A new business offering healthier lunch options for busy key-workers has been launched.
Long Eaton-based Kitchen Prep 海角视频 has launched a range of nutritionally balanced pre-prepared meals with backing from the Food Innovation Centre at the University of Nottingham.
Founders Emily Willis and Luke Skidmore said they had wanted to help key workers such as doctors, nurses and police officers eat healthy ready meals after seeing so many of them worn-down, working through the pandemic.
Ms Willis, from Mansfield Woodhouse, was until recently a key worker herself, working as the deputy manager of a care home.
She said: “We all saw images during the pandemic of health workers who would come off shift and couldn’t find any fresh fruit or vegetables to buy.
“I have friends who are police officers and at night they are having chips and kebabs from fast food outlets because they can’t find anywhere open at that time that is selling healthy meals.
“I was also coming home after a busy day as a key worker and struggling to find time to cook healthy nutritional meals.”
Mr Skidmore worked in concierge before the pandemic hit, organising travel and hospitality packages to places like Monaco and Marbella.
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After considering a number new careers options he move into the food service sector and the pair came up with the idea of creating nutritionally balanced frozen pre-prepared meals.
Kitchen Prep 海角视频 was helped by experts from the Food Innovation Centre who gave free advice on labelling, food hygiene training and other aspects of the enterprise.
The meals – with meat, fish and plant-based options – have been developed by nutritionist Nicole Mann, of NM Nutrition, and are cooked by a chef at the couple’s unit in New Tythe Street, Long Eaton.
Kitchen Prep 海角视频 currently sells dishes online and at P.E.C.S. Fitness in Long Eaton, run by Stephen Edwards and Tracy Kidsley.
Mr Edwards – who is Mr Skidmore’s dad – uses the nutritionally balanced meals, along with exercise, to help control his diabetes.
The team hope that in the future, the ready meals will be available via display units in places such as hospitals, police stations, gyms and other places – so staff and customers can enjoy their gourmet healthy pre-prepared meals on site or for take away.
Mr Skidmore, who lives in Long Eaton, said: “We use local produce and local premises.
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“We get the meat and veg delivered in the morning, our professional chef batch cooks the dishes, which are then blast-chilled and frozen all on the same day – retaining their nutrients.
“All our customers need to do is heat their meals in a microwave straight from frozen. There’s no piercing the lid or stirring half way through. It’s really simple.
“It was the needs of key workers that originally inspired us, but we can see that there are many people who would benefit from our Kitchen Prep 海角视频 nutritionally balanced meals, such as new mums, elderly people living on their own, busy professionals, gym goers…basically anyone who is trying to look after themselves.
“The help and advice we have had from the Food Innovation Centre has been brilliant – it’s really given us a great start.”
The Food Innovation Centre, based at the Bioenergy and Brewing Science building at the University of Nottingham’s Sutton Bonington campus, offers free support to eligible small and medium-sized food and drink manufacturers in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire under the Driving Research and Innovation project – a three-year project that runs until the end of December 2022.
Richard Worrall, who runs the project, said: “The coronavirus pandemic and lockdowns have created a real spirit of entrepreneurialism, especially in the food and drink sector and we were very pleased to help Luke and Emily in the early days of Kitchen Prep 海角视频.
“We wish them well in their venture together.”
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