There’s a whole process that precedes the production of a single nut hamburger or slice of vegetarian ham for a specific client. Are you interested in knowing more about our products and how they are tailored to suit your needs? This page explains more about our product development process and partnership with Marfo Food Group and gives you an idea what collaborating with us entails.
Client: Marfo Food Group
Case: Development process of new vegetarian products
Contact person at Marfo: Sten Becker – Lead Buyer
Quote: “[Schouten Europe] challenges our developers with new ideas.”
Marfo Food Group
Marfo specializes in producing meal solutions for airline companies, healthcare organizations, and many others. Currently, Marfo prepares meals for sectors that include healthcare, airline and catering. The meals are very varied: from traditional Dutch fare to Oriental dishes, and everything in between. Marfo specializes in fresh-frozen meal solutions, but was lacking certain expertise in vegetarian products. That’s why we consulted Schouten Europe.
The development of vegetarian range for Marfo
Marfo was looking for a vegetarian stir-fry meat substitute to integrate into its meals for a major tender request. Our Sales Manager Arjaan van der Giessen supervised this process at Schouten Europe’s end so that the product-development process was properly monitored and fine-tuned where necessary.
Ensuring that everyone is on the same wavelength
In the start-up phase, Arjaan van de Giessen and Marfo discussed the product requirements and points from the project briefing. This included matters like packaging dimensions, target price, and nutritional values, but delivery details were also covered. That ensured that both parties had the proper information they needed to safeguard time schedules and properly coordinate steps relating to quality, production and logistics. In short, to ensure that everyone was on the same wavelength.
Our test kitchen in Giessen
But first back to the test kitchen in Giessen. There the Schouten Europe product developers got going with the project briefing and requirements from Marfo. They arrived at a number of products that were submitted as samples to Marfo. This way, we can ensure together that the products are not only nutritious but also very tasty! Once the vegetarian stir-fry meat substitute met the requirements of Marfo and Schouten Europe, the official ‘GO’ was given and the first trial production planned.
Trial Production
Trial production is always supervised by the product developer. After the products from the trial production were approved by both parties, product specifications and definitive price agreements were made. The initial production run was planned as well. The first run always occurs under the supervision of a QA specialist from Schouten Europe. Once the initial production run was released by our QA department, we moved to initial delivery.
Sten Becker, Lead Buyer at Marfo Food Group, on the cooperation:
“Schouten has been making vegetarian products for us since 2006. It all began with the veggie bratwurst, but soon expanded into a wide range of products. Customers in our sector act on a cyclical basis. Every three to six months they want to be surprised with new products. And Schouten is the perfect partner in this process. This party challenges our developers with new ideas.”
Your ideas on new vegetarian and vegan products
The rise of meatless meat is undeniable. Vegan burgers and other plant-based products are gaining popularity and more and more consumers are shifting towards eating less meat. What are your ideas on new vegetarian and vegan products? Or how can we adjust our existing products to meet your expectations? We’d like to hear your thoughts! Contact us to let us know what we can do for you.