Waitrose is claiming a UK supermarket first with the launch of a new seitan burger. Seitan is a protein rich food made from wheat gluten which is increasingly used as a substitute for meat due to its appearance and texture. Its popularity with vegans or flexitarians has grown in part due to trendy restaurants such…

Professor Chris Elliott has called for a new labelling system to show consumers the environmental damage, or indeed benefit, of the food and drink they are buying. Writing for The Grocer, the director of the Institute for Global Food Security at Queen's University, Belfast, said there is “huge economic benefit” in a “simple-to-follow and trustworthy…

Brits spent £8.2 billion in 2018 on ethical food and drink, including organic, Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance and Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified products. Over the past five years, sales of ethical food and drink have shot up by 43% from £5.7 billion in 2013, according to the latest figures from Mintel. This year, sales are…

Greenpeace has ramped up its pressure on Sainsbury’s to take more action on plastics after activists delivered thousands of complaints to the grocer’s head office in London. The campaign group said its analysis showed that Sainsbury’s received more plastics complaints on Twitter than any of the top four supermarkets last year. Sainsbury’s received more than…

The long campaign to rid food products of industrial transfats has scored another victory after the EU regulated to set a maximum limit for their use in foods. Food manufacturers will have until 1 April 2021 to ensure products comply with the limit of 2 grams of industrially produced transfats per 100 grams of fat…

Plastic floating in the sea is costing human society “hundreds if not thousands of billions of dollars” every year, including loss of tourism revenue and reduced productivity. The “perceived risk” of the contamination of seafood with microplastic may also be detrimental to the seafood industry, whilst the presence of marine litter can impact physical and…

Could carbon labels make a come back? In a survey of 9,037 adults in seven countries (Canada, the Netherlands, Italy, the US, Sweden, the UK and Spain), 67% supported a “recognisable carbon label”. Conducted by YouGov, on behalf of the Carbon Trust, the poll also showed the potential brand benefits of tracking and displaying carbon…

Advanced satellite technology is being used to tackle deforestation in Africa linked to cocoa supply chains. Using satellite derived information from the UK Space Agency’s Forests 2020 Project, led by the space information company Ecometrica, the new Ecometrica Platform will provide a constantly-updated picture of West African forests, gathered from space, LiDAR aircraft and on…

Ten of the world’s largest seafood companies have committed to increase their efforts to strengthen sustainable practices. The Seafood Business for Ocean Stewardship (SeaBOS) initiative, which has been facilitated by Stockholm Resilience Centre, will address key topics affecting ocean health and seafood sustainability, including illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and modern slavery. "The ocean cannot…

Costa Coffee is the UK’s most ethical coffee shop – at least in the eyes of consumers. An independent panel of 3,121 consumers was given a choice of 100 major UK coffee chains and asked: “In your view, which of the following coffee shops is the most ethical?” Costa, which has far more outlets than…