It is hard to believe the science that goes into making the perfect jam tart.

“It is quite difficult to put in that volume of jam without it boiling out of the tart,” said Phil Acock, managing director of Fourayes Farm.

The fruit enthusiast marvels at the generously-filled pastries his firm has designed for Costa Coffee and which went on sale in May.

Earlier this year the chain approached Fourayes, based on a 100-acre farm in Bicknor, near Sittingbourne, which has become the largest fruit processor and commercial jam manufacturer for bakeries in the UK.

The firm spent four months developing the ‘apricot and orange’ and ‘strawberry and rhubarb’ tarts – a process Mr Acock is keen to point out takes a lot of hard work.

He said: “The initial problem was to work out the best fruits and then to nail the technical side, and it does take some time.

“If you look at the jam tarts we’ve done for Costa they are quite big and you get a really tropical flavour, which sets it apart.

“When you look at the marketplace, ours are different to anything else because of the flavour and also the volume of jam in the tart.”

The success reaffirmed Mr Acock’s belief that the work at Fourayes is misunderstood. In response, he is launching a training course for people looking to enter the fruit industry – to become ‘fruiticians’.

He said: “If anyone ever asks us what we do, we say we’re growers and processors and then their eyes glaze over. What we do is so much more than that – and so much more exciting – and we realised we are actually fruiticians.

“We are passionate about doing beautiful things with fruit. Admittedly it is a made-up word, but it fitted professionally with what we do.

“Yet we thought we can’t be fruiticians just because we work at Fourayes. There has to be some substance that gives it gravitas and validity.”

The company has developed a pilot programme with a London-based training consultant that it is due to submit to the Institute of Leadership & Management for independent verification.

The course will be split into different areas, from managing fruitician to production fruitician.

David Hall, Fourayes marketing consultant, said: “When I look at our business, it is not just about growing and processing fruit.

“Fruit is one of the most complicated things to farm because each has its own seasonality and we constantly have to deal with huge logistics to get it around.

“You have got to understand how different fruits react in different types of end product.

“It is a very complicated business, but all consumers ever see is the tart or pie on shop shelves.

“We want people to understand there is more to our industry than being a grower and processor. We are having long conversations because people want to know about it.

“People in the industry are asking how they can get on the fruitician programme.”

Mr Acock hopes the course will be used by other fruit-growers and processors – and capture the attention of young people looking for a career. His final thought is as deep as the jam tarts his firm makes.

“On the face of it, it’s jam, but when you look into it, it’s not just jam.”

With that, he takes another bite.