Food manufacturers target innovation
10 Dec 2012
London – Over 30 major collaborative business-led food processing and manufacturing development projects have received more than £11 million worth of government funding.
The funding is intended to promote the development of new technologies and processes that will, for example, increase efficiency and reduce waste in the beef supply chain, increase bread manufacturing efficiency and sustainability and introduce more energy efficient air distribution systems for cooling food factories.
Including investment by the participating companies the total value of the projects is over £23 million.
The R&D to be funded through this programme will include:
- A project that aims to increase efficiency in processing and distribution, and reduce wastage, in the beef supply chain by improvements in eating quality, meat spoilage and increased shelf life, led by ABP Food Group. The project will adapt a participatory approach from retailer to primary production identifying critical control points which underlie waste.
- The development by Bakkavor Foods and their partners of an energy efficient food safe air distribution system for cooling food factories. They intend to develop innovative air distribution systems that make maintaining chilled conditions in food factories as efficient as possible, reducing energy wastage caused by unoccupied chilled space.
- Increasing bread manufacturing efficiency by adopting an innovative way of generating natural, functional raw materials from excess, food safe, dough and baked bread through a project to be led by Warburtons. They aim to cut the cost of bakery functional ingredients significantly, reduce bread and dough waste and, at the same time, reduce the environmental burden created by the manufacture and supply chain of these functional ingredients.
- New-Food Innovation’s project, which will focus on the innovative recovery and transformation of high value functional and textural ingredients from co-products arising from fresh fruit and vegetable processing streams, for incorporation into food products. The outcome of the project will demonstrate exploitation, rather than simple management of co-products, and will deliver direct commercial benefit.
