Family business Dina Foods never stops innovating as it brings the best of the Mediterranean to the UK food scene
Dina Foods can claim to be the UK’s “original and best” falafel company, with a range that includes anything from beetroot falafel to the best-selling sweet potato version.
The authentic Mediterranean food company was one of the first to introduce traditional chickpea-based falafel and humous to the UK consumer in the 1980s.
As in all other areas of its business, Dina never stops innovating with its falafel range, and its latest product, due to launch shortly, the green falafel*, is right on trend.
This healthy falafel is a delicious blend of green peas with chickpeas mixed with spices, bringing all the high-fibre, protein and vitamin benefits of the green peas.
Dina Foods Founder and Managing Director Mr Suheil Haddad says that falafel sales are booming as plant-based eating becomes a huge dietary trend.
The current full line-up includes traditional Lebanese falafel, spinach, the sweet potato version, fresh beetroot falafel, chilli & coriander, lemon & carrot, quinoa seeds falafel and peri peri as well as Mexican and Indian falafel.
Suheil says: “This is a growth part of the business. Falafel can be used in anything from a convenient vegetarian salad wrap to a healthy hamburger or as a tasty party food. There is tremendous opportunity for future development here. We are always experimenting with new recipes using fresh and natural ingredients, working alongside our customers.”
Dina Foods supplies a range of customers including sandwich makers and independent delicatessens as well as wholesalers with its hand-finished, and then frozen, falafel.
It also offers a complete Lebanese savouries range including Vine Leaves, Kibbes, Sfiha, hummus and Baba Ganoush, all much in demand in the casual dining sector.
Alongside its savouries business, the London-based company supplies the sandwich market with wholemeal, white and seeded flatbreads, wraps and pitta breads, including its hugely popular paninette flatbread, which can be sliced or used as a wrap.
And its premium range of confectionery products such as baklava, filo delights and other sweet finger foods is also highly popular.
General Manager Wilda Haddad says that across the business Dina Foods prides itself on never having compromised its high standards. “The reputation of Dina Foods over the years has always been built on quality first,” she says.
Wilda recently became the second generation of the Haddads in the business, having joined her father and uncles’ company earlier this year as General Manager, although she has been steeped in the family business since her earliest childhood.
The Haddad brothers first came to the UK in the 1980s, setting up one of the first Lebanese restaurants in the country, Fakhreldine in London’s Mayfair.
The brothers were Fadi Haddad, Samir Haddad, and Wilda’s father Suheil Haddad, now Managing Director of Dina Foods. The fourth brother, the highly talented chef Amin Haddad, is now sadly deceased.
The brothers’ original 200-cover Fakhreldine soon became a destination restaurant in London, with queues for tables every night.
So, a second site was opened, the seafood-specialist venue Lucullus. The family then started selling the flatbreads that were so popular in the restaurants.
It was from here that Dina Foods was born in 1991, originally launching in Hackney, before moving to the Park Royal area in North West London twenty years ago, when it outgrew the original site.
From the start the company was the leading supplier of Mediterranean flatbreads and falafel in the UK. In fact, Dina Foods launched the UK’s first flatbread with a leading high street retailer two decades ago.
Dina Foods has grown and grown since then and now has a multi-million pound turnover and employs some 150 people.
Breads are baked around the clock and delivered daily to restaurants, cafés and other foodservice businesses, as well as local and national retailers, alongside confectionery and savoury items.
The scale has changed, but the guiding principle of bringing top quality and innovative foods to the UK stays the same.
* The new green falafel will be available in 25 pieces/tray and sold four trays to a case.