Inside food & drink manufacturing
Innovation and investment in new technology are needed to support the growth of food manufacturing, as UK businesses face strong international competition after Brexit, claimed business consultancy RSM.
Scottish food and drink exports climbed £124M to £1.25bn in the first quarter of 2017, with EU sales accounting for 70% of total exports, prompting the Scottish government to underline the importance of the EU’s 510M consumers.
Industry 4.0 and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) took centre stage at the huge Interpack 2017 processing and packaging show, in Düsseldorf last month.
Poor EU decision making about the future of crop protection products could jeopardise the UK’s supply of cost-effectively produced food and cost farmers more than £1bn, warned the National Farmers Union (NFU).
Advice to extend the sugar tax beyond soft drinks, order the reformulation of products to cut sugar, fat and salt, and lower portion sizes, has won the support of Food Standards Scotland (FSS).
Obesity levels in children continued to be a “disaster”, but the opportunity to improve their nutritional needs through free school meals remained huge, a public health professor has argued.
Breaking news
Amazon will acquire US organic retailer Whole Foods Market in a £10.8bn ($13.7bn) deal, the retailer revealed on Friday (June 16).
Food manufacturers could do much more to attract younger people to the industry, according to the winner of this year’s Ecotrophelia UK gold award.