EasiYo Products began producing a unique yoghurt-making system in 1992, a product so successful that that the company began selling overseas the following year. Over the years, other products have been added to the yoghurt line and the company now exports 75% of what it manufactures.

Focus points include:

Characteristics of Technology Level 3/4
Develop an understanding of :

• how society and environments impact on and are influenced by technology in historical and contemporary contexts; and
• how technology draws on a wide range of disciplines.

Technological Products Level 3/4
Develop an understanding of:

• the relationship between materials used and their performance properties in technological products; and
• how materials can be manipulated and transformed to enhance the fitness for purpose of a technological product

Discuss how social and environmental issues could have influenced EasiYo's decision making about:

• what should be made and why;
• how planning should be done;
• what resources should be used;
• how materials could be manipulated and tested;
• how outcomes should be evaluated;
• the manufacturing process to be used.

Identify and discuss the range of knowledge and skills involved in new product development in the dairy industry

Discuss the subjective and objective measurement of performance properties of the materials used in new product development in the yoghurt industry and how these properties combine to make the products both technically feasible and socially acceptable.

Discuss the terms

• formulate
• manipulate
• transform

in relation to new product development in the dairy industry

Websites:

• EasiYo website
• Westland Milk Products website
• NZISFT food science experiments

Video clips

• Westland Milk Products factory tour

• BBC - marketing yoghurt(58 mins)
• How It's Made: yoghurt (4.5 mins)