Horsemeat: learning the lessons of an avoidable crisis
WRBM
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The md of Premier Foods’ bakery division, Iwan Williams, has resigned from his position, the week after the firm revealed plans to close two bakeries in Birmingham and London with the loss of 900 jobs.
The European Commission (EC) declined to comment on Lord Justice Leveson’s report into the culture, practice and ethics of the press yesterday (November 29), despite one of its officials claiming in the summer that the British media often misrepresented European policies on food, farming and other topics.
Consumer watchdog Which? says the Office of Fair Trading’s (OFT’s) clarification to retailers on how to correctly advertise and promote discounted prices for food and drink doesn’t go far enough.
Eddie Stobart’s Tesco drivers are to go on “continuous strike” after rejecting the transport firm’s “final offer” of financial support in the deepening row over 183 jobs cuts at a Doncaster distribution hub.
The Dairy Council has denied claims from the pressure group Consensus Action on Salt and Health (CASH) that food manufacturers add too much salt to cheese.
A real risk for food manufacturers is that know-how may be taken by ex-employees to competitive businesses.
A worker at McCormick Europe’s food factory in Littleborough, Lancashire was hospitalised yesterday (November 27), after falling into caustic soda.
Greencore’s appointment of Gary Kennedy, following Ned Sullivan’s retirement as chairman leads this month’s selection of people on the move in the food and drink manufacturing sector.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has officially rejected controversial research linking Monsanto’s herbicide Roundup and genetically modified (GM) maize with cancer and premature death.
A global ingredients firm has been ordered to pay more than £60,000 after two of its workers were seriously injured in separate accidents.
Dragons’ Den’s sauce manufacturing sisters Lisa and Helen Tse are on the road to achieving their dream of making their Chinese sauces as big as Levi Roots’ Reggae Reggae brand.
Government plans to introduce a minimum price per unit of alcohol in England and Wales could be illegal under EU law, according to the trade group, the Wine and Spirit Trade Association.
Chilled food manufacturer Greencore has announced that Gary Kennedy will succeed Ned Sullivan as chairman when he retires after the annual general meeting in January.
Soft drinks firm Britvic has reported a near 20% fall in profits, after an Essex boy choked on a newly designed lid of a Fruit Shoot bottle, forcing a £17M product recall.
Morrisons has relaxed its policy about sourcing 100% British chicken because its recession-hit customers want to spend less money on meat.
A photogallery of the Food Manufacturing Excellence awards proved the most popular article on FoodManufacture.co.uk in November. But news from Bakkavör, Morrisons, Tesco and Vion also featured in the list of our eight most popular articles.
Chilled food manufacturer Greencore has reported “a breakthrough year”, with revenue up 44.5% to £1,161.9M due to acquisitions and “business momentum”, for the full year to September 28 2012.
The death knell has rung for pizza manufacturer Paramount Foods, which will close its site in north Wales with the loss of a further 278 jobs.
One of the UK’s largest salad producers Hedon Salads has gone into administration and stopped trading.
The boss of a London smoked salmon business has been prosecuted after a worker had to have a finger amputated when his hand was crushed in machinery.
Plans for a £30M tomato growing business in Suffolk, which could produce about 10% of the UK’s tomatoes using heat from a nearby incinerator, have been unveiled.
Food manufacturers could benefit from cheaper supplies of dried sodium alginate, after scientists developed new technology to process the food gelling agent from seaweed extracts.
Morrisons appears to be upping its game after its “very disappointing” third quarter, according to Shore Capital analysts Clive Black and Darren Shirley.
A plague of ‘zombie companies’ is threatening to suck the vitality out of the UK economy, according to leading insolvency experts, and the food manufacturing sector could be under threat.
Meat firm Kettyle Irish Foods has won a £1.2M contract to export bacon to Albert Heijn, a leading European food retailer based in the Netherlands.
Efficiency improvements and successful price negotiations are helping meat firm Cranswick offset the impact of rising feed costs, according to City analysts commenting on its interim results for the six months to September 30.
A former boss of Kettle Chips maker Diamond Foods has pledged to repay two years’ bonuses and resigned his position after a financial scandal engulfed the business earlier this year.
British beef and lamb will return to Russian dinner plates after authorities there finally said yes to exports after agreeing to lift their 16-year ban.
Whetting the appetite of a new generation of food science and technology students for a career in food and drink manufacturing was the aim of the first of a series of events staged yesterday (November 22) at Leatherhead Food Research (LFR).
