Beer Battered Chips from Northern Ireland's Mash Direct

Mash Direct, the Northern Irish specialist in convenience foods, has launched Beer Battered Chips.

The company, based on a family farm at Comber in county Down, has been at the forefront of the development of healthy and convenient vegetable side-dishes such as: mashed potato, champ and carrot and parsnip mash, over the past 13 years. The new product, believed to be the first of its kind, has been launched initially in Northern Ireland.

Director Jack Hamilton, explaining the reasoning behind the new beer battered chips, says: "People have always asked us, 'Why don't you do chips?'. It is a company policy of ours not to have any red traffic lights on any of our products and so we wanted to make a chip that was crispy on the outside and light and fluffy on the inside without having a high fat content.

"By creating a gluten-free, beer batter to lightly coat the potatoes, we are able to create an innovative chip that's completely different from others available in the market place and still stay true to our roots.

"These unique chips have been years in the making and we are proud to have waited so long to bring them to market because we think they are perfect!"

The new beer-battered chips from Mash Direct are the only fresh product of its kind available on supermarket shelves and have an oven cooking time of just 20 minutes.

They are made with the same award-winning potatoes and join the more than 40 products in the Mash Direct range. The range includes 19 which have won Great Taste Awards.

Mash Direct also teamed up a local craft brewery, Knockout Brewing Company in Belfast, to provide its Irish Red Ale, a gluten-free beer in the development of the innovative product.

Mash Direct's Beer-Battered Chips are available to buy in Northern Ireland in Spar, Eurospar, Centra, Mace, Vivo and SuperValu at £1.99.

Mash Direct is an independent, family owned farming and food production enterprise launched by Martin and Tracy Hamilton in 2004 at their family farm.

The award winning company is the market leader in quality, convenient 'field to fork' vegetable and potato dishes ranging from traditional accompaniments of mashed potato and champ to complete ready-meals.

The company were named Company of the Year at the Food Manufacture Excellence Awards 2016 and won the SIAL Gold Innovation Award in the Middle East for their Crispy Vegetable Bakes, a first international award for the company.

With a total of 19 Great Taste Awards to date, the award-winning Mash Direct range can be found in Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda, Supervalu, Spar, Eurospar, Mace, Vivo, Coop as well as other independent stores.