Cooking instructions: meeting changing consumer and retailer expectations
November 10, 2026
From air fryers becoming a kitchen staple to evolving retailer requirements, the landscape for cooking instructions is changing rapidly. For food manufacturers, that means ensuring on-pack instructions remain accurate, compliant and aligned with how consumers prepare food at home.
To help clients meet these challenges, Leatherhead Food Research has invested in new equipment, enhanced reporting capabilities and streamlined processes across its UKAS-accredited Cooking Instructions laboratory (No. 9365). These enhancements support cooking instruction generation and verification across a range of appliances and cooking methods, helping manufacturers develop effective instructions and deliver the best possible consumer experience.
Detailed in-cook temperature data for greater confidence
When developing or validating cooking instructions, understanding how a product behaves throughout the cooking process can be just as important as the final result.
Leatherhead’s upgraded in-cook logging technology now records food temperatures every second during oven and microwave cooking. Using thermal loggers in ovens and fibre-optic probes in microwaves, the team can provide clients with detailed temperature profiles, graphs and supporting data to help optimise cooking instructions and demonstrate compliance with retailer requirements.
“Using in-cook loggers is often preferred by retailers because they provide more detailed evidence of product performance throughout the cooking process,” says Cooking Instructions Laboratory Supervisor Natalie Carter.
The additional data can also help identify opportunities to optimise cooking times while maintaining food safety and delivering the best possible eating experience.
From 2027, Leatherhead will expand its in-cook temperature monitoring capabilities beyond oven and microwave cooking to include air fryer, grill and hob techniques, giving manufacturers access to more detailed temperature data across a wider range of cooking methods. UKAS accreditation applies to in-cook oven monitoring only.
Post-cook photography to support cooking instruction validation
Appearance is an important part of validating cooking instructions. Clients can now receive professional, standardised post-cook photographs alongside their reports.
Captured in dedicated photo boxes with consistent lighting and backgrounds, the images provide a clear representation of the cooked product, helping manufacturers evaluate appearance, colour and presentation against internal expectations and consumer appeal.
Supporting the way consumers cook today
As air fryers become increasingly common in UK households, many retailers and manufacturers are looking to include air fryer cooking instructions alongside traditional oven and microwave guidance.
Leatherhead has expanded its range of domestic cooking equipment to include 7.2L, 7.5L & 10.4L air fryers alongside small- to mid-size models. This enables the team to generate and verify air fryer cooking instructions across a broader range of appliance capacities, including those suited to larger family meals, helping ensure instructions reflect the appliances consumers have in their homes.
The laboratory has also refreshed a range of cooking utensils and equipment as part of its ongoing commitment to delivering realistic, consumer-focused testing conditions.
“The larger pans are particularly useful for poultry products,” explains Cooking Instructions Laboratory Manager Tina Mistry (pictured left). “We’ve selected recognised household brands to ensure the cooking environment closely reflects what consumers are using at home.”
Making projects easier to start
Following client feedback, Leatherhead has updated its booking forms to make project initiation simpler, quicker and more transparent.
The forms capture key information from the outset, including retailer requirements, cooking methods and delivery expectations. This helps the team understand project objectives from day one and provide accurate quotations efficiently.
Understanding retailer requirements early in the process is particularly valuable. Through longstanding relationships with leading food retailers, our Cooking Instructions team has extensive experience of retailer-specific protocols and can help align cooking instructions with individual retailer expectations where required.
Dedicated project support
Clients also benefit from a dedicated project manager, providing a consistent point of contact throughout their project. This personalised approach helps the team understand individual requirements and provide tailored support, particularly for larger product launches.
Investing in efficiency to support clients
Demand for cooking instruction generation and verification remains high, making efficient project delivery essential.
Regular training keeps staff up to date with testing methodologies, sensory assessment techniques and reporting requirements. The team has also recently received training on the use of AI technologies to improve efficiency while maintaining quality standards and protecting client confidentiality.
Improved project tracking and workload management also give the team greater visibility of laboratory capacity, helping Leatherhead accommodate standard, express and priority projects wherever possible and support manufacturers facing tight commercial deadlines.
Ready to optimise your cooking instructions?
Whether you’re launching a new product, updating existing packaging or adding air fryer guidance, accurate cooking instructions are essential for meeting retailer requirements and delivering a positive consumer experience.
Leatherhead’s UKAS-accredited Cooking Instructions testing provides both generation and verification services, helping manufacturers develop clear, compliant and consumer-friendly instructions across a range of cooking appliances.
See our in-cook temperature monitoring in action
See how in-cook temperature monitoring provides detailed data on product performance throughout the cooking process, helping food manufacturers develop and validate effective cooking instructions.
Talk to our team to discover how in-cook monitoring could support your products.
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