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Background
Based in Llanelli, Prima Foods have many years’ experience in manufacturing bakery mixes, home baking products and meal components. They have used their expertise to create an innovative range of Chef’s Promise gluten free bakery mixes.
Prima Foods have worked with ZERO2FIVE Food Industry Centre since 2011 on a number of technical projects. When the company opened a state-of- the-art, high-care gluten free cooking facility designed to produce components for the ready meal sector, they contacted ZERO2FIVE for support.
Support from ZERO2FIVE
ZERO2FIVE independently validated the installation of Prima’s new ovens and supported the company to establish a cooking and cooling profile for their new product range. This helped the company to ensure the safety and quality of the products.
Through ZERO2FIVE, Prima had access to a range of equipment including calibrated temperature loggers as well the expertise of food technologists who were able to analyse data to help the company write their cooking and cooling procedures.
A second project saw ZERO2FIVE carry out sensory evaluation of Prima’s new Chef’s Promise range of dry ingredient mixes. Using ZERO2FIVE’s sensory evaluation suite, Prima’s gluten-free mixes were benchmarked against a standard gluten-containing equivalent.
A consumer panel provided feedback on product quality, flavour, texture and appearance. Whilst a number of Prima’s products were the preferred samples, others were reformulated as result of the feedback before the recipes were finalised.
Benefits of the support
Since completing the project, Prima’s range of gluten-free mixes has grown to include 10 different savoury and sweet products which are Coeliac Society approved and sold online, in food service and business to business.
The mixes have also launched the next development in the company’s gluten free expansion by providing the base for gluten free “ready to bake” components which are being launched into Bidfood and include scones and vegan stuffing balls. By the end of 2019, turnover on gluten free products is expected to hit £500,000.
Peter Rice, Managing Director, Prima Foods:
“ZERO2FIVE has been the backbone of Prima Food’s technical development since 2011. Without their support, the business would have taken so much longer to fulfil the demands of becoming a second-tier supplier to multiple retailers and blue-chip businesses. Their impartial advice, collaborative staff development and the depth of support available, has allowed Prima to do what it does best with confidence and security.”
