Harry Hoo | Celebrating Australian Food and Agribusiness Innovations 2021
The humble dim sim is a firm Asian food favourite of Australian consumers, but the customarily high sodium levels of the product mean it is rarely considered to be a healthy or nutritious option.
The staff at Harry Hoo decided to modify traditional dim sim recipes in a bid to secure a ‘green’ rating as a healthy food choice, an increasingly important benchmark for producers looking to supply schools, catering companies and other corporate buyers in Australian and export markets.
Reducing salt levels often leads to reduced flavour, something any food producer obviously needs to avoid. Successful recipe modification generally requires the input of a food technologist and it can be a lengthy process of trial and error to get the formulation right — considering not only the product flavour, but its shelf life, packaging requirements and manufacturability.
For small businesses, especially those competing with larger players that come from a different cost base, that outlay can be prohibitive.
Harry Hoo successfully applied for funding from FIAL and was able to focus on all aspects of the product including food technology and recipe development, procurement of ingredients at a reasonable price and ensuring that available machinery could produce the desired result.
It is difficult for small businesses to compete on price, so they need to take a different approach. In a world where food production is increasingly driven by natural ingredients and nutritional value, the Harry Hoo dim sim sits apart from others on the market, which has given the company a true point of difference and seen the new product onboarded by one of Australia’s largest foodservice companies.
The team is also investigating options across a broader range of retail and foodservice outlets and is mid-negotiation on a grocery private label arrangement, in addition to supply of the Harry Hoo branded product at Coles Local and IGA stores nationally.
