The Food Lab

59% of consumers say taste is the most influential factor when evaluating a health drink. Not the ingredient. Not the health claim. Not the price. Taste. If your adaptogen product is relying on functionality to carry a flavour that isn't working, this episode will change how you develop. The global adaptogen market is worth nearly $11 billion and is one of the fastest growing categories in foo...

Your new flavour is not moving off the shelf and the problem started long before packaging, pricing, or marketing. It started in your flavour brief. In this episode, I break down why most food and drink founders base their flavour direction on what they want the product to represent rather than what their target consumers actually need from it. And that gap is exactly why 76% of new product launch...

Still getting taste complaints after switching the flavour? You're not solving the right problem. In this episode I walk you through the 4 root causes behind almost every food and drink product taste complaint, and what a proper diagnosis actually looks like. After years training and working inside a flavour house, and working with brands like McVitie's, I kept seeing the same cycle play o...

Your food or drink product is on the shelf. Consumers are picking it up. So why aren't they coming back for more? Most food & drink founders blame their marketing or their price point. To be honest, the answer is almost always in the product itself — and more specifically, in the flavour. In this episode, I break down the three flavour problems that quietly destroy your repeat purchase rat...

Your product tastes good. Your team agrees, the reviews are positive, and the complaints are few. And yet your repeat purchase rate is far lower than it should be. So you start questioning the packaging, the price, the marketing. But what if none of those things are the real problem? In this episode I go one level deeper into the neuroscience of why consumers come back, the three specific things a...

Most food and drink founders are pouring everything into finding new customers. New listings, new stockists, new ads. And on the surface, it looks like growth. But underneath that, there is a question most of them are not asking. Are the people who bought last month actually coming back? In this episode I share a real client story that changed the way they saw their entire business, break down the...

Every year, more than 1,300 new food and drink products are launched on UK retail shelves. And 76% of them quietly disappear. To be honest, I do not think this is talked about enough, because the reason why is so fixable. In this episode, I explain the one metric that retailers like Tesco actually use to decide who stays on shelf and who gets delisted, why your sales figures are not telling you th...

Most food and drink brands spend thousands making their product look TikTokable for Gen Z. But they forget one thing: Gen-Z palate is far more complex than you think. In this episode, I walk you through the 5 Gen Z flavour trends that matter right now, the 3 mistakes that are getting products delisted, and how to build a flavour strategy that actually speaks to this generation. In this episode: ▪️...

If you've ever said "we want to appeal to everyone" about your food or drink product, this episode is going to hit home. Because trying to please everyone with your flavour strategy is one of the most common mistakes I see food and drink founders make. And it's also the fastest way to end up with a product that resonates with no one and gets pulled from shelf. In this episode, I...

186 trials. That is what it took to develop this plant-based barista drink from scratch. A clean label brief, no allergens, no seed oils, no stabilisers, and a client who knew exactly what she wanted. In this episode, I am pulling back the curtain on the entire journey. The technical challenges, the mistakes I made, the partners who completely let us down, and the intellectual property lesson ever...

What happens at Expo West in the US typically arrives in the UK two to three years later. Following the Food & Drink Expo at the NEC Birmingham, I am sharing the nine key trends from Expo West 2026 that will reshape our industry. In this episode, we explore why fibre is moving beyond gut health and how convenience is beginning to outweigh health claims for the busy consumer. We also dive into...

Imagine having a brilliant food or drink product and a genuinely good supplier or contract-manufacturer, yet spending months—and thousands of pounds—stuck in a loop of terrible samples. In this episode, I break down the story of two drink brands (one vegan supplement/protein and one marine collagen) that hit a wall despite doing everything "right." If you feel like you're burning tim...

Do you know how many of your customers actually come back and buy your food product again? Not roughly. Really. Because repeat purchase is the number that tells you the truth. Last week I spoke at the Nourish conference organised by the Tastebuds Collective, and I heard something that anchored what I think about what actually drives food and drink repeat purchase. Spoiler: it's not your packag...

You know your functional product has a taste challenge. The earthy notes, the bitterness, that lingering fishy aftertaste that just will not go away. You know it. But you are not quite sure where to start, or what a proper process even looks like. In this episode, I am taking you behind the scenes of exactly what happens when a functional food or drink brand brings me their product and says, this...

You have been going back and forth with your supplier or your contract manufacturer for months. You keep getting the samples, you do the testing, and every single time at the end of the tasting session you have things like, I don't know, I'm not sure, let's ask for more options. And you go back to square one again. This episode is about one of the main reasons your food or drink produc...

You had an amazing day at the market. People tried your product, they loved it, they told you it was brilliant. You drove home thinking, this is working. But here's the thing. Most food and drink founders in that exact moment never ask the one question that could completely change the way they see that day. In this episode, I am talking about something I see all the time with established food...

What if you could know exactly what's wrong with your food or drink product flavour, and exactly how to fix it, in just one week? No guessing. No months of back and forth with suppliers. Just clear, expert answers, fast. In this episode of The Food Lab Podcast, I'm taking you fully behind the scenes of the Flavour MOT, my expert flavour health check for established food and drink brands. I...

Is your food or drink product getting negative reviews about the taste? Are sales slowing down and you're not sure why? Or maybe you're about to pitch to retailers or investors and you just need to know, honestly, that your product is ready? As a flavour expert and food product development consultant, I meet food and drink brand owners in exactly this situation: at events, through my websi...

Here's a question that might make you uncomfortable: does your product actually taste the way you think it does? If you're a food and drink brand developing products, you've probably tasted your own product hundreds, maybe thousands of times. You know every version, every tweak, every ingredient change. You know the recipe inside out. But here's what I keep noticing with food and drink brands I sp...

You've done the trials. The product is really good. But you're not launching. Because what if it could be better? What if it's not perfect yet? Here's the truth: it will never be perfect. And waiting for perfection is keeping your product off shelves while your competitors are building their customer base. In this episode: Real client story: When personal preference nearly killed a...

Your product was perfect. Then suddenly it doesn't taste the same anymore. What happened?   Nine times out of ten, someone in your supply chain switched suppliers without telling your R&D team. Because "it's the same ingredient on paper." Except it's not.   In this episode: - Real client story: How a cocoa powder switch undid 6 months of development work in weeks - Why &q...

That "free flavour development" from your flavour house or contract manufacturer? It might be the most expensive decision you make. After working inside a flavour house, I'm sharing what really happens when smaller brands rely on free development, and why it often ends up costing thousands in wasted time, delayed launches, and underperforming products. In this episode: - The 5 hidden...

We spent months perfecting a clean-label plant-based product. No additives. No seed oils. No compromises. Then we booked a pilot plant run with a food scientist who, within minutes, tried to convince my client to add everything we'd worked to avoid. This is the story of what happened when traditional food science thinking clashed with clean-label values, and why we proved them completely wrong...

Pineapple is flavour of the year. Gochujang is trending. Functional ingredients are everywhere. But should you jump on these trends? Maybe. But only if they fit YOUR product base, brand, and consumers. Because chasing trends without strategy is how brands waste thousands launching products that flop. In this episode: • 7 major flavour and consumer trends shaping 2026 (from fermented flavours to he...

2025 has been a year of incredible learning, challenging projects, and some hard-won lessons about what really works when it comes to flavour strategy. And if you're a food and drink brand launching something new in 2026 or struggling with a product that's not performing, these insights might just save you months of back and forth. This year, I worked on some of the most challenging projec...