A new fund aimed at supporting food and drink companies make healthier products has awarded £75K of funding to eight collaborations between businesses and universities in Scotland.

The Healthier Products Innovation Fund for Scotland (HPIF) was developed by Interface and Food and Drink Federation (FDF) Scotland’s Reformulation for Health Programme to support food and drink businesses as part of the Scottish Food & Drink Recovery Plan.

Joanne Burns, FDF Scotland’s reformulation for health manager, said: “Since the launch of our Reformulation for Health Programme in 2019 we have had the pleasure of providing funding directly to food producers to help them make their products healthier. We are delighted for the first time to provide funding that will support innovative reformulation projects between food and drink producers and academics. I was enthused to see the range of applications and look forward to seeing the results.”

Howell Davies, sector and business engagement manager, Interface, said: “It was great to see the number of applications submitted and the wide array of activity and health improvements through fortification and reformulation being proposed.  Scotland is blessed with its talent pool of academics applying their expertise to the food and drink sector and we look forward to hearing about the results of the collaborations later in the year.”

Projects ranged from improving products high in fats, sugars and salts in bakery products and ready meals; to addressing public health challenges such as fortifying products with fibre and new formats to help people meet their 5-a-day requirements.

The funded projects are: