Food and drink processors in the north-west will be able to access free advice, facilities and services from Northwest Food and Drink Hub Enrich, which is launched this week.
The organisation will work in partnership with regional food group Food Northwest, Reaseheath College in Nantwich, Cheshire and the North West Rural Enterprise Gateway. It aims to offer guidance on the commercial, financial and technical aspects of food processing. This would include equipment for product development and shelf-life testing.
Alex Kilcoyne, who, as project manager, heads up Enrich, said: “We have access to dairy, bakery and ready meal facilities through Reaseheath College, which has a £1M programme to develop its foodhall.” Other areas of expertise available cover packaging and sustainability in food production. The college also plans to develop meat processing training facilities.
“Services are free of charge to businesses within the north-west and are open to businesses outside the north-west on a commercial basis,” said Kilcoyne. “We expect a lot of interest in Cheshire.”
She expected small to medium businesses to show the most interest, as larger firms often had their own R&D facilities. However, she said bigger companies were welcome to seek Enrich’s help as well. Several companies have already signed up, including Dairygold, which is developing a product to use in liquid cheese for automated quiche manufacturing and wants to roll it out to other products.
Enrich, which has a team of six full- and part-time staff, has been granted more than two years of funding from the North West Regional Development Agency to carry out its mission.