Enterprise Ireland to fund functional food research for top dairy firms

ENTERPRISE Ireland (EI) is to set up a €15 million functional foods research and development programme involving four of the top dairy companies in Ireland.

Their names have not been disclosed but it is assumed key players such as Kerry and Dairygold will be involved.

Up to 20% of the funding will be contributed by the businesses, with taxpayers putting up the bulk of the sum.

EI Food & Retail Consumer Markets executive director Mike Feeney could not confirm the details, but said a structure would be in place by early next year.

Research into key areas of the functional foods sector will be carried out with the needs of consumers of uppermost importance in the projects undertaken.

Tenders have been received from four research groups involving 11 organisations which have submitted proposals to the State company, said Mr Feeney.

“Companies are having to face the fact that they are no longer low-cost operators and are turning to research and innovation to give them a competitive advantage,” he said.

For that reason, the move by the key industry players to combine their R&D efforts was “brilliant”, he said.

“What’s brilliant about it is that this is industry-led, a joint research programme, targeted on areas that needed to be focused on more”, he said.

Functional foods have been long identified by EI as an area requiring to be probed deeply and this proposal will ensure Irish firms deliver end products that consumers actually want, not what they think they want, he said.

For the past two days, EI has been sponsoring the Annual World Food Technology & Innovation Forum in Dublin.

Speakers included Larry Murrin of Dawn Farm Foods, a group that has had great success selling cooked meat ingredients including beef, turkey and duck to businesses in 30 countries.

Mr Murrin described the consumer as a paradox.

“How do you second guess the wealthy, Gucci bag carrying, well-dressed female, driving her Merc but shopping in Lidl?

“Or the middle-class family passionate about recycling but driving an SUV to drop the kids to school?”

Meeting the exacting demands of today’s consumer was a huge challenge the sector has to square up to or be left behind, he said.