Recently in Food Manufacturer News Category

The Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE) has awarded a £200,000 grant to a burgeoning South Tyneside business, as part of a wider, £1 million project expected to create numerous new food jobs.

The RDPE has awarded the cash to family pork butchers MI Dickson Ltd., in order that the owners may extend their South Shields bakery enterprise. Five new food jobs will be created as a result of the investment, whilst a further 14 will be safeguarded.

MI Dickson Ltd will also be able to use the money in a number of areas to improve the business, including:

• Creating more space
• Reducing congestion
• Improving workflow
• Improving the general working environment for staff
• Reducing double handling

Managing director Michael Dickson has explained how the funding will enable him to diversify the business in order to respond to changing consumer buying and eating habits. He also said:

"Our aim is to increase the market share through further expansion of our wholesale business by exploiting our proven credentials for quality, heritage and local food. We are grateful for the support from the RDPE programme to help us achieve our aims."

Lunch! is an annual trade event aimed at anyone and everyone in the rapidly expanding food-to-go industry - estimated to now be worth £6 billion in the UK - and the organisers have announced that registration for Lunch! 2010 has now opened.

The event runs from September 30th until October 1st at Old Billingsgate in London, with around 100 exhibitors from every branch of the food-to-go sector in attendance. These manufacturers and supplier will be showcasing new food and drink products, technology and services including:

• Food ingredients
• Coffee and tea
• Specialty breads
• Packaging
• Signage
• Information technology

In addition to the main exhibition, Lunch! 2010 also boasts two education theatres, a new products showcase, business seminars, live demonstrations and new for this year, the Innovation Challenge 2010. This is a new awards scheme which aims to celebrate innovation within the food-to-go-sector.

If you are in a decision-making food job within this growing industry, then Lunch! 2010 is a must-attend, either as a visitor or an exhibitor. The event connects you directly with suppliers, allows you to network and gain insights into the latest innovations in the food-to-go sector.

UK scientists have recently reported an important breakthrough which could help to allay national fears over a future food shortage.

Wheat, one of the most important staples in the European diet, is in short supply at the moment as a number of countries have banned its export.

One of the biggest producers of wheat, Russia, has suffered severe droughts and wildfires in recent months, resulting in a reduced yield of crops. Floods in Pakistan and mudslides in China have had the same effect, serving to drive wheat prices higher. All of this has prompted worldwide worries about potential wheat shortages in the future.

Breakthrough

Scientists in the UK have now released draft sequences of the wheat genome, which they believe could be used to increase wheat yields and help farmers to develop new strains. These new strains are essential to securing wheat security, as Mike Bevan, director of the John Innes centre, explains:

"Such varieties are crucial to meet increased demand from growing and more prosperous populations, confront the challenges of climate change and looming scarcities of land, water, and fertiliser, and avoid global food shortages and price spikes that particularly harm the poor,"

Health, safety and quality control are essential elements of any food manufacturing business, which is why so much time and money is dedicated to training people in these specialist and very important food jobs.

However, public health expert Julie Barratt has said that businesses in Wales are increasingly cutting down on health and safety training in an attempt to save money. Barratt, the director of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health Wales (CIEH), has warned that this worrying situation could lead to what she calls a "food poisoning time bomb".

Barratt conducted a survey of 5,000 CIEH trainers, and found that around half believed that the current economic climate was negatively affecting food safety training in businesses. 'Cost-cutting' was identified as the main reason for lack of investment in training by 70 per cent of experts surveyed.

Barratt issued a public health warning on the back of the survey results, saying:

"The economic downturn has meant many businesses have had to rein in spending, which is understandable, but quality training needs to be seen as an investment which protects your staff, your business and your company's reputation. A food poisoning outbreak can be the death knell for a food business and can have a myriad of consequences from reputational damage to business failure."

Glasgow is not generally known for its green-fingered achievements, but this may be about to change thanks to their upcoming Glasgow Harvest event on Saturday 28th August and the success citywide food growing project called SAGE (Sow and Grow Everywhere).

The project was launched by an unlikely organisation - the public arts association NVA (an acronym for nacionale vitae activa, or 'the right to influence public affairs'). It works along the same lines as the Glasgow Harvest, a social gardening movement dubbed "A Celebration of Urban Farming" where the city's biggest home-grown meal will be shared.

SAGE, on the other hand, has been running since May 2009, using portable growing containers situated around the area on reclaimed wasteland and public parks to grow fruit and vegetable. The first produce is now ready to harvest, and the event on the 28th seems like the perfect place to unveil them.

Angus Farquhar, the Creative Director of NVA, has said:

"With SAGE, we want to bring people together, celebrate something communal about growing food and sharing it: the Glasgow Harvest is intended to be a very visible, secular, celebration of food growing, and of community."

As a celebration of city-wide food growing, the organisers also hope that the event and the SAGE project will put Glasgow on the map as a food producing city and promote local food jobs and industries in the area to boot.

