Spirit of Innovation Awards for product development teams: the 2008 Spirit of Innovation Awards resulted in a dessert, several entrees and even a probiotic wellness bar vying for the top spots in their respective categories. As impressive as the products are, though, it is important to remember the importance of teamwork in innovation, which is what the Spirit of Innovation Awards serve to recognize

Prepared Foods, Oct, 2008 by William A. Roberts, Jr.

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This year's Spirit of Innovation Awards feature a diverse array of products--and an equally diverse range of teams and approaches to development. On the Retail side, Kraft Foods' developers envisioned pizza on an entirely new form of crust, while Tyson Foods took several years and countless hours of teamwork to create an authentically ethnic Foodservice winner.

On the Rise

Spirit of Innovation Award-Retail Winner: Kraft Foods for DiGiorno Ultimate Focaccia

More than a decade ago, developers at Kraft Foods virtually reinvented the frozen pizza category with the introduction of rising crust technology and the DiGiorno line. The company's developers have not rested on those laurels, however, and have continued to augment the segment with new interpretations and varieties. Their latest endeavor would take frozen pizza crust into an entirely new area.

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The DiGiorno Ultimate Focaccia Crust Pizza was the result, combining two Italian favorites: classic pizzeria-style pizza and traditional Italian bread into what the company describes as an entirely new pizza-eating experience.

As Sherren Harter, senior associate brand manager of DiGiorno Pizza, explains, "We developed DiGiorno Ultimate Focaccia--the first of its kind in the frozen pizza category--to provide consumers with a new option to buy restaurant-quality, super-premium pizza in their grocery store and enjoy at home. DiGiomo Ultimate Focaccia offers a unique focaccia bread crust and more sophisticated flavor combinations, and we expect this innovative product to help grow the frozen pizza category."

The entire concept started with that focaccia crust. "Traditional focaccia bread is a flat, Italian bread made with olive oil that is often topped with herbs or other items, which has experienced a resurgence, as premium, artisan breads area growing trend in restaurants," notes Sydney Pham, scientist with Kraft Foods. "Inspired by this trend in artisan breads, the team created a thick, light and airy crust that is crispy on the outside and soft and bread-like on the inside."

"One of the biggest challenges was to deliver a true focaccia texture for the crust dough," recalls Paul Mankowski, associate director of Research, Development and Quality with Kraft's Pizza division, "which we solved by using proprietary Kraft technologies. Another key challenge was delivering the product in the short timeline. This was achieved through project management best practices of pilot plant development, followed by scale-up to the manufacturing facility."

Extra virgin olive oil, a blend of cheeses and Italian herbs are mixed into the dough, which is baked and topped with additional Italian herbs and cheeses. However, developers focused on more than the crust; they also added more flavor to the pizza, through the addition of a seasoning blend to top the crust, which is specially selected to compliment the toppings of each pizza variety. The line launched in March 2008 in four varieties: Supreme with Roasted Vegetables is atop a Parmesan focaccia crust, while the Meat Trio's crust is topped with roasted garlic; Four Cheese has a sun-dried tomato and basil crust, and Pepperoni with Spicy Red Pepper Flakes sits atop an Asiago focaccia crust. To further the premium positioning, Kraft developers topped the pizza with such premium ingredients as a sauce made with crushed, vine-ripened tomatoes, whole-milk mozzarella cheese, fire-roasted vegetables and applewood smoked bacon.

"The unique, flavored crust and super-premium ingredients," Harter relates, "were key elements of the initial pizza concept and were a part of the product's design from the very beginning. The Kraft Pizza Company goal was to create a pizza with the highest quality ingredients and sophisticated flavor profiles."

However, Kraft's developers wanted to deliver a dual eating experience. They wanted the consumer to enjoy the pizza and the experience of focaccia bread. Therefore, they opted to allow for a wider rim: sauces and toppings extend no further than one inch from the edge.

This crust, obviously, was crucial to the project, as evidenced by the fact that the team would not compromise time on its development. They worked to get the crust right first, before moving on to flavors and toppings, even though this required compressing some time at the back-end of the development to meet the aggressive timeline. "Consumer Insights conducted consumer research with prototypes early in the process," Pham recalls, "to help guide product development. Key decision makers were identified early, and key meetings were limited to decision-makers, to fast-track approvals. Plus, the team supplemented consumer learning with collective judgment and experience to make quick decisions."

Pham notes the efficiency, effectiveness and innovation of the Focaccia Crust Pizza team were unprecedented at Kraft. "Product formulation, packaging design and processing specifications were finalized and approved in three months from the day of receiving the concept, and the finished product was on shelves less than a year after initial conception. This speed to market was achieved through a systematic development approach, identified early in the project, that focused on flawless execution, proactive contingency planning and adaptability."