Beta Concept

After finishing all the 5 domain before which is market study, consumer study, ideation, feasibility study and consumer acceptance than we have to came out with one concept which will be our beta concept and we have to produce this concept later during semester. After several discussion and analysis done from the entire domain before, from the five alpha concepts that had been proposed, pour over Noodle had been chosen as the beta concept. The reason for choosing pour over noodle as the beta concept was because of the highly preferences from the respondents that we interviewed, like this concept and flavour which is important for acceptance of instant noodle product in the market. In addition, the success rate for this concept also was among the highest of all the others five concepts in feasibility study thus make this concept able to be produce in the next semester. We had learned a lot during this food product development final year project which we learned to communicate with the respondents and my team members as well and also research process. The presentations that we had done every week improve our skills of presentation. We will produce this instant noodle concept and you just have to wait for it as it will fulfill all your demands in instant noodles with wonderful flavour that never been seen before.

Domain 5

This is the last domain or process before we came out with our beta concept. Domain 5 is the consumer acceptance. We had called back some of our respondents that had been participating in our consumer study before to participating in our consumer acceptance interview. This interview is different from the consumer study which had been done in group as consumer acceptance interview is done one by one. The purpose of this domain was to see the reaction and opinion from the respondents toward our 5 concepts whether they like or not and willing to purchase it. We had 5 respondents been interviewed with minimum of 30 minutes and maximum of more than 1 hour duration of interview session. The respondents was showed with our 5 concepts in details one by one individually and then been asked several questions to know their opinion and thoughts about the concepts truthfully.

Most of them find the concept showed to them was very innovative and convenient for them which is important for instant noodles product. The respond that we get from the respondents was very good with majority of them like our 5 concepts and had tough time to choose the one they liked the most as they said all of them was very good concepts. The two top concept been choose by the respondents was pour over and dry and soup. This was based on the ranking given to them.

Domain 4

Now this is the hardest domain for me so far which is domain 4 that is the feasibility study process. Feasibility study is the process in simple word to know whether the concepts that we suggested earlier can be produce or not. This domain need us to do a lot of research and study to know if the concepts that we had was able to produce in the industry and the cost with availability of the ingredients that we gonna used. Then, we have to list all the machine, ingredients, technical ingredients and packaging that can be used to manufacture our product in the industry. The result is then being categorized into number that we gonna use later to make it into percentage. We had been given a guideline and template to help us.

After enormous research and study were being done we got the results for it. From the feasibility study of all the five alpha concepts that we had, sizzling noodle, cook together and pour over had the three highest percentages of success rate among the others five alpha concepts because of the ingredients and machine or processing availability that will be used to produce this concepts

Domain 3

This is the best domain so far me because this is where our creativity explode in our mind and ready shape it out into reality. Domain 3 is the ideation process whereby we create an idea of concept for our instant noodles based on the respond given by the respondent that we get from our market and consumer study. From that we have to first create 10 concepts and then after presentation of the 10 concepts we have to come out with 5 concepts and this is how the process flow. The 10 concepts was sizzling cheese Hawaiian chicken, YM handmade noodle, YM I fu Mie, black garlic soup pan mee noodles, dry and soup chicken noodle, YM goreng sambal, YM spicy beef, YM u.s.a, crazy noodle and YM mee goreng salted egg. Each of the idea was based on the feedback and analysis of market study and consumer study. After several discussion and brainstorming of idea thus this 10 idea of alpha concepts come out. Since the comments that we got after the presentation was the 10 concepts that we had was much more like a recipe name rather than concepts and based on the voted given to our 10 concepts by our other groups thus we do some improvement and modification on the concepts before short list it into 5 concepts.

Although, the 10 alpha concepts that we had have attractive flavours  but there are lack of innovation in term of packaging and noodle itself. The concepts that did not have the vote for the best five concepts were removed but some of the criteria are still being used to combine with other concepts to enhanced and improve it more. The five alpha concepts were chosen based on the vote given to the concepts and been modified to improve it. The five chosen alpha concepts that been rename was Pour Over, Sizzling, Cup noodle, Dry and Soup and Cook Together.

