Students Make their Mark on Placement

Two BSc (Hons) Food and Consumer Management students have seen their ideas for new products come to life during placements.

Clare Hellemer, spent a 3 week placement earlier in the year with retail chain, Iceland. Working at the Head Office, on the buying and technical side of the organisation, her placement period coincided with a buyer’s project. The project required Clare to look at Iceland’s existing ranges and competitors offerings to come up with a new concept.

After thinking about what is already on the market and what she would like to see on the shelves (and importantly what she’d like to eat) Clare came up with Garlic Mushroom Chicken Breasts for Iceland’s ‘Simple to Cook’ range and was thrilled when it was chosen to be manufactured and can now be found in the freezer section of Iceland stores.

Rachelle Kelly's 3 week placement in 2010 took her to Cargill, an international producer and marketer of food, agricultural, financial and industrial products and services that employs 138,000 people in 63 countries. 

Rachelle was then invited back in April this year and was tasked with coming up with a range of Pan-Asian single serving ready meals that could be combined to create an Asian-inspired feast. The range she designed includes a Japanese Katsu curry, Indonesian Nasi Goreng and Singapore noodles with the majority of the range being low in fat. Rachelle’s products are appearing on the shelves of Morrisons stores across the country.

All Food and Consumer Management students spend periods of time each academic year on industrial placement and can also choose to take a placement year at the end of their second year to broaden their experience and options for their future careers.

For more information about Food and Consumer Management visit the course pages.