Develop product specifications in a food and drink business
Overview
This standard is about the skills and knowledge needed for you to develop product specifications in a food and drink business. All food and drink products require a technical specification, detailing the specific characteristics of the product. Product specifications are essential to manufacturers and customers to ensure quality, compliance and costing requirements are adhered to. The ability to convert a qualitative request, associated with a new or amended product, into a technical specification is an essential skill in a food and drink business.
You must be able to source relevant information, plan the trialling of the specification and gather information from a production trial to inform confirmation or amendments to a product specification. You must also be able to confirm the specification details and communicate the confirmed specification to relevant people internal and/or external to the food and drink business.
This standard is for you if you work in food and drink manufacture and/or supply operations and are involved in developing product specifications in a food and drink business.
Performance criteria
You must be able to:
* Source relevant information*
- scope out requirements for development of product specifications
- check sufficient resource is in place to support the development of product specifications
- identify the organisational and customer technical requirements of the product specifications
- liaise with internal or external colleagues to gain any specific information relating to the specification
- source or create a template for the draft specification, adhering to organisational and customer requirements
- record all details for the specification development adhering to organisational knowledge management and protection of intellectual property requirements
**Complete a draft specification
**
7. liaise with, and seek support from, relevant people internal and external to the food and drink business to complete each area of the specification
8. assess the costs associated with the product specification, ensuring it complies with costing requirements
9. check regulatory and organisational requirements are adhered to when completing areas of the specification associated with compliance, food safety, hygiene, allergens and health and safety
10. confirm any production requirements included in the specification are feasible and cost effective
11. evaluate costs associated with the raw materials, staffing and utilities ensuring it complies with organisational requirements
**Trial specification
**
12. communicate the trial requirements to relevant production staff
13. check the trial adheres to the requirements of the draft specification
14. check the final product is tested using a range of variables including subjective and non-subjective testing
15. amend the specification accounting for results found from the production trial and testing
**Communicate specification
**
16. clearly define, in the specification, the final product characteristics
17. communicate the specification to all relevant people internal and external to the food and drink business
Knowledge and Understanding
You need to know and understand:
- the organisational and regulatory requirements for the development of food and drink product specifications, including compliance, food safety, hygiene, allergens and health and safety
- the organisational and customer requirements for the technical content, evaluation requirements and format of the specification
- why it is important to liaise with colleagues and customers to determine the specific requirements of the product and how to do this
- how to plan a production trial including determining requirements for materials, utilities, equipment, staffing and storage requirements
- the importance of cost analysis of new or amended products and production trial costs and how to carry this out
- why it is important to liaise with colleagues and customers to determine the specific requirements of the product and how to do this
- the chemical, microbiological and sensory testing required to complete a food and drink product specification
- how to communicate technical data to colleagues and why it is important to do so
- how to evaluate a production trial, including production and staffing variables, technical requirements relating to the appearance, ingredient content, use of local ingredients, packaging and storage of a product
- how to analyse and interpret evaluation data from a production trial to inform specification content
- the reliability of technical data and sensory analysis used to evaluate production trials
- why it is important to communicate the final specification to relevant people