Final presentation - We're graduating soon

After we have done all of the domain, we needed to prepare our final presentation for the judges in order to convincing them that our product is really marketable and profitable as we launch our product to our targeted market. In this final presentation, we need to briefly tell that how we generate our idea part and also how we finalize our formulation and all of the progress during this semester. Furthermore, we need to set up our table setting and design for the judges and audience which can help for promoting and viewing purpose.

Table setting for our Gourmet Cheeseburger Dumpling

Due to this is our final presentation and it's took a very crucial position in term of the final mark of this course. That's why, we have try our best to summarize our slide and rehearsal times by times to ensure that the whole presentation will be running smooth and sound. Although the presentation is very intense and silent, we still manage to run it very well and answer all the question which asked by the judges. I would think that the overall performance of myself in this presentation is quite well but still can get some improvement in the future in term of the presentation skill. 

Although we have covered up the whole project in our final semester, we still have some point which didn't manage to do it due to some technical problem or personal issue. Thus, we will cover it up in our future studies. In term of our future studies, the main components that will be studied are the product itself, the packaging, the consumer experience, and the brand itself. Although the product itself is a innovative idea, but the health issue is still exist due to the cooking method of the product only suitable for frying method currently. In the future, we will try to innovate it become like a microwaveable food instead of deep fired dumpling in order to enhance the availability and convenience of the product. This probably will help to decrease the calories content of the product due to the reducing oil contact from the cooking method.

The moment after we have finished our final presentation...hohoyeah :)

In this final presentation, i have enhance my communication skill in order to deliver the message that i wanted to share to the audience and judges. Further more, Digital literacy skill is another crucial part which can help us to sharpen the skill in order to master in using of ICT and related technologies such as power point presentation skill. Consequently, the Lifelong Learning is important for us due to this is the only way to commit yourself that we will never end for learning and seeking for the knowledge. Even thought we have ended our course, but knowledge is unlimited and u can't even see the edge of it. Hence, Lifelong learning is the only way to sharpening your skill and mastering it  for self-improvement.

This is not the end, This is just the starting point of our journey ;)

Domain 5 - Costing and Marketing Strategy

In domain 5, we have tried to analyse of the costing of our product cost. Costing is a very important aspect in running a business. Activity-based costing has been used since decades ago to ensure accurate calculation in business operations. It is a methodology to identify various activities in a business and assigns cost of each activity related to the products or services according to the actual consumption. Activity-based costing segregates cost allocation into fixed cost, variable cost, and overhead expense. However, variable cost will be discussed in this domain due to its nature of food product development and most of the operations are prototyping.

Furthermore, Marketing strategies is crucial part which will showed that far you can go for your product and whether you can achieve your final goal or not. Our Home Gourmet dumpling product had using the 5p's marketing strategy in order to promote our product. The combination of these marketing tactics can help to meet customers’ demands for the product and experience. The 5 Ps are product, people, place, price, and promotion.

Marketing plan??? Hiak Hiak Hiak =)

We have positioned our product as a high-end gourmet product as we're selling a fusion food which seldom see in the market. We're trying to target the people who're in upper middle class and also aim for the high end product market. Target market is very important, having a specific target market helps in deciding the place the product is sold and the pricing strategy. Place is where the product can be seen and sold or distributed. Before we have launched our product, we had tried a promotional campaign in order to promote our product and also get the attention from the consumer that we'll launch our product soon.

In this promotional campaign, actually is a small simulation sales for student to run the business in the campus to know that whether the acceptability and popularity of our product. In this promotional campaign, we're managed to sell out 100 boxes of our gourmet burger dumpling product. we have targeted our consumer as the lecturer and student form the campus who seeking for the innovative food and also the lunch replacement.

Having fun for our small sales undergo in campus

In this domain, we have enhanced our communication skill in order to promote the product and explain the making process of our dumpling product. we had learnt to communicate with different people in different background in order to let them know that what is our product and convincing them to buy our product. Furthermore, I had improved my interpersonal skill in order to understand the team dynamics and mobilize the power of team. This probably can help to improved my leadership in the future.

Domain 4 - Packaging

In domain 4, we're trying to find the ideal packaging for our product in order to achieve our goal which store the product in frozen form. Food packaging plays an important role in food production. Food packaging is the packaging for food to provide a physical barrier to the food product and also provide information of the food to the consumers. Food packaging has 4 primary functions towards the food product, manufacturer and consumers as well.  Food packaging is able to provide protection barrier against damage or contamination by microbes, air, moisture and toxins, this allows food products to be safeguarded against rough transportation and possible fraud occur during transporting the food product to ensure the food product is able to meet the requirements in terms of physical, chemical and biological needs.

