Patchwork Foods
Having received funding from Project HELIX, Patchwork Foods approached the Food Technology Centre for assistance to extend the product life of their chicken liver pâté and for product testing on a large range of chutneys, jams, relishes and marmalades.
BACKGROUND
Patchwork Foods was established in 1982 by Margaret Carter, a talented, although untrained, home cook, who found herself divorced with three children to look after.
With a start-up cost of just £9.00, saved from the housekeeping, she began selling her home made pâtés to pubs in nearby Llangollen.
As Margaret attracted more and more customers and the business successfully started to expand she moved the business from her house in 1987 to a purpose-equipped factory in the heart of Ruthin and branched out into jams, chutneys and dips too.
Despite the commercial scale today, everything is still hand-made in small batches, without artificial colouring, additives or preservatives, to Margaret's original recipes.
The company is now BRC accredited and has a constant innovation pipeline which is available to chefs as well as developing bespoke products for companies.
SUPPORT RECEIVED FROM FOOD TECHNOLOGY CENTRE
Having received funding from Project HELIX, Patchwork Foods approached the Food Technology Centre for assistance to extend the product life of their chicken liver pâté and for product testing on a large range of chutneys, jams, relishes and marmalades.
Micro testing took place as well as assessment on the quality standards, such as free fatty acid and peroxide values. The Food Technologist also carried out visual shelf life assessment on the pâté.
As part of this support the client received numerous shelf life assessments as well as water activity, salt, pH, moisture content and salt in the aqueous phase.
BENEFITS OF THE SUPPORT
Steven Prys Williams, Food Technologist said,
I believe the speed and response that the customer received was vital for the business as well as the direct contact to carry out knowledge transfer with regards to solutions and controls.
Rufus Carter, Managing Director of Patchwork Traditional Food Company said,
The help and assistance we received from the Food Technology Centre was invaluable. Our project to extend the product life of our chicken liver pâté was crucial to secure a large contract with a pub group supplying over 30 establishments. We needed to reassure our customer quickly in order to secure the deal. The information and all the documentation we received from the centre was fantastic and without their help we wouldn't have been able to win the contract.
