Reference no: EM132919913

Question - SUNY College Coffee (SCC) offers Regular and Specialty coffee by blending Brazilian, Colombian and Kenyan coffee beans. The data on the amount of caffeine and procurement cost of each type of coffee bean per ounce is provided in "Problem 3" sheet. SCC sells Regular and Specialty coffee in bags of (exactly) 16 and 12 ounces, respectively.

The amount of caffeine in each bag of Regular coffee must be below 235 mg and for Specialty coffee, that limit is 155 mg.

A Regular coffee bag is required to contain at least 5 oz. of Brazilian and 5 oz. of Colombian beans. A Specialty bag contains at least 6 oz. of Kenyan but no more than 4 oz. of Brazilian. Due to potential supply shortages from Brazil, the amount of Brazilian beans in a Regular bag must not be more than 80% of the amount of Brazilian beans used in a Regular and a Specialty bag in total. SCC would like to find the right mix of coffee beans for each Regular and Specialty bag to minimize the total cost.

1. Find the optimal product compositions. What is the total cost associated with the optimal mix (in a two-decimal format)?

2. Some consumers have recently become concerned about their sodium intake. So, SCC is planning on incorporating a requirement for each bag of Specialty coffee to contain no more than a certain amount of sodium. During a late Zoom meeting, a couple of SCC executives stated that, all else staying the same, limiting the sodium amount might actually lower the total cost. What do you think of their statement? Clearly mention one of the following and briefly explain your answer.