Too dippy to boil an egg? Help is at hand

Too busy - or too stupid - to boil an egg? The Dippy Egg is set to help. A pre-cooked soft-boiled egg, all the shopper needs to do is add boiling water - “for a perfect runny egg every time”.

Dippy Egg comprises a single pasteurised whole egg that’s pre-cooked in its shell using the sous vide process. Sold in a pot, consumers remove the egg from its plastic pouch, put it back in the pot, pour over boiled water, replace the lid and leave it for five minutes. Even if left for longer, the yolk will still not set.

Manufacturer Pork Farms this week gave The Grocer an exclusive preview of a prototype Dippy Egg - which is still in development. It intends to launch it into retail and foodservice in September.

With the lid doubling up as an egg cup, the proposition is similar to porridge pots, in that it can be eaten out-of-the-home, for example, by office workers, said business development director Mark Hodson.

Dippy Egg was developed using similar technology to Marks & Spencer’s Gastropub runny Scotch egg, also from Pork Farms. “We’re looking at innovation in traditional markets and want to reinvent them with disruptive innovation,” said Hodson. The Scotch egg was being commoditised and Pork Farms wanted to find a unique point of difference rather than competing on price.

Pork Farms recently launched Scrummy Egg - a soft-boiled egg covered with chorizo and breadcrumbs for delis and farm shops, sold under new brand The Dorset Food Company.

It will launch Bangers ‘n’ Hash, a sausage roll wrapped in hash brown rather than pasty, into Asda in August (rsp: £1.49), and will roll out Crunchy Lattice cured Pork Pies, which use cured pork for a sweeter taste, into Asda in September (rsp: £1.65 for four Mini pies and £2 for a medium). They went into Tesco on trial in June.

To see the Dippy Egg in action, click here.