Researchers perked up over the prototype for a pet snack that would take longer than 10 seconds for a dog to devour. The Meaty Bone Chew-Lotta, as they named the treat, lasted 20 minutes, meaning a pooch might still be busily gnawing away while his owner walked out the door.

"Not only does the pet like it, but it fits the owner's emotional needs," said Susan Shields, vice president for marketing initiatives at Del Monte Foods Co., which launched the bone-shaped treats last summer. A new version to help clean dogs' teeth will roll out soon.

Del Monte needs a steady supply of fresh ideas to stay competitive and deliver the kind of growth that Wall Street investors demand. In its most recent quarter, the company reported a 6.2 percent bump in net sales, driven by a combination of new product introductions, increased marketing and higher prices.

With rising costs of raw materials cutting into profits, the pressure is on to come up with new products, and Del Monte's appetite for innovation seems insatiable. Around 100 new items were rolled out in fiscal 2004 and fiscal 2005, and more are coming.

Del Monte invested $20.1 million in research and development in fiscal 2004. It's now immersed in the tricky process of nurturing bureaucratic structures companywide to tease out even wacky ideas and sift out the gems.

Rich Rothamel, a longtime research official with Pittsburgh's H.J. Heinz Co., came to San Francisco-based Del Monte when it acquired several divisions from Heinz. He was given responsibility last summer over all of Del Monte's research and quality systems. Shields, who was with Del Monte before the acquisition, now coordinates new marketing initiatives companywide.

Interviews are under way to hire more scientists, including ones who would become part of the soup, baby food and StarKist tuna research teams that employ between 20 and 30 people in Del Monte's North Side offices. Rothamel is based in Pittsburgh, too.

One technique that Rothamel has taken companywide is the "innovation table," which produced the Chew-Lotta treats. It allows researchers to get free time a couple of times every year to develop their own ideas and build prototypes. All the samples are brought together on a table, or more likely several tables, to be puzzled over by other researchers, marketing staff and various company executives.

Ideas can come from anywhere. Rothamel remembers that the ideas for Pup-Peroni NawSomes! treats came from understanding how licorice was made. Candy makers use machines to automatically twist the sticky candy. For the dog treats, that same technology wove together two flavors and two colors.

Numerous veteran product developers for Del Monte work on the staff, and many have experience at big consumer-package goods companies such as Kraft, Nestle and Ralston Purina. Competition for new products is intense; Del Monte recently was ordered to pay $3.6 million in a lawsuit that was initially brought against Heinz alleging a technology in some of its pet treats infringed on a Kal Kan Food patent. Del Monte is considering an appeal.

Innovation tables had been used in some Del Monte divisions before, but the company has taken them across all its product lines and even begun assembling teams that mix different groups. The StarKist tuna staff, based in Pittsburgh, may take a look at the vegetable lines that are usually developed by California staffers. Pet food researchers could bring a different view to bear on soup.

The marketing initiatives staff also researches how consumers use the products in their homes. Health and wellness issues have been important for a while, Shields said, as have consumers' growing taste for certain ethnic flavors.

Ideas that get sufficient support lead to concept development research, consumer studies and economic analysis. A new baby food flavor might test well, but Del Monte wants to know if it would reach a large enough audience to be profitable.

"You try to get from blue sky to very tangible," said Shields. Only half or fewer of the original ideas on the innovation tables eventually make it to the last step of the vetting process. "We have a pretty high percentage," Rothamel said, but even then the company may not go ahead with the product because it is too expensive to manufacture or too far outside its established lines.

For really big ideas, officials are creating a new ventures team. If the pet food team needs outside resources to make something work, for example, the new ventures team might recommend the investment.

The new team could even decide Del Monte should plunge into a new department at the grocery store.

Not all of Del Monte's research happens in labs and marketing offices. About a year ago, the staff put together a database of Del Monte employees, including those of the 1,200 who work on the North Side, willing to take home new products and offer new Chew-Lotta treats to their pets or give their babies a preview of new infant foods.