The market for convenience food is dominated by meals and products that are rich in calories and low in nutritional value. As cases of non communicable diseases have been increasing to epidemic proportions, scientific research has intensified its efforts to produce healthier food. Despite numerous findings and creative ideas in redesigning some products, most lab-scale reformulations lacked industrial plans to make it through production and marketing. This fact kept most industrial enterprises in the UK, especially small and medium sized ones, unable to access advanced schemes for sustainable and healthy food processing.
In this research, we aim to review case studies of reformulated food products present in the literature and create a systematic scheme to assess the possibility of their sustainable production and retail. Information regarding holistic recipe optimization, process sustainability, safety, shelf-life stability, customization, consumer acceptability as well as business profitability will be extracted and evaluated. In addition, we aim to set the bases for product customisation that meets the requirements of senior and obese people.
METHODOLOGY
Our research is divided into three main steps:
1- Data extraction of reformulated food from scientific studies including bakery products, processed meat, fat spreads, dairy and prepared meals.
2- Assessment of sustainable production, distribution and retail for those reformulated products will be investigated.
3- Exploration of food customization for seniors and obese people. For the first category, we will focus on product fortification, modified texture as well as appearance and flavor enhancement. For obesity, we will look at nutritious components that enhance satiety.
