Tues 18th Nov, Park Plaza Westminster Bridge, London

ANNE GRAVETT FROM THE FSA ANNOUNCED AS KEYNOTE SPEAKER AT THE TECHNICAL CONFERENCE 2023

Posted on by Neesha Ramsingh-Cleary

With just under three weeks to go, the BFFF are pleased to announce the keynote speaker for this year’s Technical Conference will be Anne Gravett, Head of Stakeholder Engagement, Receipt & Management at the Food Standards Agency.

Having heard from speakers on food security, sustainability and nutrition, Anne will be rounding up the event with insight into how EU exit and Covid has impacted their work and the changes they’ve put in place to ensure consumers are protected from food safety incidents; using new proactive systems and approaches.

This session should drive some really good discussions, so if you haven’t already booked your seat, then make sure you do that today and don’t miss out!

SYSCO LAUNCHES ‘CLIMATE STRIPES’ ELECTRIC VEHICLE IN GREAT BRITAIN

Posted on by clare.twiss@brake.co.uk

Sysco in Great Britain has called for greater cross-industry collaboration, as it launches its latest electric vehicle, built as part of a partnership that it hopes will be the catalyst for widespread, fully electric, multi-temperature deliveries.

The new electric vehicle will become the first foodservice vehicle to carry the ‘Climate Stripes’ graphic, which is designed to highlight the issue of rising global temperatures. The Climate Stripes were created by Professor Ed Hawkins at the University of Reading and are designed to show vividly how global average temperatures have risen over nearly two centuries.

Speaking at the launch of the Climate Stripes vehicle at its Brakes depot in Reading, Peter Jackson, CEO of Sysco in Great Britain, said: “Food and transport are two of the most carbon-intensive sectors. We have a huge responsibility to tackle climate change through our operations and inspire our customers to do the same.

“We are on a journey to create a future where a delivery of sustainable produce arrives on an electric vehicle, charged with solar panels at the zero carbon depot. This is an important step. But we cannot do this alone and we need to work in partnership with customers, manufacturers, government and the rest of the foodservice industry.  We can only achieve real change if we work together.

“Our position in the food system creates an opportunity to inspire our customers to transform their menus and the food that they buy – by far the biggest portion of our own carbon emissions. We hope that the climate stripes on this vehicle will raise awareness of the challenge.”

The new DAF vehicle demonstrates the latest electric vehicle technology with a range of around 280 km and two temperature zones – frozen and chilled – powered directly from the battery, allowing frozen, fresh and ambient products to be delivered on a single vehicle. This is the next step towards Sysco’s ambition to stop buying new diesel vehicles in Great Britain by 2030.

As part of the launch, Jackson called for greater partnership with Government to support the uptake of zero emissions fleets, highlighting the challenges of a lack of infrastructure and the support needed to decarbonise commercial fleets.

Globally, Sysco has already announced its intention to electrify 35% of its North American fleet by 2030 as it seeks to reduce its direct carbon emissions by 27.5% by 2030.

ICELAND REVEALS HALF TERM INITIATIVE TO HELP FAMILIES’ BUDGETS GO FURTHER, WITH £2.00 BACK FOR EVERY £15.00 FREE SCHOOL MEAL VOUCHER SPENT

Posted on by mel.matson@iceland.co.uk

Families who receive Free School Meal Vouchers are eligible to use them at all Iceland and The Food Warehouse stores over the February half term to help ease the cost of living crisis.

From Monday 13th February, customers who visit stores with the e-gift cards and scan their Bonus Card will receive handy additional savings worth over 13%. The promotion will end on Friday 24th February, as schools begin a new term.

Eligible customers will receive a £15.00 voucher per child for the half term week from their schools or local councils. These can be converted into an Iceland e-gift card through the supplier portal, where the customer can choose which supermarket to spend their vouchers in.

To help make the vouchers go even further, customers redeeming a full £15 voucher at Iceland or The Food Warehouse can scan their Bonus Card and receive £2.00 back on their Bonus Card to use on their next shop. So, for example, if a parent of three were to spend all three of their Free School Meal Vouchers at either Iceland or The Food Warehouse, they would receive an extra £6.00 back onto their Bonus Card.

Richard Walker, Executive Chairman at Iceland, said: “Supporting families continues to be a high priority for Iceland. Times are especially tough right now, with grocery price inflation recently hitting a record 16.7%, adding a potential £788 to annual shopping bills[1].

“With this in mind, we’re keen to help ease pressures on families during the half term period through not only providing additional value to this excellent Government scheme, but also reminding and encouraging families to use these vouchers over the break.”

