Businesses have announced a raft of new measures as the food sector recalibrates to cope with the fallout from the spread of coronavirus. Across the country, restaurants are switching to delivery services of pre-prepared meals to cook at home after the government said that planning rules will be relaxed so that pubs and restaurants can…

Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) will not be introduced until July 2022 due to the impact of coronavirus. The Scottish Government has moved swiftly to delay the ‘go-live’ date by 15 months from the planned date of April 2021 following consultation with stakeholders. Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham said the delay would give businesses more time…

Reusable bottles and mugs have been added to the ONS’s basket of goods reflecting a growing number of people switching away from single-use products. The shopping basket of over 700 goods and services is used to measure consumer price inflation. Items are added and removed each year based on a range of factors including availability…

The physical impacts of climate change and rapid growth of alternative proteins will put billions of dollars at risk for current food sector giants such as Tyson Foods and JBS, suppliers to household names such as McDonald’s, Walmart, Burger King and Marks & Spencer. According to an analysis by Fairr, the $20 trillion investor network, seven “key risks” will impact the…

Pressure from shareholders has reportedly led to the world’s largest quickservice restaurant company banning the use of expanded polystyrene (EPS). Yum! Brands said it will “accelerate efforts to remove styrofoam and expanded polystyrene globally by 2022 across all KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell locations”. The move will reportedly remove 100m foam containers per year.…

Achieving net zero emissions by 2050 is possible but it won’t be easy, according to a new report by a government-funded research group. Energy Systems Catapult modelled hundreds of potential pathways to the UK government’s target date of 2050, ramping up or down different technologies and behaviour changes in order to understand the different combinations,…

Up to half of the fastest-growing chicken breeds are at risk of dying or needing to be culled due to welfare issues, according to a leading charity. Research by Scotland’s Rural College, commissioned by the RSPCA, compared the health, welfare and production characteristics of the three fastest-growing meat chicken breeds used most extensively worldwide with…

Just Eat has launched a seaweed-lined takeaway box that it says is fully recyclable and can decompose in four weeks in a home compost. The cardboard container, which is made from tree and grass pulp with a seaweed lining, has been designed to be water-resistant and greaseproof to cope with wet food. Just Eat has…