After all the recipe had been finalised and the marketing strategy had been developed. The process continues by developing HACCP plan for the product. Let me just brief to you what is HACCP is all about.

 Basically, Food safety system has been released since 1998 by  Food and Drug Administration. Food safety is a guideline for handling, preparing, and storage of food to prevent it from being contaminate by foodborne microorganisms. According to FDA, Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point or HACCP is a management system in which food safety is addressed through the analysis and control of biological, chemical, and physical hazards from raw material production, procurement and handling, to manufacturing, distribution and consumption of the finished product (FDA, 2015). This system is accepted in world wide as food safety management system. This system is easily adapted by any food organization. The main objective of this system is to concentrate on the critical points in the process flow and to take measure to ensure hazards does not occur. 

There are 7 fundamental principles in HACCP which are :

Principle 1
Conduct a hazard analysis.
Identify hazards and assess the risks associated with them at each step in the commodity system. Describe possible control measures.

Principle 2
Determine the Critical Control Points (CCPs)
A critical control point is a step at which control can be applied and is essential to prevent or eliminate a food safety hazard, or reduce it to an acceptable level. The determination of a CCP can be facilitated by the application of a decision tree, such as the one given in Appendix IV.

Principle 3
Establish critical limits.
Each control measure associated with a CCP must have an associated critical limit which separates the acceptable from the unacceptable control parameter.

Principle 4
Establish a monitoring system
Monitoring is the scheduled measurement or observation at a CCP to assess whether the step is under control, i.e. within the critical limit(s) specified in Principle 3.

Principle 5
Establish a procedure for corrective action, when monitoring at a CCP indicates a deviation from an established critical limit.

Principle 6
Establish procedures for verification to confirm the effectiveness of the HACCP plan.
Such procedures include auditing of the HACCP plan to review deviations and product dispositions, and random sampling and checking to validate the whole plan.

Principle 7
Establish documentation concerning all procedures and records appropriate to these principles and their application


In our product, there 5 CCP found and the CCP includes boiling chicken, steaming rice, cooking the sauce and the chicken, packing and freezing. These CCP must be properly control to ensure our product is safe from contamination.

Food Product Developmental 2 : Marketing Planing & Product Storage

After the gold standard was finalised. The plan of producing the product starts. First, the plan starts by developing the marketing strategy of the product. The marketing strategy follows the 5p plan. The 5ps includes promotion, place, people, price and product.

Basically the place that we had chosen to sell our product is supermarket/hypermarket, school canteen and food court. The product type is Rainbow Rice Ball which is in frozen form. This is a ready-to-eat meal which is convenient and attractive for kids. The main target market for or product is kids and parents. This is because the serving portion of the product is very suitable for kids and it contain high nutrients. Not only that, the price of the product is cheap and affordable for kids to buy.

After presenting our marketing plan. We continue by reheating our product. The time taken to fully reheat the product is 2 minutes. The taste of the product enhanced after reheating.

Food Developmental 2 : Finalized Gold Standard

Weeks after weeks of trying out, it came the time for us to finalized our recipes. The sweet and sour sauce and the sambal sauce were easy to finalized since there were not much problem with the recipes. Whereas, the main problem that we faced was the rice.

Both type of rice, which were brocolli rice and carrot rice had the same problem which was too soft. The molding of the rice caused it to loose its texture and shape. It looks more like a sticky rice instead of normal rice. The formulation needed to be changed and we need to find solution before it is being finalized. The brocolli rice was very soggy and wet whereas carrot rice were soft when it was still hot and start to gained its texture when it was cold.

We had reduced the amount of the chicken stock as well as reducing the cooking time. There were changes on the texture of the rice which was more desirable compared to before. There will be a little changes before it is being finalized and we hope that changes will work and our product will be ready for the final presentation soon.

Food Developmental 2 : Week 1 CP

This week we had to test only on the product. There were no cooking or preparing product involved. We carried out the same test as the week before which was week 0. The test conducted were pH, water activity, viscosity and brix.

