Cereal firms innovative approach earns reward
Cereal firms innovative approach earns reward
By Simon Wragg
NOVEL products which will boost demand for British cereals received a healthy cash injection at the recent 1999 Enterprise Awards, sponsored by the Home-Grown Cereals Authority, the Meat and Livestock Comm-ission and Food from Britain.
The biggest cheque, for £25,000 of HGCA money, went to AB Specialist Breads to help them develop export markets for sandwich breads after huge growth in the UK.
The cash will help establish links with EU retailing groups, said AB technical sales manager Janice Tyne. "We need to know how they use the product and how they would like it to be presented," she said.
The largest MLC award -almost £21,500 – went to Lincs-based Grasmere Farms, which produces air-dried pork products.
It is looking to develop and rear pigs to 95kg, 20% bigger than normal, to generate larger bacon rashers which offset shrinkage that occurs during the curing process.
According to Grasmeres proprietor Stuart Stables, it will help open up catering markets to a full range of products including hams, sausage and savoury pork snacks.
A total of 16 companies were rewarded out of an initial entry of 56, said Meurig Raymond, chairman of the HGCAs British Cereals Products. *