Morelli’s, the UK champion ice cream producer, has launched two dairy free ice cream flavours that are also suitable for vegans.

Morelli’s, a Food NI company, has just introduced chocolate and strawberry flavours under the new Libero brand for its dairy free and vegan ice cream products. The company, which is based in Coleraine, has also introduced milk shakes made using soya milk.

The family owned and managed business has been named the UK’s leading ice cream producer by industry body the Ice Cream Alliance (ICA).

The business was established in Northern Ireland in 1911. Since then, the company has developed the dairy free ice cream flavours to meet the growing demand for allergy free products.

Sales and marketing director Daniela Morelli-Kerr says: “The new dairy free flavours are the result of extensive research and product development. It’s probably the most challenging new product development we’ve undertaken. We’ve been approached over many years for a dairy free ice cream. We had, of course, to find a way of replacing the milk with ingredients that maintained the creaminess and flavour long associated with Morelli’s ice cream. We settled on a base of healthy coconut oil to replace the milk. Feedback from our taste panels has been very encouraging about the creaminess and flavours of the new products and given us the confidence to launch the ice cream under the new Libero brand.” Daniela adds.

The company, which employs 20 people at Coleraine, has been working on the dairy free ice cream with its suppliers of ingredients for the last six months.

Morelli brought the coveted UK National Champion award to Northern Ireland for the first time ever earlier in the year.

The business, headed by Daniela’s brother Arnaldo Morelli, has long been at the forefront of successful innovation in ice cream in Northern Ireland. It launched the first diabetic friendly ice cream.

A frozen yoghurt was also created successfully from yoghurt sourced from Clandeboye Estate in Bangor. The yoghurt subsequently collected a gold medal at the Blas na hEireann Awards – The Irish National Food Awards – held annually at Dingle, Co Kerry.

 

Food NI and Belfast Food Network are working with the Peas Please initiative to raise the level of vegetable consumption in Northern Ireland currently the lowest across the UK.

The campaign follows research by Peas Please which found that people in Northern Ireland eat an average of two vegetable portions a day (less than any other UK countries), and 20 percent of the Northern Ireland population eats less than one portion a day, compared with 11.8 percent in England, 13.8 percent in Scotland and 15.9 percent in Wales. The Eatwell Guide recommends adults eat at least five
portions of fruit and vegetables daily.

On average in Northern Ireland, 140kg of veg is consumed per person each day, but that rises to 160kg in Scotland, 167kg in Wales and 178kg in England.

The Peas Please initiative, which is working to drive up consumption in the UK, launched its Northern Ireland chapter in the Food NI Pavilion at Balmoral Show. Food NI and Belfast Food Network are lead partners in Northern Ireland.

Peas Please is coordinated by partner organisations in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and aims to bring together business and brands from across the food system to secure commitments to improve the availability, affordability and quality of the veg offered in supermarkets, shops, schools, pubs, fast food outlets and beyond. Peas Please has delivered 4.8 million additional portions of veg in its
first year, as detailed in 2018’s Progress Report.

For every one of your five-a-day eaten, your risk of mortality decreases by five percent. Eating more veg could prevent diet-related illnesses like heart disease, cancer and Type 2 diabetes, and significantly reduce the subsequent financial burden on the NHS.

Peas Please is part of the ITV and Veg Power #EatThemToDefeatThem campaign which will also showcased its work at the Balmoral Show in the Healthy Horticulture tent. Amanda Grant’s Cook School ran cooking demonstrations and teaching kids to prepare simple, vegetable-based dishes, and other vegetable-centred activities will help to highlight the veg appeal for children at the show.

Anna Taylor OBE, Executive Director of the Food Foundation, said: “There’s huge potential for Northern Ireland to be a veg consumption trailblazer – its considerable vegetable production makes it an exciting place to work on the much-needed challenge of driving up veg intake. Peas Please shows that it is possible to make it easier for everyone to eat more veg, and the new Northern Ireland pledgers are taking the first step in showing concerted leadership from progressive businesses. Now the pressure is on to change pledges into portions and ensure genuine impact on the nation’s health.”

Michele Shirlow, Chief Executive Food NI, said: “We are delighted to continue our work with Veg Power and Food Foundation in highlighting the tremendous health benefits, especially for children and young people, of a diet rich in seasonal vegetables during Balmoral Show.

“Veg Power is being supported proactively by several Food NI member companies especially Mash Direct which was among the first here to please support for Veg Power’s Peas Please initiative. Veg Power will have an opportunity to win further pledges from producers and other organisations here.”

“This participation, in addition, will help to showcase to the public just how easy it is to find quality vegetables in season from local companies in particular, many of which will be showing fresh produce in our Food Pavilion.”

Mash Direct and Ulster Farmers’ Union have also pledged support for the campaign.

Wilson’s Country, Northern Ireland’s leading potato business, has lined up with a primary school in Newtownards to show pupils how to grow potatoes, from planting through to final harvest.

Pupils in P5 at Loughries Integrated Primary School in Newtownards recently visited the farm in Holywood of Derek Erwin for a briefing by Angus Wilson, chairman of Portadown-based Wilson’s Country, a Food NI member company.

