Karl and Michelle Bonner of Irish Fish Canners, Dungloe with Liam Mc Shea, Manager, Super Valu, Dungloe at the food night.
On Wednesday evening last, four Donegal food companies sampled their produce at a special food tasting night in SuperValu, Dungloe as part of a national initiative to support the development of the Irish food sector. The Food Academy Start programme has seen the Local Enterprise Offices team up with SuperValu and Bord Bia to support the growth and expansion of Irish based food businesses.
O’Donnell’s Bakery, Inishowen Country Kitchen, Irish Fish Canners and Mulroy Bay Mussels are among 10 businesses from Donegal who have participated in this programme. All participants in the programme had the opportunity to pitch their product or idea to a local SuperValu representative and a representative from the SuperValu head office.
These four businesses achieved an opportunity to trial their products in local SuperValu stores and the feedback from SuperValu has been very positive promising exciting times for the food sector in Donegal.
The Food Academy offered Donegal food businesses both new and established an opportunity to learn from each other while they are challenged to look at their food business and develop a commercial offering which could potentially lead to their products being on retail shelves around the country.
Michael Tunney, Head of Enterprise in Donegal County Council, believes that the Food Academy Programme is an important initiative in helping achieve the objectives set out in the Donegal Food Strategy. He stated “we want to make Donegal a place with a strong food culture and food economy, creating new businesses and promoting economic development locally. We will continue to work with the local food sector delivering innovative programmes to help them grow and develop to boost our county’s food credentials”.
Liam Mc Shea, Manager, Super Valu, Dungloe tastes some of Joseph Doherty’s Inishowen Country Kitchen desserts at the Super Valu food tasting event.
Brenda Quinn and Aideen Gillen sample some of Andrew Mc Elhinney’s O’Donnell’s Bakery produce at the Super Val, Dungloe food tasting night.
Eithne Mc Gee (right) sampling some of the fish products courtesy of Michelle Bonner of Irish Fish Canners at the Super Valu Dungloe food tasting event.
Margaret Reilly enjoying some of Joseph Doherty’s Inishowen Country Kitchen produce at the Super Valu Dungloe food tasting event.
Joseph Doherty, Inishowen Country Kitchen
Supervalu customers trying out some of the fish produce from Irish Fish Canners, Dungloe at the Super Valu Dungloe event.
Bridget Wilhare of Mulroy Bay Mussels with Liam Mc Shea, Manager, Super Valu, Dungloe at the food tasting night.
The Donegal Council Blog 