Egg manufacturer Just Egg celebrates a cracking birthday

Hard-boiled egg and egg mayonnaise manufacturer Just Egg Ltd is celebrating its tenth anniversary.

The company, founded by Pankaj Pancholi in June 2003, supplies its products across the UK to major retailers, sandwich makers, Scotch egg manufacturers, and the pickling trade – with up to 1.5 million eggs going through its doors every week.

Just Egg aims to be at the forefront of developments in the industry and, when it launched, it was the first company in the UK to use a new and different type of machine to hard boil, peel and pack eggs.

It was the first to introduce ready-to-eat twin hard-boiled egg packs for the retail market, and the first to pack eggs to trade customers in sealed bags in cardboard containers to replace buckets, which reduces waste and saves cost, said Pankaj.

Now the firm, based at Hilltop Road, Hamilton Industrial Park, Leicester, is hoping to continue its diversification by launching single hard-boiled egg packs into supermarkets later this year, as it celebrates ten years of operation.

“Just Egg Ltd has become what I believe is well placed in the hard-boiled egg and egg mayonnaise industry in the UK,” said Pankaj, a microbiologist by trade who has worked in the egg industry for more than 25 years.

“When I launched Just Egg in 2003, we had no customers. I employed 12 staff and I trained them from scratch. We now employ 24 people, and some of them have been with us since day one.

“We’re excited to be celebrating our tenth anniversary, and are currently working on plans to increase our range and develop new products as we move into the next chapter.”

In addition to boiling and peeling more than 1.25 million eggs every week, the company also manufactures over three tonnes of egg mayonnaise daily in its purpose-built BRC-approved factory.

The company supplies its products to a major retailer, sandwich manufacturers, the pickling trade and whoever uses hard-boiled eggs.

“Over all the years I always thought that hard-boiled eggs could be sold in supermarkets, as a ready convenient nutritious food. That was how the twin pack hard-boiled egg was born and now it is in one of the key supermarkets under their own label and also under the Just Egg label in various convenience stores throughout the country. Continuing on the success of the twin pack hard-boiled egg, the single egg pack has been developed for garage forecourts, hospitals and airline caterers and for the ‘food to go areas’ in any convenience stores,” added Pankaj.

Last year Pankaj, who is managing director of Just Egg, teamed up with scientists at the University of Leicester to help develop a process to recycle egg shells and turn them into fillers for plastics. Funded by the Food and Drink iNet, the project has proved the technology and Pankaj hopes that one day his hard-boiled eggs will be packaged in containers that were made from plastic that contains recycled egg shells.

Just Egg Ltd has won a number of awards over the past ten years including the Most Innovative Collaboration at the 2012 Food and Drink iNet Innovation Awards for the work it carried out with the University of Leicester on egg shell recycling, and company of the year in the 2005 Leicester Asian Business Awards.

 www.justegg.co.uk

Issued by Nottingham PR company Perfect 10 PR www.perfect10pr.co.uk

Winners of the 2012 Food and Drink iNet Innovation Awards announced

Nottinghamshire company Lindhurst Innovation Engineers has been crowned the winner of the 2012 Food and Drink iNet Innovation Awards.

The firm was named the Campden BRI Innovation Champion 2012 for the development of ground-breaking technology to turn waste into renewable energy.

Lindhurst Innovation Engineers, based at Midland Road, Sutton-in-Ashfield, worked with the University of Nottingham and Arla Foods to use microbial fuel cell technology to break down food waste using anaerobic digestion and create biogas.

In conjunction with academics, researchers and industry partners, the company is also working on other innovative techniques to help the food and drink sector reduce its environmental impact and become more efficient.  

The judges said: “The judges couldn't help but be impressed with this project. The company is presenting a more rounded approach to positive impact, and is making anaerobic digestion more accessible to smaller companies. Lindhurst Innovation Engineers is a shining example within the sector.”

Earlier at the event, Lindhurst also took the top spot in The Food and Drink Forum Most Innovative Positive Impact category at the awards, which were being held for the fifth year.
 

