Food and Beverage Product Development

BC&A Innovation

R&D Spotlight

The UK food and beverage industry is one of the most diverse and competitive sectors in the economy, responsible for developing everything from everyday grocery products to gourmet and specialist health foods. Whether you’re improving flavours, extending shelf life, or developing plant-based alternatives, there’s a good chance your business is carrying out activities that could qualify for R&D tax relief.

R&D tax relief is designed to support companies that are making scientific or technological advancements by overcoming technical uncertainties in their product development or manufacturing processes. In the food and beverage sector, this can include developing new recipes, reformulating products to meet dietary or regulatory requirements, or scaling up production while maintaining product quality.

Importantly, this isn’t limited to large food manufacturers. Small and medium-sized producers, artisan brands, and specialist food innovators across the UK are often eligible without realising it.

Here are some examples of qualifying activities in the food and beverage industry:

Developing New Recipes or Product Ranges

Creating new food or drink products that achieve specific goals – such as improving nutritional value, achieving a particular taste or texture, or meeting allergen-free or vegan requirements – often requires experimentation and overcoming technical challenges.

Reformulating Products to Meet Dietary or Regulatory Requirements

Adjusting recipes to reduce salt, sugar, fat, or allergens while maintaining product quality, shelf life, and customer satisfaction can involve complex food science and trial-and-error testing.

Improving Shelf Life and Food Safety

Developing methods to extend the shelf life of fresh or chilled products, improve packaging, or prevent spoilage without using artificial preservatives involves scientific research and validation to ensure food safety.

Scaling Production from Kitchen to Factory

Overcoming technical challenges when scaling up production from small-batch to large-scale manufacturing, including maintaining consistency in taste, texture, and appearance, is a common area of qualifying R&D.

Developing Sustainable or Plant-Based Alternatives

Innovating with new ingredients, such as plant-based proteins or alternative dairy products, to replicate the taste and functionality of traditional foods can require extensive research and testing.

Solving Manufacturing Process Challenges

Improving production efficiency, reducing waste, or introducing new machinery or automation that requires engineering or process development work can also qualify as R&D.

Meeting Packaging and Environmental Standards

Developing new environmentally friendly packaging solutions that maintain product integrity and shelf life, or adapting to meet new UK recycling or waste reduction regulations, may involve qualifying R&D activity.

If your food or beverage business is carrying out activities like these, you may be eligible to claim R&D tax relief. This could help you recover a portion of your development costs and reinvest in growing your brand, improving your processes, and bringing new products to market.

Our Process

What to expect when working with
BC&A Innovation

1. Discovery Call

Book your FREE 15 minute discovery call today to discuss your R&D activity and we'll guide you on best next steps and estimated claim value.

2. Information gathering

Our technical experts and industry specialists will work with you to uncover all areas of work activity eligible under the R&D scheme, ensuring we have everything we need to support a robust, defensible and maximised claim.

3. Create R&D Tax Claim

Our technical experts will write your claim and supporting documents with a clear assessment of your eligible activity and costs, ensuring compliance with the scheme's governance throughout.

4. Approval & Submission

We'll share, for your approval, the claim draft and supporting documentation. We'll explain in detail how we have arrived at our assessment of your claimable activity, costs and claim value. When you're happy, your claim can be submitted as part of your standard end-of-year processes.

5. Liaising with HMRC

Should HMRC require any further information or have queries regarding your claim, we'll liaise with them to ensure speedy payment without any reduction in claim value.

6. Payment

Once your payment is received, we'll send it across the same working day and advise you on processes that can be put in place to make future claims even more hassle-free. Don't worry about claims going forward, we'll be in regular contact to remind you what is needed and when.

About BC&A Innovation

We've helped hundreds of businesses like yours secure millions in Research & Development tax relief

Our team recognises the importance of R&D in advancing UK businesses, big and small, and we understand the time burden, resources and complexities of claiming tax relief for that R&D. These constraints often leave companies failing to get the tax relief they’re entitled to or underclaiming significantly due to unclear, often confusing guidelines about what constitutes R&D. As experts in R&D tax relief, we’re here to unblur the lines and create robust, defensible and maximised claims on your behalf.

We’re experienced tax professionals, accountants and technical experts with a deep understanding of the R&D tax relief regulations. We’ve worked in many of the industries we now serve and are ideally placed to understand your business’ R&D Activities. As part of HMRC’s panel on R&D, we stay up-to-date with the latest developments in the guidance, to provide our clients with the most accurate and up-to-date advice.

At BC&A Innovation we take the burden of claim generation away from the business so you can do what you do best, while we do what we do best. We pride ourselves on our integrity, professionalism and commitment to our clients.

Not sure if you qualify for R&D tax relief? Book a FREE discovery call today.

Many of the businesses we work with were unsure if they qualified for R&D tax relief at first. A few had even been told by other agencies that they could not claim. Yet, with our help they were able to correctly identify eligible R&D projects and claim back vital funds.

As experts in HMRC’s definitions of Research & Development, we’ll be able to tell you if you should make a claim or not. We’re success fee based, which means it isn’t in our interest or yours to take forward claims that won’t pass HMRC’s stringent checks. If we say it’s worth doing, you can take that to the bank.

Ready for a discovery call? Think of it as a no-obligation chat where we can discuss the work you’ve undertaken and identify tax-saving opportunities. Our expert consultants are keen to speak with you.