Major retailers and manufacturers use our product benchmarking service to compare their products with those of their competitors. The recent accreditation of this service by UKAS provides further reassurance to these clients of its rigour. It is also, we believe, a world first for this type of product assessment. The accredited service covers the assessment of ready-to-eat foods based on their appearance, flavour and texture. It is carried out by a team of home economists, chefs and expert shoppers, who identify, source, prepare and assess new products to provide an independent view of the product.

Janetta Hylands, Market Insights Manager, comments: “We were absolutely delighted to be awarded this accreditation, which reflects the tremendous effort invested by the team and our excellent facilities, including our purpose-built test kitchen. We put ourselves in the position of an 'informed consumer' and bring many years of experience of identifying, preparing and assessing both new and existing products.”