Snapshot
A client hired Catapult to perform product development on a new line of products that included their newly developed flagship energy boosting liquid ingredient that was receiving GRAS certification as the project began.
The Client
Founded by and composed of a collection of scientifically minded individuals, the client looked to enhance their customers’ health, longevity, and performance through a common commitment of scientific and operational principles.
The Challenge
The client decided to transition from their current dry beverage powders to a new product category: liquid beverages. While the move was logical, the client had no in-house product development capabilities to bridge the gap between the two categories.
The Approach
Catapult was able to supply a quartet of product developers to work on this project, each with 15+ years of experience.
Focusing on the formulation, the project began with generating product guide rails in the form of a product brief. This outlined the parameters and the desired organoleptic properties of the product line. These parameters included working with a new ingredient which had off-flavor notes when consumed. Multiple flavor houses were engaged to maximize the success rate of this portion of the project. The inherent challenges provided by the new ingredient were slowly overcome in the product development phase, including learnings on which flavors masked the off-notes well and which flavor combinations did not.
As the formulation was nearing completion, a pair of trial runs were coordinated. The first was at a Catapult’s lab demonstrating the viability of the client’s product. The second was at a larger trial facility, confirming the viability of the client’s product at large scale production levels and allowed the client to perform consumer testing and shelf life studies.
The Results and Benefits
The project came to its successful completion with the larger trial facility trial run. All work was done within the agreed upon timeline and budget as samples were produced for sales and consumer product testing.