More than 3,000 stores across the United States will stock a new potato snack created in Great Yarmouth as a result of a £100,000 research project by Pasta Foods.

The deal is the latest success story to emerge from the Norfolk company's four-strong team in the research and development department – led by Gary Thurlow – which is currently working on 20 new projects.

The announcement comes as the food processing firm edges closer to finishing a project for US drinks giant PepsiCo, which teamed up with the business to produce a new vegetable stick snack to appeal to health-conscious US consumers.

Last year, Pasta Foods announced that it had acquired a factory on the outskirts of Norwich which would help bring 50 new jobs over the next three years as well as protect 140 existing jobs.

The company, which produces pasta which is used in recipe dishes, canning, sauces, salads and snack pots, took ownership of the modern factory at Forest Way, Dereham Road, Costessey, after being offered a £500,000 grant from New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership to help expand its operation and create more jobs.

Karl Jermyn, managing director, said: 'It's part of our continuing drive into the US market based on our vast experience of the snack pellet business and our long-standing skills in research and development which make us a world leader in this market.

'It's also another snack pellet product for our Great Yarmouth manufacturing lines which are running at full capacity at the moment and make up around half the business alongside pasta itself and semolina.

'The growth of this type of work is just one reason why we are opening a pasta line at our new Norwich base later this year to that we can update and extend our snack pellet production which will continue in Great Yarmouth,'

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