Anyone here work in food production?

[wildone63]

Especially mass produced supermarket type ready meals,if so could you tell me why the packaging on these items has a recurring phrase printed on it which seems to crop up every so often on batches of seemingly randomly selected products - 'improved recipe',is it just some sort of false advertising/sales gimmick type of thing or do the manufacturers of these products really have to sit down and come up with some new recipe for the product every few months and advertise it as 'improved'?
I know that when i have bought these products myself that are advertised as having an 'improved recipe' they never seem to be any different as previously.

[wijit]

wildone63 said:

Especially mass produced supermarket type ready meals,if so could you tell me why the packaging on these items has a recurring phrase printed on it which seems to crop up every so often on batches of seemingly randomly selected products - 'improved recipe',is it just some sort of false advertising/sales gimmick type of thing or do the manufacturers of these products really have to sit down and come up with some new recipe for the product every few months and advertise it as 'improved'?
I know that when i have bought these products myself that are advertised as having an 'improved recipe' they never seem to be any different as previously.

From vast experience I can tell you that it will have been a small alteration to the recipe. Usually in response to an ingredient supplier raising their prices so what then happens is either another (cheaper) ingredient is added or the quantities are adjusted (this can be seen on the ingredient panel, as they are listed in order of quantity used).
The product is then advertised as "New recipe", "improved recipe", or my particular favourite "new, improved recipe". The difference can be minute, but still enough to make it worth getting new packaging in and making it a marketing project.

[wildone63]

Okay but why go to the bother of making such a big song and dance about a minute change to the recipe that customers are hardly likely notice in any case,and whos to say that such a minute change of ingredients actually constitutes an 'improvement'?,
One particular ready meal that i regularly buy has gone through several periods of having the words 'improved recipe' printed on the packaging over the last few years,to me this conveys the impression that when first introduced the product was crap and that they have to keep altering it to get it right.