Despite the successful involvement of suppliers in Product Development Processes (PDP), many companies still find it difficult to manage this involvement. One of the critical points is that such companies fail to clearly define their PDP and strategies in order to encourage supplier involvement. Consequently, there is no clear idea of how and when suppliers should be involved in PDPs. The purpose of this paper is to assess supplier involvement in the product development process based on a reference model for food products development. The model evaluated here involves some concern with supplier involvement in “know-how”, reviewing the literature on supplier involvement in PDP to date.