You can tell that Christmas has been consigned to the history books for a couple of months at least after supermarkets and other retailers were urged to keep daffodil bulbs away from areas selling fruit and vegetables.
In a letter to major stores, Public Health England warned that the flowers could be confused for food produce, such as onions, and that inadvertent consumption of the spring perennial was now an “emerging risk”.
Just for the record, we don’t suggest that you sample battered daffodil rings with your next burger or opt for sage and daffodil bread.
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Not that long ago we mentioned the news story about falling milk prices and the effect that it has having on dairy farmers. Well, the response has been swift.
Members of Parliament affiliated with the Commons Environment, Food & Rural Affairs Committee called for the remit of an industry watchdog to be widened, to encompass fairy farmers, Fairtrade weighed into the debate.
Speaking on the issue, which has made the national news on numerous occasions, Barbara Crowther, Fairtrade’s Director of Policy and Public Affairs, commented that:
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Once again Super Bowl Sunday is on the horizon and a number of restaurants and caterers will be taking advantage of this increasingly prevalent slice of Americana on these shores.
With an ever-expanding fan-base in Britain, growing television revenues and a forward-thinking marketing strategy, more and more people are becoming NFL converts.
And, of course, this means many establishments are cashing in on this by offering tailored menus during the showpiece event.
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From websites like TripAdvisor through the social-media entities such as Facebook and Twitter, customers can leave feedback about a particular dining experience be it good or bad. With the move towards these digital reviews becoming more and more prominent, people have to curate this type of particular content.
For better or for worse, sometimes, stories crop up that highlight the negative aspects of this trend.
According to reports emanating from the newspapers over the weekend the owners of the Tigh na Cheo guesthouse are expected to lodge papers this week in a bid to stop a flurry of adverse reviews about their lodgings that they claim are false and malicious.
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The number of people opting to dine out has increased over the course of the last calendar year and – in great news for all involved in the foodservice industry – that trend is expected to continue over the next twelve months.
“It won’t be a meteoric rise this year, but sales are likely to see steady growth if consumer confidence continues to improve, prompting a rise in average spend,” commented Peter Backman, the managing director of the consultancy agency Horizons.
However despite this optimistic outlook, the figures remain someway short of 2008’s peak and expectations have been tempered somewhat by current global uncertainties, such as the forthcoming general election.
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Over a thousand farmers will see payments for their milk withheld next week as one of Great Britain’s biggest dairy companies announced that they would be delaying payments for a fortnight because of a substantial drop in prices.
The crash in value has, bizarrely, seen milk become cheaper than water.
The co-operative First Milk has said the last twelve months was a “year of volatility that [we have] never seen before.”
The group, owned by British farmers, also announced that they would be increasing levies on its members, which they believe will put the business on a strong platform ahead of the spring.
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The craze for unearthing new gastronomic trends and bringing them to the commercial market isn’t exactly new, but at the moment we’ve noticed that there’s a desire to be uniquely singular; to foster and idea based around one product and then unleash it on the world.
Recently we’ve seen a cereal cafe and an egg restaurant open up in London, but we think those concepts are so 2014 – so last year.
This is 2015, the year where the potato chips rule the roost.
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We’re still gently lowering ourselves into 2015, but what can those in the foodservice and catering industries expect over the course of the next twelve months?
Last year was certainly dominated by the rise of craft ales, locally sourced produce become exceptionally premiumised foodstuffs and the continued ascension of gluten free products, to name but a few. We fully expect these items to be hot tickets as the days, weeks and months pass by.
But – as we hear your calls – what could be on the horizon?
Here we round some of the predictions we’ve seen been put forward, and add a few of our own. Of course if you have a hot new trend then we’d love to hear what you have to say!
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It’s a simple question that required a very complex but forward thinking answer.
Just how do you keep food constantly cold in the most demanding of environments?
That was the question posed to Adande, a Lowestoft-based company that specialises in refrigeration and ventilation systems in offshore locations.
The company’s founders, Ian Wood and George Young, had been asked by people within the foodservice industry that worked primarily on North Sea oil and gas rigs, if it was possible to create a refrigerator or freezer that would constantly holds its temperature.
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It’s the bug that just refuses to go away and once again the potentially nasty campylobacter bacterium has been back in the headlines once again.
Health officials have said that many chickens sold within the United Kingdom are being sold with the bug present due to poor practices within the poultry industry.
People at Public Health England claim that without sufficient legislation in place then the entire industry will be slow to bring in improvements and changes to could reduce the threat of contamination because they fear it will drive up costs.
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Author
Damien Wilde