The supermarket has also launched two new bundles available for under £16, with a dozen products in each, to make sure parents have everything they need to keep their little ones fed well over the half term week. Each bundle also saves shoppers up to £3.

The first bundle comes packed with mealtime must-haves like Iceland 28 (approx.) Breaded Chicken Breast Nuggets (£2.00, 392g) and Birds Eye 8 Crispy Batter Fish Fingers (£2.00, 224g), nutritious sides and snacks like Iceland Mixed Vegetables with Carrots, Cut Green Beans, Peas and Sweetcorn (£1.00, 725g) and Fyffes Premium Bananas (£1.00, 5pk) plus lunchtime essentials such as Iceland Thick Sliced Soft White Bread (£1.00, 800g), Cheesy Singles (£1.00, 10pk) and Iceland Wafer Thin Cooked Ham (£1.00, 130g).

Keep the kids happy all day long too, as this bundle also comes with Pom-Bear Original Multipack Crisps (£1.50, 6pk), Maryland Chocolate Chip Cookies (£1.50, 200g) and Wildlife Choobs Strawberry, Raspberry and Apricot Flavour Yoghurt Tubes (£1.00, 6 x 37g).

Or, if parents are feeling strapped for time, the second bundle could be a great option containing all they need to whip up a delicious dinner in a moment’s notice. The bundle includes Iceland British Jacket Potatoes (£2.25, 1.5kg), Branston Baked Beans (£2.50, 4 x 410g), and John West Tuna Chunks in Brine (£1.00, 145g) – making serving up an easy jacket potato with beans or tuna easier than ever.

Thinking about treating the kids on Friday? No problem, as this bundle also includes Iceland Thin and Crispy Cheese and Tomato Pizza (£1.00, 302g) and Iceland Steak Cut Chips (£1.00, 900g) – making for the perfect pizza and chips tea!

For more details on Iceland’s bundle offerings, visit https://www.iceland.co.uk/. Customers can check if they are eligible for the school vouchers here: https://www.gov.uk/apply-free-school-meals.

WAGNER RECEIVES AWARD AS TOP INNOVATOR 2023

Posted on by carl.bryan@wagner-uk.com

WAGNER Group GmbH is one of this year’s top innovators and has been awarded the TOP 100 Seal 2023 for its innovation work. The quality seal, which is awarded every year on behalf of compamedia GmbH, honors the most innovative medium sized companies in Germany.  At the official award ceremony in June 2023, the companies will be honored in person by science journalist and mentor of the competition, Ranga Yogeshwar.

The TOP 100 seal is the only independent, scientific award for innovation management in Germany and is being awarded for the 30th time this year. Medium sized companies are evaluated in the three size categories of up to 50, 51 to 200 and more than 200 employees in order to give all applicants the same opportunity. With around 700 employees worldwide, 590 of them in Germany, WAGNER entered the competition in the biggest size category.

An expert jury, consisting of Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Franke from the Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration and his team, assesses the innovative strength on the basis of more than 100 test criteria in the five categories of innovation-promoting top management, innovation climate, innovative processes and organization, external orientation/open innovation and innovation success. The main focus is on whether innovations are the result of a systematic approach or a product of chance. Future viability on the market is also considered an important decision criterion for the award.

“The sustainable development of future-oriented innovations is an important part of our corporate strategy WAGNER.2026. Thanks to our creative and imaginative minds, as well as thorough research and lived customer proximity, we have been able to maintain our leading position in fire protection to this day,” says graduate engineer Torsten Wagner, Managing Director and Partner of WAGNER Group GmbH, pleased about the appreciation by the award of the TOP 100 distinction. “Despite difficult market conditions in recent years, we have continuously developed our trend-setting technologies. For this reason, we are pleased that our innovative spirit has been rewarded. At the same time, the award is an incentive to continue focusing on our innovation work in the future,” adds Torsten Wagner.

 

PART THREE OF THE ‘FDA IMPORT SERIES’ FROM TRACEGAINS

Posted on by Rachel Jones

This is part three of our ‘FDA Import Series’ where we offer insights to our European community who are exporting products or thinking about exporting products into the US.

With over 195 countries operating imports and exports throughout the global supply chain, importing into the U.S. has its own unique set of processes governed by the FDA and Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).

If you’re importing products into the United States or thinking about entering the US market, you’ll want to join this webinar to help shore up your understanding of FSMA in particular the Foreign Supplier Verification Program (FSVP) and bolster your strategy by knowing more about the challenges, pitfalls, and detention risks. In addition, leveraging technology to filter alerts specific to your products, your partner’s products, or even specific locations can help you make lightning-fast decisions that can salvage your bottom line.

