Enterprise Ireland-supported food and drink companies spent €165m on research and development last year, according to the semi-State body.

However it wants to see that increase significantly in the coming years.

"We should be aiming to double that spend as a sector," said Enterprise Ireland chairman Michael Carey. "We should be focusing on opportunities to invest in new innovation, in entrepreneurial businesses, in ambitious companies that can really scale and become meaningful in the food sector across the world."

To encourage that investment, Enterprise Ireland is today holding its second ever Food Innovation Summit, which will see 450 delegates descend on Croke Park to hear about the growth potential innovation can bring.

"The food market is open to Irish food, it has a great reputation and building it through new products, through innovative processes, through working together is vitally important," said Mr Carey.

He said that, while companies may see R&D as a non-essential cost - especially at a time when they are focused on building sales - those two things actually go hand in hand.

"R&D and innovation in the food sector is the engine of growth," he said. "It's what really matters for the future sustainability of the sector.

"It's a crucially important sector for the Irish economy."

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Plant-based frozen food company Strong Roots is one Irish brand that has had significant success in scaling its business since it was founded in 2015.

Today it has a wide range of products on supermarket shelves in Britain, the US, Australia and France - while earlier this year it was acquired by frozen food giant McCain.

"Innovation was the core driver of our globalisation success over the last ten years," said Sam Dennigan, founder of Strong Roots.

"We took a view of innovation across multiple different verticles - not just product but also our people strategy, our sustainability strategy, and that's ultimate what's take notice from some of the big CPG [consumer packaged goods] companies - particularly in McCain," he said.

"To take an Irish company and put it on a global stage, because of that innovation and the differenciation in our portfolio and our way of doing things - than other, bigger global companies," he added.

Mr Dennigan said the whole company was built on the basis that they had to do something different that would break-through in a market that was stagnant.

"Innovation has been the base of our business," he said. "We've used that as the fuel for growth for the past ten years."

His advice to companies at the start of their growth jouney was to ensure that they were constantly in touch with consumer demands.

"Early on in the journey, growth can be the single focus - which is very important, sales solves all problems," he said. "But ultimately if you've got a product that isn't constantly being improved and isn't suitable for consumer trends, that are always changing, there's going to be more difficult in outer years.

"Always concentrate and reinvest in innovation," he advised.