Food and Drink
Our sector-specific Research and Development tax relief experts offer a broad range of expertise in many different fields of commerce and industry
Innovations
The need for innovative products and processes within the food and drink sector has never been greater, with the world facing significant population growth.
Meeting Challenges
Businesses right across the food chain are seeking innovations through science and technology to meet the consequent challenges for food supply, and their research activities may qualify for the Government’s R&D tax relief.
The UK food and drink industry employs a staggering 450,000 people and is our largest manufacturing sector, contributing over £31 billion to the economy. The wider ‘farm to fork’ food chain overall is worth £121 billion.
The innovation agenda is being driven by limited companies of all sizes operating in the food and drink industry, from the grower and farmers to food processing companies, and food outlets, including supermarkets. The demand for healthy food products has placed this area of research among the top three industry priorities.
R&D TAX CREDITS
for Food & Drink
Food authenticity and the traceability and provenance of what we eat are all major concerns. Research is taking place into using new technologies such as the use of genetic markers in salmon and beef production to identify valuable traits such as resistance to disease, and the analysis of stable isotope ratios to determine the authenticity and geographic origin of beef and seafood.
As well as looking at what actually goes into our food and how safe it is to eat, research is focusing on areas such as reducing food wastage, re-purposing food waste and the efficiency of food production and distribution supply chains and systems.
A recently published industry review has revealed that many businesses in the food and drink sector, including SMEs, are underinvesting in research and development, with a shortage of time, expertise and resource being major challenges. The Government’s R&D tax relief could be a welcome boost to research funding for limited companies who struggle to engage with innovation.
