about which products to carry is only
influenced about 20–30 per cent by taste
considerations. He describes the process
as organoleptic – that is, involving the
whole range of senses. Pricing and market
positioning are also crucial to determine
which products go to which stores.
Taste and fresh products can involve
huge variability compared to factory-made
products. Consumer tastes for those
products is wildly divergent. For example,
Westerners often love the concept of
aged beef with a slightly more pungent
character, whereas local consumers
find that type of beef completely off-
putting. The slightly greyish look and
smell it has doesn’t seem right. Local
consumers prefer their beef super-fresh,
killed the same day and red and bloody in
appearance and relatively tough intexture.
Likewise, bread in most parts of Asia is
super-sweet and includes a chemical
– calcium propionate – to maintain its
freshness in the tough tropical climate.
Westerners come to associate the smell
with ‘Chinese bread’ (in their minds), a
very different sensory experience from
their normal association with a bread-
baking smell and heavy texture that
influences their perception of taste.
Strangely enough, variability in taste comes
more often from high-quality, ‘natural’
products. Their lack of machine-made,
mass-produced consistency means that
batches of product, for example manuka
honey, can taste different from time to
time. Factory-produced foods can control
for taste, while a beekeeper can’t control
every flower every bee goes to, leading
to changes in taste. So more expensive,
more natural products tend to generate
more customer comments on taste
inconsistency.
DIY
PARKnSHOP also puts a huge amount of
effort into developing in-house brands with
food production partners. ‘Best Buy’ is their
own brand for cost-sensitive consumers
while ‘Select’ products are the premium
line and can involve extensive in-house
testing and production development.
For example, the ‘Select’ brand sesame
seed crackers took the simple cracker
and elevated it to new levels. Normally,
producers face two choices about how to
treat the sesame seeds. They can push
the seeds into the cracker to ensure they
stick during packaging and shipping, but
this means the seeds are embedded in the
dough and avoid the gentle roasting that
brings out their flavour. The alternative is
to leave the seeds on top, but this means
that they end up in a mess at the bottom
of the packaging.
such as the Mr Juicy Cheer Pack. The
revamp of the Mr Juicy juice product
range gives a more authentically fruity
mouth feel with more orange pulp and
less added sugar. Tasting takes place
through professional consumer taste
tests, sampling events and internally with
staff every Friday afternoon. The whole
team gets involved. Both consumer and
internal testing have led to new flavours
catering for the Asian palate. Mango,
sago and pomelo flavours have recently
been introduced to customers, along with
combination products like melon coconut
milk and mango pearl cream, pioneers in
the ready-to-drink market.
GOTTA TASTE ‘EM ALL!
The team at PARKnSHOP, Hong Kong’s
leading grocery store chain, have a huge
range of tastes to satisfy. The incredibly
international city has created opportunities
for PARKnSHOP to develop different lines
of stores for different types of consumers
based on ethnic food preferences and
incomes.
Peter Johnston, Quality and Food Safety
Director (Greater China) of PARKnSHOP
(HK) Limited, explains that the decision
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SPHERE
#41
2016
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