Department for International Trade (DIT) is calling for applications in order to appoint an industry co-chair who has the expertise and interest in driving forward agriculture, food and drink exports.

In October 2021, the government announced the intention to establish a new Food and Drink Export Council (Export Council) to promote British goods overseas. The Export Council will use a collaborative approach. It will harness expertise and resource from government and industry across the UK in a collective endeavour to increase agriculture, food and drink exports.

The Export Council will comprise of strong representation from government, industry, and regionally across different parts of the UK. This will ensure the council delivers for all parts of the UK and all scales of business. The membership will be diverse and dynamic with an onus on innovation, raising ambition, building capability and effective collaboration.

It will comprise of:

• Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and Department for International Trade (DIT) representatives
• devolved administrations
• industry bodies
• a selection of dynamic and innovative businesses including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)

Meetings of the Export Council will be convened by the Minister for Exports and the industry co-chair. The Council shall act at the request of the Minister for Exports and agree to be bound collectively by its terms of reference (TOR) as a condition for joining.

The Council shall meet upon DIT’s invitation on government premises or virtually. DIT shall provide secretariat services. The Council will meet at least on a quarterly basis. The Council will run for an initial 2-year term, with periodic reviews to ensure it delivers in line with its TOR. The location will be flexible.

To find out more, or to apply, click here.

 

The Food Authenticity Network has created a new information resource base for stakeholders, to signpost them to information related to potential or actual disruption to the food and drink supply chain resulting from the current conflict in Ukraine.

The information is organised under three headings:

• Government Information
• Industry information
• Events

The Food Authenticity Network was set-up in July 2015 by LGC with funding from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) as a direct response to Recommendation 4 of the Elliott Review into the Integrity and Assurance of Food Supply, which highlighted the need for standardised testing approaches.

Click here to access the Food Security Research Base.

The latest figures for surplus food redistribution in the UK show that the amount of food saved from becoming waste continues to rise significantly. But climate action NGO WRAP, which monitors UK surplus food as part of its food waste prevention work, warns that each year nearly 200,000 tonnes of perfectly good food still go to waste in the supply chain.

Against a backdrop of rising food prices and impacts on the supply chain, the collective efforts of the UK’s retailers, food manufacturers, hospitality & food service businesses and voluntary sector have still managed an impressive 16% increase in surplus food redistribution in 2021. In that year alone, more than 106,000 tonnes of surplus food – the equivalent of 253 million meals – were redistributed via charitable and commercial outlets with a value of more than £330 million.

In 2021, charities handled six times more surplus food than in 2015.

The commercial sector took the bulk of surplus food from manufacturers in 2021, with retail the largest supplier to the charitable sector. The hospitality & food service sector continues to increase the tonnage of surplus food it redistributes. The types of food redistributed remain similar, with the amount of fresh meat and fish, drinks and ambient food doubling between 2019 and 2021, while fresh produce, dairy, chilled pre-prepared and frozen food all fell in 2021, with bakery and chilled-prepared foods now lower than in 2019.

Two years ago WRAP published best practice guidance on Redistribution of Own-Label surplus food products within the supply chain to drive up redistribution; after consulting with the FSA, Defra, UK retailers, suppliers, redistribution organisations and sector bodies. The climate change NGO continues to work with businesses to implement this best practice across supply chains, but warns that uptake could be faster.

Catherine David, Director Collaboration and Change at WRAP, “It’s devastating to see how much food continues to be wasted from supply chains when so many people are struggling to afford the basics, and food redistributors say they can take more. Whilst we welcome the increased amount of food being redistributed in the UK, we know there is a huge amount of good food – 200,000 tonnes of it every year – that could be feeding people. Wasting food also feeds climate change, as all the resources taken to produce the food are thrown in the bin with it. We urge all food businesses and their suppliers to adopt our guidance on redistribution as a priority and help more food get to the people who need it. The surplus food is there, and there is so much more that could be saved at this difficult time for UK families.”

To read more, click here.

