Provenance shows promise

Witwood Food Products' new product development manager, Trudie Varney, is spearheading the development of a range of authentic coatings to take advantage of the growing focus on ethical shopping and the continued popularity of regional flavours and ingredients.

"We're looking at provenance in a broad sense - it's not just about the authenticity of individual ingredients," she explains.

"We are interested in incorporating

regional ingredients into the kind of dishes for which they were originally intended, to create entire recipes that are completely authentic."

The Banbury-based UK team works closely with technologists at Witwood's Australian and Asian subsidiaries to share ingredient, food and flavour trends

Meals developed as a result of Varney's work include European-inspired Roma vine tomato and aged balsamic sardines; French shallot Camembert triangles and English Mint on Welsh lamb.

"We're challenging our suppliers to tell us where ingredients come from and we'd urge customers seeking true authenticity to do the same," she adds.