This week Premier Foods announced plans to axe 900 jobs and to close two bakeries, while Dutch meat group Vion revealed the sale of its UK food businesses ‒ raising doubts about the future of 13,000 employees. Here, we capture a flavour of the debate about both news items, in quotes, from our Linkedin Group, the Food Manufacturing Network, and the views of key players reported by FoodManufacture.co.uk.
Plans to double the size of a business park devoted to food manufacturing have moved closer to reality after Nottingham City Council earmarked £1.67M to part-fund the project.
A full strategic review of the Scottish dairy industry has been launched by Scottish ministers in a bid to improve the profitability of the troubled sector.
Hundreds of food and drink manufacturing industry leaders gathered at the Park Lane Hilton in London for the Food Manufacturing Excellence Awards (FMEAs) earlier this month. Here, we provide a flavour of the big night − caught on film.
Two chefs from Heston Blumenthal's Fat Duck restaurant and their taxi driver have died after their car collided with a bus in Hong Kong.
Scottish dairy firms could boost sales to China by millions of pounds after a trade visit last week.
Global food giant Nestlé is aiming to boost confectionery research and development with the inauguration of its newly extended Product Technology Centre (PTC) for confectionery in York.
Dutch food giant Vion’s plans to sell its UK food businesses − throwing into doubt the future of its 13,000 UK employees − was “almost an inevitability,” according to leading City analysts.
Global foodservice firm Compass Group has posted revenue 8% up at £16.9bn for the full year to September 30, reflecting strong growth in North America and emerging markets.
Support for a groceries code adjudicator with the power to impose fines seems to be gaining ground in Parliament, according to the National Farmers Union (NFU).
News that debt-laden giant Premier Foods plans to axe 900 jobs, close two bakeries and restructure its distribution system was greeted with fury by unions and applause by City analysts.
Britain’s biggest food manufacturer has unveiled plans to close two bakeries and four distribution centres with the loss of 900 jobs from its bread division.
A management buy-in has saved a struggling meat processing firm in Yorkshire and preserved 100 jobs.
Samworth Brothers is planning to build a new food manufacturing facility, which will create new jobs in Leicester.
Uncertainty surrounds the future of 13,000 food manufacturing jobs today (November 19), as Dutch food manufacturing giant Vion announced plans to sell its UK food businesses to concentrate on what it describes as “core markets” in the Netherlands and Germany and its global ingredients business.
The Food Ethics Council has announced the appointment of Dan Crossley as its new executive director.
Meat company Cranswick is conducting “unprecedented” negotiations with retailers, as pig feed prices continue to rise, according to City analyst Panmure Gordon.
Renewed calls for the government to give the supermarket watchdog sharp teeth came today (November 19) from anti-poverty agency ActionAid, as the Groceries Code Adjudicator Bill enters its second reading in the House of Commons.
Tangerine Confectionery has announced the closure of its factory in Poole, Dorset, with the loss of up to 75 jobs.
Tesco announced a £16M (€20M) contract with the Irish Dairy Board (IDB) last week (November 14) to supply Irish butter to Tesco stores throughout Europe.
More than 400 workers at chilled convenience food manufacturer Greencore’s Hull factory will receive up to £1.2M after winning an employment tribunal dealing with cuts in their pay.
British poultry processors are missing a trick by paying for disposal of chicken feet, which could be exported to China where retailers such as Tesco are struggling to meet demand.
Soft drinks manufacturer Cott Beverages was fined £20,000 last week for exposing a worker at its Derbyshire site to lethal ozone gas that effectively ended his career.
Food manufacturers wasted no time in exploring Star Wars licensing deals after Disney bought the rights from Lucas Films at the end of last month.
The Public Health Responsibility Deal (PHRD) − which seeks to enlist food manufacturers and others in improving the national diet − is working well on a voluntary basis, health secretary Jeremy Hunt told PHRD partners in a letter today.
An Asian snack food supplier in Chadwell Heath, north east London is facing a £40,000 fine after four men were arrested on suspicion of working illegally in Britain during a raid by the UK Border Agency.
The Food and Drink Federation (FDF) fears members could be paying artificially high gas prices, after an energy industry whistle-blower accused firms of rigging the wholesale gas market.
Watch the moment Britvic Soft Drinks collected the coveted Training Programme of the Year trophy at the Food Manufacturing Excellence Awards (FMEAs) earlier this month.
