Funding for the development of a new National Centre of Excellence for Food Engineering will help industry and government to realise their shared vision for growth, the UK’s Food and Drnk Federation (FDF) has said.
The FDF is the voice of the UK’s food and drink manufacturing industry.
FDF president Jim Moseley welcomed the award of £6.9million by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE)[6] to support in the development of the centre to be located at Sheffield Hallam University .
“Not only will students on the UK's first food and drink engineering degree experience close industry involvement but they'll also be supported in their studies by a state of the art National Centre of Excellence for Food Engineering,” said Moseley. “The £6.9million award to Sheffield Hallam University along with a significant number of pledges of industry support will create a cutting edge facility which will act as a hub for R&D and innovation solutions, as well as providing industry the facilities for workforce development.”
Moseley also called on FDF members to get involved in this year's See Inside Manufacturing initiative.
“To attract new talent to the industry to fill our skills gap we need more young people to consider food and drink manufacturing as a career of first choice. Alongside our Taste Success campaign, our involvement in See Inside Manufacturing will help us to bring to life the fantastically varied careers available in the industry. That's why we're asking more members to get involved with this exciting initiative so that we can help more young people decide whether they might have a future in food.”
Companies that have pledged their support for the new Centre via contributing equipment, facilities, mentors or advisers include: apetito, The Authentic Food Company, Bradman Lake Group, Cargill, Coca Cola Enterprises, Dalehead Foods, Endress & Hauser, Festo, G's Fresh, General Mills, Ivensys Operations Management, Mars Chocolate UK, McCain Foods, Nalco, Nestle, PepsiCo, Premier Foods, Rockwell Automation, Schneider Electric, Spirax-Sarco Engineering, Star Refrigeration, Tate and Lyle Sugars, Warburton's and William Jackson Food Group.
