Food Academy helps local cheese maker to expand

Posted 20 January 2011

The West Midlands Regional Food Academy (WMRFA) based at Harper Adams University College is helping one of Shropshire’s premier cheese-makers to expand his brand and secure prestigious organic status.

Martin Moyden currently produces four different hand-made cheeses - Wrekin White, Wrekin Blue, Newport and Newport 1665 – a smoked cheese named after a famous fire in the Shropshire town near to where the WMRFA is based.

Mr Moyden’s Handmade Cheese was set up six years ago by husband and wife team Martin and Beth who are in the process of making their company Ltd so they will become joint directors.

Their cheese is made using traditional cheese making techniques which have been tried and tested by countless generations of farmhouse and specialist cheese makers. Mr Moyden uses the finest unpasteurised Shropshire milk.

They have just moved their award –winning business to the Shropshire Food Enterprise Centre (SFEC) based in Shrewsbury with the help of staff at the WMRFA who helped them to develop their business plan.

Martin Anderson, manager of the WMRFA and food technologist, Joanna Gleeson, are also helping the Moyden’s  with new product development and with how to gain organic certification for all their cheeses.

The couple source their milk locally and sell to over 200 customers- including Harper Adams which is known for its plough to plate ethos.

They have been producing cheese at the WMRFA this week so they can keep up with demand while the finishing touches are added to their new premises.

Martin Moyden said: “It’s nice to have the use of such fantastic facilities and get to use different sorts of equipment and develop our recipes for the future.

“We’ve had excellent support from the team here and we are really pleased with our new space at the SFEC, which has given us the chance to expand our business and reach new customers. Demand has been so high we have had to work really hard to keep up.

“One of our goals in the near future is to reach organic status. Hopefully we will be sourcing local organic milk which will give our cheese a greater depth of flavour and quality.”

Martin Anderson, said: “It’s been an absolute pleasure working with Martin Moyden and watching his business grow from being a very small cheese producer to winning nationally recognised awards and developing into a pre-eminent cheese maker.

“We hope to work with Martin in the future as well as other dairy food producers.”

For more information visit mrmoyden.com or email mrmoyden@live.co.uk

For more information about the WMRFA or if any food producers would like to speak to the team about how they could develop, please call Martin Anderson on 01952 815003 or email manderson@harper-adams.ac.uk