All news articles for January 2016

Food innovation showcase: don't miss the early bird ticket offer

Food Innovation conference: early bird ticket offer

By Michael Stones

The latest trends in food and drink innovation will take centre stage at the Food Manufacture’s one-day conference in London on Thursday 17 March and there’s still time to benefit from the early-bird ticket rate of £361 plus VAT per person.

Cyber-attacks are set to rise in 2016

Business interruption is the top business risk in 2016

By Rick Pendrous

Business interruption (BI) remains the biggest threat facing companies in 2016, with cyber-attacks, geo-political instability and technology failure new potential drivers of losses, according to the latest findings from insurance company Allianz.

The right medicine: the debate between taxation and reformulation continues

Sugar reformulation: can the industry learn from salt?

By Paul Gander

Alongside the now-familiar call for a 20% tax on sugary soft drinks, the recent House of Commons Health Select Committee report on child obesity proposed other measures, including centrally-led reformulation in high-sugar food and drink.

Welsh food products would be hit by Brexit, claims the FUW

Brexit and the food industry

Brexit: ‘dangerous step into unknown’, says union

By Michael Stones

Quitting the EU would be “a dangerous step into the unknown”, warned the Farmers Union of Wales (FUW), during a debate with Welsh first minister Carwyn Jones and the UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage, organised by the Institute for Welsh Affairs.

Almost 1M more people visited the discounters this Christmas

Discounters enjoy good Christmas while big four suffer

By Laurence Gibbons

The discount retailers Aldi and Lidl enjoyed a boost in sales over Christmas, while the big four suffered in a market that saw sales fall by 0.2%, according to figures released by Kantar Worldpanel today (January 12).

Greggs said breakfast remains the “fastest growing part of the day”

Greggs ends ‘excellent year’ on a high

By Alice Foster

High street baker Greggs ended its “excellent year” on a high note, after strong sales growth in sandwiches and drinks including healthy options, claims the firm. 

2 Sisters – a year in pictures

The year at 2 Sisters – in pictures

By Alice Foster

Visit this photogallery to relive the highs and lows of food manufacturing at 2 Sisters Food Group over the course of 2015.

Chairman Keith Boardall (left) and deputy chief executive Marcus Boardall

Frozen distributor Reed Boardall reports steady results for 2015

By Rick Pendrous

Reed Boardall Group, the Yorkshire-based cold storage and transport firm has just reported another year of steady performance with revenues rising to just under £66M in the year to March 31 2015, an increase of 3% from the previous year’s total sales...

Aryzta is the parent of Delice de France

Aryzta’s fleet management system to optimise distribution

By Rick Pendrous

Aryzta Food Solutions UK, the bakery products company which owns the Delice de France brand, has a deployed fleet performance and journey management system across its entire UK fleet of 105 vehicles in a move designed to boost its delivery operations...

GMO labels added to Campbell Soup products

Soup-maker Campbell switches to GMO labelling

By Noli Dinkovski

The world’s largest soup-maker has responded to calls for more food transparency by announcing it is to label the genetically modified organism (GMO) content on all of its US products.

Yale launches new pallet truck

Stand or sit with new pallet truck

By Rick Pendrous

A new series of rider pallet trucks, claimed to combine the key benefits of platform and seated forklift trucks, has been introduced by Yale Europe Materials Handling.

Technology is being used to improve transparency

Food chain transparency is the goal

By Michelle Knott

The 2013 Horsemeat Scandal Created A Demand For Better Supply Chain Transparency. Michelle Knott Explains What This Means In Practice

Food and drink innovation will be the topic of conversation at New Frontiers in Food & Drink

Innovation conference

Disruptive change drives real growth

By Rick Pendrous

Creative insights are the real drivers of business growth in food and drink and yet, all too often, companies stick with the safe option, adopting a tick-box approach to innovation, according to leading consultants in the field.

Axing the Business Growth Service is expected to impact a range of manufacturers

Axing Business Growth Service sparks criticism

By Mike Stones

Government plans to axe the Business Growth Service (BGS) – which included the Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS) and Growth Accelerator programme – has sparked a storm of industry protest.

Britain's sustainable food future may be under threat from cuts to agritech

Agritech funding cuts will damage the food supply chain

By Rick Pendrous

The future of the UK’s agricultural technologies (agritech) strategy has been called into question after last year’s “savage cuts” in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ budget, which is likely to feed through into a reduction of its...