BRITISH FROZEN FOOD FEDERATION HOSTS ‘MEET THE BUYER’ EVENT WITH ALDI

Posted on by Neesha Ramsingh-Cleary

The British Frozen Food Federation (BFFF) will host a ‘Meet the Buyer’ event on Tuesday 14 February. BFFF members will showcase their products to Aldi Buyers in a MasterChef-style event.

The event comes on the back of Aldi’s success at the 2022 Frozen Food Awards, as the supermarket’s Cheese and Onion Quarter Pounders won the Retail Product of the Year category. Aldi is now seeking to extend its frozen range and looks forward to working with the BFFF to ensure it stocks an even bigger selection of high-quality frozen products in its stores.

Rupert Ashby, chief executive of the British Frozen Food Federation added: “The event we are hosting on 14 February is an excellent opportunity for our members to meet the buyers of one of the UK’s leading supermarkets.

“The member companies will arrive for a meet and greet with the Aldi Buying Team, where they will learn about the Aldi frozen buying process, followed by a great opportunity to present their products to Aldi in the best way they can, fully prepared and ready to eat.”

The event is part of the BFFF’s continued work to promote the interests of the frozen food industry. Frozen food offers consumers excellent value without compromising on quality and is the premier choice for consumers who are looking for tasty, affordable and nutritious options during their weekly shop.

HAVE YOUR SAY ON THE REUL BILL

Posted on by Neesha Ramsingh-Cleary

The BFFF were recently invited to attend a meeting called by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to discuss the  Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill (REUL Bill)  in terms of Nutrition Labelling Composition and Standards.

As you will be aware, the REUL Bill is a framework which provides powers to ministers to decide whether to amend, retain or revoke any of the Retained EU Laws, of which there are >2,400!

The aim of the meeting was to understand, from a Nutrition Labelling Composition and Standards perspective, stakeholder views in terms of what degree of reform industry might be expecting and how that measures up to what ministers would agree to and the timetable might allow.

The BFFF Technical Expert Group came together to discuss this subject on January 25th and whilst we agreed there is definitely room for improvement in parts, many concerns were also tabled. On the whole, these concerns mirrored those which had been voiced by industry at the DHSC meeting, a summary of which is below:

Concerns:

  • Ensuring ongoing compliance with different regulations and avoiding barriers to trade.
  • Ensuring preservation of core compositional standards.
  • Divergence removes the competitive advantage.
  • Costly to comply with different regulations e.g., labelling differences UK v EU.
  • Acceptance of, and confusion caused by products on UK market with different labelling systems e.g., Nutriscore.
  • Negative impact on trade and growth.
  • Interdependencies between food and labelling legislation.
  • Risk to stability if too many changes in 2023.
  • Introduction of errors into legislation if rushed.
  • Need to review accompanying guidance.
  • Preservation of ‘complicated/messy/patchwork’ legislation.
  • Civil service under resourced – REUL on top of business-as-usual work.
  • Early notice needed if something is to be revoked.

If BFFF members have anything you wish us to raise about the REUL Bill, then please do let us know. We will be feeding back the points comments from the Technical Expert Group but we have been told the plan is to continue engaging with industry on a regular basis as the Bill progresses so your input would be most welcomed. Please email deniserion@bfff.co.uk

BFFF’S FIRST TECHNICAL EXPERT GROUP MEETING TAKES PLACE

Posted on by Neesha Ramsingh-Cleary

The BFFF Technical Expert Group held their first hybrid meeting of the year on January 25th which proved to be a real success.

Altogether 17 experts joined the session, 9 in person and the remainder joining virtually, which was held at a new venue, the Newark Showground.

As always, we had a packed agenda which generated some interesting discussions including:

  • Divergence
  • The latest updates on food incidents & supply chain issues including the grey market, caustic soda, peanut in soya lecithin and Listeria in smoked fish.
  • Detail of the Technical and Health and Safety Conferences on March 8th including an exciting Bring Your Team discount offer !

We were also pleased to welcome guest attendee Melissa Toney, Food Safety and Regulatory Lead from NFU Mutual. Melissa gave the group a whistle stop tour of her role and the work of the NFU Mutual. We hope that in making this initial introduction, it will help to identify potential areas for assistance and collaboration going forward. Should any members wish to hear more about the work of NFU Mutual, then please let us know and we will happily facilitate.

Due to confidentiality reasons, we are unable to circulate the full set of minutes, but if you wish to know more on any of the subjects discussed then please feel free to contact deniserion@bfff.co.uk for the latest updates.

In the meantime, we would like to thank the members of the Technical Expert Group for their continued support and dedication on behalf of the whole membership.