A BOSS at Brace's bakery in Newbridge teamed up with students at the University of Glamorgan to develop a new sandwich designed to ward off the mid-afternoon energy dip.

Working together, Brace's new product development manager, Yvonne McMeel, and Dr Simon Williams, from the university's School of Applied Sciences, have come up with the following combination of ingredients:

Sliced chargrilled chicken Mixed leaves and watercress, spinach, lollo rosso and coriander Red and yellow sliced peppers Sliced baby tomatoes Sliced Kalamata olives Houmous

Dr Williams says: "We wanted to design a sandwich that both tasted and looked good so that in the very first instance it would be an appealing choice.

"The ingredients are extremely colourful and the sandwich boasts a wide variety of flavours."

And Yvonne added: "Rather than take it too seriously, the whole point of this sandwich is the combination of ingredients will help beat those post-lunch blues. Using houmous, instead of butter or mayonnaise, is an excellent alternative as, being chick-pea and garlic based, it has a low glycaemic index, which means it releases energy slowly so you work productively all afternoon, even if your garlic overpowers everyone else!"

The research was carried out as part of British Sandwich Week with the help of Gaynor Tagoury and Vanessa Lewis-Jenkins from the Diabetes Resource Centre at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital.