ABSTRACT
A distinction between customer as one who buys a product to be used and ultimately consumed by a consumer has relevance in the ingredient industry. Customer and consumer may be one and the same, for example, the chef or cook in a restaurant purchases a product and then uses it (adds value to it; is, in effect, a consumer) to produce a new menu item that is then purchased by another customer (the diner). In the ingredient industry, the customer and consumer roles are often blurred, and the needs of each in the chain must be identified for a series of new products to be developed. The chain can be very long.
