Gluten-free cookies
Manufacturing
It's one thing to bake cookies in the controlled environment of a test kitchen, but a successful formulation must work under commercial baking conditions. In this case, Grace had to be doubly sure that her formulation was robust enough for manufacture because a contract manufacturer would be used to produce the cookies – the Cookie Time plant is not certified gluten-free.
Research suggests that for people with Coeliac disease the maximum safe level of gluten in a finished product is probably less that 0.02% (200 parts per million) and possibly as little as 0.002% (20 parts per million). At those levels, even a tiny amount of wheat flour can cross-contaminate a gluten-free product. Many foods contain gluten, but do not indicate it in their ingredient list, because gluten is not in the formulation of the product, but is used during the preparation (or manufacture) of some of the listed ingredients. An example of this is the use of wheat flour to dust conveyor belts in production facilities to prevent food from sticking to them during processing. The definition of gluten-free varies from country to country, but in New Zealand it means the product is free of gluten.
Using a contract manufacturer involved several risks, Lincoln Booth says, and the decision wasn't taken lightly. Grace's research had produced valuable intellectual property (IP). Using a contract manufacturer exposed this IP to theft and imitation. Although the company went to some lengths to protect its investment, Cookie Time figured that even if another company did coat-tail on its research and produced a similar product, the imitators wouldn't have the brand strength to capitalise fully on it. (Cookie Time's dominance of the big cookie market hasn't gone unchallenged. Around 20 companies, including Griffins and Ernest Adams, have produced similar but not identical products, and in 1996 pirated cookies in almost identical packaging to Cookie Time's appeared in Hong Kong.)
Besides risking IP loss and imposing additional costs, the decision to partner-up with a third party manufacturer involved relinquishing full control over product quality. Initially, Grace spent a lot of time on-site fine-tuning the manufacturing process. This involved some modifications to the plant. Grace also had to ensure the contractors understood and followed ("to the letter") all the manufacturing processes she had designed. The most critical steps involved mixing and depositing; the battering, pressing and cooling times also needed close attention. With the Cookie Time brand at stake, Grace had to stand firm on quality.
