Food and drink innovation centre helps develop new fruit ‘SuperBlend’ brand

With their expert support and industry advice, North Somerset based food and drink innovation centre The Food WorksSW is helping Well Fruited, the winners of their 2023 new business competition, get one step closer to realising their dream of seeing their new fruit SuperBlend drink on the shelves of independent farm shops, delis and major supermarkets.

As part of their competition prize Alex Williams and Ben Kaye, the duo behind the drinks brand, have recently spent time in the centre’s ‘state-of-the-art’ drinks development kitchen with Zoe Plant, the centre’s New Product Development and Innovation Manager.

Together they explored options for scaling up their business including faster production processes and gained invaluable insights into factory layouts and specialist equipment such as the centre’s blending machinery and high sheer pump.

With The Food WorksSW’s nutritional expertise Alex and Ben were also able to perfect their existing recipes, develop new flavour combinations and test new pasteurisation methods which resulted in them extending the shelf life of their SuperBlend drink.

Alongside their development days in the specialist drinks kitchen, the pair also benefited from expert technical support from Rachel Goff, Senior Technical and Site Manager, who helped and advised them on labelling information.

Well Fruited’s 100 per cent liquid fruit drinks use the whole fruit which means they contain nutrients within the fruit that aren’t possible to extract through juicing or cold pressed drinks. The nutrients inside each bottle have many health benefits, from sugar-regulating fibre to mood boosting antioxidants.

Alex Williams co-founder of Well Fruited commented: “Our time at Food WorksSW working in the drinks kitchen and with Zoe and Rachel has been so helpful and inspiring. It really is an amazing facility and I’d recommend it to anyone developing or planning on taking their food or drink product to the next business level.

“We’ve been able to look at ways to develop our business and gained so many insights into the drinks industry which we simply wouldn’t have been able to do without their expert knowledge and advice.”

Zoe Plant added: “For anyone like Well Fruited who are in that in-between stage with their food or drink business where they are looking to increase production before moving to a permanent base, then The Food WorksSW really is where you need to be.

“We can offer so much support and the very best development kitchens. It’s been fantastic to support Well Fruited as they take the next steps in growing their business.”

By Matthew Neville – Senior Correspondent, Bdaily

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