New premium smoked meats from Northern Ireland specialist

An initial three-strong range of premium smoked meats has been developed for retail by a leading artisan smokehouse in Northern Ireland.

The sliced meats have been produced by Meadow Farm Quality Foods in county Armagh under the new Orchard Smokehouse brand and feature premium chicken, gammon and duck. The attractive window packs are available in 125g for chicken and gammon at £2.75 with the 100g duck at £3.75.

All the products are naturally smoked using traditional artisan techniques over beech and oak chips. Orchard Smokehouse, in addition to the first three smoked meats, has other products in the pipeline.

Meadow Farm is a successful supplier of a very broad range of quality smoked meats for foodservice, especially high-end restaurants and hotels, in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

The Meadow Farm and the new Orchard Smokehouse smoked meats are all free from gluten, dairy and wheat and ready to eat, hot and cold.

The quality conscious Meadow Farm business, established in 2009, has two separate smokers and a modern processing unit. It currently employs five people.

"The decision to develop the new retail range is the result of the outstanding success of our foodservice smoked products and approaches from customers who have enjoyed them in hotels and restaurants," says Frank Foster, who has vast experience in food production, especially beef and lamb, with leading processors.

The new products are the outcome of extensive market research to pinpoint opportunities in the UK and Ireland.

Mr Foster runs the farm-based smokery business with Martin Rafferty, a cattle farmer, butcher and the main smoker, on a 60 acre cattle farm. Mr Foster also runs his own cattle farm on 50 acres near Loughgall in county Armagh.

"The new Orchard Smokehouse brand has just been launched and has already won business in Northern Ireland and in Dublin with specialist retailers especially top delis, a target market for our products.

"We've also achieved SALSA accreditation which should be extremely beneficial as we seek to expand retail sales throughout Ireland and in Great Britain, an important market for us going forward," Mr Foster continues.