Other award winners at the event held at Athena in Leicester were:

• Dovedale Foods based in St John Street, Ashbourne, and with a manufacturing unit at Southglade Food Park, Nottingham, who were awarded The Clegg Food Projects Ltd Most Innovative Business Growth Award for the creation of Agile Manufacturing  (a term applied to an organisation that has created the processes, tools, and training to enable it to respond quickly to customer needs and market changes while still controlling costs and quality) to support the scaling up of manufacture of Dovedale's Sauces for Choice brand, with capacity to offer short-run production to other local small enterprises struggling with the capacity requirements of larger contract manufacturers. 

The judges said: “Dovedale Foods has shown innovation for its own business, and of value to other smaller businesses. The company is meeting a real need whilst having a flexible approach.”

• Moonshine Drinks Ltd, based in West Bridgford, Nottingham, who received The Nottingham Trent University Most Innovative New Product Development Award for developing a revolutionary home brew system to create quality real ales by simply adding tap water into the unique laminated bag to achieve ABV of 4%+.

The judges said: “The home brewing market is growing and this project offers good potential. Moonshine Drinks Ltd is approaching the project in a very flexible way. They have real exporting potential.”

• Just Egg, based at Hilltop Road, Hamilton Industrial Park, Leicester, and the University of Leicester, who received The Food and Drink Forum Most Innovative Collaboration Award for working in collaboration, with support from the Food and Drink iNet, to explore a cost-effective and environmentally sustainable way of disposing of the firm’s egg shell waste. The company is now well on its way to using the egg shells in the reformulation of plastic to make recycled packaging to protect their egg-based products. 

The judges said: “This is an excellent example of collaboration between academia, the industry and the iNet. This project has caused interest worldwide and has game changing potential. It’s a great example of lateral thinking.”

Business support organisation The Food and Drink Forum organised the awards ceremony on behalf of The Food and Drink iNet, which co-ordinates innovation support for businesses, universities and individuals working in the food and drink sector in the East Midlands.

 

Food and Drink iNet director Richard Worrall said: “Once again we have seen some tremendous examples of innovation in the food and drink sector in the East Midlands, and I’d like to congratulate the winners of this year’s awards.”

Each category winner receives one free place to a Campden BRI conference or seminar of their choice during the 12 months following the award ceremony, plus a day of PR support. The champion receives two additional free places to a Campden BRI conference or seminar of their choice during the 12 months following the award ceremony, plus an additional day of PR support.

The winners of the Food and Drink Forum Most Innovative Positive Impact category and the Food and Drink Forum Most Innovative Collaboration category each receive a free day’s consultancy from The Food and Drink Forum.

Clegg Food Projects will provide a complimentary visit to the site of the winner of the Most Innovative Business Growth Award to provide advice or information to support the business in process or facility improvement.

The winner of the Nottingham Trent University Most Innovative New Product Development Award receives a voucher to be used towards one of NTU’s food courses.

Around 130 representatives from the food and drink sector across the East Midlands and beyond attended the award ceremony event, which was hosted by comedian Ian Moore.

Part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the Food and Drink iNet co-ordinates innovation support for businesses, universities and individuals working in the food and drink sector in the East Midlands. It has developed an effective network to encourage the collaboration of academic expertise and knowledge, and local food and drink business innovation needs.

It aims to build on the tradition of innovation in the food and drink industry in the region by helping to create opportunities to develop knowledge and skills, and to help research, develop and implement new products, markets, services and processes.  

The Food and Drink iNet is managed by a consortium, led by The Food and Drink Forum and including Nottingham Trent University, the University of Lincoln, and the University of Nottingham. It is based at Southglade Food Park, Nottingham, with advisors covering the East Midlands region.

For more information about the iNet visit www.foodanddrink-inet.org.uk

Press release issued by Nottingham PR company Perfect 10 PR www.perfect10pr.co.uk
 

Cracking idea for egg shell recycling gets Food and Drink iNet support

Scientists and food industry experts are hatching a plan this Easter to turn egg shells into plastics that could be used to manufacture anything from food packaging to construction materials.

They also hope to extract material from egg shells that may prove valuable in the pharmaceutical industry.

