News

I have written before (back in 2011 initially) on the idea that the current dietary guidelines might be wrong and that the accusatory finger pointing at saturated fat as the bogeyman looks seriously flawed. (see “The truth about food? Fat Chance…”)

However, I’ve tended to avoid focussing...

Send a ship loaded with converted vintage food trucks from the UK to the Persian desert? Take cutting-edge, fashionable British street food to a traditional, conservative culture? Plan, build and run a road-show of three large-scale food festivals over several weeks in a region we had no prior...

Britain’s reputation for having a wretched food culture still seems to stick to it like beef stew and dumplings stick to the ribs. This despite having a capital city which offers some of the best, most creative and diverse cooking in the world. And it doesn’t begin and end with the world-class,...

The war against sugar is raging. This is welcome stuff. With mounting evidence against sugar as the main culprit of many public health problems – from cancer to diabetes- more and more scientists and public health authorities have finally been speaking up. Dr. Robert Lustig has been on the case...

The British Street Food Awards team have just launched a new street food app. Their new app showcases the best market food and street food in Britain. It’s revolutionary, with live GPS maps showing who’s trading where and when. It details the specials of the best traders, and encourages punters...

Last-ditch lobbying to sway vote in Brussels to halt use of killer nerve agents

Europe is on the brink of a landmark ban on the world’s most widely used insecticides, which have increasingly been linked to serious declines in bee numbers. Despite intense secret lobbying by British ministers and...

​Foodie heaven is being found not at high-end restaurants but at a stunning variety of street eats says, Ben Bryant.

​The Street is where it’s at! Marina O’Loughlin restaurant reviewer talks about the best street food in London.

Like my grandmother before me, I have never had a tub of margarine in the house. Perhaps thanks to her, my gut instinct has always told me that butter is better for you. Not only does butter taste incomparably better, it’s a natural product that human beings have been eating and cooking with for...

Thousands of British children are going to school hungry every day, while the country faces an obesity and dietary crisis that is costing the NHS £6bn per year. The numbers speak for themselves: Britain has sleepwalked into a diet crisis, with unaffordable social and economic implications.

This...

Consumers as well as supermarkets play a crucial role in influencing retail and farming policy and must help drive change.

Last Friday Sainsbury’s ran another switch the fish day. Customers who asked for one of the so-called “big five” – cod, haddock, tuna, salmon or prawns – were offered a...

Farmers say they are paid so little for their meat that many will be forced out of the industry.

Spring lambs occupy a special place in Britain’s rural idyll. As animal and meat, lamb is vested with huge symbolism, celebrated in hymns, nursery rhymes and oil paintings. Shakespeare uses the animal...

Golden rice, a new strain that boosts vitamin A levels and reduces blindness in developing countries, is about to be sown in the Philippines – and is the new battleground crop.

Scientists say they have seen the future of genetically modified foods and have concluded that it is orange or, more...

Modern pesticides widely used by British farmers could be restricted over concerns they are responsible for a decline in bee populations. The European Commission said neonicotinoids, insecticides often applied directly to seed so the crop grows up resistant to pests, should be banned from use on...

Children’s Food Trust, which monitors quality of meals served in schools, will receive no government funding after March.

Childhood nutrition campaigners have expressed alarm after the government confirmed it will cut off all funding to the Children’s Food Trust, the main organisation which...

ORGANIC PRODUCE has had an uneasy time during the recession, but new research shows that 37 million hectares of land are now farmed organically.

Despite a slight decline between 2009 and 2010, since 1999 the global land area farmed organically has expanded more than threefold, concluded the...

The organic farm links up with the organic food charity.

This is a partnership forged, if not in heaven, then in a strong philosophical affinity. Guy Watson, winner of the BBC’s Farmer of the Year 2012 award and founder of Riverford, an organic farm that delivers 37,000 vegetable boxes each week,...

Pesticides blamed for killing bees have been removed from the shelves of Britain’s biggest gardening chains, prompting calls for similar chemicals widely-used on farms to be banned completely.

After studying the evidence, Homebase, B&Q and Wickes took the decision to remove two popular bug killers...

Herding cattle up the side of a mountain might seem like a lot of extra work, but for thousands of years, people have hauled their cows into the Alps to graze during the summer months. Why? It’s all about great-tasting cheese.

In places like Italy, some traditional cheeses, like bra d’alpeggio or...

Budget should raise £1bn a year to pay for free school meals and encourage children to eat fruit and vegetables, urges charity.

Sugary drinks should be subject to a new tax, which could add 20p a litre to their price with the proceeds going towards child health, a report says.

The report by food...

In the great mackerel row, consumers are caught in the middle desperately trying to work out what they should and shouldn’t be eating.

It used to be straightforward: cod was being overfished, so you knew not to eat it. Bluefin tuna was out of bounds. And don’t even think of ordering the marlin...

The Food Standards Agency is to charge the retailer over its vending machines that sold unpasteurised milk

Selfridges is being taken to court for potentially putting public health at risk by selling raw milk at its flagship London store, the government’s food watchdog has announced.

The Food...

Plans to force Europe’s farmers to earn their subsidies by protecting the environment are under attack by MEPs. The European Commission is attempting to reform the EU’s agriculture policy, under which farmers get subsidies based on the amount of land they own. The Commission says part of...

The scandal of horsemeat in supermarket burgers should be seen as a warning of things to come, say experts alarmed that meat producers are to be given more powers to police themselves.

Internal documents from the Food Standards Agency reveal that the UK is to move away from regular inspections of...

Mackerel, once promoted by celebrity chefs as an “ethical” fish, could disappear from British dinner tables after being taken off a list of what can be eaten with a clear conscience because of overfishing.

Jamie Oliver, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Raymond Blanc have all promoted mackerel as a...

How would you feel if everything you thought you knew about the fundamentals of a healthy diet were wrong and the principles that you thought you understood were actually the opposite of what you should be doing?

Commenting on the entry of offspring from cloned animals entering the food chain.

Jersey Black Butter: Edward Teach, better known as ‘Blackbeard’, was one of the most bloodthirsty and despised pirates of all time and was eventually killed in a fierce battle where he apparently sustained 5 bullet wounds and at least 20 sword cuts before dying. The triumphant and victorious...

Channel 4 News - Commenting on Labour Governments food policy strategy document and how we should produce our food.

Swiss cheese in Lucerne: I don’t know about you, but I certainly get the impression that the Swiss like to keep things to themselves. The Sound of Music certainly gave whole generations an idea of their beautiful landscapes (along with a more sinister plot about a middle-aged man trying to pull a...

Real Food, just as it should be.

How reassuring, in a world of junk food, to know there’s a gentle army of people championing great things to eat, produced in a way that’s good for the planet and for our bodies. Philip Lowery, founder of the Real Food Festivals, shares his passion – and some...

Guardian Word of Mouth - It seems that British consumers could be interpreting the ‘shop local’ message rather differently than expected. The latest announcement of Tesco’s results reveal it to be the first UK retailer to be generating an average £1bn a week in sales, with the best sales growth...

The revolution will be mobilised. There is a revolution happening in British Food and it’s happening on the street.