HEALTHIER SMOOTHIES ARE FREE FROM DAIRY AND CHOLESTEROL

Healthier smoothies will be launched by Northern Ireland food industry newcomer Jackaboo at the Caffe Culture show in London's Earls Court. The creamy drinks, which are made from fruit purees, offer a range of health benefits, particularly for children and young people, from features that include being free from dairy and cholesterol, no added sugar and a very low fat content. The rich creamy taste has been achieved from the use of organic, brown, wholegrain rice. The smoothies are produced in 250g prism tetrapacks, marketed in packs of three, which are recyclable. To encourage this, each pack carries the legend ???Drink me, then recycle me'. The new smoothies are currently available in two tasty flavours, strawberry and raspberry and mango and orange. A further five drinks are currently being developed by the company which has outsourced production to a major beverage business in Wales. A completely natural product, Jackaboo Smoothies, have been developed by entrepreneur Cathy Smyth, a landscape designer by profession, using a food incubator kitchen at Loughry College in Northern Ireland. ???Jackaboo is the result of a search by me for a dairy-free product that I could enjoy. I can't take dairy products,??? she says. ???I couldn't find any smoothies that I could take and decided to see if I could find a solution to what was clearly a market opportunity. As I also didn't like soya, I started looking for alternatives. ???I came up with the idea of blending organic rice with the fruit puree to provide the creamy taste. Food technicians at Loughry provided invaluable advice on the development of the smoothies. ???Our objective was to take the moo out of smoothie??¦and we've managed to achieve this after almost five years of research and product trialling. ???To get essential feedback, I sold the initial products at farmers' markets in Northern Ireland. The response was extremely encouraging, and I decided to push ahead with the development of the drinks and in creating a distinctive brand. The smoothies are sold from chilled cabinets and ambient displays and have a shelf-life of six months.