New food centre will boost new product development
Food companies in Northern Ireland, especially smaller businesses and artisans, will benefit from a new £3 million Food Innovation Centre that will assist them in developing and preparing new products for consumers.
The new centre, located on the campus of the region's College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprises (CAFRE), offers state-of-the-art areas to stimulate and encourage creativity and idea generation within the food and drink sectors. The facilities include:
a large teaching kitchen for students;
an industrial style kitchen for use by client companies for new product development;
a computerised sensory analysis suite with dedicated preparation kitchen, 10 individual sensory analysis booths, group panel areas;
a packaging prototype design area;
conference and meeting facilities; and a
market intelligence / creativity room.
Innovation kitchens are provided to help participating companies to covert ideas to product concepts.
Additionally the building, which is in rural Cookstown in county Tyrone, has been designed with environmental sustainability in mind and features biomass heating, solar PV and rainwater harvesting systems.
The new building was opened by Agriculture minister Michelle O'Neill, who said: "The agri-food sector remains the most resilient part of our local economy, recording year-on-year growth at a time when other industries are falling behind.
"It is important that the sector is positioned to exploit market opportunities, supplying the right products at the right price and the right time. Food innovation is a key driver for growth of this area so this new state-of-the-art centre is essential in our drive for economic growth here.
"This superb facility will act as a catalyst to inspire Loughry students and provide our agri-food companies the opportunity to develop world class innovative products to meet the ever-changing demands of the consumer."
Food and drink is now Northern Ireland's biggest manufacturer, generating over £4.5 billion annually for the local economy.
The NPD work undertaken at the CAFRE innovation centre, will help to drive in this important sector. Food courses, up to degree level, delivered by CAFRE provide a highly skilled pool of potential employees and managers for local food and drinks processing businesses. CAFRE also provides a range of technical support services for food businesses and this includes the new Food Innovation Centre.
It has been jointly funded by Department of Agriculture and Rural Development for Northern Ireland and the Northern Ireland Executive's "Jobs for the Economy" initiative. It will act as a key "food hub" to facilitate enhanced co-operation between government, research institutions and industry, and contribute to DARD's commitment help drive the agri-food industry forward faster.
The new centre will complement longstanding facilities at the college which include a technology building and extensive incubation units that are already occupied by a range of smaller food companies including UK Great Taste award winner En Place Foods (UK).
The college also has a microbrewery that has stimulated the growth of craft ales in the region including Whitewater Bewing Company., another UK Great Taste award winner. It provides farmhouse cheese programmes which have led to the emergence of artisan cheese companies such as Fivemiletown, Dart Mountain and Kearney Blue. Furthermore, the college has assisted the development of farm diversification projects which have produced Glastry Farm Ice Cream and Clandeboye Estate, Northern Ireland's only yoghurt processor.