision making process

Co-Ordinator advise:

so for example, according to X smoothies can be made by x in line with good practice according to x this is done...

question student:  will the dossier invent nutrition and health claims for the product or involve packaging/labelling? - you mentioned marketing earlier??

Co-Ordinator Answer: So yes, if you mean that you say this is why you chose x and not y, in accordance with whatever similar product or to comply with whatever legislation, yes that is how you present your dossier

Co-Ordinator advise:

No, you are correct Adriana and are very much on the right track with your thought process on how to approach the assignment

• 19:26

Just to take care that with the word count of only 1500 if you are going down the route of novel food application you may need to use an appendix or appendices

• 19:26

you will only have so much scope within the paper itself to discuss the novel food application part

• 19:27

So an important aspect of this dossier is the exact formulation of your product, i.e. per gram what you are including

• 19:28

so that in assignment 2b you will be able to produce `mock labelling` for your product, just like you would see in similar products currently on the market

• 19:29

You need to create a specific product, for which you can calculate the nutritional composition

question student:

So we can choose any ingredients we like? As long as we justify our process behind adding them?

• question student:

There is a software programme called Nutritics that might be helpful for calculating the exact composition. They offer a 7 day free trial. Do we need to be this specific/correct?

Co-ordinator: Regarding risk assessment, yes somebody asked about this, yes you will have to state as to what you will have to do to comply with the legislation regarding risk assessment for your product

Co-ordinator: Absolutely, You can see that you must include Compound X and some of the fruits mentioned. It must be a smoothie type drink for sale from the chill compartment within supermarkets, but otherwise it is up to you as to exactly what it will be. You can add extra ingredients. Try to be realistic if you can, for example, if you decided to make a drink containing e.g. blackberries, compound x and water only, is that realistic, would it work, what would it taste like, would it be a drink that you could sell?

So absolutely N., you could use something like that, or the likes of McCance and Widdowsen or you could calculate the nutrition composition manually, using the composition tables provided for the fruits included and then just looking up those for any extra ingredients that you want to include.

• So for example, apple juice was used as a base liquid to add natural sweetness in order to avoid adding extra sugar, or because otherwise the berries would be too bitter, the product wouldn`t sell
• 19:38

Have a look at what`s on the market, if it hasn`t been invented yet there is probably a reason why!!!!

• costing might be another reason, you might want to add x but it would make the product very expensive
• 19:40

not that that really matters, you have an unlimited budget, but you might then consider that for when you`re addressing your target market in Assignment 2b

Yes Adriana, good point, you absolutely need to address allergen legislation in your product dossier

• So I would agree Adriana, I think that this assignment requires a lot of research, first of all looking at similar products on the market and then doing more specific research on various aspects of the products and thinking as to why certain ingredients may have be included or omitted and why that might be
• 19:43

The bullet points within the title page may not be exactly how you may structure the document

• 19:44

You may decide to start with a brief introduction or rational for the product development

• Then look at product composition, including compound x
• 19:44

Then a section on production, so how your product will be produced, the exact process, in line with what pieces of legislation

• 19:45
• Student question: what is meant by risk management ? in what context - risk of what ? recall ? Answer: So that is probably linked in with the production process
• 19:46

can you think of what system might be used to reduce the risk while producing the smoothie, it is HACCP

Another place you may refer to risk may be with packaging, as you mention Dilara recall possibilities. .. so how you would identify your product lines specifically in the event of a requirements for a product recall. so that will be in production and in product transportation and storage also.

• So yes all of that, hygiene practices in production etc.
• 19:49

Then yes Adriana, you can address the requirement for batch numbers, barcodes etc in the packaging section of Assignment 2b

So just to remember, don`t address the topics for 2b in 2a. You`ll already have so much to fit in under the subject areas of 2a you won`t be able to do justice if you include everything

•  

Co-ordinator: 19:52

Very important to really structure this one well. There is lots to include. Don`t go off on tangents. Divide the available word count into a number of sections and stick to the limit for each section. You will probably have to refine and reduce as you go. Consider adding extra material in appendices or tables/figures if you need to

 

• question student:

: I am not sure about reference - what type of reference would one report? legislation but also pier review if one finds something pertinent to support the rational in developing the product?

 

Co-ordinator: You absolutely need peer review, you will find that there are peer review articles, including discussion of best practice in formulation, production, processing of the ingredients and products that are of relevance to this project

• for example a very brief reasoning for developing such a product
• 19:57

why do we need cholesterol lowering products

• 19:57

is there much of a market for them

• 19:58

is there many on the market

• 19:58

that kind of thing to set the scene for the development of your amazing new product!!

NUT705 – Farm to Fork Regulation of the Food Chain