Foodservice News and Information

  • Whitbread commits to a new meat standard

    WHITBREAD HAS announced that it will be taking a “wide range of actions” following the discovery of horse meat in two of its products last week.     The leisure group’s boss has also criticised other hospitality businesses for failing…

  • Scientists consider new GM wheat trial

    THE INTEREST around genetically modified (GM) crops is continuing to rise with reports that scientists at Rothamsted are mulling over a proposal to apply for permission to replicate its GM trial of wheat plants engineered to repel aphids.   Farmers…

  • Call for legally-binding hospital food standards

    HOSPITAL CATERING standards have come under fire in a damning new report published today.   The assessment, entitled “Twenty years of hospital food failure: Why we need mandatory standards, not more ineffective voluntary initiatives”, concluded that £54 million of taxpayers’…

  • Footprint on French radio

    THE FRENCH might be having a good chuckle at “les rosbifs” when it comes to our aversion to horse meat, but yesterday French radio ran a serious report on the scandal. What’s more, Footprint Media Group CEO Nick Fenwicke-Clennell was…

  • Horse meat testing expanded

    TESTING FOR horse meat will be extended to include stock cubes, stewing steak and gelatine. In all, 514 products will be tested, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) has announced. The full results will be published.   The sampling for the…

  • Doctors back soda tax

    DOCTORS BELIEVE that a tax on sugary drinks will help to tackle the obesity crisis. Academy of Medical Royal Colleges also calls for better standards of hospital food   In an extensive report, published today February 18th, the Academy of…

  • School fish procurement strategy attacked

    THE GOVERNMENT is not doing enough to encourage schools to offer only sustainable fish. And according to marine conservation and health groups this is “threatening the ability of children to feed themselves in the future with heart and brain-healthy fish”.…

  • Caterers ‘real culprits’ in horse meat scandal.

    THE BOSS of Iceland has launched a scathing attack on the catering industry, claiming that they and the local authorities are to blame for the current horse meat crisis.   In an interview with the BBC on Sunday, February 17th,…

  • Compass and Whitbread find horse DNA

    THE FOODSERVICE sector has been dragged into the horse meat scandal with Compass and Whitbread having found horse DNA in products sold as beef. Horse meat has also been found in cottage pies supplied to 47 schools in Lancashire.  …

  • Horse meat findings so far are ‘tip of the iceberg’

    THE LIMITED cases of horse meat found in products on sale in the UK, and around Europe, are likely to be the ‘tip of the iceberg’ according to an influential group of MPs.   In a short, but hard-hitting, inquiry…