Fresh Produce News
Event will cover R&D, knowledge transfer, the Yes Peas! promotion campaign, and industry insights, among other topics
The first-ever UK Vining Pea Conference is to be sponsored by Syngenta.
The event, to be held on November 11th at PGRO near Peterborough, will cover Reasearch & Development, knowledge transfer, the Yes Peas! promotion campaign, industry insights, health and safety, and research into crop association membership.
It will culminate with keynote speaker Brian Youngs, from the British Frozen Food Federation.
Rebecca Stilton, Syngenta vegetable campaign manager, said: “The inaugural Vining Pea Conference promises to showcase the latest agronomic advances for growers, which is entirely consistent with Syngenta’s commitment to help vining pea growers produce higher yielding crops of quality peas. We welcome the opportunity to support this exciting event for the whole industry.”
The conference is aimed at growers, managers, agronomists, processors, seed companies, crop protection specialists and machinery manufacturers from the vining pea industry.
It is also free to attend if you pre-register.
Reported move follows on from the success of such products in the fast-food giant’s Indian restaurants
Global fast-food giant Burger King is reportedly keen on introducing more vegetarian items to the menus of its UK restaurants.
The alleged move follows the success of such items in Burger King India, which introduced six vegetarian snacks, sandwiches and entry-level burgers in its offering when the chain began life in the Indian nation in November 2014.
“Looking at the response here, the global management is evaluating introducing some of these options going forward to other vegetarian-friendly markets like the UK,” Raj Varman, chief executive officer of Burger King India, told India’s largest news agency, Press Trust of India.
A shipment of the fruit has been rejected in the Netherlands due to the presence of fruit fly
An airfreighted consignment of mangoes from Pakistan has been turned away in Amsterdam after the presence of fruit fly was discovered by inspectors.
The rejection of the mangoes marks the first time this season that any volumes of the fruit from Pakistan has been rejected by the EU, the Express Tribune reported.
“This is the first rejection of any mango consignment this season,” explained Dr Mubarak Ahmed, director general of Pakistan’s Department of Plant Protection. “We have further tightened up the clearance measures to control the situation.”
Prior to last week’s discovery, which was made in a 4.5 tonne consignment of the fruit, Pakistan has exported some 26,000 tonnes of mangoes to the European Union so far this export campaign.
Evesham supplier has launched cherries, blueberries and cherry tomatoes as one 5-A-DAY portion snack-pots
Fresh produce supplier Wellpak yesterday (18 June) launched a new range of snack-pots containing single servings of blueberries, cherries or cherry tomatoes.
Designed to help consumers reach the 5-A-DAY targets, the pots have peel-off lids so they can be consumed on-the-go and stored easily. As such, Wellpak said they will particularly appeal to commuters, and parents who will no longer have to divide punnets into portions for lunchboxes.
The pots were developed alongside Wellpak’s packaging partner, Ackio, which designed a new device to allow pots to be filled to an exact weight. The new technology has vision-based checking of individual berries for internal and external defects, while air pressure tests for softness.
Packing lines have also been adapted to allow the upright, unstable snack-pots to be packed efficiently and at high speed, before being sealed with a pre-printed film.
“Wellpak is a proactive company that prides itself in having a great deal of foresight, so we’ve been planning the snack-pots for some time,” said Wellpak sales director, Simon Lane.
“Fortunately for us though, market data suggests our diversification into snack-pots now goes hand in hand with a trend everyone in the fresh produce industry is talking about: single-portion packaging. It’s good to be ahead of the curve.
“We’re all aware that we should be eating five portions of fruit or vegetables a day but we’re all so busy that it’s hard to find time to prepare it, or to grab a healthy snack when you’re on the move.
“We’re hoping our snack-pots, which each contain one of your 5-A-DAY, will change that.”
Wellpak snack-pots are available to retailers now.
‘Groundbreaking’ move allows customers who are members of my Waitrose to choose products they’d like to save 20% on
Waitrose is to start giving its customers the power to pick which groceries they save money on.
The ‘Pick Your Own Offers’ scheme allows customers who are members of my Waitrose to choose the products they’d like to save 20% on, in-store and online.
Customers will be able to select ten items from a list of nearly 1,000, from everyday or frequently bought items to special treats.
Pick Your Own Offers will be on top of Waitrose’s Brand Price Match scheme, which will continue to match Tesco’s prices on branded products.
Mark Price, Waitrose MD, said: “This is a groundbreaking move giving customers the power to choose the offers they want. We know from the success of myWaitrose that customers like straightforward deals they can trust that are relevant to them. ‘Pick Your Own Offers’ goes one step further by putting them in control.
“Different forms of personalised marketing have been around since the 1990s, but we’re introducing mass customisation in grocery. Customers can choose what’s valuable to them when they shop for groceries. We really are giving power to the consumer.”
The Royal Horticultural Society’s (RHS) search for the best young herb photographers is to be sponsored by the fresh produce giant
Vitacress is to sponsor The Royal Horticultural Society’s (RHS) search for the best young herb photographers.
