The Small Print

The annual Groundswell Festival of regenerative agriculture took place at Lannock Farm in Hertfordshire last week. In this week's bite-sized episode, Nick shares his key takeaways from the 10th staging of the event which speak to the trajectory of the regenerative movement, the tensions that still exist within it, and what it all means for farmers and businesses. In particular, Nick highlights gro...

As experts continue to question the resilience of the UK’s food system amid geopolitical turmoil and weather extremes, Canada has forged ahead with developing a new national food security strategy. The document explicitly positions food security as national security and sets out how Canada plans to assert greater control over its food supply through investment in domestic production and infrastruc...

In Monday’s Footprint In Focus feature we explored the implications of a new government-backed plan to triple the level of surplus food being redistributed to those in need. The plan has been pitched as an opportunity to turn the environmental problem of surplus food into a social opportunity. But it’s also raised concern that food redistribution risks being conflated with food security amid a sur...

The UK Government has pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 87% by 2040 as part of its seventh carbon budget. Yet comprehensive plans to decarbonise agriculture and land use remain conspicuously absent from policy papers, with food production on track to become the UK’s largest source of emissions by 2050. In this week’s episode, Ruth Westcott from the charity Sustain joins Nick to discuss...

The cold chain describes the collection of businesses responsible for keeping temperature-controlled goods like meat, dairy and fresh produce moving safely and efficiently through supply chains: from source all the way through to restaurant kitchens and supermarket shelves. Trade body the Cold Chain Federation is concerned about growing risks to the chain from a range of threats including targeted...

Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions account for the lion’s share of the total for the average foodservice business. These are the emissions buried within food and drink supply chains that can be difficult to capture and measure in a consistent way. WRAP has taken on the task of creating a voluntary set of protocols for how food and drink businesses should report their scope 3 emissions. It has just p...

New research from the campaign group Action on Salt & Sugar has revealed worrying levels of salt in some of the UK’s most popular sandwiches sold by high street food-to-go brands and retailers. It’s now two years since the deadline passed for food businesses to meet voluntary salt reduction targets and still the government has failed to publish its report on industry progress. In the meantime,...

The humble soybean plays a major role in powering the global food system as a key source of animal feed. But with industry targets for sourcing verified deforestation- and conversion-free soy having been missed, and with the landmark Amazon Soy Moratorium on the brink of collapse, is sustainable soy still within reach for UK food businesses? In this week’s episode, Nick speaks with Jonathan Gorman...

The Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare (BBFAW) ranks 149 leading food companies, including many in the hospitality and foodservice sector, on their policies, practices and performance. This year’s report highlights pockets of good progress, including a UK-led reduction in reliance on animal-sourced foods, yet overall food companies are struggling to match ambition with action on farm animal...

School food standards in England are set for their first overhaul in over a decade following the publication of a government consultation. Ministers say the current standards are out of date and want to align them with the latest health guidance to ensure children are getting the nutritious food they need. But how effective a lever for change can standards alone be? In this week’s episode of The S...

Scotland has the ambition for high quality, nutritious food to be available to everyone as set out in the Good Food Nation Act. In this week’s episode of The Small Print, Jayne Jones, chief executive of the newly launched Scottish Food Commission, tells Nick Hughes how this landmark piece of legislation can help break down the barriers to food systems change and the role of the Commission in suppo...

Mike Barry has been working at the coal face of food sustainability for several decades, as the architect of Marks & Spencer’s pioneering Plan A strategy and most recently as co-founder of food systems consultancy Planeatry Alliance. In this week’s episode of The Small Print, Mike shares with Nick Hughes his vision for a future-fit food system in which businesses and policy makers have created...

A new Netflix documentary, The Plastic Detox, has questioned the link between infertility and human exposure to microplastics. In this week’s episode of The Small Print, Nick Hughes is joined by Pierre Paslier, who worked as a plastics packaging engineer before co-founding the Earthshot prize winning start-up Notpla, which makes packaging out of seaweed. In a wide-ranging conversation they discuss...

A new NGO-led campaign is calling on the UK Government to deliver a Good Food Bill. Supporters say that only by having food system targets written into legislation can they withstand a continuous cycle of political change and provide long-term stability for businesses and investors. In this week’s episode, Nick Hughes speaks to Anna Taylor of The Food Foundation, a driving force behind the campaig...

Professor Chris Elliott is a global expert on food safety and security and a leading voice in a coalition campaigning for the use of nitrites to be banned as additives in cured meat products. As data shows falling demand for bacon, Chris tells Nick Hughes why he believes the direction of travel is towards an outright ban on nitrite-cured ham and bacon, and why foodservice operators need to move qu...

Robin Sundaram has spent almost four decades working in sustainability roles within the food industry, including 30 years with Nestl é . In this week's episode, Robin shares lessons from his career to-date including how a role working in sustainability has changed since he started in the sector, why resilience is the current industry watchword, and how collaboration with suppliers is key to delive...

BaxterStorey has committed to double volume sales for all bean products by 2028 as part of its support for The Food Foundation and Veg Power's new Bang In Some Beans campaign. In this week's episode Nick Hughes talks to BaxterStorey's head of nutrition and ESG, Lizzie Foskett, about how the caterer plans to ramp up bean sales, how chefs are empowered to get creative with beans, and why nutrition a...

New polling of parents and young people shows access to food education in England is fragmented, inconsistent and insufficient with fewer than half of young people receiving dedicated curriculum time, and with the food served in schools often misaligned with what young people are being taught about good food and nutrition. Nick Hughes is joined by Jenny Paxman, CEO of The School of Artisan Food, t...

Chantelle Nicholson is a champion of veg-forward cooking through her work as a chef, author and advocate. In this first episode of The Small Print , Chantelle tells Nick Hughes what inspired her love of fresh produce, how plant-based cooking and eating can go mainstream, and why she advocates for seasonality, circularity and regenerative practices in the hospitality sector.