Farmers and environmental campaigners are combing through the details of a new trade deal with Australia that some fear could lead to lower standard food imports entering the UK market. The government announced the agreement in principle on Tuesday which will remove tariffs and quotas on food traded between the two nations over a 15-year…

Future food supplies are at risk due to climate-related collapse of supply chains and distribution networks, the UK government has been warned. The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) said this week that action to improve the nation’s resilience is failing to keep pace with the impacts of a warming planet and increasing climate risks facing…

The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) has called on MPs to protect professionals responsible for enforcing food safety standards following fears that expertise are being hollowed out due to funding cuts. CIEH recently published the results of its first workforce survey of environmental health professionals (EHPs) across the country, which found that over half…

Foodservice businesses wanting to win large government catering contracts will need to commit to net zero emissions and publish clear and credible carbon reduction plans or face exclusion from tenders. The Cabinet Office announced the new measures this week that will come into effect from September. They cover all major government contracts including food and…

The government should invest £400m a year in managing fisheries more fairly and sustainably, which in turn could increase the amount of UK-caught fish on restaurant and catering menus. In a new report to mark world oceans day on Tuesday, Sustain, the food and farming alliance, said depleted fish stocks, poor data, and a lack…

Starbucks will trial a reusable cup share programme in the UK later this year as part of a commitment to offer the programme across all 3,840 European, Middle East and Africa stores by 2025.   The UK pilot scheme will be developed, delivered and evaluated in partnership with environmental charity Hubbub and will allow customers…

Sodexo UK has become the first company in the hospitality sector to voluntarily publish its ethnicity pay gap. The company’s 2020 pay gap report for the first time includes the relative pay of people in different ethnic groups and shows a mean ethnicity pay gap of 5%. The data is based on the 75% of…

UK land devoted to organic cereal farming grew strongly in 2020, however organic livestock numbers fell across the board. Statistics from Defra for 2020 show a mixed picture for the sector with organic arable farming increasing by 7.5% in 2020 from 2019 levels, a figure that covers both land farmed organically and land under conversion…

Three quarters (75%) of UK adults believe that unsustainable seafood has a large impact on the sea, according to a new YouGov survey. The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) commissioned the survey to mark the relaunch of its Good Fish Guide which rates the sustainability of different species using a traffic light system. It found 43%…