Defra want to know what you think about different options being considered to improve food waste reporting. They will be seeking views on the following:

• Options to improve food waste reporting
• Types of businesses in scope
• Material in scope to be reported
• The reporting process which businesses in scope may need to follow
• Costs and impacts
• Enforcement of any regulations

To find out more about this consultation, or to complete the online survey, click here.

Government is adopting an ambitious and transformational approach to public sector food and catering. It’s determined to use public sector purchasing power to ensure positive change in the food system. The vision is that public sector food and catering is an exemplar to wider society in delivering positive health, animal welfare, environmental and socio-economic impacts.

The government have developed a set of proposed changes to public sector food and catering policy, including the Government Buying Standards for Food and Catering Services (GBSF), to deliver this vision.

Their objectives are to:

1. Promote procurement of local, sustainable, healthier food and catering.
2. Open up public sector supply chains to a wider range of companies, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), to better support local economies, increase resilience, and encourage food producers to innovate.
3. Increase transparency of food supply chains to drive continuous improvement and build our understanding of what is bought, served, sold and wasted in the public sector.
4. Provide guidance and standards that:
   • are simple and engaging
   • reflect latest scientific evidence and national sustainability priorities
   • clearly align with broader Government policies, such as the Defra waste hierarchy guidance and Government dietary recommendations

The current Government Buying Standards for Food and Catering Services set out a range of mandatory and best practice standards for public sector organisations to apply when procuring food and catering services. These standards relate to food production, processing and distribution; nutrition; resource efficiency; and socio-economic considerations. Currently the GBSF is only mandatory within central Government Departments (e.g. catering in government buildings), the NHS (patient, staff and visitor catering in hospitals), the armed forces and prisons, as per the Procurement Policy Note (PPN) 10/14 published in November 2014.

The nutrition standards within the GBSF were recently reviewed, updated and published in July 2021 alongside supporting technical guidance. However, the other standards relating to social, economic and environmental sustainability and animal welfare have not been updated since 2014.The wider social and policy context has evolved since 2014, with a greater focus on net zero and levelling up – key drivers of the Government’s Plan for Growth. The standards therefore need updating to reflect these priorities.

In 2021, public sector food procurement was the subject of an inquiry within the House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Select Committee and has been featured in Henry Dimbleby’s independent National Food Strategy Report. Recommendations from both reports include:

• updating the buying standards to ensure procurement of healthy, sustainable food
• making the standards mandatory across the entire public sector
• improving and monitoring compliance with the standards
• opening up supply chains to a wider range of businesses

These recommendations have been considered within the proposals of this consultation.

This consultation is expected to be of greatest interest to public sector contracting authorities, food business operators, the food industry, Government departments and agencies, local authorities, consumer groups and public bodies. The views of any individual or organisation that has an interest, directly or indirectly, are also very welcome.

The consultation contains questions across five sections:

1. Some information about you
2. Public sector organisations in scope
3. Fair and transparent procurement guidance principles
4. Changes to the government buying standards for food and catering services
5. Data reporting proposals

Responses should be received by 11:59pm on 4^th September 2022.

To find out more, or to respond to this consultation, please click here.

Colleagues at The Association of Independent Meat Suppliers (AIMS) have highlighted to us the increased and quite concerning activity of activist groups such as Animal Rebellion.

In the last 12 months AIMS members have experienced activism in several forms from protests outside or near their sites to covert filming and social media claims. There are even reports of fire-bombs being used.

In the coming weeks the BFFF will be looking into this activity with a view to supporting and signposting members to useful resources, so please check our newsletters and website regularly for updates.

In the meantime, AIMS have kindly agreed that we can share their guidance with BFFF members.  This is the advice sent out by The Association of Independent Meat Suppliers (AIMS) to their members.

We should also make you aware that Animal Rebellion are launching a new campaign. For the month of September, they will be attempting to disrupt the UK dairy supply chain with the aim of stopping milk from reaching the supermarket shelves. They are likely to then move on to block other supply chains. You can read more about this here