The US food corporation, the Campbell Soup Company, is reportedly planning to launch a break up bid for UK-based United Biscuits. After initially considering listing the business, overseas owners Blackstone (a US investment firm) and PAI Partners (French buyout experts) officially put United Biscuits up for sale last month.

A leading British brand, United Biscuits makes everything from Jaffa Cakes, BN and McVitie's biscuits to snacks such as Hula Hoops, KP Nuts, Jacob's Cream Crackers, The Real McCoy's crisps and Twiglets. Campbell Soup Co is allegedly more interested in purchasing the biscuit side of United - which makes up 75 per cent of the business - rather than the snacks and crisps arm.

Other industry rumours state that Campbell's has been seeking advice on a prudent break-up bid from financial advisors Centerview Partners, the same firm who masterminded Kraft's controversial takeover of Cadbury.

Campbell's will not be alone in seeking a piece of United Biscuits, however, as Kellogg, Pepsico and the aforementioned Kraft are all rumoured to be interested in buying out parts of the business. It doesn't seem as if any parties are interested in buying United as a whole, which could leave the food jobs of the firm's existing employees in jeopardy.

The recent controversy over milk and meat from the offspring of a cloned cow entering the UK food chain has sparked off heated debate about artificial food. The latest opinion comes from the UK government's chief scientist John Beddington, who believes that we will be eating artificial meat by 2050 due to the increasing population.

Beddington has led a team of leading scientists in conducting a major academic assessment of global food supplies in the future. The results of this study were published by the Royal Society, and some may find their predictions shocking.

According to the study, there won't be enough food supplies to adequately feed the world's growing population - estimated to reach 9 billion by the year 2050 - without destroying the earth's natural resources. This is despite recent advancements and increasing numbers of food job specialists working in the fields of nanotechnology and genetic modification.

The study estimates that due to water shortages, climate change and increased food consumption, hundreds of people may go hungry in 2050. Although the 21-page publication obviously proposes numerous other ways of improving this outlook, one suggested solution is that we start to eat artificial meat grown in vats. It may not sound appetising, but it may be necessary if our growing population is to survive.

As a leading manufacturer of convenience food, Greencore Group is uniquely placed to benefit from the growing consumer trend for eating at home. As the number of consumers opting to stay in and eat at home has risen, Greencore Group have reported a 7 per cent increase in sales.

Greencore's half-year results showed that in the four months up to July 23rd, sales figures stood at €281.2 million. The company is also gaining more of a market share in the UK - increasing its share to 10.4 per cent last year - and is making excellent progress in the chilled ready meals market. Prices haven't risen, yet sales have been boosted by an increase in volume.

A Greencore representative has commented on the company's recent success, saying:

"As highlighted at half year the UK consumer trend of increased "at home" food consumption continues to support demand for our overall food offering,"

"Additionally, an increase in smaller convenience retail store formats is underpinning food to go volume in particular."

Greencore Group is also predicting that full year sales figures will show a strong operating profit, as the company hopes to "modestly exceed" expectations.

International food group Vion have announced that they are to create a total of 250 new food jobs in Scotland.

150 new positions will open up at Vion's chicken processing plant in the town of Coupar Angus, whilst a further 100 new jobs will be created at a plant in Cambuslang. Furthermore, a £650,000 Scottish Enterprise grant has safeguarded 234 existing food jobs in the Vion group.

Vion has recently launched an investment programme worth millions of pounds, which included the installation of a new packing line at the Coupar Angus facility. It is this investment- along with the efforts of existing employees - which has boosted sales and created greater employment opportunities at these two sites. Cambuslang in particular has flourished, as Vion reports that business is up 25 per cent compared to last year.

Vion Poultry's regional director Andrew Fisher has commented on the news, saying:

"This is very positive news and just reward for the tremendous efforts not only of the teams at Cambuslang and Coupar Angus, but also through the wider Vion supply chain from our farmers and feed mill operators, through to our production, sales and administration colleagues."

The food industry is in turmoil this week as the Food Standards Agency (FSA) announced that they have launched an urgent investigation into claims that the offspring of a cloned cow has been sold and eaten in the UK.

The FSA released a statement on its website identifying the farm where the controversy originated as Newmeadow farm, one of the largest farming businesses in Scotland. The statement also says that two bulls were born in the UK from embryos harvested from a cloned cow in the US, and that only one of these was stopped from entering the food chain. The other, according to the FSA website - "entered the food chain and will have been eaten."

Although an illegal practice, the FSA is assuring consumers that meat from cloned animals or their children is no different to that of conventionally bred animals, and is therefore safe to eat. This is the latest research from the European Food Safety Authority (in 2008), although researchers admit that the evidence base they have to work from is still relatively small.

This latest scandal comes after it was revealed by the media that milk from the offspring of cloned cows is on sale in the UK. In response to this and the latest food safety scare over cloned meat, the FSA has issued a reminder to high-level food job workers and operators in the UK that they have a responsibility to ensure that the food they produce adheres to UK law.

The investigation into the cloned cow meat claims is still underway.