Hacked off
Resilience has once again been the watchword in a week when the European food chain fell victim to a second cyber attack in the space of a month, while Kellogg’s blamed climate change for substituting a key ingredient in two of its best-selling cereal brands.
On Monday, supermarkets in countries including Ireland, Sweden and Belgium saw their fridges and freezers suffer temperature increases following a hack that rendered large amounts of food unsellable. It followed a similar attack targeting supermarkets and food suppliers across France in early October. BBC News reported that some UK meat suppliers were also affected by the cyber attack. The British Association of Independent Meat Suppliers said two of its members saw their fridges begin to defrost, while another saw their cold units – which were empty at the time – rise up to 100℃ in temperature. Hackers exploited vulnerabilities in systems used to remotely control and manage cold refrigeration units.
Cold Chain Federation chief executive, Phil Pluck, told the Fruitnet website that UK businesses should operate on the assumption that “the next attack is a matter of when, not if” and that recent incidents could be a precursor to a larger, more organised campaign in the run-up towards Christmas.
The growing risk of cyber crime sits alongside climate change as a major threat to the future resilience of UK supply chains, albeit the two risks manifest themselves in different ways. Kellogg’s has been making headlines after it confirmed it has reformulated its Rice Krispies and Coco Pops recipes to replace rice with rice flour due to “changing weather conditions”. It said the climate crisis had affected the quality and availability of some rice and grains used in its cereals.
The news broke in the same week new research from Barclays exposed a gulf between UK businesses’ awareness of climate risks and the practical steps they are taking to improve their resilience as the climate changes. The survey of 700 UK business leaders and farmers found that 85% think investing to protect themselves from extreme weather patterns is critical to growth, while 83% believe underinvestment is constraining growth. However, fewer than one in ten businesses believe they are fully resilient and well adapted to a changing climate. Only a quarter of those surveyed said they are currently investing to protect their business from climate change with competing priorities, uncertain returns and data gaps holding back investment. This is despite more extreme weather already impacting where UK businesses invest, with one in ten having closed or downsized sites due to climate risk.
“Businesses understand the risk from a changing climate but the challenge is turning that recognition into practical investment,” said Daniel Hanna, group head of sustainable and transition finance at Barclays.
It’s not just private sector assets at risk from climate change. Analysis of government annual reports by the National Audit Office has revealed how risks such as flooding and overheating could affect a wide range of public services including transport networks, healthcare and prisons. A new report by the spending watchdog examined the government’s response to climate-related risks and the strength of its sustainability reporting. Starting from the 2025-26 financial year, larger central government bodies must publish the impacts, timelines and costs of their significant climate-related risks in their annual reports. Based on the financial disclosures of 31 public bodies, the NAO found most are still at an early stage in reporting with few bodies explaining fully what climate-related risks could mean for their services, future plans and finances. Although climate scenario analysis was limited, where used the NAO said it helped bodies understand future costs, risks to services and investment decisions.
Small Bites
Fifty schools to take part in sustainable procurement project
Defra is allocating £2m over 15-months to a project designed to help schools get more local, high-quality, sustainable ingredients into meals. As first reported by Schools Week, the department has put out a tender for a contractor to design and deliver a project that improves school food procurement practices and establishes a robust framework to monitor and report progress. The project forms part of the government’s ambition that half of all public sector food is locally produced or certified to higher environmental standards. It also aligns with the new National Procurement Policy Statement, published in February 2025, which sets expectations for government contracts to favour products meeting higher environmental standards. Schools Week reported that a pilot will involve around 50 schools across England, largely secondaries that use outsourced catering. The Defra tender document reads: “Because most schools use external caterers, they need stronger procurement capability to set robust specifications and appoint suppliers able to deliver these outcomes without driving up costs.” Defra said improving school food procurement will also help reduce food waste and lead to primary and secondary pupils being better engaged with the food system.