The reason why the five concepts were chosen was because of the vote given and discussion on the concepts. The concepts chosen have certain criteria which are have big portion of the noodles, innovation of cooking method, innovation of packaging and variety of flavours. It also the combination of the 10 alpha concepts that been compress into five alpha concepts thus remain most of the feedback and suggestion received from the consumer study.

Domain 2

I will explain about domain 2 in our final year project. In domain 2 is the consumer study which we will interview random respondents  in a group with minimum of 5 and maximum of 10 in a group per session. There are several types of question that been asked to the respondents which are symbolic study question, purchasing behaviour and eating pattern. From this types of question that been asked to them, they will discuss it among themselves whether they agreed on each other or have different opinion themselves. Our responsibility was just to guide them and help them to give their opinion. One session can last minimum of 15 minutes to 1 hour depends on the size of the group itself. The respondents that we get was very helpful and energetic as they really speak out from their mind and give us their truthful opinion.

sample of interview questions

The results was then analysed and related back to our market study as market study is only an open ended questions thus did not allowed us to get more in depth answers while by doing consumer study it help us develop the results that we get from market study to understand it more behind the reason that why they choose the answer in the market study. Overall, we are satisfied with the opinion given by the respondents and we can identified some pattern that can be related back to market study. This also was an enjoyed activity although it is our assignment as we learned to handled people and communicate with them in proper manners.  

Domain 1

Final Year Project!!!

Finally it is time for my final year project to begin during my last year degree in culinology. So the topic that been given to my batch this time is to produce an instant noodles by utilizing underutilize crop/co-product. This is quite a challenge as instant noodles is a big product available in the market with it is fans and customers. To create a product that can have the same or better than in the market with added nutrients and healthier will be a tough challenge for me and my groups member which is gilang, tracy and vai. Before produce this instant noodles there are several process or domain that need to be done in order to understands the market and demands of this instant noodles. There are 5 domain that need to be done which is market study, consumer study, ideation, feasibility study and concept acceptance. After that only we will have one final product or concept which is the beta concept that we gonna produce in semester 6.

Domain 1

Now let me explain a little bit about what we had done in the domain 1 process. In domain 1 which is the market study is to understand the market of instant noodles so we in this domain we have to prepare a questionnaire to been given to random people. Because of the safety and constraint of cost so we do it online and in Taylor's university only. We manage to get 200 respondents for our market study which is quite a lot thus help us to understand instant noodle market.

sample of our questionnaire

The answer then will be analysed and recorded based on what the respondents had answered. Based on the answer it can be conclude generally that they quite satisfied with the instant noodle in the market and that they want more flavour, healthier and bigger portion of instant noodles. The main reason that the respondents eat instant noodles is because they busy and also craving for it. We had a lot of fun doing this domain as we have to interact directly with the respondents and help them to fill in the questionnaire.

Last Class :(

For the last class we discuss and learned about food additives in food. Food additives are usually use in small amount in food to make it look appealing and tasty. This is what consumer want because they want to buy product which has nice colour rather than dull and taste great. Generally food additives used in market are safe to consume but in moderate intakes.

There 2 types of additives which is artificial and natural. it also helps to prolong the shelf life of food so it can last longer and can be keep until needed. There is a good and bad of this but consumer should play a role to understand and know of their food that they eat.

This is the last class of experimental food products and I had learned a lot of things in this class and my biggest proud is our ice cream that we make.

p/s: you never know until learn 

Fiber 101

We learned about fiber, yes fiber!!! the trending health product now days. Now I know that fiber is not about things in vegetable only but it has 3 category which is soluble fiber, insoluble fiber and gums. Insoluble fiber helps the movement of feces through our intestines and help control as well as balance the acidity in our intestines while soluble fiber binds with the fatty acids and they also prolong stomach emptying thus sugar was released and absorbed slowly.

Gums are also known as hydrocolloids. it can form viscous solutions and most of them do not gel. They have a variety of uses in food as they have many different functional roles. They can work as texture modifiers, thickeners, gelling agents  and emulsifiers. That is so cool!!