Food manufacturers have promised to add more fruit and vegetables to ready meals, as part of the Public Health Responsibility Deal (PHRD) pledge.
Food firms are failing to exploit the lucrative ‘seniors’ market and are instead focusing on new products launches for the cash-strapped under 35s.
A Suffolk food firm claims its £23,500 fine for making false claims about the ingredients in its pesto was “heavy handed” and “wasted public money”, adding that Cambridgeshire County Council backed its view.
The UK food and drink industry gathered to celebrate the best of the best at the Food Manufacturing Excellence Awards at the Park Lane Hilton, London earlier this month. Here, in pictures, we capture a flavour of the big night.
The UK risks becoming a “food museum” if it fails to adopt new technologies such as genetically modified (GM) foods, the president of Food and Drink Federation (FDF) has warned.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is in danger of “overkill” with its approach to Nutrition and Health Claims Regulations (NHCR), with the process fundamentally undermined by its refusal to tell food firms how it defines ‘health’.
Growth in own-label food has helped Sainsbury achieve a 2.5% rise in profits to £405M in the six months to September 29.
Rival soft drinks firms Britvic and AG Barr have finally agreed a merger to create a £1.5bn business, which will trade under the name Barr Britvic Soft Drinks.
Tesco has been fined £115,000 for illegally employing foreign students at its Tesco.com warehouse in Croydon, South London.
Tesco plans to boost its social media presence by hiring Jude Brooks to lead its social media operations, in the week a new report suggested half of food businesses failed to operate an effective policy.
A successful plan to boost recycling rates during the London Olympic Games helped Coca-Cola Enterprises to win a top trophy in the Food Manufacturing Excellence Awards – the Oscars of the food and drink manufacturing industry.
Food manufacturers across Europe have welcomed Denmark’s plans to ditch its fat tax , as exclusively revealed by FoodManufacture.co.uk in August.
Tesco has appointed Coca-Cola’s interactive manager Jude Brooks to head its social-media operations.
More than 200t of illegal fish seized in one of Scotland’s largest food fraud investigations will now be destroyed.
The week after Barack Obama won an historic second term as US president, Kristin Eads and Linda Crow, legal specialists with international law firm Faegre Baker Daniels, explain how new legislation could mean tougher scrutiny for US food importers.
The police are investigating “a malicious act of contamination” at one of Bakkavör’s sites, which has cost the chilled own-label food manufacturer £1M.
A Sunderland couple claim to have found an earwig crawling around inside a packet of bread rolls they bought in their local branch of Asda.
Britain’s food and drink manufacturers are bracing themselves for difficult Christmas trading, according to the Food and Drink Federation (FDF).
The minister for employment, Mark Hoban, is meeting the food manufacturing industry’s top players today (November 12) – including Mars, Cranswick and Associated British Foods (ABF) – to offer them cash incentives for employing young people.
The Faccenda chicken processor in Brackley, Northamptonshire is facing legal action from about 60 families who claim the smells from the site are so foul it makes them “physically sick”.
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has highlighted food manufacturing and agriculture as one of seven key “champion sectors” for growth, urging the government to develop a “coherent industrial strategy to boost exports”.
Perween Warsi, boss of ethnic food business S&A Foods, and food Personality of the Year, shares three top tips for budding food entrepreneurs.
Noel Clarke has joined Unilever UK and Ireland as its new brand-building director – ice cream, following former director Pete Harbour’s move to Unilever USA.
The Bakkavör boss Agust Gudmundsson has reported, what he termed, “strong growth” in both revenue and margin revealed by the chilled own-label food company’s third quarter results released yesterday (November 8).
Twitter fans were active before, after and during the Food Manufacturing Excellence Awards (FMEA) at the Park Lane Hilton in London this week. Here, we capture a flavour of the Oscars of the food and drink manufacturing industry in tweets, which used the hashtag #FMEA12.
Morrisons announced “very disappointing” third quarter results yesterday (November 8) and the departure of its commercial director Richard Hodgson.
MPs have called for an end to above-inflation beer tax to protect the brewing industry and stop Britain’s pubs going out of business.
East Yorkshire salad company Hedon Salads has been ordered to pay £16,421 after a worker fell more than 4m (13ft) through a greenhouse roof.
Western politicians lack the courage to tell voters they need to consume less to help tackle global food security problems.
The Food Manufacturing Company of the Year Iglo Foods – the Birds Eye brand owner – is set for growth next year, according to general manager at the Lowestoft factory Craig Hamilton.
