REVENGE can often fuel success. Alternatively, it can also impair judgment and lead to spectacular failure.

In the case of Rohan O'Reilly of Mototo he says that it gave him the impetus to create a thriving ice cream business. At the age of 12, O'Reilly developed a dairy intolerance and had to suffer while everyone else around him could indulge in the treat.

 "It drove me crazy that everyone could eat it but me. My mum tried to make me a dairy-free ice cream but it wasn't very nice, so from this age I promised myself that I would create something better," O'Reilly says.

It hasn't been a quick or easy path and while he dreamed and planned, he worked at jobs from concreter to personal trainer to life model and even confectioner – "chief jelly bean maker". A decade ago, O'Reilly founded The Alternative Food Company and began a frustrating 10 years of research and development before he was to come up with something he was happy to put on the market.

"Really it came down to hundreds of late-night kitchen experiments. They all failed for years, but I just believed it could be done, so I kept going, to finance it," he says.

Originally his ice cream was to be a soy-based product, but no one liked the taste, O'Reilly says, and it was another five years before he was able to develop a rice-based product that was safe for people with allergies. "There were certainly times when I felt like giving up, when I wondered if I was wasting my time and should give it up, but as time passed, there was more awareness among people about allergies, not only just to gluten but dairy and soy and I knew there was the market for it."

Two years ago he finally felt ready to release the product, and moved from his native Sydney to Brisbane where a commercial ice cream manufacturer makes the ice cream. The name, he made up, but recently learnt Mototo means "little child" in an African language.

Rice seems an unusual ingredient with which to make ice cream, but O'Reilly reckons Mototo fans can't tell the difference between it and the real stuff. "It was important to me that it really tasted and had the texture of ice cream," he says. "The rice mimics the carbohydrate in milk."

The recipe is a trade secret, processed in a European country (O'Reilly is resolutely tightlipped about its exact source) in a powder form. Water is added to it with natural flavours, colours and preservatives. As far as nutrition is concerned, O'Reilly claims Mototo is better than dairy due to the use of vegetable rather than animal-based fat. "Rice is naturally hypoallergenic and we also added inulin which is from chicory which has the fantastic benefits of adding fibre and acting as a prebiotic which aids digestion. It contains calcium at the same levels as dairy ice cream and is GM free."

As for kilojoules, they're pretty much equal to dairy ice cream, so it's not a low-cal treat for dieters.

The first flavour he created was vanilla, O'Reilly's personal favourite which he used to test at markets such as the Powerhouse.

"There was initial resistance because people were not aware that they could have an allergy product that tasted better than the real thing, but we don't have that problem any more," he says. "Once people tasted the product, the response was that they couldn't taste the difference between it and regular dairy ice cream."

While he originally aimed for the health food market, O'Reilly says he wanted to create a product that appealed to all. "I didn't want it to look any different to other super-premium ice cream, so the brand and packaging was very important to me and we spent a lot of time on it."

O'Reilly says that the ice cream contains no artificial flavourings, colours or preservatives, in keeping with the ethos of being allergy-friendly.

Other flavours are chocolate and new flavour, mango and passionfruit swirl. "It's the current favourite, now outselling vanilla," he says.

Soon an antioxidant berry flavour will be released.

O'Reilly says there's no shortage of taste testers among family and friends and with their help, he intends to extend from ice cream to other dairy-style products over the next few years.

While customers are not only people with intolerances, O'Reilly says they are his most supportive and grateful market. "They have so much more restricted options so, when they find something they like that they can eat, they are very loyal and have become really passionate fans."

For O'Reilly, revenge has been sweet as Mototo is stocked in 200 outlets, including IGA supermarkets and Mrs Flannery's stores.

• www.mototodairyfree.com

Source: news.com.au