Sensory Test of Ice Cream

So finally the time has come for our ice cream to undergo sensory test to know how the people acceptance of our ice cream. For this test we have garnish our ice cream with lady finger, cocoa powder, chocolate-coffee sauce and almond flake to make it interesting and presentable. We choose it to make like ice cream potong style.

 sample of our ice cream product

part of the people coming to the test

After the result being analysis we have a good feedback from it although some it not really like our ice cream but there are people who like it also. some of the comment are that our ice cream taste like coffee, not smooth and nice.

Thank you for your support by coming to our test...

Well there can be some improvement to our ice cream but overall we satisfied with it. Thanks for my team to make it this work well.

p/s: teamwork is the keyword ;)

Sensorial Evaluation 101


At this class we learned about what is sensorial evaluation. So basically it a test that being done to test on a new food product about the food whether it nice or not using our taste buds, eyes and nose. There a lot of different type of test in sensorial evaluation but we learned the basic things only.

We need to do a sensory test also for our ice cream products to know the acceptance of ice cream thus this will help us to understand about it and doing our score card for the test.

so watch out for it...

p/s: sensory test is not all about tasting food only ;)

Experiment 4.0

So this time of experiment we going to make cookies. What is to learned from here??hihii

We are going to test out on the fat content and fat replacer that is commonly used to make bakery products such as emulsifier and hydrocolloid. From that we going to see what is the different for this fat replacer and how its affect the texture and structure of the cookies. The cookies was test with emulsifier and hydrocolloid separately and we also experiment on reducing the fat content of the cookies which is butter and adjusting the emulsifier and hyrdocolloid accordingly to get the best result.

So first we have to make the cookies first...

basic cookies dough

cookies dough after being shape

baked cookies

as you can see from the picture..at left is the cookies that using the emulsifier SSL while next to it is using hydrocolloid. 

The result...

result for first test

result for second test

As for the first result the emulsifier and hydrocolloid has firmer dough and texture then the basic. For the second result where we remove some of the fat content in the cookies, it has has the desired texture and taste that we want although some of the fat has being removed. Overall it was a fun experiment that we did this time plus a lot of cookies to eat :)

p/s: u never know what will happen until u experiment...

Ice cream final trial out!!!

So for this week we have to finalize our secret formula for the ice cream. This is our only chance because next week we have to food tasting and let other people taste our own secret formula and home-made ice cream.

Let the experiment begin...

preparing the basic recipe for the ice cream

co-star of our secret formula

filtering process to ensure smoother ice cream

our ice cream name al-long

opsssss..sorry I cannot introduce the 'star' in here but I left some clues behind for u to find out yourself. Before we finalize the recipe we have several trial out as u can see in the pictures with the small pot there. We run a test on small scale with different sweetness and texture until we get the desire sweet and texture that we want. Can't wait for the food trial out and let everyone taste the ice cream that we made.

p/s: Starbucks will definitely like our ice cream ;)

  

Experiment 3.0

So this time of experiment we going to make doughnut and bread. What is the catch here??heheee

We are going to test out on the leavening agents that is commonly used to make bakery products such as yeast and baking powder. From that we going to see what is the different for this leavening agent and how its affect the texture and structure of the doughnut and bread. The bread will be done using 2 method which are sponge and straight method. But for the bread we add special ingredient which is chick peas flour that we substitutes with wheat flour for about 50% and the result is expected.

But first we have to make the dough first.

window test being done to see if the gluten form

Now i will show the result...

as you can see from the picture..the most left is the doughnut that using the yeast as leavening agent, next to it is using baking powder, the most right is the basic doughnut without using any leavening agents as the control and the back doughnut is using over beaten dough.

from the result it is known that the yeast is the best leavening agent for doughnut based on the structure and texture. So I suggest everyone go for the yeast!!:)

As for the bread the left one is the sponge method which is more fluffy and better structure and texture. In the middle is the straight method that have slight dense structure and texture while the most right is the 50% substitute chick peas flour and as you can see it has the most dense structure and texture for the 3 breads.

p/s: u never know what will happen until u experiment...