We have tried out a lot of different material for our packaging such as cardboard, paper and also plastic as well. At the first stage, we have tried to use paper to build our first prototype. It comes out a lot of problem from paper packaging which can't hold the product due to the paper is very flexible and soft. Furthermore, the paper packaging it's highly anti resist to water unless the paper have cover with a thin plastic layer. However, we can't get this kind of packaging and we decided to go for cardboard packaging

First Prototype packaging from us

In addition, we needed to analysis the nutrition content of our product to generate the nutrition fact of the product. Nutrition facts is the essential information provided with every food and it is a must to include in every food packaging to provide nutrition information’s to the consumer. Percentage of Daily Reference Value (DRV) was obtained through U.S. Food and Drug Administration.The Nutrition facts of the commercial dumpling product were generated using Nutrient Analysis interactive tool provided from Chinese Community Health Resource Center.

Are you talking that our product is high in calories content?? Haha ;)

Other than packaging, we are requested to design our sales sheet as well. A product sell sheet is usually used to attract customer’s attention to a new product. Sell sheet needs to provide sufficient information to ensure that potential customers understand the unique selling point of the new product. The goal of the sell sheet is to make people interested enough to find out more about the product and eventually buying it. A short explanation or description and specification are also crucial to be included in the sell sheet. The value proposition of the product has to be presented well and clear. The contact number, website, or other communication platforms can be included in the information given to potential customer

 

Example of sales sheet of our commercial product

In this domain, i have learnt thinking and problem solving skill in order to find the way for our ideal packaging. Although we all have faced a lot of obstacles to find out our ideal packaging, we all still managed to solve and overcome the problem to get the final ideal packaging which really attractive and appealing. Furthermore, we have enhanced our discipline specific knowledge in order to apply the ideal to the practical which learnt form the lecture. This probably will help us to understand the ethical issue and get used to the field that we may faced in the future.

Domain 3 - Storage Study

In this domain, we have tried to study the storage condition of the commercial product in term of the water activity test, moisture content, and Texture profile analysis (TPA). Storage study of food products is essential to all food products to determine the shelf life of the product and the period took for the food products to spoil and losses the quality during storing. By conducting storage study, food manufacturers are able to utilize knowledge gained through long-term storage research and improvise in terms of food formulation or packaging to minimize losses and increase quality of the food product for a longer period.

For the storage study, the commercial product and gold standard product were kept for one month in order to check the availability of the product and the texture profile. Water activity and moisture content will be conducted in order to check the shelf life of the product. Water Activity is an important in term of predicting and controlling the shelf life of food products. Shelf life is the time during which a product will remain safe, maintain desired sensory, chemical, physical and microbiological properties, and comply with nutritional labeling.

Too much water content for your product!!!! Hahahaha

For the texture profile analysis (TPA), it is relative important of the texture as a quality attributes varies among types of food. Consumer products succeed in the marketplace in part because their “textural characteristics” are pleasing to customers. Thus, the texture profile analysis result is very important in order to evaluate the food in a physical way. Therefore, the TPA result was conducted in this domain over one month storage. The texture profile of the gold standard and commercial product sample would be evaluated every single week until reached one month duration.

TPA Analysis Explanation Graph

In addition, we have conducted a Comparison test in order to compare and differentiate the product between gold standard and Commercial Formulation. From the comparison test, we can find out the similarities or differences between gold standard and commercial product get the feedback from the panels as well. 20 expert which had been invited for the sensory evaluation in order to give some useful feedback to improve our food product.

In this domain, I'm able to improve my Intrapersonal Skill which i manage to interpret the result and analyze it in order to state out the stability of our commercial product. Furthermore, i'm able to reflect one's actions and learning from it. I'm able to show my strength in Discipline specific knowledge.I'm able to apply the theory in our practical and understand the professional practice within the field of study.

Domian 2 - Commercial Product Formulation

In commercial product formulation, we had to learn and did a research on the type of different technical ingredients to be use in the product. Different technical ingredients will give a different function to the final product and enhance the stability of food itself. Actually, technical ingredient is not a synthetic or artificial ingredient although it sounds like very creepy. In general, Technical ingredient is type of ingredient which can contribute itself in order to enhance the texture and sensory attribute of the product and also improve the stability of food in order to further extend the shelf life. 

From the last domian, we have finalized Portobello mushroom as our final mushroom filling and 50:50 ratio of water and spinach extract as the formulation for our dumpling skin. As mentioned by the panels from the panels who surveyed from our last semester, they stated that crispiness and juiciness is the main concern which will affect the consumer choice in term of the choice of dumpling. Thus, we are trying to find the technical which can enhance this two type of sensory attributes.

