Food Industry Development
Department Focus
Supporting innovation to improve the competitiveness of the Irish food industry through:
- The provision of specialist commercial services
- The transfer of research knowledge and technology
Working with food businesses across the sector from international companies to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and food entrepreneurs.
Department Staff
Department Head
Ciara McDonagh
Department Team
- Kevin Brennan
- Shivani Pathania
- Eddie O'Neill
- Carol Griffin
- Ita White
- Tara Heffernan
- Karen Hussey
Department Outputs
- Launch of Prepared Consumer Foods Centre (Oct 2018) with a €6.5million investment in capital equipment and upgrade of the Food Development Facilities at Ashtown
- Completion of the fifth Food Works programme www.foodworksireland.ie in conjunction with Enterprise Ireland and Bord Bia, providing the necessary support for 9 new companies to launch their products on national or international markets
- Delivery of Better Training for Safer Food Programmes, an initiative of the European Commission, to regulatory personnel in all member states across Europe and in countries exporting in to the EU
- Food Innovation Gateways ‘Beyond Brexit’ event was held in June 2018 with over 250 delegates in attendance
- Continued work with leading companies to ensure their ongoing compliance with food safety and quality standards
- Appointment of a Food Formulation Scientist and recruitment of a Food Process Engineer to develop these areas of research within the Food Programme
- FID staff facilitated the major meat companies in the country to obtain and maintain their certification to the Bord Bia Meat Processing Quality Assurance Standard through auditing and training
- Delivery of Animal Welfare Officer Training, a legal requirement for meat companies, to companies across Ireland. We are the only national provider of this training
Read more about the department Food Industry Development (PDF)