Seniori-Sapuska Partners with VTT to Develop Food Products, Meals and Packages Tailored for Senior Consumers

The project creates new competitiveness for the Finnish food industry and food retail by producing understanding about the key factors determining the enjoyability of foods and meals and the usability of food packages among elderly consumers.

Jan 3 2012 --- Seniori-Sapuska project coodinated by VTT aims to improve dietary intake of elderly people of today as well as future seniors by defining concepts of enjoyable foods and meals in easy-to-use packages with convenient portion size. The development will be implemented with consumers by applying participatory design. The food concepts will be developed both for catering and retail sectors.

The project divides into two phases: determination of the criteria for appetising meals and user-friendly packages among elderly people, and definition of concepts of tailored senior foods, meals and packages for elderly consumers utilizing participatory design and sensory evaluation.

The project creates new competitiveness for the Finnish food industry and food retail by producing understanding about the key factors determining the enjoyability of foods and meals and the usability of food packages among elderly consumers. The results of the project will also enable the Finnish food industry to reach the markets of the neighbour countries through exporting senior-designed food products. Remarkable economic and ecological benefits will be achieved by rationalising the production processes. Valuable experience will be gained about applying consumer oriented design in the development of food concepts. The project creates novel co-operation networks between the project participants who represent extensively different aspects of food production. In general, well-being, active senior citizens generate less costs than diseased older consumers.

The project is financially supported by the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation Tekes. It is coordinated by VTT and carried out in collaboration with National Consumer Research Centre (NCRC) and Service Centre of Design and Media DF Ltd. The ten collaborating companies in Seniori-Sapuska represent food and packaging industry, catering services and market research.