A three year research programme to sustainably extend the shelf life of chilled foods has attracted the highest possible score after evaluation by the government’s Advanced Food Manufacturing LINK Programme Management Committee (PMC). The £750k Sustainable Shelf Life Extension (SUSSLE) project was partly funded by CFA and brought together academics and industry to investigate the effects of heat processing on sporeforming pathogens, specifically non-proteolytic C. botulinum. The aim being to define a milder heat process than is currently recommended, ensuring a safe shelf life for prepared chilled foods whilst reducing energy usage. Outputs from SUSSLE will remain confidential until April […]

The chilled prepared food sector has delivered 21.4% energy reduction against an agreed target of 13.2% during the life of the Climate Change Agreement thus helping some other sectors under the FDF umbrella to meet their targets. Given the sector is a large consumer of energy this represents significant savings and a major contribution to the Governnment and the food industry climate change mitigation programme. Although the sector’s growth has some part to play we believe that chilled food manufacturers have at significant cost to their business made real and tangible changes in the way energy is consumed which has resulted in […]

Seven teachers from Northants and Leicestershire were the latest group to get a glimpse behind the scenes of the chilled food sector. They visited one of the region’s largest food manufacturers they are already taking that knowledge back to the classroom to inspire budding food scientists of the future. The visit, to Samworth Brothers’ Melton Foods, saw teachers tour the factory floor and meet the teams responsible for producing for up to a million sandwiches a week on the site. They heard about food hygiene, storage and how new products are developed, giving them an insight into this fast moving […]