The National Farmers Union (NFU) has objected strongly to the Government’s rejection of infrastructure which could minimise disruption at Kent Ports, at the end of the Brexit transition, for exports destined for the EU.

The NFU called for all fresh agri-food products – live animals, including hatching eggs and reproductive material such as animal semen, embryos and ova – to be given special status but the Department of Transport (DfT) has confirmed that only day-old chicks and seafood would be given priority status for travelling through Kent to reach the Short Straits.

Gail Soutar, Chief EU Exit and International Trade Advisor of NFU, described this decision as ‘incredibly disappointing’. She further added, “We now face the prospect of vast quantities of high value British fresh, perishable product languishing in lorries sat in queues miles long.”

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On the 23^rd October 2020, the EU overturned the Agricultural Committee’s proposal that certain terminology is misleading to consumers by lifting the ban on the use of words such as ‘sausage and burger’ to describe vegetarian and vegan products. However, MEPs did vote that descriptions such as ‘yoghurt-style’ or ‘cream imitation’ could not be used for plant-based products. This sector will have to create new words to describe their products.

Louise Davies, Head of Policy at The Vegan Society, argued that, “Plant-based products are already banned from using terms like ‘milk’ or ‘butter’ – despite there being not a single piece of evidence to suggest consumers are confused by these words.” She further added, “We are perplexed by this decision by MEPs who should be doing all they can to support the consumption of plant-based products to address the growing climate crisis.” 

Whilst the European Dairy Association responded to the news by tweeting: “#EuropeanParliament votes the protection of dairy terms like ‘milk’, ‘butter’, ‘whey’ & alike! A good day for dairy, for European consumers and citizens and for Europe!”

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Asda has opened its first ‘trial’ sustainability store in Middleton, UK. The intentions are to cater for consumer demands for less plastic and waste. It comprises of refill stations, sustainable fashion lines and recycling facility.

The store will promote a reduction in plastic with assurances that customers won’t pay more with a ‘Greener At Asda Price’ which promises a national price for loose and unwrapped products to cost no more than their wrapped equivalents.

The Refill Stations will include shampoo, conditioner, laundry detergent, handwash and shower gels from well-known brands.

The company commits to generate zero carbon emissions by 2040 and reduce waste by 50% with a net regenerative impact on nature by 2050. Since 2018, Asda has reduced plastic packaging 9300 tonnes with a target of 15% to be achieved by 2021. It has also further committed to reducing its own-brand products by 3 billion pieces by 2025. By 2023 Asda has also committed to bring in over 40 refillable products and by 2030 to have 50 closed-loop and circular projects.

Roger Burnley, Asda’s President and CEO, said, “Today marks an important milestone in our journey as we tackle plastic pollution and help our customers to reduce, re-use and recycle. We have always know that we couldn’t go on this journey alone, so it is fantastic to work in tandem with more than 20 of our partners and suppliers, who have answered the call to test innovative sustainable solutions with us. This is an issue that matters greatly to our customers – our own insight tells us that more than 80% believe that supermarkets have a responsibility to reduce the amount of single-use plastics in stores. We want to give them the opportunity to live more sustainably by offering them great product choices and value, underpinned by a promise that they won’t pay more for greener options at Asda. During the next few months we will listen to customers and colleagues’ feedback on Middleton so we can understand how we can continue to reduce our environmental impacts, whilst continuing to deliver quality service at a great price.”

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Food and drink companies are not hitting the Government’s voluntary 20% sugar reduction target according to the latest annual progress report from Public Health England (PHE). The reduction was introduced in 2016 in an effort to reduce sugar consumption in children and consequently reduce obesity.

Commenting on PHE’s latest report, Dr Alison Tedstone, PHE’s Chief Nutritionist, said: “Too much sugar is bad for our health and most of us are consuming more than we need, often without realising it.​ We’ve continued to see some progress in reducing sugar in a number of everyday food and drink products and this shows that success is possible through reformulation. Yet, overall progress remains too slow. Faster and more robust action is needed to help us consume less sugar, which will help us become healthier and lower the economic burden of obesity and preventable pressure on the NHS.”​

Whilst progress is apparent in reducing sugar in areas such as soft drinks, breakfast cereals and dairy, there has been a significant increase,16-17% between 2015-2019, on sales of chocolate where sugar levels are largely unchanged.

Although, pre-packed milk-based drinks have hit the target, ahead of the 2021 deadline, at 22.1% reduction in sugar – the report does show that this sector is in the minority with most food and drink sectors not hitting target.Bottom of Form

In fact, according to the report there has been no change in the average sugar levels in products overall, having said that the report did show that there had been a reduction of 9.7% in average calories from 2017 to 2019.

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Matt Hancock, UK’s Health Secretary, has urged people to take Vitamin D supplements as a way of offering resilience to the effects of Covid-19, although there had previously been a policy dismissing its effectiveness.

Following a campaign by Dr. Rupa Huq, Labour MP for Ealing Central and Acton, and David Davis, Conservative MP for Haltemprice and Howden, the Government have made a u-turn on their advice and are encouraging people to take Vitamin D especially during the winter months.

There is also a clinical trial being undertaken by the Queen Mary University (QMU) of London, CORONAVIT, to investigate whether Vitamin D can protect people from Covid-19. There will be over 5,000 participants over six months using a ‘test and treat’ system to see if vitamin D reduces the risk of Covid-19 and other lung conditions.

The system is run from participants’ homes with tests and supplements sent via post. The test involves a finger prick vitamin D test which is sent off to an NHS lab to process. Any participants with low levels of Vitamin D are given a 6 months’ supply of 800 or 3200 IU to be taken daily. Incidents of respiratory infection will then be tracked to see if the vitamin D has had any affect on the risk and severity of infection.

It could be ground-breaking should the vitamin prove to be effective against Covid-19 as Dr David Joliffe from the Blizzard Institute and Institute of Population Health Services at QMU, stated, “Vitamin D supplements are low in cost, low in risk and widely accessible; if proven effective, they could significantly aid in our global fight against the virus.”​

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Nigel Wright, 45 year old Lincolnshire Farmer, has been imprisoned for 14 years after being convicted of contaminating baby food with metal and attempting to blackmail Tesco, Heinz and Cow & Gate with a £1.4 million bitcoin scheme.

In 2018, he purchased and contaminated three jars of Heinz baby food which he then placed in 2 Tesco stores and demanded bitcoin in exchange for revealing their location. Subsequently, Tesco urgently recalled 42,000 jars of the baby food, fortunately, two mothers who had purchased the contaminated jars did spot the metal moments before feeding their children.

In August 2020, Wright was found guilty at London’s Old Bailey of three counts of blackmail and two counts of product contamination. He was also convicted for an unrelated offence of blackmail linked to a traffic dispute.

In summing up His Honour Justice Warby said, “The greatest mitigation you (Wright) could have given was a guilty plea, instead you put forward an absurd and untenable case that fell apart under scrutiny. You were prepared to and did put vulnerable children at risk of serious injury. The offending caused shock, distress and expense, but mercilessly did not cause injury but that was down to luck rather than good judgement.”

Assistant Chief Constable Bill Jephson of Hertfordshire Constabulary led the inquiry and added: “I hope that the lengthy sentence handed down to Wright today acts as a deterrent to anyone who thinks blackmail is a viable criminal option.” He further added, “The resources available to law enforcement to respond to threats of this nature are significant and such crimes will simply not be tolerated. I’d like to extend my sincere thanks to all those who played a part in bringing Wright to justice.”

 

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