Double Win for Mackie’s 9 June 2023 At last night’s North East Scotland Food & Drink Awards we emerged as double winners, scooping up the Sustainability Award as well as Best New Product (large business) for our delicious Strawberry Swirl. We secured the Sustainability Award, in recognition for our innovation, reflected most recently by the installation of one of Europe’s most efficient low carbon refrigeration systems. The completion of this in 2022 means we’re now using sustainable energy sources to cool our ice cream and store it. It’s an innovative mix of technology and a first for Scotland, combining an ammonia plant and an absorption chiller to “cool with heat” from a new biomass boiler. The award for our Strawberry Swirl is reflective of the hard work of our New Product Development team and all of those involved in making the delicious new flavour, which launched in 2022. We use fruit from Aberdeenshire’s Castleton Farm, with the strawberry compote created in-house and folded through strawberry ice cream to create a deliciously fruity ice cream. Collecting the award for Mackie’s was Pauline, our NPD Technologist, and she said of the Best New Product win, “personally, it was hugely satisfying and gratifying to see Strawberry Swirl recognised as best new product, after the many months of research and development that went into making the product taste and look its winning best.” The awards were delivered by Opportunity North East in partnership with Aberdeenshire Council, and hosted by broadcaster and musician Dougie Vipond. They seek to bring the industry together to celebrate achievements across product and market development, process innovation, business growth, sustainability and people and skills. It was great to see the amazing number of businesses making innovative (and delicious) food across the region being celebrated on the evening.