On the edge of the Menai Strait in Anglesey, an innovative food production business began in 1997 with entrepreneurs Alison and David Lea-Wilson. Together, they set up a salt-making venture, after discovering pure Welsh sea water would produce a high quality product.
Today, Halen Môn salt is regarded as the finest sea salt in the world. It has been used at royal weddings and the London 2012 Olympic Games, and has also been commended by top chefs around the world, including Heston Blumenthal and Gordon Ramsay. They also supply Marks and Spencer, Waitrose and Harvey Nichols.
Anglesey Sea Salt were looking to use a new innovative packaging for their salt. They wanted Food Technology Centre to assess how well their product behaves when stored in different temperature and humidity environments so they could select the best packaging solution.
With funding from Project HELIX, Food Technology Centre trialled samples in three different types of cardboard packaging. Using a Light Fastness Chamber, they were able to identify any changes in water activity and moisture content within the salt as well as any physical or colour changes identified with the outer packaging.
Benefits of the support
The results showed that the new moisture barrier would be no better than the current one used. As a result, they have reduced the shelf life for the product from five to three years.
We wanted to test a potential new moisture barrier/inner liner for our cardboard tube packaging. This involved accelerated testing on the packaging as the shelf life for the product is five years.
“The Food Technology Centre were very thorough, methodical, professional and quick to respond. The work they do to support local food and drink businesses is second to none.”