Gobbies Flapjack
Gobbies Flapjack got in touch with us in April 2024. Gobbies Flapjack is a Loughborough based small business, founded by Lee Dabin in 2022, to make healthy everyday snacks that cater to vegans, vegetarians, diabetics, and those with gluten allergies (he uses gluten free oats). He was referred to the Food Innovation Centre by a contact he met at the Melton Food Festival and specifically approached us for help on the shelf life of his no added sugar flapjack. He noticed that some of the flavours had a much shorter shelf life than others and he wanted to understand why.
We would like to thank the Food Innovation Team and especially Kavya Krishnamurthy for the excellent work carried out for Gobbies Flapjack.
From our initial online conversations to our face-to-face meetings Kavya was able to ascertain exactly the information and requirements that we here at Gobbies needed. The report was comprehensive and allowed Gobbies to act upon the information within it. Our meetings with her were very productive and allowed us to fully understand the slight changes we could do to enhance our product and Kavya was able to assess our packaging and advise us on changes that allowed our customers to get all the nutritional and legal information.
We look forward to working with the Food Innovation team again in the future for our journey as a company and to be able to provide the public with an amazing product.
Project brief
The response
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A literature review was completed to understand possible reasons for the shorter shelf life as well as to suggest solutions and clean label substitutions for ingredients in use. The review also included a list of relevant microorganisms for his product, a brief on “diabetic friendly” claims, as well as other relevant health and nutrient claims that could/could not be made.
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Products were tested for water activity, pH to provide valuable information on where differences between products and within layers of the same product lie.
- Gobbies were advised to streamline their recipe and process, with clear limits for time and temperature, in line with HACCP protocol. An informal labelling check was also done to help them improve the quality of the label and how information was communicated to their customer.
- They were referred on to a UKAS lab where they can undertake further nutritional and micro testing.
Benefit to the business
Gobbies Flapjacks gained valuable information on their product which can help them with further NPD and EPD. A move to a cleaner label will benefit their product positioning and is in line with latest consumer trends. As Lee scales his business and his team grows the advice and template for his formulation will help him standardise and ensure consistency.