£1.5m investment at Preston freeze dry specialist

European Freeze Dry’s recruitment drive comes as it increases its manufacturing ability to meet the growing demand for long-life ingredients, commission drying services and ready meals.

The new staff will work within the cooking and packing departments, new product development and business development.

Diana Morris, country manager UK for European Freeze Dry, said: “The demand for nutritious ingredients and ready meals continues to grow, as consumers want food that is not only ready to eat, but can be stored at room temperature for an extended period of time.

“We’ve been experiencing unprecedented demand for our ingredients this year.

“With meals having a shelf life of up to 25 years in tins and seven years in pouches, our freeze dried options can offer food security in uncertain times to all corners of Europe.

“In addition to meeting the growing demand, we continue to work with companies to bring new products to market, as our development team works on a new range of flavours and ingredients that can be freeze dried to lock in the nutrition.”

The range also continues to grow from freeze dried ingredients such as char sui pork for noodle pots through to a range of vegan proteins.

At the same time, the company’s nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals range helps to meet the growing challenge of developing new and emerging health supplements.

The recruitment drive brings the total workforce to 68 across European Freeze Dry sites in Lancashire and Kirke Hyllinge in Denmark.

This follows investment in additional equipment to increase the company’s production, including a third cookpot, new rotary packer and a new freeze dryer.