15F-9 |
Developing a computer program for reverse engineering an existing product |
L. G. PHILLIPS and A. M. Roland. Owl Software, 2301 Wood Street, Lancaster, PA 17603 Developing a formulation to match an existing product can be a complicated process that involves meeting a variety of goals. Quickly developing a formulation that approximates an existing formula would provide tremendous benefits for consultants, regulators, product developers concerned with infringement issues, and others. The objective of this research was to develop and test a computer program (referred to as TechWizard TM) to determine what information besides a product's nutrition label and ingredient listing is necessary to develop an equivalent formulation. The TechWizard TM computer program uses advanced programming techniques to aid in new product formulation to achieve required sensory, quality and compositional goals. TechWizard TM was used to develop ingredient listings and nutrition labels for a variety of products. Next, this ingredient listing and nutrition label information was used to develop formulations that were as similar as possible to the original formulas. An evaluation was made for each product to determine what additional information besides the nutrition label and ingredient listing was needed to develop an equivalent formulation. In most cases TechWizard TM was able to quickly provide formulations that were very similar to the original based on ingredient listing and nutrition label information. The most common additional information needed was usage levels of ingredients used in small amounts, appropriate flavoring usage levels, and the steps needed for product manufacture. These results demonstrated that TechWizard TM can be used to aid not only in composition and cost evaluation, but in the development of formulations that closely approximate products already in the market place.
Session 15F, Product Development
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