Each of this test carried out for reasons. Such as water activity was carried out to see the potential microbial growth. The risk of microbial growth in products is >0.85aw. Other than that, pH plays the same role as water activity as well. The lower the pH of the food, the lower is the potential microbial growth. This is because most microorganism cannot survive in low pH condition.

The viscosity of the sauce is important because it will shows the potential leakage of the sauce from the rice. Higher viscosity is more desirable because the sauce will be inside the rice and should stay in shape without leaking out. 

The result from week 1 shows slight differences compared to week 0. The viscosity of few sample reduce and some maintained.

Results gained from week 0

Result gained from week 1

Food Develomental 2 : Commercialize Product

After the testing of the technical ingredients, we finally made our decisions on which technical ingredients to use in our product. First of all, our group decided to test on rice were Xanthan gum 0.15%, 0.35%, and 0.5%. Second, Arabic gum 7.5%, 15%, and 30%. Lastly for rice, we decided to use Agar with percentage of 0.1%, 0.5% and 1%. As for the sauce, we decided to mix the Xanthan gum with National 465 and also tested out Textra with Xathan gum. Both percentage of 0.3% and 0.65%.

We mixed these technical ingredients in our products and made 4 batches of each type. The reason we did these 4 batches was to observe it on different weeks. The study started on week 0 until week 3 for both rice and sauces. The test the we carried out for sauce on week 0 was viscosity test, water activity, pH, and brix. Whereas for rice, we conducted test on texture, water activity, and colour test.

All the results gained from week 0 will be compared to following weeks. Finally, we are going to observe the desirable changes or undesirable changes to the products.

Food Developmental 2 : Testing Technical ingredients

Like what the tittle mentioned, we did testing on technical ingredients. First of all e checked on the technical ingredients available in the R&D kitchen and started to do research on its functions and how it works. Then we chose the best technical ingredients that suit with our product which are sauce and rice.

When we already found the technical ingredients that we wanted to use, we do another research on the minimum and maximum percentage of that particular technical ingredients. No to forget, for the rice we chose Xanthan gum, Arabic Gum and Agar. On the other hand, we chose National 465, Textra, Purexan 80,  .

In addition, we experimented on how the technical ingredients work by diluting the technical ingredients in cold water, hot water, room temperature water, oil and also room temperature followed by cooking. This session had helped me to understand better on how the technical ingredients works and also these technical ingredients only start to function at certain percentage and supersaturated if the percentage are too high.

Finally, we manaed to find few percentage of each technical ingredients to used in our product and we tried these technical ingredients in our products on the following weeks.

food developmental 2 : sensory analysis

Another week had passed. This week we had to conduct a sensory test based on the recipe we had for last week. 20 panelists were asked to try on our foods. We started our sensory test on monday by giving samples of the fillings. There were a total of 8 samples given to the panelists.

We prepared 2 type of sweet and sour sauce with 2 types of chicken shape, cube and shredded. Same samples were prepared for sambal as well.  Sensory test was a new test that we never conducted before. We had learnt it on last semester but it was not practical enough for us to fully understand the samples preparations and conducting the test. Somehow, we manage to prepare everything on time and conducted the test quite well. We managed to gather 20 panelists

A complete set of 8 samples given to panelists with drinking water to clear their palate.

The  samples of sambal kicap with shredded chicken 

The sample of sambal kicap with cube chicken

The sample of shredded and cube sweet and sour chicken

On the next day, we prepared samples for the rice. There were 3 types of rice we prepared on that morning. White rice, broccoli rice and also carrot rice. The white rice was prepared as a control for comparison to the vegetables rice. Later on the evening, we did another test on mix and macth of the rice and also the fillings. These two tests had 20 panelists as well.

One of the panelist excited to try out our samples

Panelist filling in form to give score for our samples.

The mix and macth test samples with rice and fillings

After the sensory analysis were done, we confirmed on which recipe to use and match our products. We finalized the products and continue to the next step, which is the commercialize product.

sincerely,

Shuhada Zuki