About this episode

Colleen Cottrell discusses ingredient functionality and its impact on product development in the CPG industry.

In this episode of R&D Radio, hosted by food scientist Adam Yee, Adam sits down with Colleen Cottrell, independent consultant at C Cottrell Consulting. With over a decade of experience spanning ingredient suppliers, finished CPG brands like RXBAR, and now independent consulting, Colleen breaks down one of the most underappreciated forces in product development: ingredient functionality — and why understanding it early is the difference between a product that scales and one that falls apart at the co-manufacturer. Colleen explains why the same protein can behave completely differently depending on how it's been processed — heat, pressure, and shear all play a role — and walks through simple, low-cost assays that founders can run themselves to compare ingredients before committing to a formula. She also shares the inside story of helping RXBAR expand beyond bars into oats and other categories by working closely with ingredient suppliers to engineer egg white functionality at scale. Listen in as they discuss: What ingredient functionality actually means — and why it impacts your product more than you think How heat, pressure, and shear change protein behavior (using eggs as the…

People in this episode

Host: Adam Yee

Guest: Colleen Cottrell

Topics covered

• ingredient functionality
• product development
• CPG brands
• protein behavior
• DIY assays
• food science

Keywords

• ingredient functionality
• product development
• protein behavior
• DIY assays
• RXBAR
• food science
• consulting

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: C Cottrell Consulting, RXBAR

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