MPs have “no faith” obesity ambition will be met
A group of MPs has urged the Prime Minister to make tackling England’s obesity crisis his “personal mission” with equal focus on prevention as treatment. The Health and Social Care Committee laid down the challenge to Andy Burnham as its cross-party members said they had “no faith” that the government will achieve its aim – stated in last year’s ‘10 year health plan’ – to “launch a moonshot to end the obesity epidemic”. Launching the third and final report of its food and weight management inquiry, the committee challenged the government to clearly define what it means by ending the obesity epidemic and set a target and milestones towards reducing rates across the country. Members also called for a cross-departmental action plan driven from the centre of government by the Prime Minister himself. The action plan should focus equally on prevention as on treatment of obesity-related health conditions, including through regulatory changes to the food environment. The committee noted how “introducing a series of individual policies with little regard for the overall picture has led to little change in the food environment”. This week, campaigners delivered a Citizens’ Charter to the door of 10 Downing Street (the subject of this week’s The Small Print podcast) in which people from across the UK demanded urgent action to make healthier food more affordable and accessible.
Health agency to carry out first human study on PFAS effect
Government researchers will study the impact of ‘forever chemicals’ on people’s health as part of a major new study on PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) and other chemicals. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is conducting a human biomonitoring study as part of a programme of work to improve understanding of levels of PFAS and other chemicals, such as lead, arsenic and flame retardants, in the UK population and the potential implications for health. PFAS are a group of more than 10,000 industrial substances that have a wide range of industrial and consumer goods applications, including in the foodservice sector where they provide oil-, grease- and water-resistance properties in coatings applied to disposable packaging. Typical examples include fast-food wrappers for burgers and sandwiches as well as bakery bags and pizza boxes. The UKHSA study will involve analysing blood and urine samples collected through the existing health survey for England to understand what substances may be present in the population and at what levels. Initial findings are expected to be reported in 2027. The study follows Defra’s publication earlier this year of a PFAS plan as it looks to restrict intentional use of the group of chemicals, some of which are already subject to restrictions under the EU’s packaging and packaging waste regulation (PPWR).
Chef’s Special
Caterers continue to go wild for regeneratively farmed grains. Elior has become the latest business to partner with Wildfarmed to introduce the supplier’s regeneratively farmed ingredients to its menus, following in the footsteps of the likes of Compass Group and WSH along with a range of restaurant and retail brands. The caterer will use Wildfarmed oats across its entire estate of approximately 1,200 sites, with around 90 tonnes set to be sourced annually and deployed across all of Elior’s menus and food offers. The tie-up builds on an existing partnership with Elior-owned Lexington Catering to use Wildfarmed flour across its sites. Elior said the move would help it increase the proportion of its supply chain sourced from regenerative agriculture. “Oats are such a versatile ingredient and are already an important part of the food we serve across our sites,” said Gareth Hiron, category director – food beverage and supply chain at Elior. Wildfarmed co-founder Ed Lees described contract catering as one of the most underrated levers in the food system. “When a caterer changes what it sources, it changes the standard for everyone, and thousands of people start eating differently overnight without changing a single habit. That’s how the transition to regenerative farming scales,” said Lees.
Last Orders
In one of the most literal marketing stunts of the year, Innocent has piloted what it claims is a “world-first drink with no bottle” in the tiny Northamptonshire hamlet of…. Nobottle. The drinks brand partnered with novel packaging supplier Notpla to replace its regular plastic bottle with an edible pod made from biodegradable seaweed. Residents of the village were encouraged to put the entire pod in their mouths and swallow the packaging – a trial that was then replicated at scale in a nearby city. The stunt was designed to test Notpla’s ‘Ooho pod’ format on a new product innovation, Innocent ginger shots. Innocent brand spokesperson, Andy Wallis, added that the aim was to explore how Notpla’s technology can be used not just in the ginger shots but in other drinks and smoothies too. Notpla’s packaging uses seaweed to create a compostable, edible alternative to single-use plastics and is designed to disappear without leaving waste behind. Its founder, Pierre Paslier, worked as a plastics packaging engineer before co-founding the Earthshot prize winning start-up.
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