Snowbird foods has completed the £5.5m. upgrade of its Enfield factory with the opening of a New Product Development Suite.

The £100,000 facility will enable the company’s development team to live up to its industry reputation as one of the country’s fastest to respond to new recipe challenges.

The opening event was a red letter day for Enfield Mayor Coun. Bill Price. It was his final duty at the end of a busy year and it was made more poignant by the fact that he is also secretary of the business association for the industrial estate on which it is located.

A second reason for celebration was that Snowbird has received a Grade A renewal of its Efsis Accreditation – the highest possible.

The suite is a factory in miniature, replicating all cooking and production practices. It is fitted with bowl cutters, mincers, mixers, extruders and formers and has a Teflon belt cooker, a steaming and roasting oven, a griddle, deep fryers and an industrial microwave.

Recipe control samples are held in two upright freezers, there are two refrigerators, mainly for incoming ingredients and the unit has its own 20ft. deep freeze.

“A purpose-built suite is a dream come true,” said new product development manager,” Jason Drage. “We’d earned a reputation for responding quickly to new challenges and, with this and the new factory, we will be even faster in the future.

For more details on our new factory see “Cooking Up a Better Future” – pages two and three.