Finnebrogue Artisan in Downpatrick is bringing its innovative and acclaimed nitrite-free bacon to a wider market with the launch of a new, lower-priced variety of its successful Naked Bacon range.

The new variety, which is made with pork from the Republic of Ireland, has just gone on sale in Sainsbury’s at £2 per six-pack, ­falling to £1.50 when on ­special offer. This compares with a recommended price of £3 for a UK-sourced Naked Bacon.

The lower price point has been made possible due to the lower cost of EU versus UK pork, cheaper packaging and through a £2 million investment in state-of-the-art machinery, which has allowed it to increase production efficiencies, the company, which was part of Food NI’s recent Taste the Greatness promotion at Borough Market in London, explains. Finnebrogue is a Food NI member.

“As a business we currently only use British pork, as it is the best anywhere in the world,” adds chairman Denis Lynn. “But we also believe our safer nitrite-free bacon should not just be for those who can afford it.”

Finnebrogue’s standard Naked Bacon range, which has achieved an impressive £15 million sales since launching in January 2018, remains on sale,

The launch follows a busy period of expansion for the local company, which has invested a total of £19 million in Naked Bacon in the past 18 months.

The supplier also ramped up its presence in plant-based meat alternatives in January, after launching a range of vegan-friendly products made at a new £3 million production facility at Downpatrick

Prep House Sauces in Crossgar has won its first business with Aldi, the leading discount retailer in the Republic of Ireland.

Prep House, a family business which has won a string of national awards for its original sauces and dressings, is now supplying its pepper sauce to Aldi for its network of 137 stores across the Republic. The Food NI members, are headed by Paul Bell, the managing director, who took over the management reins in 2015.

Mr Bell, commenting on the company’s latest says:

“Winning initial business from such a prestigious and quality-conscious retail chain as Aldi, which has such an extensive network of successful stores across the Republic, was a marvellous boost for everyone here. This very important business for us resulted when we swiftly followed up a lead from Invest NI’s Drew McIvor.”

“Our approach was well received by the Aldi buyer who was extremely interested and very supportive. We were subsequently invited to pitch several products including the pepper sauce that is now on Aldi’s shelves. Working with Aldi is a tremendous experience. As a result of the outstanding taste of the product and the convenient two-serve sachet, we’ve been invited to create additional sauces for the chain,” adds Mr Bell.

The Aldi listing is Prep House’s biggest deal to date in the Republic and its most significant retail business. The company has successful business especially with chefs, restaurants and hotels in Northern Ireland.

Prep House has experienced exceptional growth to 23 people, including 18 in the modern factory, from the three employed when the business began.

Sales have more than tripled since then. In addition, the company has invested almost £1 million in creating a state-of-the-art factory and new product kitchen close to the centre of the Co Down village, a predominantly rural community.

Awards for taste and quality have also followed from the UK Quality Food and Drink, Great Taste Awards and the Blas na hEireann Irish National Awards. Judges have acclaimed original sauces and dressings including Irish seaweed and sweet and chilli.

“Our objective is to enable more home cooks here, in the Republic and abroad to recognise that when a Prep House sauce or dressing is added they have a delicious meal,” adds Mr Bell.

Prep House is an ambitious business with strong family values from its ownership and the strength of their longstanding reputation in creating original food products and good employment opportunities for local people.

Other smaller food processors in the area, furthermore, benefit from the company’s commitment to source ingredients, such as set sour cream and natural yoghurt, from Farm View Dairies in Castlereagh and Bangor’s Clandeboye Estate for its sauces.

The business has plenty of new products in the pipeline including many influenced by management and the NPD team keeping in touch with market trends concerning diet such as portion sizes, vegan, gluten-free and low-fat.

We set ourselves a New Year’s Resolution to go green by St. Patrick’s Day and we have achieved our goal. Mash Direct are now selling our award winning vegetable and potato side dishes in 100% recyclable trays following a complete overhaul of our packaging.

Our range has been transformed and hit the stores on St. Patrick’s Day with a fresh green start. They will be sold in green or clear plastic trays which are fully recyclable as opposed to the previously used black trays. These cannot be sorted by optical sorting systems used in plastic recycling and as a result, black plastic packaging commonly ends up as residue and ends up in landfill. By moving over to green and clear trays we will be removing over 240 tonnes of black plastic from the food system every year!

Being six generation farmers, we feel attached to the land we farm and we recognise the responsibility within the agri-food sector to protect the environment. A recycling sticker will feature on our packs with an additional message on our sleeves encouraging consumers to recycle and to increase consumers’ awareness of this plastic waste epidemic. We hope that our efforts coupled with the rest of the food and drink sector will set in motion new ways to make the food and drink industry more sustainable.

Chief Operating Officer at Mash Direct, Jack Hamilton said, “Black plastic is one of the most problematic forms of plastic and we feel very proud to have achieved our target to remove it from our packaging. This demonstrates our commitment to sustainability and we hope to continue to lead the ready-meal sector in implementing ambitious measures which will reduce our overall impact on the environment.”