In-home testing. On video. In 1 week.

Real households cook, eat and store your product in their own kitchens. You know what to change before launch, not after.

A Wageningen University & Research spin-off

The problem

Why products that test well still fail.

Up to 75% of new food products are gone within two years.

Peer-reviewed estimates. Industry panels put it higher still.

What a failed launch costs

Six figures before the first sales report.

By the time the sales report says a product is failing, most of this is already spent.

Spent before launch
  • Development and pilot runs
  • First production run
  • Pack artwork and print
  • Listing fees and launch promotion
Added when it fails
  • Stock written off
  • Delisting, listing fee lost
  • Reformulation and relaunch
  • A harder next range review
Three reasons, and what we do about each

The in-home test takes 4 to 12 weeks

Too slow for most launch plans, so it gets skipped. The first real test is the launch itself.

With Eatpol

Brief to decision in one week. Early enough to change the recipe, the pack or the claim.

Surveys record what people remember

Ask someone a week later how they used it, and the details are gone.

With Eatpol

We film it as it happens: eaten standing at the counter, straight from the tub, half back in the fridge.

A score, not a direction

A liking score of 6.8 says it didn’t land. It doesn’t say whether the pack promised too much, the portion was wrong, or the prep took too long.

With Eatpol

We ask what people expect before it goes home, film what actually happens, and tell you what to change.

So this is how we do it.
How it works

Tell us what you need to decide. We do the rest.

Step 01 · You

Brief us

Tell us the product and what you need to decide. We design the study with you: the questions, the households, the timing.

Step 02 · Us

We run the study

We recruit households that match your shopper, ship the product, interview them before it arrives, and film them using it at home.

Step 03 · You

Get what to change

Days after the last clip: a short list of what to change and why, each point backed by a clip or a quote. Hand it to R&D or marketing as it is.

72 seconds
The platform

Ask what they expect. Watch what they do.

Vox interviews your target consumers before the product goes home: what they expect from the pack, the claims and the price. Domus films what they actually do with it. Studio brings the two together and tells you what to change.

A Vox interview on a tester’s phone: the AI moderator follows up on an answer Vox interview
Vox · before it goes home

Find out why people would buy it, or wouldn’t

An AI moderator interviews your target consumers on their own phone, by voice or text, about the concept, the pack, the claims and the price. It follows up on every answer, the way a researcher would.

Concept & pack Claims & price Purchase drivers
Day 4 · dinner
Domus · at home

From unpacking to leftovers, on video

Households film your product in their own kitchen: how they prepare it, when they eat it, who eats it, what gets thrown away. Recorded as it happens, not recalled afterwards.

Preparation & serving Portions & leftovers Repeat use
Eatpol Studio
Studio · after the test

What to change, and the clip that shows why

  1. Every interview and every clip from your study, in one place.
  2. Recommendations sorted by team, each linked to the quote or clip behind it.
  3. Ask a question in plain language. The answer comes from your own study, source attached.
Proof

What one week at home showed.

A Dutch chilled-food brand · 24 households · one week

We saw
A quick weekday bite, straight from the tub.
What it means
Convenience is what gets it eaten. Not health.
We recommended
Position it around weekday convenience.
Since then
An annual partner.

Traditional testing gave us a score, not a direction. Seeing how consumers actually use our products at home gave us insights we could act on.

Annick van de LaakCreative Concept Designer, QSTA
Privacy & ethics

How we handle your data.

Faces are masked automatically. Stored data is pseudonymised. Every study runs under GDPR.

Lawful basis

Consent-based collection with clear purposes, GDPR-compliant. Participants can opt out at any time.

Security

Encrypted storage, strict access controls, and time-bound retention. A DPA is available on request.

Transparency

Participants see what is collected, why, and how it is used. Read our Privacy Policy.

Good to know

Frequently asked.

What is the say-do gap?

The say-do gap is the distance between what consumers report in surveys, panels and focus groups and what they actually do with a product in their own home. People are not being dishonest. A survey simply asks them to predict their own behavior, and prediction is unreliable once a real kitchen, a real evening and a real price are involved. Peer-reviewed estimates put new food product failure at 50–75% within two years, and industry panels put it as high as 85%; decisions taken on stated intent are a large part of why. Eatpol closes the gap by recording what people really do with your product at home, so a go/no-go rests on observed behavior rather than stated intent.

How is privacy handled?

Faces are auto-masked in videos; we store de-identified signals only and comply with GDPR. All personal identifiers are removed from video footage, and test data is encrypted at rest. We provide a Data Processing Agreement (DPA) on request for enterprise clients. Testing participants can request deletion of their data at any time per GDPR Article 17 right-to-be-forgotten requirements. Our infrastructure meets international data protection standards.

Do we need special hardware?

No special hardware is required. Testers use their own smartphones (iOS or Android). We provide simple setup guidance directly inside the Eatpol app, and technical support is available throughout the test. The app is optimized for battery efficiency and does not require high-end devices. Any modern smartphone works. Most testers report setup takes fewer than 5 minutes.

How fast are results?

From kickoff to results in one week on average. Consumer interviews (Vox) and in-home product testing (Domus) run in parallel with recruitment. Results appear in your Eatpol Studio dashboard as soon as testing concludes, with AI-powered analysis and actionable insights ready for review.

Can we compare against competitors?

Yes, absolutely. You can include one or multiple competitor SKUs in your consumer test. We report relative performance metrics (purchase intent, emotional response, friction points) and identify key drivers of preference. Competitive benchmarking is useful for understanding market positioning and identifying product improvement opportunities relative to existing solutions in your category.

What if samples require cooking?

We capture all preparation and cooking steps as part of the test methodology. This allows us to connect consumer outcomes (satisfaction, purchase intent, friction) with real-world usage patterns. Our AI analyzes behavior during preparation (ease of use, time investment, any complications) and connects it to final product evaluation. This realistic context significantly improves predictive accuracy compared to pre-prepared samples in lab settings.