This webinar is organised by the IFST Food Innovation SIG
The food and ingredient innovation landscapes are evolving rapidly, driven by demand for healthier, more sustainable and increasingly functional products. At the same time, regulatory scrutiny surrounding novel foods, emerging technologies, functional ingredients and product claims continues to increase across global markets. Despite this, many businesses still approach regulation as a final-stage approval exercise rather than an integral part of product development itself: This webinar is designed to challenge that approach.
Delivered jointly by SPG Innovation and Advanced Food Regulation, the session will demonstrate how regulatory strategy and product development must operate in parallel from the earliest stages of innovation in order to reduce commercial risk, avoid costly delays and accelerate routes to market.
The central message of the webinar is simple: Early regulatory integration saves both time and money.
Too often, companies invest heavily in formulation, functionality testing, branding packaging, marketing and scale-up or customer engagement before fully understanding the regulatory implications of the product they are developing. This can result in projects stalling late in development due to Novel Food status uncertainty, unsupported claims, unsuitable ingredient specifications, missing safety data or jurisdiction-specific compliance barriers. In many cases, businesses are forced to repeat expensive testing, reformulate products or delay launch timelines because regulatory requirements were not considered early enough in the product timeline.
What participants will learn:
Using a practical, step-by-step approach, the session will walk attendees through the integrated journey from concept to commercialisation. SPG Innovation will demonstrate how ingredients and products are technically developed, characterised and validated, while Advanced Food Regulation will show how regulatory strategy should be embedded at each corresponding stage.
The webinar will conclude with a practical framework attendees can apply within their own organisations. Participants will leave with a clearer understanding of the critical regulatory decision points within innovation projects, the importance of designing regulatorily useful development programmes and how integrated planning can improve both technical and commercial outcomes.
Ultimately, the webinar aims to demonstrate that successful food innovation is not simply about developing products that function technically - it is about developing products that can scale effectively, comply efficiently and reach the market successfully.
Target audience:
Product developers, NPD. Sales/marketing, technical teams
Price: IFST Members - Free, Non-members - £100
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Chair/Speaker: Sarah Gaunt - CEO, SPG Innovation
Speaker: Steve Oliver - Co-founder, Advanced Food Regulation
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