SRC supports New Product Development for local Ice cream company

Ballydougherty Ice Cream is a local artisan ice cream manufacturer established in February 2010 by Barbara Simms. Using only the finest ingredients they manufacture a range of home-made ice creams in a purpose built facility on Barbara’s farm near Poyntzpass that are retailed to local shops and restaurants.

SRC ICECREAM The company needed help evaluating the current market offering in these niche areas, understanding what ingredients could be used and access to product development expertise to help create innovative, high-quality products. The challenge was to understand what ingredients should be used to produce a dairy free ice cream yet still maintain the creamy texture of traditional dairy ice cream and also how to produce a sugar free ice cream suitable for the diabetic market yet full of flavor.


About the knowledge provider
Having successfully secured an Innovation Voucher from Invest Northern Ireland, the company was able to work extensively with i3 Food Research Lecturer, Brenda Kelleghan. i3, is the College’s Business Support Centre that provides support to local businesses through a wide range of knowledge transfer and training services. Brenda is one of a number of Research Lecturers and has many years of industry experience as a New Product Development manager. Her expertise was used to assist the company with recipe formulation; ingredient sourcing, recipe costings, process trials and labelling to develop a new range of products for the company.

The results
Through their engagement with SRC, the company now has a new range of products that they would not have had the time or technical knowledge to compete themselves. Having just completed the development work in April this year, the company is currently in the process of launching the product with existing and new customers and is receiving strong interest.
For further information on the support available through the i3 Business Support Centre at SRC, contact 028 3025 9664 or i3@src.ac.uk and someone will be happy to advise you.