New product trends

New product development is a constant activity for most soft drinks producers. For the most part there are few really new products alternative flavours and different forms of packaging are widespread and no doubt will continue to be so. 

The development of specialised energy drinks or isotonic beverages is perhaps an example of a truly new product area. As new raw materials become available, for example soluble whey protein, whole ranges of products are likely to be spawned. 

A recent trend has been to incorporate alcohol into soft drinks. Whether such products are properly still to be known as soft drinks is a separate issue, and the outcry in many countries about their use as a means of introducing children to alcohol has been widespread. 

As indicated above, another area of interest is the re-introduction of botanical extracts into soft drinks, ft is sometimes overlooked that one of the earliest widely available soft drinks was based on an extract of cola nut. 

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New products trends towards nonpasteurized beer, low or nonalcohol beers and alcopops (sweetened beer mixtures)... 

However, in recent years the trend has been turning towards developing much smaller fields, making use of the existing field infrastructure. This, in combination with advances in subsea completion technology and the introduction of new production equipment has further stimulated the application of subsea technology. 

Van Trijp, J.C.M. and Steenkamp, J.E.B.M., Consumer-oriented new product development principles and practice, in Innovation of Food Production Systems, Jongen, W.M.E. and Meulenberg, M.T.G., Eds., Wageningen Pers, Wageningen, 1998, 37. Luning, P.A. and Marcehs, W. 1., A food quality management functions model. Trends Food Sci. Technol., 18, 159, 2007. 

Morse, D.E. (1999) Silicon biotechnology harnessing biological silica production to construct new materials. Trends in Biotechnology, 17, 230-232. 

Contrary to the commodity chemical business, the key to win in the specialty products market does not lie in squeezing out profits by means of economies of scale or process optimization. Rather, it lies in the ability for fast new product launches in order to capture the largest market share as soon as possible. Since superior product quality and performance is what really differentiates one specialty product from another, the product properties need to be adjusted as required by business needs. For example, the ability to manipulate functional chemicals in detergent products such as enzymes and zeolites, as well as backbone chemicals like surfactants, is often the key to success for both the detergent manufacturers and chemical suppliers [3], This trend has created an urgent need for an efficient and effective product and process development for these products. 

With all these positive indicators, the expectation has been that a large number of new products will become available. That was the belief in the mid-1990s. But Figure 34.3 shows what has happened over time New product submissions have basically remained flat for the last 20 years. Figure 34.3 depicts new molecular entities submitted to the FDA since 1983, and there is no trend toward increasing submissions. In fact, concern has been raised lately about the downturn since the late 1990s. Whether or not this is a real trend or simply a fluctuation is not known the point is that there has not been a huge increase in the submission of new producfs. 

The first stage in evaluating the profitability of a proposed new product is to compare the total cost of the product (for example, per tonne produced) with the current market price. It is also necessary to estimate future demand for the product, and to determine the trend in the selling price over several previous years. It is also necessary to estimate the number of years that the product can be sold at a satisfactory profit, this is more useful than estimating the possible operating life of a plant Backhurst and Harker (1973 p.47) make the following observation ... 

Over a period of about twenty years the results of surveillance for veterinary drug residues in meat and animal products in the UK have provided reassurance that residues of veterinary drugs occur at very low concentrations and generally at low frequencies. Over this period repeated surveillance and improved communication and awareness of the producer and feed industry has resulted in a downward trend in the level and incidence of residues detected. However, contamination hot spots remain (e.g. animal medicated feed) and will continue to be monitored in the future. In addition, as new products are introduced into the market they will be evaluated during the licensing process to establish any risk from their residues present in human food. The UK also imports a significant amount of animal-derived food and the presence and risk to the UK consumer of residues in these products must also be considered and appropriate measures taken to protect the UK consumer. 

Daniel Luss We are now facing a situation that is rather different from what we faced several years ago. In the past, a major concern of the chemical industry was developing new and improved processes for producing bulk chemicals. At present, the trend is to develop new products, and this requires changes in training and education. 

Forecast the crude slate that would likely be used to meet the forecast demand. This is determined by an analysis of domestic reserves, historical production trends, and estimates of new production. The shortfall between domestic production and refinery crude runs is met by imported crudes which are selected on the basis of production/export capabilities, logistical factors, and historical trends. 

Concerns over worker safety, processing emissions and finished product acceptability continue to drive new product development in this area. Western Europe has led these initiatives however, there are now signs that the USA marketplace is changing in order to conform with these environmental trends. Technological aspects of the replacement of cadmium in liquid stabilisers and the reduction of volatile constituents and phenol in these materials is reviewed. 7 refs. 

In the present overview, we tried to gather most of the industrial cationic polymerizations for alkenes, as well as for carbonyl and heterocyclic monomers. Our main objective was not to insist on the conventional processes which are already detailed in the specific reviews quoted all along the text, but to outline the up-to-date improvements, new products, and market trends every time the corresponding information had been made available. 

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