The FMT Blog
Opinion, analysis and musings from the FMT editorial team and expert guest writers about the food processing and manufacturing sector.
International Women’s Day celebrated by WIM Awards
YPL Exhibitions & Events, have confirmed the ongoing support of Ladies In Pigs and Ladies In Beef, for this year’s annual Women In Meat Industry Awards (WIM). The nominations and voting programme commence in June and the annual ceremony, where ten category Awards...
Greggs vegan sausage roll increases sales
The bakery chain Greggs has said that the publicity for its vegan sausage roll earlier this year has helped sales surge 9.6% in the seven weeks to 16th February. The snack, which is made from the meat substitute quorn, launched at the start of the year, coinciding...
Waitrose & Partners pledges to boost chicken welfare
Waitrose & Partners has confirmed that it has signed up to the European Chicken Commitment (ECC) to strengthen what it describes as its ‘already award-winning standards.’ This represents an industry leading pledge to only sell meat from slower growing breeds with...
Ambassador defends US approach to food and farming.
Following on from his controversial article in Saturdays Daily Telegraph, which generated considerable media coverage over the weekend, Woody Johnson the US Ambassador to the UK has told the BBC that criticism of US food standards was ‘designed to reduce not increase...
Grocery growth steady as Brexit deadline looms
As Brexit uncertainty intensifies, the latest grocery market share figures, published from Kantar Worldpanel, shows year-on-year supermarket sales growth of 1.9% during the 12 weeks to 24th February 2019. Overall, grocery volumes rose by 1.2% in the 4 weeks which is...
Boparan Restaurant Group to close Giraffe and Ed’s Easy Diner branches
Hundreds of jobs are reported to be at risk after the owner of the Giraffe and Ed's Easy Diner chains announced plans to close a third of their restaurants under a rescue deal. The Boparan Restaurant Group (BRG), owned by Ranjit Singh Boparan, is reported as...
‘Museum of Agriculture’ approach not sustainable’ – US Ambassador
In a newspaper article over the weekend, the US Ambassador to the UK, Woody Johnson, has claimed that the EU's ‘Museum of Agriculture’ approach was not sustainable. He also stated that American farmers are ‘the future of farming.’ Published in Saturday’s Daily...
Red Tractor leads international benchmarking study
A new independent, international benchmarking study of global farm assurance schemes, has found that the Red Tractor farm and food assurance scheme offers world-leading standards. The International Benchmarking Study was announced at an event hosted by Baroness Lucy...
Consumers concerned at ‘Brexit Effect’ on food standards
According to a new ‘St. David’s Day poll’ over half of UK consumers are concerned that food which is farmed to lower standards than home-produced fare might be imported after Brexit. This was one of the top findings of a major opinion poll conducted by pollsters BMG...
ABP launches fresh plant based brand
ABP has launched its first fresh plant based meat-free brand for distribution in the UK. The new brand is being called Equals and will be available to consumers next week. The company say that Equals is a range of fresh plant based products with both texture and...