The competition is aimed at schools taking part in the RHS Campaign for School Gardening, a UK-wide initiative that aims to inspire and support schools to provide children with gardening opportunities to enhance their skills and boost their development.
Photographers are invited to capture a ‘living’ herb growing in the wild, garden, in a container or in a setting of their choice. The herbs may be growing in the UK, abroad or across any season.
There are two age groups for the competition – 11 to 17-year-olds, and an under-11s category.
Entrants will compete for the respected title of RHS Young Herb Photographer of the Year, and the prize of an iPad Air, worth approximately £300, will be awarded to the winner from each age category.
The winning photographer’s school in both age groups will also receive £500 of horticultural materials for their gardening clubs. In addition, the runner up in each age category will win an iPad Mini and £250 of horticultural materials for their school.
The judging panel for the RHS Young Herb Photographer of the Year 2015 will include representatives from Vitacress, the UK’s largest grower and supplier of fresh herbs for the UK retail market, Jekka McVicar and Lady Bacon, chair of the RHS Herb Group, Alana Tapsell, schools’ communications officer for the RHS Campaign for School Gardening, and Jason Ingram, who was voted photographer of the year 2014 by the Garden Media Guild.
Chris Moncrieff, production director for the Vitacress herbs division, said: “We’re obviously very passionate about herbs so to be part of this competition is exciting. We’re really looking forward to seeing the entries. Herbs offer such vibrant colours and shapes, we hope they will offer some fresh and creative opportunities for the young photographers.”
The closing date for entries is 25 September 2015. Entry is via the campaign’s website, and budding photographers will be able to submit their herb pictures via this link.
Retailer says figures that show exotic salads are becoming lunch option of choice are behind move to expand range
Tesco has trebled its on-the-go salad range to more than 50 lines following new data that shows the lighter salad market is growing around three times as fast as the lunchtime sandwich market.
Data produced by market analysts Nielsen, and published by Tesco, reveals that the sandwich market is growing by 5%, while figures from market insight firm IRI revealed demand for lighter, healthier salads has soared by 19% over the last 52 weeks, while leafy salads are up by 13%.
Tesco said exotic and lighter salads are becoming the lunch option of choice for office workers, as better quality produce is attracting new consumers who might previously have bought a sandwich or wrap. Its new range has expanded both the Finest and Healthy Living tiers, and includes four first-to-market salads.
New additions include a crayfish and mango salad, a coconut Asian chicken salad, and a king prawn and spicy Charlotte potato salad with sour cream.
Tesco salad buyer Helen Dwyer said: “The quality and range of ready to eat salads has improved so much in recent years that they are attracting shoppers who might otherwise have bought a sandwich, roll or wrap.
“Traditionally, sales of prepared salads would rise during the summer months and drop again during the winter. Now, because of the exciting number of new gourmet salads available that demand is not only sustained throughout the year but is bringing in plenty of new customers who might otherwise have chosen a sandwich as a lunchtime snack.
“This current boom has prompted us to launch what we believe to be among the most sumptuous and wide-ranging ‘on the go’ salad range available on the high street but at equally mouth-watering prices.
“We’ve included something for everyone – from our finest top of the range lines to lighter sushi rice salads and Healthy Living range for those looking to maintain a balanced diet.”
The number of redundancies at the 2 Sisters Food Group chicken processing plant in Llangefni, North Wales, is less than what was originally feared.
It has been confirmed that 51 staff have lost their jobs, though at one point there were concerns that up to 270 staff could be made redundant. Of those 51, 37 have been voluntary.
“Further to many weeks of detailed consultations with our colleagues at the Llangefni site, their trade union representatives and officials, we are pleased to confirm that the site has now moved to the proposed operating model which the business presented to the site two months ago and that consultations have officially been concluded,” said a company spokesperson.
“We now begin work together in ensuring that the changes which have been implemented are embedded and the site begins to realise the operational benefits of those changes.”
The National Diet and Nutrition Survey found that nearly one in ten people from the Lothians eats no fruit or veg
Cracks about the Scottish diet are nothing new, but now a new study has shown that nearly one in ten people in the Lothians eats no fruit or vegetables.
The National Diet and Nutrition Survey also found that more than two-thirds of people across the region don’t get their “5 A DAY”, and that over half of all Edinburgh adults are either overweight or obese.
In response to the results, the Edinburgh evening news reports, a drive has been launched to promote healthier eating habits among the region’s population.
Edible Edinburgh is a campaign that brings together the NHS, city council and volunteer-led groups in a bid to change public attitudes to food and encourage people to buy more local produce and grow their own fruit and veg.
Launching Edible Edinburgh, the city council’s environment convener Lesley Hinds told the Evening News: “We all know that a nutritious diet, including plenty of cereals, fruit and vegetables, is essential for a good start in life, and to stay healthy later on.
“Unfortunately, not everyone has access to affordable fresh and healthy food, and we are determined to change that in Edinburgh.”