Xinova is seeking a new savory snack experience.
The key is to create a uniformly shaped savory snack that consumers can break into bite-sized portions and enjoy alone or share with others. The challenge of this RFI is to identify a suitable product and production method for a savory snack that creates an eating experience similar to snacks such as Kit Kat, Hershey bars, or Toblerone, yet different enough so as to be novel and non-obvious.
Requirements for the solution include:
- Must be savory
- Can take a variety of shapes and sizes, but it is critical that each unit be identical, to enable stacking and efficient packaging. Uniformity of size and shape will also help protect the snack during packaging and shipping
- Breakable by the consumer yet should resist breaking during transport
Description of the production and packaging process should be part of the solution. Ideally, the snack should be producible on existing equipment to minimize capital expenditures.
Problem Definition
The irregular shapes of many snacks inhibit dense packaging and require larger packages that use more material. After packaging, the snacks settle, leaving a large air pocket in the package. The shipper must transport a large volume of air, which is inefficient, and the perception of the consumer is that there is more air than snack in the package, which is disappointing. Some snacks are fragile and break during shipment resulting in further consumer disappointment. In contrast to existing savory snacks like chips, many sweet snacks are designed to form a single, regularly shaped whole that can be broken apart into smaller portions. (read more)
Why This Problem is Valuable to Solve
A savory snack that is densely packed and resists breaking would increase both efficiency and consumer satisfaction. Densely packed snacks reduce the amount of required packaging material and air by shrinking package size. This allows for more packages per shipment and thus minimizes the environmental impact. Consumer satisfaction would increase when buying a package full of an intact, savory snack. (read more)
This opportunity comes from the efforts of Xinova’s R&D Consulting and Innovation team.
Are you up for the challenge?