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Background

Headquartered in Glenbervie near Stonehaven, Scotland, Macphie is the UK’s leading, independent, added-value food ingredients manufacturer, and has been producing premium quality food ingredients and solutions for customers across 40 countries for over 85 years.

Challenge

The company approached Interface to seek help in finding relevant academic collaborators to provide solutions to a range of challenges facing their business. These ranged from reducing saturated fat content and creating “cleaner label” products to rethinking their packaging and storage.
 

Solution

Interface has facilitated a series of collaborative projects with numerous Scottish Universities to support the business challenges.

Project areas have included:

To date, Macphie has been involved in more than 15 individual collaborative research projects with multiple universities which have yielded cost savings to the business of many hundreds of thousands of pounds.
 

Business benefits

“Innovation is a cornerstone for Macphie, developing new technologies, products, processes and packaging to add value to our business and better meet our customer needs.

Macphie utilises Interface as a Scottish brokering service that brings businesses and universities together. Interface has facilitated a series of collaborative projects across a range of business requirements with Scottish universities. Using the Interface network, we have managed to completely accelerate our innovation agenda.

At Macphie we now have a rich heritage of academic projects across many aspects of our business. These translate into shaping and driving our innovation agenda. Interface is a crucial partner in enabling us to pair up with the very best academic organisations to achieve success. Our ongoing outlook is to continue to invest resources in long-term, transformational projects to ultimately add even greater value to our customer offering.” Martin Ruck, Macphie’s Head of Research and Development.

Academic benefits

Following a successful masters project with Abertay University on computer and web Enabled Food Product Evaluation System:

“Abertay has a specific interest in pursuing links with industry as part of the University’s Strategic Plan. The work with Macphie is an excellent example of how Abertay can be recognised for developing graduates equipped with the attributes and attitudes to contribute significantly to future economies. 

The work has also been conducive for developing pathways to impact, allowing Abertay to generate an excellent track record with respect to KE activities that generate further income and reputation for the University.”  Dr Nia White, Head of the Graduate School, Abertay University.

Interface also supported Macphie and the University of Edinburgh to develop and test a series of emulsions to use in a commercial setting. This led on to further studies on the role of fat crystallisation in the process of stabilizing emulsions and foams which enabled the company to increase the unsaturated fats in their products.

“It was very interesting for us to apply our expertise in the physics of emulsion technology to support a company developing healthier products.”
Dr Tiffany Wood, Director of the Edinburgh Complex Fluids Partnership, The University of Edinburgh.

Additional notes

Macphie have worked with the following Universities and Research Institutes: University of Edinburgh, Glasgow Caledonian University, University of Strathclyde, Heriot-Watt University, Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health at the University of Aberdeen, Robert Gordon University, Abertay University, Queen Margaret University.

Established in 1951, Highland Fine Cheeses has key brands retailing in the major supermarkets and speciality cheese shops UK-wide.  A family business, HFC manufactures traditional cheeses unique to the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Cream cheeses include Crowdie and Caboc. Its fresh cheese Strathdon Blue was named Scotland’s best cheese at the 2002 British Cheese Awards.

The Business Challenge

Highland Fine Cheeses (HFC) wanted to gain a more in-depth understanding of the current traditional cheese market to enable them to develop and launch a new product, potentially for the snack market.

The Solution

Interface facilitated an introduction between Highland Fine Cheeses and Dr Andrew Allsebrook, Food Innovation @ Abertay (FIA) at the University of Abertay, Dundee.
Focus groups were conducted and consumer research undertaken by Abertay, which focused on the well-known Crowdie and Black Crowdie products.

In relation to the Crowdie cheese, HFC wanted to investigate the options of redesigning the packaging of the product in the style of a ‘snack pot’ or ‘on the go’ item. The project also required Abertay to propose different methods of enhancing the ingredients, as well as suggesting new product lines. 

Through working with a small group of sensory panellists and focus groups, information was gathered on consumer opinions in relation to the Crowdie, along with their views on an addition to the savoury snacks, for example the addition of small biscuits or mini oatcakes. 

Using FIA’s product development skills and their dedicated New Product Development facility, a range of fresh ingredients were integrated into the Crowdie.  This narrowed down by the focus groups to two potential products.  At each stage, ingredient price, ease of production and consumer satisfaction was considered. 

The Benefits

The final prototypes were presented to HFC as well as a buyer from a major supermarket, with positive results.  HFC now have a greater understanding of the potential for the Crowdie.
In terms of the Black Crowdie, the focus was on presentation. The cheese was reduced in size from 1kg  to 500g.  In addition the ratio of black peppercorn to oatmeal in the standard 140g Black Crowdie was analysed. The examination led to a reduction in the pepper level, which has enhanced the tasting experience for consumers as the blend is more subtle.

On the back of these improvements the firm will also introduce changes to its Caboc cheese, which will result in HFC boosting its bottom line due to the high cost of pepper.
HFC was also able to take full advantage of the FIA food photography studio enable the company to showcase it’s product range professionally in future marketing materials.

As a result of these changes a major supermarket buyer has expressed significant interest in Black Crowdie.