Commercial product Formulation Flow

In term of the 'crispiness' and 'juiciness' attributes, we have picked Crisp Film (CF) and Batter Bind (BB) as our technical ingredient in order to enhance the crispiness of the dumpling skin; whereby Locust bean Gum (LBG) and Stabilizer CT-D100 to enhance the water retention properties of the meat filling. After we have finalized out the technical ingredient that being used by us for the commercial formulation, we had tried out a few sample to check the result of each sample. 

Sample of the commercial product formulation that being enhanced by technical ingredient

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. After sensory test among our group, we agreed that 0.3% of LBG used for the filling where the 5% of CF as our final formulation for the dumpling skin.

In this domain , I'm able to enhance my Discipline Specific Knowledge in term of understanding ethical issues in the context of the field of study. I'm able to relate and substitute the theory and knowledge learnt from the class into practice. Furthermore, I'm able to improve my Thinking and Problem solving skill in term of the analyzing the issue between each technical ingredient in order to finalize the final combination of technical ingredient that being used in final commercial product formulation.

Domain 1 - Gold Standard Formulation

Gold standard formula is the first domain which being used to determined and acts as a reference to develop a new product.  In term of food product development, it acts as a prototype standards whereby created food deemed to be the best or the most representative product of its type.This will help to act as a reference in order to compare the differences with commercial product which having the similar sensory characteristic such a sensory profile.

In this Domain, we have selected two different type of studies in term of the filling and dumpling skin. We are trying to substitute the spinach extract and different type of mushroom filling in order to enhance the texture and sensory attribute of dumpling. To create a 3 layer of dumpling, we have selected 3 different layer which is meat filling, cheese filling, and mushroom filling to create a 3 layer to achieve the burger concept.

Gold Standard Formulation Flow

In term of the flow, there few steps that needs to be considered. Such as control group and the experimental group.  Basically the control group is the basic formula for the dough recipe; meanwhile the experimental group dough is considering a different type of dough with different percentage of ingredient’s recipe The different ratio of the ingredients is been labeled with GSX (x being number of trials). This is much easier to refer later in the experiment.

After we have conducted the studies, sensorial studies will follow up to help for selecting and finalize the final gold standard recipe. In this sensorial evaluation session, we have managed to find 20 panels to help for evaluate the sensorial attributes of the product which using the ranking and hedonic test to differentiate it.

Different sample will be separated into different box to serve for panels.

All of the sensorial test will be conducted in the sensory room. In the sensory room, it must be very quiet and segregated to ensure that the panel won't be affect by any factor or distractions. We will transfer the sample through a small window for the panel to conduct sensorial test. An evaluation paper and a cup of rinse water will be served on that time.

Serving the sample to panels

After the sensory test has been conducted, we will analyse the result to check the sensory attributes of each sample. We will discuss after and finalized the product based on the result and discussion. In this domain, I'm be able to learn how to extract the important message hidden in the comment given by the panels. This is very important for us as we analyzing the final formulation of our product. Basically, this is based on the Thinking and Problem Solving Skill of us to define and analyse the problems to get the effective solution. Beside this, the Lifelong Learning is important for us due to this is the only way to commit yourself that we will never end for learning and seeking for the knowledge. Hence, learning independently and be intellectually engaged is the factor to maintain lifelong learning.   

12th - Consumer Acceptance

In this week, we request to find 5 people who is expert in  different field such as culinary, food technology, and marketing people as well for our domain 5 study. However, we did not manage to get multiple field of panel for our one-to-one interview due to the short preparation time and we're busy for our academic stuff as well. Nevertheless, we still manage to find our panels from Bio-science school who is strong in food technology, food nutrition and health, and Microbiology. 

Expert in every single field......(Tsk Tsk...just kidding :p)

This consumer acceptance is to help us identified the challenges that are not fore-seen during our feasibility studies and also searching the solutions to solve the fore-seen challenge in term of culinary issue, technology issue, and packaging issue. In addition, we can further narrow down our choices and finalize our final decision based on the comment given by our panels. We are requested to do an one-to-one interview with our each panel with a minimum 30 mins duration to fully access to the opinions and suggestions based on their experience and the fields they are related to.

During this one-to-one interview, actually we have asked for take turn in every position such as script recorder, interviewer and photographer to fully understand that how to conduct a proper one-to-one interview in domain 5. Definitely, this is a very appreciate opportunity to learn and try out the real interview in our degree life. Evenly, we need to analyse the comment and suggestion given by our panel to figure out the solution and the hidden problem that we may face in production time. 

Seeking the message behind... T-T

In this week, I'm be able to learn how to extract the important message hidden in the comment given by the panels. This is very important for us as we analyzing the possibility of our product. Basically, this is based on the Thinking and Problem Solving Skill of us to define and analyse the problems to get the effective solution. Beside this, the Lifelong Learning is important for us due to this is the only way to commit yourself that we will never end for learning and seeking for the knowledge. Hence, learning independently and be intellectually engaged is the factor to maintain lifelong learning.