Aberdeen-based Chalmers Bakery, a small business with twelve shops and a local wholesale trade, reformulated several of its popular ranges through the Scottish Food and Drink Federation’s (SFDF) Reformulation Programme funded by the Scottish Government.
With the help of a student placement the nutritional content of all top-selling products was reviewed to establish where reformulation could provide significant impact and a reformulation programme was put in place.
Reformulated products included reducing the sugar content of a shortbread base by 17% and reducing the fat and salt content of the pastry shells used for a number of the meat pies by 30% and 56% respectively. Chalmers was also helped to create a new healthy vegetable pie which went on to win the Commitment to Healthy Eating Award at the Grampian Food Forum Innovation Awards in 2014.
Chalmers will continue to look for opportunities to improve the healthiness of their products and are keen to host more student placements in the future.
Pamela Chalmers from Chalmers Bakery said of the Programme, “We are delighted to have had the opportunity to work with SFDF’s Reformulation Programme. We are always looking at opportunities to improve the healthiness of our recipes for our customers without losing the taste and consistency of our much loved products.”