Ice Cream Trial Out

This week was a hectic week for me with a lot of cooking to do. For this week, me and my group mates were try to make an ice cream other than ordinary as you will not able to get in any supermarkets in Malaysia or maybe the world itself. Feeling proud already heheee. For our ice cream we gonna substitutes the usually used milk to almond milk and with added chick peas. We will see whether the ice cream was possible to make or not with protein from the full cream milk was replaced to lower protein value in almond milk and added chick peas was to increase the protein value and also give flavour to the ice cream. As a result, maybe we put too much of the chick peas in the mixture as the taste of the chick peas was too strong but were having fun doing it and cannot wait to do more with adjust formula. Below was some of the process to make an ice cream.

mixture of vanilla seeds with milk to being heat to infuse the flavour

beaten eggs with sugar until ribbon stage

 mash chick peas 

ice cream mixture cooling down process 

p/s: making ice cream was not hard at all ;)

Experiment 2.0

If the first experiment we did was about candy but this time we were experimenting about chilli sauce. Yes you heard it right, we make chilli sauce on our own. But for this experiment it not just about making chilli sauce but learning about the functions of starch as thickening and gelling agents in food product. Just like the first experiment we had our sensory analysis after finished also and get the taste of our own chilli sauce. Remember it is not just food, it sciences!!!.

Our experiment had finished and the result is amazing! I will said a lot of things I had learned as now I know what affect of the starch towards the texture of the chilli. For our group we are using potato starch as the thickening agents and the result in term of firmness was it the least firmness rather than added corn starch and vinegar.

p/s: sorry for no pictures as some technical error happen.going to fix it ASAP.

Sucrose 101

What is sucrose?sucrose or the famous name for it "sugar" is a type of disaccharide  which is the combination of glucose and fructose thus it become sucrose. So what about the taste? is there any thing that sweeter than sucrose?. The answer is yes, the sweetness of sucrose derive from fructose thus compare to sucrose and fructose itself fructose is much more sweeter than sucrose. 

Sucrose + water = syrup

Syrup is a mixture of water with sucrose even for a little amount of it, it is still be considered as syrup. When sucrose is dissolve in water, it acquire the ability  crystallize. For example caramel is the product of crystallization of sucrose. But we can interrupt the ability of sucrose with just as simple as orange juice. 

There a lot more things you did not know about sucrose and I will reveal it all about it !!!   

p/s: I like to call it sugar than sucrose

First "Experiment"

Yeahhh!!! our first experiment is finally happening. The long awaits is finally over as we gonna start it this week. Okay what we gonna do? we are going to do experiment about candy on the temperature and "additional" ingridients. Then, we are going to do the sensory analysis and "can" eat all the candy we make.

the ingredients we use

 Cooking process begin

our "hot" candy is full of love

Brix measurement is being taken

Sensory analysis is being done

Our experiment had finished and it was a lot to learn as we know that different temperature will affect the candy differently as in term of texture. The "add" ingredient we use is corn syrup, it give the candy hard texture rather than without corn syrup. 

Assignment 101

Well it not a shocking surprise any more that assignment had been given already in the first week. As a student there is not a lot of things that surprise me any more :) . Okay now I gonna talk about my experiment that been given to me and my friends. Our topic is ICE-CREAM!!!

Suddenly this picture of ice-cream make me crave for it slurppp... okay back to the topic, this is a normal vanilla ice-cream that everyone can buy in the market but this is not what we gonna do but instead we have to substitute the protein that being used to make the ice cream which is eggs and milk that mainly the large percentage of protein can be found there and to make it more interesting we also need to substitute the vanilla flavour into an fruits that not commonly found in the market. That is interesting right to founded something new that nobody do it before.

Experimental food product 101

So... what is experimental food product??

Experimental food product is all about EXPERIMENT. This subject will teach us 4 things.. which are we have to able to describe steps of research process & key components of designing a study, explain the conceptual phase and organize research study, recognize study design & methods and determined problem to be examined, understand methodological implementation and extraneous variables for valid and reliable statistical conclusions.

This is what I will learn for the next 4 months and what I will achieve.This particular subject is very interesting itself, a lot to learn but a short time to do it. Teach by Dr.Chong itself is a bonus point as she is one of the great lecture that teaching in Taylor's university. Many interesting things to be post here for the next 4 months so just wait for it to be release....