PASTA MASTERS AT MACARONI CHEESE
Family-owned Forfar firm lead the way in recreating classic favourite ready meals for more than a decade
LASAGNE, carbonara and spaghetti bolognese may be the traditional pasta dishes served up daily in Italian trattorias – but when it comes to macaroni cheese, it’s us Scots that lead the way on taste.
And the majority of the cheesy pasta ready meals we eat come not from a far-off factory – but from a family-owned firm in the heart of Forfar. McIntosh of Strathmore specialise in recreating classic Scottish dishes and have been serving up “heat and eat” meals for more than a decade. And their sales account for 60 per cent of all chilled macaroni sold in supermarkets across Scotland. Last year, we scoffed more than seven million delicious McIntosh mac ’n’ cheese ready meals, proving just how much we love the comfort food classic. “We’re all about good comfort food and you get exactly what it says on the tin,” explained Julie Nisbet, above, the brand’s managing director, who joined her father and brother in the family business. “Macaroni – which admittedly doesn’t seem very Scottish – is our key meal that we sell lots of. But then our haggis, neeps and tatties and stovies meals are very popular too.” McIntosh was also recently recognised as the number one ready meal brand in Scotland based on volume, and Julie believes their popularity comes down to quality and taste.
She said: “We source our ingredients locally where we can. All our vegetables are sourced from the north-east coast.
“Obviously we can’t source much pasta in Scotland but we do use Scottish cheese where we can too.”
She added: “We have a taste panel every week, which involves a member of staff from every department coming in to taste products at random. It’s very important to us to make sure we consistently put out great quality.
“When you go through a container of pasta every week and sell millions of macaroni cheese ready meals every year, you have to make sure it’s right.”
Now, to celebrate being the country’s number one for ready meals, we’ve teamed up with McIntosh to give Record readers the chance to win a tasty prize. Read on to find out how you could take home a bumper hamper of McIntosh goodies – plus a £100 supermarket
voucher.