Develop

During the fourth week of developing our product for our project, our group decided to tackle several different aspects to perfect our product. These aspects included product stability after freezing, product composition, and product taste. In addition to these aspects, our group looked at the development of our product, the potential packaging, label, and essential information needed on the packaging.

This week we baked an egg roll that was stored in the freezer for a week. The product turned out well, but the inside section of the egg roll was mushy which led to an undesirable mouthfeel. For this week, we decided to add flour to the inside of the egg roll in order to determine if this ingredient addition would stabilize the water activity, thus preventing the sogginess of the egg roll. In addition to adding flour, we decided to cook the egg rolls at a lower temperature for a longer time in order to cook the product thoroughly as well as to minimize the chances of a soggy egg roll upon reconstitution. We saved some egg rolls to see how they fair next week; we are planning to bake the egg rolls at a higher temperature for a shorter amount of time to see if we can achieve a more desirable product with less sogginess in the middle of the egg roll wrapper.

We also looked at our product’s composition. Instead of using tenders to make the egg rolls, we used thigh meat. In the end, the product taste was not altered; in fact, the thigh meat led to more prominent pieces of chicken in the egg roll. This will be beneficial in the future because it will lower our production cost due to the use of a lower valued cut of meat; therefore, maximizing our profit. In addition to changing the cut of meat used in the product, we added ¼ cup of modified corn starch to the buffalo filling. The modified corn starch was added to increase the viscosity of the mixture as well as too see how it affected the water activity between the filling and the egg roll wrap.

As discussed in week three’s blog post, our product tasted good, but it lacked a kick that would set it apart from products already on the market. Therefore, this week we decided to add 2 Tbsp of jalapeño slices, 1 Tbsp of green bell peppers, and 1 tsp of Slap Ya Mama cajun seasoning. This gave our product that kick that it was missing. We also conducted a sensory study and got some crucial feedback to make final adjustments to our product. The feedback that we got suggested that we dice the jalapeño and green pepper into finer pieces so that peppers do not overpower the chicken. In addition to the egg roll alone we also got great feedback on our dipping sauce that will come in packages along with our product. The current pepper jelly we have was liked by the panelists, but the panelists suggested that the sauce not be as spicy to help counterbalance the flavor of the spicy egg roll.

Since we are in the development phase of our project, there were several decisions that the group needed to consider. One main discussion that the group had was whether we are going to sell the product directly to the consumer or to restaurants. If we decide to sell directly to restaurants, it will increase overall profits. However, a lot of our initial target audience comes from consumers at a retail store. Currently, there is still a clear decision on which direction the group will go, but further decisions will take place in the next week. While it is not clear yet on which direction the group will ultimately take; there has been a discussion on what our product will look like if we choose to sell directly to consumers. We have decided that it will be best to fit 4-6 egg rolls in a box. In order to compete with our competitors who place 4-8 in a single box. Their range is a little higher because of their egg rolls being smaller compared to our egg rolls. The egg rolls will come packaged in an airtight plastic bag; that will go inside a cardboard box. The outside packaging needs to be colorful to catch the consumers’ eye much like our competitor’s product. The outside will also contain nutritional facts, reconstitution directions, ingredients, a picture of the product, and contact information if the consumer’s feel the product is undesirable. In the next week, we hope to see the effects of the changes that we have made for this week. As well as fine-tune some additional aspects of our product.

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