News on Food Trends from United Kingdom

The West Midlands Potato Day attracted a good crowd of industry visitors on 19 June when potato grower Jonathan Bubb of J.M. Bubb & Sons hosted Potato Council’s technical field day at Lynn South Farm, Newport, Shropshire, where they grow around 400 acres of potatoes.

In the United Kingdom the value of fresh potato category is growing with a 3.8% rise over the last year, while the volume of fresh potatoes sold has dropped by 8.0%. The Potato Council is figuring out what can be done about it.

McCain Foods GB will be and official supplier of Tour de France 2014, which starts with an opening stage in Yorkshire.

Researchers at the Universities of Dundee and Aberdeen have made a breakthrough in understanding how the microbial spores which cause potato blight are so effective at infecting plants.

Earlier this month Heinz was fined for serious safety failings after an engineer had his hand severed when it became trapped in live, unguarded machinery (peeler slurry pump) at its Norfolk plant.

Leatherhead Food Research is delighted to announce the appointment of Alice Cadman as Head of Business Development & Marketing, starting 27 May 2014

McCain Foods UK is giving away thousands of Brazilian-themed limited edition Wedges sharing bowls free with two packs of McCain Wedges to drive volume, frequency of purchase and grow the frozen potato category this summer.

A vision for the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) was outlined by the Food and Farming Minister George Eustice and the new AHDB chairman Peter Kendall when they addressed AHDB employees.

This week saw the Potato Council division of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) mark the 50th anniversary of the opening of its Sutton Bridge Crop Storage Research (SBCSR) facility, near Spalding in Lincolnshire, United Kingdom

KETTLE® (United Kingdom) has commissioned three talented craftspeople to lovingly ‘craft a pack’.

Responding to the increased consumer demand for strong traceability and high quality ingredients, British crisp producer Burts Chips started using locally sourced Cornish Sea Salt in its top-selling salt variant.

Kettle Foods Ltd has withdrawn some packs of its Oven Baked Sweet Potato Chips Sweet Chilli because they contain wheat (gluten).

The ‘Aviko Diner’ will be open for business at the UK’s first Casual Dining Show – visitors are encouraged to head down to the 50s inspired stand (U121) to sample the potato expert’s wide range of premium fries.

Potato Council acts as a knowledge house for Government raising the importance of the potato. Two years since this work programme started there has been a real increase in knowledge about potatoes amongst parliamentarians with 83% now regarding potatoes as an important crop.

McCain Foods is exhibiting two latest additions to their premium Signatures product range at the Casual Dining Show: the new Gastro Thick Cut Chip and Skin-on Fry

Potato Council, Horticultural Development Company (HDC) and the Commercial Horticultural Association (CHA) returned in force to the Fruit Logistica to build their promotion of seed potatoes from Britain and raise the profile of the diversity and quality of UK horticultural crops.

KETTLE® Chips the UK’s No.1 Premium Crisp brand is bringing some excitement and new news to the Single Serve Crisps and Snacks category.

Daymer Ingredients, a distributor of AVEBE Starches located in the United Kingdom, reports an (upcoming) increase in potato starch prices