As Easter approaches, The Food and Drink iNet is revealing that it is funding a research project at the University of Leicester which is looking at eggs and egg shells in a new light.

The project aims to find useful ways of recycling egg shells which are currently regarded as waste by food producers and which they have to pay to dispose of in landfill.

This is why the Food and Drink iNet is supporting the project with the university to discover innovative ways of using egg shells practically in a number of different areas to be seen as income generating by egg producers, rather than a financial drain on their business.

Scientists in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Leicester, specialising in ‘green chemistry’ and sustainable materials are looking at how to extract glycosaminoglycans, proteins which are found in egg shells. GAGs are used in numerous biomedical applications and could prove useful in the pharmaceutical industry.

They are also hoping to identify ways to use the egg shells as fillers which could be used to ‘bulk up’ different grades of plastic, with all sorts of applications from ready meal food trays to shop fittings.

The ultimate goal is to use the egg shells in packaging to protect egg products – giving a second lease of life to the egg shell in the very role it was created for …. a true case of recycling.

“Egg shell is classified as a waste material by the food industry but is in fact a highly sophisticated composite,” said Food and Drink iNet director Richard Worrall. “The scientists at the University of Leicester have identified a number of uses for egg shell waste and the Food and Drink iNet is very pleased to support a ‘Collaborate to Innovate’ research project to examine egg shell recycling solutions.

“This could have potential benefit on many levels, both for food manufacturers and a much wider industry.”

The research team led by Professor Andy Abbott, professor of physical chemistry and head of the Chemistry Department at the University of Leicester, is working in conjunction with Philip Chatfield, director of Ashby de la Zouch project management company Integrated Food Projects. The project plans to involve a number of small and medium-sized egg-related companies in the East Midlands region.

Leicester hard-boiled egg and mayonnaise manufacturer Just Egg uses around 1.3 million eggs every week, creating around 10 tonnes of egg shells. Currently the firm spends approximately £30,000 a year sending about 480 tonnes of shells to landfill for disposal.

Managing director Pankaj Pancholi said the research could bring big benefits to the food and drink sector.

“If I wasn’t spending the £30,000 a year on landfill costs I could employ another worker or two part-time workers, or invest that money in R&D and innovation,” he said. “It would be great if the egg shells could ultimately be recycled to be used in the plastic packaging that we use for egg products, like our new hard boiled eggs in packs. This is a really exciting project.”

Part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the Food and Drink iNet has awarded almost £20,000 towards the project under its Collaborate to Innovate programme, which will include the sharing of the results with food manufacturers across the East Midlands and beyond. Interested companies are invited to get in touch.

Professor Andy Abbott, from The University of Leicester, said: “We specialise in researching and developing innovative manufacturing solutions around recycling technology. This project is focused on researching novel methodologies for recovering and re using a waste stream into a sustainable financially viable material supply locally. The R&D funding from the Food and Drink iNet is very timely and very gratefully received.”

The iNet-funded project aims to develop and validate the pre-treatment process of the eggshell needed to make it sterile; develop a method for the extraction of glycosaminoglycans from eggshell and analyse the products obtained; develop a post-treatment process to convert the eggshell into a starch-based plastic; test the mechanical properties, including the strength of the new material and make a variety of materials to optimise the eggshell loading and particle size.

The Food and Drink iNet, which is based at Southglade Food Park, Nottingham, with a team of advisors across the East Midlands, is managed by a consortium, led by The Food and Drink Forum and including Nottingham Trent University, the University of Lincoln, and the University of Nottingham.

It coordinates specialist support to stimulate innovation in the food and drink sector to increase competitiveness, sustainability and growth. The iNet is also a key partner for businesses, universities and individuals working and collaborating in the food and drink industry in the East Midlands and nationally.

Visit www.foodanddrink-inet.org.uk for more information.

Issue by Nottingham PR company Perfect 10 PR www.perfect10pr.co.uk

The photo shows, from left to right, Food and Drink iNet adviser Stevie Jackson, Pankaj Pancholi, managing director of Just Egg, and Professor Andy Abbott, professor of physical chemistry at the University of Leicester.