Manchester-based loxtonfoodco, who operate from their new EEC approved Food Development and Production facility which has been awarded the BRC Standard – Higher Level, specialise in the production of high quality recipe dishes to the foodservice market.

Their vast range of products includes side dishes, soups and sauces, as well as a delicious menu of main courses, for example the Wild Mushroom and Asparagus Risotto, which earned the company a Bronze Award at the recent BFFF Annual Awards.

Loxton Food Co was established in 1986 and has grown year on year, now employing 65 people with an approximate turnover of £5.5 million.

The award-winning chefs, led by Managing Director Paul Durbin, promote the company’s ethos of innovation in recipe development, along with ensuring only the freshest and highest quality ingredients are used. For example, loxtonfoodco are currently putting their focus on their range of vegetarian dishes with the launch of two well-known classics; Ricotta Cannelloni with Goats Cheese & Spinach, and Bean Celery & Coriander Chilli.

The fact that all dishes are prepared by hand and require a number of different ingredients, can pose difficulties in keeping track of individual amounts used and that correct quantities are added to ensure a consistent product.

The Stevens Group has extensive knowledge and experience in this area and their recipe formulation system has been developed to provide a complete recipe management, stock control and traceability system, virtually eliminating time-consuming paper based systems.

Stevens’ Commercial Manager Toby Hawkins explains the advantages of the system: “Our units are far more than just weighing scales and offer the ultimate in flexibility, ease-of-use and reliability for a wide range of recipe formulation applications. They can be used as standalone self-contained modules or networked as part of a fully integrated system, allowing optimum use of the weight data. The fully sealed and waterproof operator console can withstand regular wash-down routines making the system ideally suited to the working environments found in modern food manufacturing establishments.”

Individual ingredients weights can vary from 5g up to 100kg and have the option of 6kg, 30kg & 1500Kg capacity platforms at each recipe station, thus giving optimum flexibility and precision for the widely differing target weights.