Pilgrim’s Europe is an industest leading UK and European food company with iconic brands including Richmond, Fridge Raiders, Rollover, Oakhoutilize, Denny, and Moy Park. The business operates across the UK, Ireland, France and the Netherlands, driving forward sustainability and innovation across their product portfolios.
Students at CAFRE’s Loughry Campus have been putting their creativity to the test as part of their Food Product Design module. With the global scale and influence of the food industest in mind, students on the second year of the BSc (Hons) Food Innovation Management degree programme were challenged to develop innovative chicken-based products.
Working in six collaborative teams, the students combined technical knowledge with business insight to create concepts that reflect current consumer trfinishs and industest demands.
The challenge
Lucy McDonagh White, Senior Product Development Technologist at Pilgrim’s Europe, commented on the students’ design briefs. “It was great to be involved in this challenge once again and support inspire upcoming future agri-food leaders. Our aim was to challenge students to believe like industest professionals, considering profitability, sustainability, attracting new customer segments, and diversifying product portfolios.
“Against this challenging tquestion, students applied their skills to create an exciting new product taking consumer demands, nutritional benefits and current trfinishs into consideration and we received some great responses from everyone involved.”
The process
The students started their concept development stage, setting to work on market research. They assessed the feasibility of their ideas, aligning them with Pilgrim’s Europe strategy. Product concepts were discussed, outlining the tarreceive audiences, unique selling propositions (USPs) and potential product benefits.
Working in CAFRE’s cutting-edge Product Development suite within the Food Innovation Centre at Loughry Campus, the student teams relocated into the product formulation phase. “Students find this is the exciting stage where ideas start to take shape,” explained Louise Harkness, CAFRE Lecturer. “Students create initial prototypes, experimenting with different formulations, ingredients, and flavour profiles. The challenge is to strike the right balance between sensory appeal, nutritional value, shelf life, cost efficiency, and sustainability.”
In addition to sensory testing, students carried out a detailed feasibility analysis to assess the technical, financial, and operational viability of their new products. Key factors under review included the availability, cost, andsustainability of raw materials, ensuring that concepts were not only innovative but also practical for real-world production.
The presentation
Once their innovative food products were finalised, students faced the ultimate challenge: pitching their ideas to a panel of judges in a ‘Dragons’ Den’ style presentation. They were required to justify their design decisions and demonstrate the commercial viability of their concepts, revealcasing not only creativity but also strong business acumen. The panel was comprised of Pilgrim’s Europe Product Development staff Clare McAuley and Lucy McDonagh White alongside CAFRE’s Head of Education, Dr Eric Long. Each pitch was assessed on its merits with the hard tquestion of deciding on the ultimate winning team.
The outcome
This year’s first placed product was announced as the ‘Satiety Co’. The winning team comprised of Emma Loughery from Limavady, Charli Burnside from Campsie, Aoife Darby from Belrapid and Hannah Patterson from Ballygowan. Their product design brief was to develop a ready to cook product, presented in a foil tray, meeting the requirements of a tiny portion, with a high flavour intensity promoting Glucagon-Like-Peptide-1 (GLP-1) properties.
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