Potato Chips and Innovation
One of our customers in the food industry had a disappointing lunch experience. He opened a bag of potato chips with a fancy name. His first bite was tasteless, but the second had a strong moldy-onion-salty flavor. As he expanded the bag, he noticed many dark spots of different sizes on the potato chips. As an enthusiastic food scientist, he decided to quantify this inconsistency using our technology. After his lunch break, he took a few random chips from the bag and placed them on our digital inspection analyzer tray, typically used for incoming inspection of seeds and grains. He loaded a pre-made test protocol and clicked 'analyze.' The results showed that all the chips had dark spots, some in the 1-2% range and others 10-15%. What caught his attention was the overall color texture of the chips, which correlated with the uneven spread of spices. This explained the inconsistency in flavor—from tasteless to strongly seasoned.
We always appreciate these customer calls; they help us better understand our customers’ operations and bring up interesting stories about potential new use cases, tips, and challenges we need to address.
The customer then asked if we could perform the same analysis on his final product—a mix of crushed seeds, grains, and other ingredients they produce in volume. They struggled to control and quantify the quality and final blend ratio, impacting cost control, customer product recipes, and labeling. Leveraging our analysis technology, we examined his samples and together defined and configured a new test protocol tailored to his application. This innovative approach improved their quality control, optimized their cost management, and ensured consistency in their product formulations.
Interestingly, he contacted the potato chips company, which promptly responded, thanked him for the feedback, and sent him coupons for free products. As a side note, CPG (Consumer Packaged Goods) food companies have become very sensitive and responsive to customer complaints, in large part because of the online review platforms where we, the consumers, rate, and comment on product quality and experience.