Hawkeyes for quality: AE has an "eye" for developing products that please consumers. (Anderson Erickson Diary Co.)(includes related article) (1993 Processor of the Year) (Cover Story)

"During the last several years, new product development throughout the dairy industry concentrated on what you can take out--fat, sugar and cholesterol. The new focus will be on what you can put in," envisions David Bush, general manager of AE Farms Inc., the frozen division of Anderson Erickson Dairy.

What exactly does Bush intend? A good example is the Healthy All Over! brand, currently associated with a version of AE's skim milk. This product has two cultures, acidophilus and bifidus, added to the pasteurized milk. These cultures, known for their favorable impact on the digestive system, contribute to the value of what would be plain skim milk. Bush explains that in order for a dairy the size of AE to introduce new items, it must be innovative. It must "put in" unique ingredients to catch consumers' attention, i.e. cookie dough, carrot cake pieces, digestive enzymes and cultures.

BRINGING NEW PRODUCTS TO MARKET

Successful new product introductions have relied mostly on the luck-of-the-draw for AE in the past years. With no R&D department and a minimal market research budget, new product concepts…