Doug Turner Food Processors wishes to introduce a new brand of dog biscuits composed of chicken- and liver-flavored biscuits that meet certain nutritional requirements. The liver- flavored biscuits contain 1 unit of nutrient A and 2 units of nutrient B; the chicken- flavored biscuits contain 1 unit of nutrient A and 4 units of nutrient B. According to federal requirements, there must be at least 40 units of nutrient A and 60 units of nutrient B in a package of the new mix. In addition, the company has decided that there can be no more than 15 liver- flavored biscuits in a package. If it costs 1¢ to make 1 liver- flavored biscuit and 2¢ to make 1 chicken- flavored, what is the optimal product mix for a package of the biscuits to minimize the firm’s cost?
a) Formulate this as a linear programming problem.
b) Solve this problem graphically, giving the optimal values of all variables.
c) What is the total cost of a package of dog biscuits using the optimal mix?