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Summit Foods invests in quality cooked products

Specialist meat products producer Summit Foods has launched a new cooked ingredients division, after making a major investment in an advanced continuous contact belt oven.

Manufactured by Berief of Germany, this highly flexible system has enabled Summit Foods to offer a wide selection of high quality, fully cooked meat products for food manufacturers including chicken, steak, bacon, sausages, burgers, meat balls and fish fingers. All products are individually quick frozen for convenience.

The new cooking line features a Teflon-coated belt grill, which removes the need for additional cooking fats or oils, leading to a healthier finished product. The simultaneous contact roasting from both sides takes place between two stainless steel platens heated by thermal oil. This gentler cooking process preserves flavour and succulence, while giving high uniformity in the finished product.

The resulting appearance of the grilled products is similar to a pan-cooked product. With this machine, products can either be browned, browned and fully-cooked, or cooked without browning.

“Our new cooked products facility means we can offer a versatile bespoke service for all kinds of fully-cooked meat products, with the emphasis on both appearance, taste and value” said technical sales director Vanessa Lewis.

“We have more than a quarter of a century’s experience in manufacturing quality meat products, and we can now fully cater to the needs of today’s food manufacturers.”

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Snacksters adds hot dogs to retail range

Summit Foods, the sausage experts, have launched US-style hot dogs as a much-requested addition to the Snacksters retail range of ready-to-microwave snack meals.

The hot dogs are presented in a choice of two formats. The 280g pack contains two fully cooked pork hot dogs, each in a bread finger roll complete with onions and sachets of mustard and ketchup; while the no-frills 175g version has no onions or sauces.

Like all products in the Snacksters range, either pack offers excellent quality combined with value for money.

The hot dogs are made to an authentic smoked flavour recipe using fresh pork, then cooked and assembled into the finished hot dogs at Summit s specialist manufacturing facility near Preston.

“Hot dogs are the original food to go, and in the Snacksters format they are more convenient than ever for people in a hurry, going straight from freezer to plate in 80 seconds,” said Vanessa Lewis, technical sales director.

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Beat the Credit Crunch with Snacksters Platters

Snacksters Platters are a new range of ready meals for today's budget-conscious consumers from Summit Foods.

Each platter offers a balanced and satisfying traditional roast dinner for one and contains less than 5% fat. There is a choice of beef, lamb, chicken or gammon and each platter comes complete with roast potatoes, carrots, peas and gravy.

Representing amazing value, the four varieties are positioned at a single suggested price point of £1.65 for a big 400g serving. The beef platter also includes a Yorkshire pudding; the chicken comes with a portion of sage and onion stuffing; and the gammon has a pineapple ring; while the lamb platter has minted gravy.

Like all Snacksters products they are quick and convenient, and are ready for microwaving in 10-11 minutes in the tray provided, or alternatively can be oven cooked.

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Summit Foods fills key roles

Expansion at Summit Foods has resulted in the creation of two additional positions in sales and product development.

Kerry Wilkinson (right) has joined the company as Sales Administrator, reporting directly to Technical Sales Director Vanessa Lewis. Kerry has spent the last two years in the sales support role for a leading be-spoke sportswear manufacturer, having made a career switch after leaving college with a law and business degree.

Also moving to Summit is Kate Rajani (left) who takes on the role of product development technologist. Her predecessor Stella Norman will continue in a cosultancy role.

Over the last 10 years Kate has held a variety of posts in food safety and technology with Saxby's, Selfridges and Simpson Ready Foods. She holds an honours degree in Food Science and Technology.

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Mutton kebabs from Snacksters give an authentic taste

Premium Doner Kebabs made exclusively from mutton for an authentic flavour have been launched by Summit foods under the Snacksters brand.

Every pack contains two complete doner kebabs, which are ready to microwave from frozen in around 3 minutes for a satisfying quick meal or snack any time of day. Each kebab comprises a pitta bread generously filled with sliced doner meat and its own individual sachet of spicy chilli sauce.

All the kebabs are prepared by Summit on its own premises to a closely guarded recipe, using selected cuts of mutton for a superb flavour. The mutton is minced and then carefully blended with onions, herbs and spices before being formed into large doner logs.

After cooking, the meat is sliced and hand-filled into locally-produced, microwaveable pitta breads which are freshly delivered each day.

The rsp is around £1 for a total pack weight of 320g.

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Snacksters Quarterpounder is better all round

The new quarterpounder with cheese from Snacksters is bigger and better than ever before.

Featuring a 5 inch bun and burger instead of the former 4 inch, the Snacksters Quarterpounder is now a complete meal in itself. What's more the new healthier recipe is free from artificial flavours and colours and contains no hydrogenated fats.

Microwaveable from frozen in just five minutes, it features a fully cooked, flame grilled beefburger topped with a cheese slice and tomato relish in a sesame seeded bun.

Like all Snacksters' burgers, the patty is made to the company's own recipe in its grade-A Efsis approved food factory to give complete control over quality.

The quarterpounder cheeseburger comes in a single-serving pack with a net weight of 200g, with an rsp of £1.00.

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Double milestone for Summit

There is a double celebration in the current trading year at Summit Foods, the specialist producer of frozen snacks, sausages and burgers.

Summit Foods has been celebrating its 25th year of operations, marking a quarter century of producing high quality meat-based products. And in the last year the company's Snacksters brand has continued to grow strongly and now accounts for 50% of all sales through the retail sector.

Founded in 1981, Summit Foods soon made its mark as a renowned producer of frozen sausages and burgers for the foodservice sector. In later years the company has further developed into a highly successful manufacturer of frozen snack meals for the retail market, under the Snacksters brand and private label.

Starting with the classic microwaveable cheeseburger, this range now extends to universally popular and convenient products like chicken nuggets & fries, mutton doner kebabs, and toad in the hole.

Summit products are now found in nearly all the leading multiples, and the Snacksters brand is stocked by Asda, Morrisons, Iceland, Farm Foods and Netto.

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Reinforced quality team

The quality control team at Summit Foods, producer of the Snacksters brand, has been expanded with two new appointments.

Ginnette Brown (right) has joined Summit as the new Technical Manager. She brings 17 years extensive experience of technical management and quality control in the meat industry, which began with her first job as an on-line quality controller. Ginnette is also an experienced trainer in food hygiene.

At Summit she will be responsible for maintaining the company's grade A Efsis and BRC accreditation.

Former technical manager Stella Norman takes on a newly created position of Technical Development Manager, which combines both the technical and product development roles for the first time.

Karen Draper (left) has been promoted from on-line quality control to Quality Manager. She has worked at Summit for 10 years and became interested in quality management after taking her on-the-job NVQ in meat and poultry processing.

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