When a new product answers consumer needs and expectations, the chance for profitability of the launch improves. Still, many success-killing challenges doom even the most shrewdly conceived and executed product. At the end of 2011, Prepared Foods conducted its “Prepared Foods’ 2012 R&D Trends Survey: Functional Foods and Beverages.” It involved the polling of product developers at food, beverage and dietary supplement manufacturers to determine what these industry insiders had to say about challenges facing the functional foods segment. Additionally, Prepared Foods investigated attitudes towards ingredients commonly used in the formulation of these products.