The visit enabled the children to view a selection of the machinery used by Derek in planting and managing his crop. They also got the opportunity to inspect the seed he uses. And, of course the children also got a ‘close up’ view of the actual planting process.

“We will bring the children back to the same field to see the crop harvested. This should take place during September,” said Angus Wilson. “That we are aware of, a project of this nature has never been undertaken in Northern Ireland before.

“There is a growing disconnect between the general public and their sense of how the food they eat is actually produced.

“In our own small way, we are hoping to play a role in bridging this gap.  We also wanted to make the project as enjoyable as possible for the children involved.”

While Angus was with the Loughries’ pupils in their classroom, they undertook a very initial survey to gauge the children’s actual knowledge of how potatoes were grown.

Mr Wilson added: “It was all pretty informal stuff. But we were able to discern some interesting trends. First off, all the children knew that potatoes grow in soil. Approximately 90 percent of them eat potatoes. We were delighted to find this out. Not surprisingly, almost everyone in the class eats chips.

“Significantly, just short of 70 percent of the children knew that it takes around five months to grow a crop of potatoes with around half of the pupils in the class having some sense of just how much a crop of potatoes can yield at harvest.”

He continued: “But before even getting out into the field they have learnt, at first hand, that farmers have no option but to work with nature.

“And the reason they are fully aware of this is because we had to postpone the initial farm visit for a week because of bad weather.”

Glenn Stewart, P5  teacher at Loughries Primary School, added: “We are delighted to be joining-up with Wilson’s Country in this way. It gives the children a real sense of the food they enjoy is actually produced.

“It’s also lots of fun for everyone involved.”

 

Enjoying their day out were from left: Daisy Forbes, P5/P6 group; Robyn

Graham, P5/P6 group; Stuart Meredith, agronomist Wilson’s Country; host

farmer Derek Erwin, Glenn Stewart, teacher Loughries Integrated Primary

School, Ellie Palmer,  P5/P6 group and Amy Edgar,  P5/P6 group.

 

Food NI member Castlescreen Farm in Downpatrick has launched a new Dexter beef salami product.

The new salami, the latest product diversification by grass-fed Dexter farmer Damian Tumelty and partner Jackie Gibson, has been crafted from the farm’s award winning Dexter beef blended with garlic and black pepper.

The farm business, recent winners in Northern Ireland of The Prince’s Countryside Fund Marks & Spencer Farm Resilience Award 2019, has a successful track record in producing a range of Dexter meat products as well gammon and bacon for customers in Northern Ireland.

Damian, commenting on the latest Dexter product, says: “We’ve been expanding our range steadily and the development of a unique Dexter salami is another important stage in our drive to increase awareness of the rich beefy flavour from our grass-fed herd.

“We’ve been helped by Alastair Crown at Corndale Free Range Charcuterie in Limavady to create an alternative salami using beef rather than the traditional pork. It’s a salami with a distinctively rich meaty flavour,” he adds.

Damian and Jackie are also now well-known at markets across Northern Ireland especially the immensely popular Inns at Saintfield Road and events in Downpatrick, Portaferry and Newcastle. “These markets,” continues Damian, “are a great way to talk to shoppers about the distinctive characteristics and delicious taste of Dexter beef,” he adds. The company also enjoyed another very successful four-days at last week’s Balmoral Show.

Castlescreen Farm is also now a supplier of beef to high-end restaurants such Ox in Belfast and the popular Avoca store in the city. Oakley Fayre Café and Deli in Downpatrick is a more recent customer.

Damian is among a small group of Dexter breeders in Northern Ireland and has won a cluster of prestigious awards for the cattle especially ‘Charlie’ a breed champion at Balmoral.

He opted to rear Dexter cattle because they are much smaller than traditional beef cows. “They may be small cows but the meat they produce is naturally marbled with fat, giving it a distinct succulence and a much fuller flavour,” he explains.

“Research also shows that Dexter meat is one the best you can eat as it is naturally marbled which comes from grass feeding.” This is why he describes the business as specialising in “wee cows, big beef’.

Dexters are also gaining in popularity due to their size and quality of meat. “Since they’re smaller and live more lightly on the land, you can keep two and a half per acre compared to one per acre of the bigger and heavier breeds,” he continues.

The animals are small and very robust, able to survive outdoors in conditions in winter that would be impossible for bigger breeds of cows, he adds.

The flavour is strongly influenced by the diet the cattle enjoy. “It’s a very healthy diet of exclusively grass or silage. Our beef is then dry-aged for up to 35 days for an intense, real beefy flavour,” Damian says. “The beef is then prepared on-site by us.”

He currently rears a herd of around 100 beef and breeding cattle on the sprawling farm which has been in the Tumelty family for over 40 years.

A native breed, Dexter’s origins are in the south-western counties of Ireland and date back to 1845. Their name comes from a ‘Mister Dexter’ who came to Ireland in the mid-1700s and settled in Tipperary. He then developed the breed through careful selection. As an old mountain breed, Dexters are well-adapted to the harsh landscape of Ireland’s rocky fields.