Denis Lynn Scholarship for Sustainable Food Innovation is a bursary of £20,000 towards tuition fees and living expenses for a student on the Advanced Food Safety Masters degree, within the School of Biological Sciences and Institute for Global Food Security (IGFS), at Queen’s University Belfast.

The award will include an internship at Finnebrogue in County Down, one at the international non-profit organisation Foundation Earth and a third placement at an internationally renowned food producer.

The fund was established in memory of Denis Lynn, who founded Finnebrogue, one of the province’s most successful food companies, and later Foundation Earth. He died tragically last year.

There will be one Denis Lynn scholar at Queen’s annually and that student will have the opportunity to secure a job with the Co Down food company, subject to completing their MSc.

Christine Lynn, Denis’s wife and a Finnebrogue director, said: “Denis was a visionary who worked tirelessly in his personal life and work life to deliver positive change for the planet and people. It is our hope that this scholarship will support others with the same ambition.

“Denis wanted to build a more sustainable food industry and what better way to honour his memory than through continued research and development in this field.”

Denis made his name farming deer on the Finnebrogue estate, outside Downpatrick, and supplying venison to restaurants and retail outlets throughout the UK and Ireland.

In 2017, Finnebrogue made headlines with its Naked Bacon range, processed without nitrites, which sells in most UK supermarkets. It has since expanded to include sausages, ham and other lines.

Some of the scientific research behind the initiative, linking nitrites in processed meat with a higher incidence of cancer, was carried out at IGFS.

Finnebrogue also diversified into grass-fed Wagyu beef burgers, plant-based protein and sausages. More recently, Lynn was the brainchild behind Foundation Earth, a non-profit, international organisation intended to reduce the environmental impact of the global food and drink industry.

It certifies the sustainability credentials of products from participating businesses and displays an ‘Eco Impact’ rating on the front of the food packaging.

Professor Chris Elliott OBE, founder of IGFS at Queen’s and chair of the scientific advisory committee at Foundation Earth said: “Denis was one of the most innovative food producers that I have ever known.

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It is being billed as the most lucrative food education scholarship in the UK, amounting to £20,000 of tuition and living support, internships at Finnebrogue, the non-profit organisation Foundation Earth and a renowned international food producer.

Commenting on the scholarship, Christine Lynn, Denis’s wife and Finnebrogue director said: “Denis was a visionary who worked tirelessly in his personal life and work life to deliver positive change for the planet and people.

“It is our hope that this scholarship, which guarantees a job within Finnebrogue’s Innovation Hub upon successful completion of the year-long Master’s programme, will support others with the same ambition.

“Denis wanted to build a more sustainable food industry and what better way to honour his memory than through continued research and development in this field.”

In 2017, Denis made headlines around the world with the launch of revolutionary nitrite-free Naked Bacon. He spearheaded a technological process that created smoked Naked Bacon without 99 per cent of the dangerous chemicals that are usually involved in a traditional smoking process.

From his early days, Denis was a food disruptor, not afraid to take risks or try something new.  In discovering a new French fry, he became the largest customer of Lord Chips in Europe and used the money he made to buy the beautiful Finnebrogue estate. From here, he supplied deer to Michelin star restaurants, top supermarkets and celebrity chefs.

Denis was at the heart of many food revolutions, from the posh dog to sulphite-free Naked Sausages to wagyu beef burgers.

He was the brainchild behind Foundation Earth, a not-for-profit organisation that launched in summer 2021 and issues front of pack eco-scores on the sustainability credentials of a product.

Professor Chris Elliott OBE, Founder of the Institute for Global Food Security at Queen’s University Belfast said the scholarship was a fitting way to honour the memory of Denis Lynn.

He said: “Denis was one of the most innovative food producers that I have ever known. He didn’t just care about food – he cared deeply about the environment and was always trying to change how food is farmed and processed to improve planetary, as well as human, health.

“I believe The Foundation Earth labelling scheme will allow consumers to make much more informed choices about the carbon footprint of food we are buying – this is something consumers very much want to know.

“We still have a long way to go, but through initiatives like this scholarship, we move closer to a food system that works in harmony with nature and fully respects our planet. We are delighted here at IGFS and Queen’s University Belfast to be part of such a scheme.”

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Mash Direct are one of the first companies to have signed up to this pilot scheme, hoping to drive awareness and lead change within the food and drink sector and to share a vision for the future encouraging more environmentally friendly innovation from food producers and sustainable buying choices.

Foundation Earth

Foundation Earth has brought together two of the world’s leading systems (Mondra and EIT**) for measuring the environmental impact of an individual food product and communicating the information clearly and simply via a traffic light style system to consumers via a front-of-pack score.

The new labelling is currently applied to five of Mash Direct’s popular products, Mashed Potato, Champ, Carrots & Parsnips, Mashed Turnip and Colcannon. The scoring system is based on the individual products Carbon Output (g CO2 eq), Water usage, Water Pollution and Bio-diversity impact. The brand aims to roll out the packaging to other products next year, as part of the company’s wider sustainability ambitions.

Scoring system

The scoring system is uniquely designed to analyse the whole life-cycle of an individual product, such as Mashed Potato, as opposed to using secondary data to estimate the environmental impact of an entire product group. This will allow customers to directly compare the sustainable credentials of two competitor products to make an informed decision whilst they do their grocery shopping.

Speaking about the launch, Jack Hamilton, CEO Mash Direct said “We are excited to receive 4 A and 1 B rating on selected products in our range, this is a very positive new addition to our packaging. It pushes the boundaries for us as a company too, as it drives us to be as environmentally sustainable as we possibly can across all aspects of our product lifecycle. The advantage for us is that all our products are grown and manufactured on site ‘from field to fork’ so we have full control over that element of their journey. Our ambition is to improve on our sustainability year on year and we will publish our sustainability report annually to track where we are making progress as well as where we need to make further improvements, we will then have our information independently assessed to ensure that we are measuring accurately. This will ensure that there is provenance and transparency in the food system, driving positive change not only at Mash Direct but also, we hope, with others”.

Cliona Howie, CEO, Foundation Earth comments: “Its motivating to work alongside forward-thinking brands like Mash Direct who are one of the first to deliver our front-of-pack Eco Impact scores allowing consumers to quickly and simply understand the impact linked to their food choices. Momentum is building quickly, and scores will start appearing on products from more companies soon.”

**EIT – European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT) is a system devised by an EU-funded EIT Food consortium of Belgium’s Leuven University and Spanish research agency AZTI.  Mondra – is a data-driven insights platform that supports food system players to meet their carbon neutrality goals

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