⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Click here to download The Flavour Blueprint⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, a free guide based on the process I use with my clients to fix underperforming food and drink products.

"Can you send me a few vanilla flavours?" If this is how you're briefing your flavour house, you're doing it wrong, and I'm telling you from experience because I've worked on both sides of this mess.

I've seen this exact problem again and again: when I worked in a flavour house, in the corporate food industry and now with my own clients.

Food and drink businesses ask for generic flavours with some iterations, but there's NO indication of flavour profile.

They let all the responsibility fall on the flavour house to decide which flavour profile is best for their product. And guess what? It doesn't work.

It creates hundreds of back and forth emails until you either give up, pick a flavour just because you have to, or completely cancel the product because you can't get the flavour right.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• What a flavour house actually is (and why flavourings are your friends)
• Why you lose SO much flavour through processing
• The real problem: when I worked in a flavour house, I'd receive requests for "strawberry flavour" and have to choose from hundreds of options in the flavour library - and that decision should NOT have been mine to make
• Why letting the flavour house decide your flavour profile is setting your product up to fail
• The exact information you need to give your flavour house to stop the endless back and forth (I'll tell you what to include in your spreadsheet)
• How this connects to my CREATE, CHOOSE, and FIX packages and why taking ownership of your flavour profile is non-negotiable
  

If you're working with flavour houses or contract manufacturers and getting nowhere with your product development, this episode will show you exactly how to brief them properly and take control of your flavour strategy.

If you found this episode helpful, leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review on whatever platform you're listening to this podcast. Your review genuinely helps this podcast grow and makes it more visible to other food and drink brands who are struggling with the same challenges you might be facing. 🙏

💌 ⁠Subscribe to my weekly newsletter⁠. Every week, I break down the biggest challenges in food and drink product development and show you exactly how to solve them. No fluff, just practical insights from real projects with real brands.

👋 I'm Manon Galizzi, a flavour expert and food scientist with 10+ years in the industry, including training at a flavour house and working with iconic brands like McVitie's, Yeo Valley, Burger King, and Jacob's. I founded EPICSI to help UK food and drink brands nail their flavour strategy and choose the best flavour profile, especially for challenging formulations.If your sales are declining due to taste complaints, I diagnose what's wrong and rebuild your flavour profile. If you're launching functional or plant-based products struggling with bitter, fishy, or earthy notes from marine collagen, plant proteins, or adaptogens, I help you choose flavours that actually mask or complement those notes.

I specialise in clean-label, additives-free, plant-based, and functional food product development.

Unlike generic flavour houses or co-manufacturers, I provide custom flavour language training, run extensive trials (up to 200 per project), and guide you through every tasting and decision.

Research shows flavour is the #1 driver of repeat purchase. Get it right, customers return. Get it wrong, they don't.

Each episode shares practical strategies for food and drink product development, flavour selection, and fixing products that aren't performing.

👋 Connect with me directly on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠YouTube⁠ or via my ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.