Britain’s pig producers are hopeful of a brighter future as Tesco follows Waitrose’s example in entering a dedicated deal with farmers.
A Waitrose meat buyer has won the coveted 2012 David Black Award for “transforming British pork and pork products into sustainable, high-quality, aspirational food”.
Ethnic food entrepreneur Perween Warsi has landed a top award – Food Personality of the Year – in the Food Manufacturing Excellence Awards (FMEA): the Oscars of the food and drink manufacturing industry.
Major food businesses that refuse to move towards a circular economy business model – where waste products from one manufacturing process are reused in others – will be left behind in a rapidly shifting social and economic climate.
John Whitehead will retire as chairman of the board of industry support body Seafish when his contract expires at the end of December.
Frozen fruit and vegetable processing company, Ardo UK has appointed Ross Currie as its new innovation manager.
Birds Eye brand owner Iglo Foods Group has scooped top honours in the Food Manufacturing Excellence Awards (FMEA) ‒ the Oscars of the food and drink manufacturing industry.
Nanotechnology and other novel technologies will be more widely adopted as ways of extending the shelf-life of food and drink products in the future.
ABP Foods has confirmed that production will end at its Glasgow frozen sausage factory Freshlink Foods in early 2013, with the loss of 144 jobs.
Drinks giant PepsiCo has defeated a Welsh artisan brewer in a two-year legal battle over the name Bare Naked Beer.
Lanarkshire food manufacturer Border Biscuits has scooped a national food manufacturing award.
Probiotic supplementation in strawberry candy helped students recover more quickly from upper respiratory illnesses, including the common cold, according to a recent study to be published in the British Journal of Nutrition.
Premier Foods has confirmed reports that it is in talks with US supermarket chain Wal-Mart in a bid to launch its Power Brands on the US market.
Hain Daniels is continuing its expansion into the UK food market with the purchase of the Adelie Foods Group’s prepared fruit products business.
Tonight is the big night when food and drink manufacturers across the UK will discover which firms have won gold.
A family-run sausage factory in Merseyside has been fined £5,000 for food hygiene offences.
The grocery retail environment is undergoing radical change. Both retailers and their suppliers need to adapt to reflect societal changes, such as cuts in social payments to poorer sections of our society, the chief economist for the grocery think tank IGD has claimed.
The government should appoint a minister for manufacturing to make sure the industry is adequately represented at Westminster.
Manufacturers are facing a spate of 'no win, no fee' civil environmental nuisance claims ahead of a change in the law next year.
Too many food manufacturers are using hygiene requirements as an excuse for not installing automated systems, a lean manufacturing expert has claimed.
The UK's food industry faces a bleak future unless it attracts more young blood, industry commentators and education experts have warned.
A company that sells residual stock from major food manufacturers to people who work in the food industry will record a 66% rise in the volume of goods it handles this year as food manufacturers increasingly seek to cut disposal costs and eliminate waste.
Good luck to all the companies competing for a Food Manufacturing Excellence Award on Monday November 5. Premier Foods, Coca-Cola Enterprises and Iglo Food Group are just three of the firms battling for the top honours.
Premier Foods has announced the appointment of Ian Krieger as a non-executive director with immediate effect today (November 1).
Malton Foods has been fined £12,000 and ordered to pay £1,381 in costs after an employee trapped and crushed three fingers in dangerous unguarded machinery.
“Some progress” is being made to develop international reference values for food allergens to minimise the risk of allergic reactions, said the Food Standard Agency’s (FSA) chief scientist Dr Andrew Wadge.
The much debated launch of a consistent ‘front-of-pack’ nutrition label is currently the talk of the food manufacturing and retail industry, writes Ian Pickett, joint founder of specialist recruitment agency Drayton Partners.
Nick von Westenholtz has been appointed as the new chief executive of the Crop Protection Association (CPA) and will take up the role towards the end of January.
Privatisation could be on the cards for the Food and Environment Research Agency (FERA), even though the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) prefers to discuss the possibility of "partnerships" with the private sector.
Retailers are gearing up their systems to meet an expected surge in consumer demand for online food and drink purchases, the UK's top grocery bosses have reported.
Food factories of the future should keep people away from the manufacturing environment to reduce the risk of contamination by pathogen transfer by humans, according to a leading hygiene expert.
Manufacturers should invest in the development of 'cultured meat' as traditional animal husbandry can't meet growing global demand, says Compassion in World Farming.
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