Connecting science and well-being

An egg is an absolute commodity product that is primarily price-driven. In this respect, the partners in this project went in search of innovative product-market combinations as a differentiation strategy. Market research showed that less people are eating breakfast and more people are eating on the go. In order to still be able to serve an egg, preferably also soft-boiled, a method had to be found that would enable an egg to be quickly and easily boiled.

 

Innovation vouchers received from SenterNovem were used in 2006 to ask Philips Research the explicit question of 'Whether it is possible to obtain a soft-boiled egg within 1 to 2 minutes using a conventional method’. As the ‘proof-of-principle’ showed that this is possible, we wish to continue the research in this project towards developing a prototype.

 

An important objective of this project is to investigate the exact packaging requirements and levels of energy that need to be set, and subsequently selecting which materials meet these requirements and demonstrating that it actually works in practice and is reproducible.

 

The method that is used to optimally cook a soft-boiled egg can also be used with a minimal amount of energy to optimally cook an egg that is hard enough to ensure that it is safe to eat whilst also retaining flavour, smell and structure.

 

A special selection procedure will ensure that eggs will be used that are guaranteed fresh and of a high quality. Furthermore, functional packaging will be developed to ensure that the egg can be cooked quickly, easily and completely according to the consumer’s wishes.