Well established charity and pioneer of food education, Edinburgh Community Food (ECF) offer a “Take & Make” recipe box range, each box includes a step-by-step recipe card and ingredients to make each meal. ECF sought the expertise of the Scottish Centre for Food Development (SCFDI) to develop 6 new recipes to add to their recipe box range, aimed at specific target groups, to generate more income to the charity.
This collaborative project was funded by the Standard Innovation Voucher from the Scottish Funding Council via Interface
The project has resulted in the client having alternates with new thinking to the range that was in the current portfolio of Take and Make bags, and the recipes developed by SCFDI targeted certain criteria which looked at cooking with children, preparation for the older consumer and pudding with no added processed sugar. With the addition of these 6 recipes, Edinburgh Community Food had flexibility in supply and could investigate a “seasonal” or themed offer to enhance the income stream generated.
SCFDI team were organised and efficient - The team were knowledgeable and enthusiastic to assist with the development of the 6 Take and Make Meals - we were pleased with the result, and felt they fulfilled the brief to produce tasty, meal occasion appropriate meals with consideration for the audience to be supplied. The recipe assessment session was particularly well thought out, and we got to taste and discuss each meal with competent reasoning on why it was produced. In addition, we felt like we had been able to add our ways of working and style, in the collaborative environment, to the recipes so we were able to request amends to the drafted recipes and illustrative costing which was actioned by the SCFDI team. There were regular updates on progress, so we felt involved all the way through the process
- The Brief
- The Research
- The Outcome
The brief was to develop a range of ready to cook, prepared meals in a recipe format which could be translated into ready-to-prep and cook bags for different stakeholder groups. –Customers can purchase the “Take and Make” recipe boxes at ECF premises on market day and the ECF donate a proportion of boxes to low-income households.
The meals will provide a hands-on interactive element to food preparation in a format for consumers to participate in meal making, with an underlining emphasis on the use of non-meat protein sources.
The SCFDI team have experience and knowledge of recipe innovation, product development, ingredient sourcing, nutrition, food labelling and, if the project was to increase to a commercial scale, have manufacturing contacts throughout Scotland.
The SCFDI team have the knowledge of the nutritional requirements for target groups Research was conducted on challenges older adult face when preparing vegetables, investigating accessibility of chopping hard vegetables for example. Preparation was adapted to grating, slicing, crushing, and trying to use whole vegetables. Further research was carried out to determine clever inclusions including pulses to substitute meat. The team applied their culinary skills to develop several recipes in the development kitchen, over three recipe development stages. At the end of the second development stage the client came to the development kitchen at Queen Margaret University to taste each recipe and provide in person feedback to steer the direction and ensure amends were appropriate to the application of each meal. This resulted in the approval of six different recipes.
The project resulted in the charity receiving product information for 6 recipes. The SCFDI team created a recipe sheet for each recipe in the ECF format. Providing details of the formulations and kitchen scale methodology, costing and hints and tips for customizing each recipe. Where new ingredients were used, SCFDI provided new supplier details.
After the completion of the project, Edinburgh Community Food were able to evaluate out the recipes as a “seasonal special” with current customers.
This is on-going, and we hope to hear about the success in due course.
