FSC5052 · New product innovation and development

Overview

This is one of your optional Part D units (12 credit points) in the Master of Food Science and Agribusiness. It complements your core science units (Part A) and builds on your core agribusiness units (Part B), with a focus on practical new product development within the Master’s program. In this unit, you will extend industry approaches to hands‑on product formulation and development, with a specific focus on the food and beverage sector. You will explore how to achieve consumer appeal through techniques such as formulation, customer‑focused product innovation, personalised product innovation, and sensory science, while considering branding, prototyping and positioning that influence behaviour during the transition to commercialisation. You will examine category management principles and retail readiness, and you will encounter the challenges and opportunities involved in translating and commercialising food science, including the stakeholders and regulations that oversee the production process. You will communicate commercial concepts to stakeholders using multimedia communication tools and commercialisation strategies. As part of the unit, you will be assigned a specific new product and work with an expert from the food industry. You will engage in practical laboratory formulation, evidence‑based problem‑solving, and predictive thinking through the analysis, critique, and interpretation of empirical economic and data analysis, as well as established commerce experiments relevant to the food industry. The unit develops your ability to disseminate complex consumer and market data, communicating innovative design and production concepts to a variety of stakeholders in the food industry.

Offerings

Assessment

The Handbook does not list a final examination among the assessment items. That is not a guarantee there is none.

Assessment details may change. Please refer to the assessment information in Moodle closer to the start of the teaching period.

Requisites

The Handbook lists no prerequisite, corequisite or prohibition for this unit.

Learning outcomes

1. Apply correct and safe operational procedures to generate empirical, reliable data analysis from developing new products by using food science knowledge;
2. Identify emerging formulations in the food science area and explain the scientific and commercial reasoning behind the process in industrial contexts;
3. Critically analyse and interpret data collected from practical activities to produce authentic outputs for stakeholders in academia, industry and government;
4. Develop a supplier strategy and a joint product plan and communicate these strategies and plans to key stakeholders;
5. Reflect and participate constructively in strategic and outcome-aware decision-making consistent with impact areas relevant to food science and agribusiness.

Workload

Contact hours equivalent to a minimum of 72 hours over 12 weeks. Additional requirements for at least 216 hours of independent and teamwork, including pre-work, laboratory experiments, and assessment development over twelve weeks.

Student experience, not official rules. Nothing here changes what the Handbook says.