A cereal company is digesting the news it has been awarded £16,000 to expand its range of products. Based in Biggles-wade, Jordans has been given the award by the Home Grown Cereals Authority (HGCA) to help expand its range of natural, healthy cereals. Th

A cereal company is digesting the news it has been awarded £16,000 to expand its range of products.

Based in Biggles-wade, Jordans has been given the award by the Home Grown Cereals Authority (HGCA) to help expand its range of natural, healthy cereals.

The awards by the HGCA are given to encourage and reward innovative uses of UK grain, with the ultimate aim of generating extra grain usage.

Jordans says it has identified an exciting opportunity to enter a new market sector for flake-based products targeted at adults.

This sector grew by six per cent in 2005 and Jordans plans to develop a novel cereal process to develop the wholegrain multigrain flakes, which are currently being launched in France.

Jordans has differentiated the flakes from existing flaked cereal products by making extensive use of wholegrain cereals with the health benefits also associated with eating wholegrains being well documented in recent years including helping to reduce the risk of heart disease by 30 per cent.

Jordans has also been able to minimise the levels of sugar and salt in the new product.

Mark Owen, head of Jordans' research and development division, said: "Our company philosophy is to produce natural and healthy products, so using wholegrains to develop a new range was an easy choice for us, given the health benefits.

"The flake-based cereals sector is a new target for us and the HGCA Enterprise Awards funding will help us considerably with our development and marketing."

Julian Gibbons, chairman of the HGCA market development committee, said: "Developing new markets and promoting innovation using UK grain are the main objectives of the HGCA Enterprise Awards.

"With this project Jordans have once more demonstrated their commitment to these objectives and we are delighted to be supporting their work.