Stockport based EHL Ingredients are celebrating Organic September by launching two new organic stuffing mixes, bringing alternative tastes and textures to traditional stuffing ingredient blends.
The first is a Middle Eastern style organic sultana, lemon and spice stuffing – a mix of juicy sultanas, breadcrumbs, a burst of citrus lemon with aromatic fennel, coriander, ginger and black pepper.
With a distinctive Mediterranean flavour, the second addition is an organic garlic, tomato and herb stuffing – a blend of organic breadcrumbs, garlic, tomato, spices fennel, cumin, black pepper, parsley and oregano.
Food manufacturers can include the blends in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean ready meals and accompaniments to spice up pork, lamb, chicken or turkey dishes, as well as meat-free foods such as vegetarian mince, stuffed peppers, cabbage rolls and baked mushrooms.
Available in bulk, the blends are ideal for packers, retailers and food processors to package into smaller bags or boxes to be sold on supermarket shelves for consumers to use at home.
EHL already offers eight organic ingredient blends and these new stuffing mixes bring authentic flavours and textures to Mediterranean and Middle Eastern style dishes, allowing food manufacturers to create tasty, organic international foods.
According to The Soil Association, UK sales of organic products increased by 4.9 per cent last year and shoppers spent an extra £1.73 million a week on organic products. The research also revealed that shoppers are becoming increasingly health conscious, causing the net worth of the UK organic market to rocket to almost £2 billion.
Christine Peers, sales director at EHL Ingredients, says: “Our development team is constantly working on new blends and seasonings, especially within organic, so we’re delighted to launch these two new stuffing mixes to strengthen our offering.
“We launched our first range of organic blends last year, and since then we’ve had an influx of requests for new international blends and stuffing mixes. Shoppers are increasingly looking for integrity in their food purchases and with the organic market continuing to grow, as is demand for our organic blends and mixes, we plan to continue expanding our range to provide quality, organic ingredients and blends for food manufacturers to add to international dishes.
“This is not just great news for us, but offers a really positive outlook for the organic food market as a whole. We’re delighted with the response to our organic range from customers and we put our success in the organic arena down to several key factors – health benefits, an increase in consumer awareness, education on organic foods and healthier eating, and the consistent high quality of our products.
“With The Soil Association predicting more opportunities for future growth, and as the UK organic market hits £1.95 billion, we look forward to strengthening our position in this burgeoning marketplace and are aiming to see a further increase in sales of our organic ingredients during Organic September and the remainder of 2016.
“It’s important for food manufacturers to stay one step ahead of market trends and create popular organic products that will perform well within this burgeoning market and that consumers will love.”
Organic September, promoted by the Soil Association, promotes higher levels of animal welfare, lower levels of pesticides, no manufactured herbicides or artificial fertilisers and more environmentally sustainable management of the land and natural environment.