FORMAT AND CONTENT OF YOUR TECHNICAL DOSSIER
Your product must be presented using an explanatory dossier limited to 20 A4 pages, in PDF format and written in English. Up to 10 pages of appendices may also be submitted. This explanatory dossier must contain the following information:
- a description of the food product: exact name, precise category (for example: savoury starters, desserts, ready-made meals, alcoholic drinks etc.…), general description, composition, the product's taste and nutritional qualities, technical specifications, manufacturing process, packaging, shelf life;
- description of the product's innovation and eco-innovative aspects;
- a summary of the marketing, sales and business plan;
- a description of the communications strategy specifying why consumers will desire/accept the product innovation, key messages, and media channels for consumers and/or buyers/distributors.
TIPS FROM PRELIMINARY JUDGES
- Read the brief and think what it means and how it applies to your product.
- Make sure your product has a strong eco backbone and doesn't feel like it has been shoe horned into the competition with tenuous links to eco themes. Cover the environmental aspects in a comprehensive and meaningful manner from the start, rather than attempting to justify them afterwards.
- The competition is a European one - so do not make it all about food miles in your village unless it can be replicated in villages all over the EU
- Have a robust HACCP plan and an understanding of what makes the product safe and how it would be manufactured in an industrial way
- Remember it is food, has anyone eaten it? Can it be made/or/ sold safely & legally in all EU countries? How will it be presented to the customer?
- Conduct consumer panelling on your product. Recognise its limitations. Don't just make the research fit your objectives
- Put some thought into the factory scale-up with a proper consideration of the challenges and how they might be overcome
- Plan how your dossier should be laid out. It should be logical and make effective use of appendices instead of dumping lots of info into the report. Apply the same sense you do to writing an essay - what do you get marks for? Have you covered all of those?
- Make sure your passion and ownership of the project comes through from your dossier