Introduction to New Product Development
Date: 11 March 2026
Time: 09:30 AM – 5:00 PM
Venue: Teagasc Food Research Centre, Ashtown, Dublin 15
Course fee: €450 per participant (€295 for those eligible for funding by Rural Food Skillnet)
Whether you are new to food innovation/new product development or want to improve your pipeline of innovative food products, this 1-day course will introduce you to a wide range of best practice methods and real life case studies.
Who is this training course designed for?
- Entrepreneurs and small food producers, wishing to build their knowledge in relation to food innovation and new product development.
- Food technologists, brand managers and development chefs working in the food & beverage processing sectors who have responsibility for, or involvement in, Innovation and/or new product development activities.
What will I learn if I attend?
- An overview of the typical New Product Development (NPD) process from idea generation to scale up to running production trials.
- What affects the shelf-life of food products, how to potentially extend shelf-life and how to instigate trials.
- The range of packaging solutions available.
- Overview of your regulatory and labelling responsibilities
- The nutritional and health claims you may be in a position to use for your products.
- Teagasc expertise and the analytical and scale up facilities available for use by food businesses.
- The experiences of a successful Food Entrepreneur in starting a new food business, developing innovative products and scaling their business and product offerings.
Format of the event
This interactive training course will be delivered using a mix of presentations, breakout and Q & A sessions. It will be facilitated by Teagasc NPD and Sensory experts, with further input from Teagasc Food Industry Development staff and the Food Safety Authority of Ireland. A successful food entrepreneur will also bring us through their business and product development journey.
Skillnet Ireland Eligibility
Skillnet Ireland funding IS available to private businesses including Sole traders based in the Republic of Ireland. Skillnet Ireland funding is NOT available to individuals or employees of public sector bodies or organisations that are publicly funded such as community-based not-for-profit companies or charities.
Data Protection and Data Processing
Skillnet Ireland and the Learning Network will comply with all applicable Data Protection Legislation in the processing of the information and personal data provided by you in this Form. To find out more about your rights, and how your data is processed, please see the Trainee Data Privacy Notice: https://ruralfoodskillnet.com/privacy/
Your privacy is of paramount importance to Teagasc, the Agriculture and Food Development Authority. Click below to view Teagasc Data Protection Policies.
- The presentations were relevant, structured and helpful. It was great to hear stories from other industries and to get casual anecdotal insights into how they do things.
- I liked the varied speakers who were very engaging and fun to listen to, with real life case studies and experiences
- The highlights for me were the interactiveness, group activities and visual aids