Sajid Javid (centre) with the FDF's president Fiona Kendrick and director Ian Wright

Great British Food Unit to drive progress: BIS

By Mike Stones

The Great British Food Unit – a new partnership between food and drink manufacturers and two government departments, to be launched this year – will help to boost sales at home and abroad, the secretary of state for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS)...

Asda announced the deal earlier today (January 8)

Asda buys meat suppliers outright

By Alice Foster

Asda has bought outright two multi-million pound meat manufacturing firms – Kober and Forza AW – in which it previously owned a stake.

EU membership: should we stay or should we go?

Oxford Farming Conference

Brexit could mean ‘heaven or hell’ for food industry

By Michael Stones

Quitting the EU could spell ‘heaven or hell’ for the UK food and farming industry, according to two sharply contrasting views presented by former environment secretary Owen Paterson and EU agriculture commissioner Phil Hogan at the Oxford Farming Conference.

JCS Fish has claimed Morrisons' Big Fish Company brand is too similar to its product

Morrisons in fish trademark war

By Laurence Gibbons

Morrisons has denied any wrongdoing after coming under fire for registering a trademark for a “very similar brand” as JCS Fish’s BigFish.

Wright: 'FDF doesn't have a position on (EU membership) at the moment'

FDF to consult members on ‘Brexit’

By Rick Pendrous

The Food and Drink Federation (FDF) is to conduct a survey of its members early this year to gauge the weight of support among them for staying in EU.

Soft drinks: industry has reduced sugar intake by 7.5% in recent years

Sugary drinks study slammed by food industry

By Noli Dinkovski

A new study that claims reducing the sugar content of sugar-sweetened drinks could prevent 1.5M cases of obesity and overweightness has been dismissed  as “fanciful” and “contrary to the evidence” by the food industry.

NFU president Raymond has called for more from DEFRA

Oxford Farming Conference

DEFRA must do more than planned ‘reshape’

By Laurence Gibbons

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) must work more effectively with other government departments, warns the National Farmers Union (NFU), after environment secretary Liz Truss pledged to “reshape” the department in a speech...

Sugar will feature large in the government's childhood obesity strategy

Sugar tax is not the biggest obesity cure

By Rick Pendrous

Reformulation, together with restrictions on the marketing and promotion of food and drink high in fat, salt and sugar are more important than sugar taxes, according to Public Health England (PHE), which in October called on the government to introduce...

Direct rights to challenge copycat packaging appears as far away as ever

Copycat ruling causes grief for brand owners

By Noli Dinkovski

Food producers can still protect their intellectual property rights, despite the Department for Business Innovation & Skills (BIS) ruling that it would not grant firms the power to seek civil injunctions to prevent ‘copycat’ packaging.

EHL Ingredients has revealed four key trends for this year

Top food ingredients trends for 2016

By Alice Foster

‘It’s all about protein’ is one of four key trends set to shape the ingredients market in 2016, according to food ingredients supplier EHL Ingredients.

Tulip's decision to move cooked meat production from Bodmin could result in 430 job cuts

Tulip puts 430 meat jobs at risk

By Laurence Gibbons

Pork processor Tulip plans to move its cooked meat operations from Bodmin in Cornwall to other sites in the UK, putting 430 jobs at risk of redundancy.

Terry Jones begins in new NFU role in April

NFU appoints Terry Jones as its new boss

By Michael Stones

The National Farmers Union (NFU) has appointed Terry Jones – currently director general of the Provision Trade Federation (PTF) – as its new director general.

Pesto pioneer Clare Blampied received an OBE

New Year’s Honours list: who won what

By Michael Stones

Pesto pioneer Clare Blampied, md of Sacla UK, was awarded the honour Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to the food industry in the New Year’s Honours List, which also featured farmers, engineers and transport...

Dawn Foods: guarantees to offer the same taste quality in day five as in day one

Exclusive

Doughnuts set for five-day shelf-life revolution

By Noli Dinkovski

Doughnuts are set for a “massive leap forward” with the imminent launch of a mix that will guarantee them a five-day shelf-life, FoodManufacture.co.uk can reveal.

Lasagne has been identified as a possible source of child poisoning cases

Histamine poisoning link to cheddar

By Rick Pendrous

Cheddar cheese, consumed by five-year olds at school, in products such as lasagne and macaroni cheese, has been identified as a potential source of food poisoning incidents associated with a compound called histamine, which can form during cheese ripening.

Poultry producers are working hard to reduce the use of antibiotics

Meat processors act on antibiotic resistance risk

By Noli Dinkovski

UK meat producers have issued a robust response to last month's government-commissioned report that the use of antibiotics in agriculture posed a direct threat to human health.

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