Case Study: Food testing for pasta entrepreneur
Company
The Carol Bone Hand-Made Pasta Comapany
Glasgow Caledonian University Experts
Background
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| The Food Sciences Department provide shelf-life testing and nutrional analysis services |
The Carol Bone Hand-Made Pasta Company was founded in 2006 as a ‘cottage industry’ by Carol Bone making lasagne to a traditional family recipe for a local coffee shop in Cardross. The range of meals has increased with demand, although old favourites are still popular such as lasagne and Italian meatballs, which are supplied to outlets such as Ardardan Estate, the Buffet shop in Helensburgh and A La Carte in Bearsden.
More recently, signature dishes have been developed such as Rotolo of chicken spinach and ricotta on a roasted red pepper sauce; lasagne of roasted aubergine, goats’ cheese and wild rocket; and cannelloni of roasted butternut squash mushrooms, spinach and a sneaky splash of brandy!
Laboratory Testing
Carol Bone was introduced to the Kit-Out the Park team at a Scottish Enterprise Dunbartonshire Food Network Workshop where she learned about the free consultancy available through the expertise at Glasgow Caledonian University.
Kit-Out the Park was able to offer food testing services to Carol Bone which was undertaken by the Food Sciences department who assessed her products for nutritional content and shelf-life.
Five products were tested for full nutritional contents, namely Energy (kJ, kcal), protein, fat, of which saturates, carbohydrates, of which sugars, fibre, Sodium and salt. These results are to be used for labelling the products.
Carol will also be able to use the results in her marketing material indicating the healthy content of her products. The testing undertaken at the university also generates confidence amongst her customers that her pasta has been tested by accredited experts.
Benefits
Ongoing links and assistance from Glasgow Caledonian University have been crucial in setting up The Carol Bone Handmade Pasta Company website (under construction) and in the next phase of on-line shopping.
KIT-OUT the Park was able to source funding through the Scottish Enterprise ICT Fund to assist with this development. Carol will also have her new website assessed by the university IT experts MUCOM once it is launched. Future plans for the company include delivery by courier to the rest of the UK and an on-line shopping system.
