A FLURRY of orders for organic ingredients in bakery and chocolate products has left a North Yorkshire firm with the sweet smile of success.

Food Design Ltd, the Harrogate factory which supplies ingredients like toffee and fudge to go into foods like ice cream, chocolate and cereal, has announced a further order worth more than £17,000 from one of Britain's leading organic chocolate manufacturers for the supply of dark, butterscotch toffee.

The same organisation - it refuses to be named - put in an order worth more than £30,000 earlier this year for Food Design to supply organic toffee for a new chocolate-based product to be sold in Italy.

Food Design Ltd, which has recently expanded its warehouse space at Hornbeam Park to cope with growing demand, has also received a £63,000 order for bakery inclusions from another organic food brand for use in biscuits, following hot on the heels of an earlier £15,000 contract there.

The new orders arrived as the firm completed an £8,500 contract to supply ingredients for an organic ice cream producer in Cornwall.

Although the factory is benefiting from the growing interest in organic food, managing director Colin Hunter admitted that three years ago he seriously considered giving up its organic accreditation because of low demand.

He said: "We began to question a few years ago if it was worth keeping the organic accreditation as at that time demand was low.

"However, the whole market has moved on, and as well as organic meat, fruit and vegetables, supermarket shelves are now filled with more organic bakery and confectionery products.

"We are getting requests from many different food manufacturers to supply organic produce, and we find that biscuits and cakes are now a significant market for us. Of course, as demand from consumers for organic products rises, the demand on suppliers like Food Design increases."

Typical of the inclusions that Food Design Ltd supply to the organic bakery industry are bake stable toffee pieces, made from organic milk, which can be baked into a range of products, remaining soft and chewy. Toffee crumb is also in demand from organic manufacturers for use in tarts, Danish pastries, croissants, waffles and biscuits.

Updated: 11:29 Friday, November 26, 2004