Category Archives: Food and grocery

GM Crops save lives

Posted on by

A long time ago FTR was what is nowadays called the media sponsor of the First International Food Science and Technology Congress at Imperial College in London, whose President was Lord Rank, the leading figure of the food industry in the UK at the time. This became known as the first IUFOST Congress. As a young man I was introduced by my father Raymond Binsted, Editor & Proprietor of FTR to Dr, now Professor M S Swaminathan. Years later I was to be greeted by Dr Swaminathan as Director General of the International Rice Institute in the Philippines when I was visiting the country with a small group of experts advising President Marcos on what food products could be manufactured in the Philippines and exported to Europe to help replace the income from the giant American Airbase which was already being reduced in size.

Dr Swaminathan reminded me of our meeting all those years before and took our small group on an excellent visit of all the facilities and the rice growing fields before lunching together. In 1986 the research facility was still working hard to improve the harvests of rice across the ASEAN countries to fend off famine. Countless millions of humankind owe their lives to this work to this day. The continuous efforts to improve GM crops are what will feed nine billion people in the coming years.

Adrian Binsted, Editor & Proprietor, Food Trade Review

Pesto Sauce and the brown bears

Posted on by

My post on the plight of the brown bears in Northern Canada and the Russian Tundra drew over 800 comments via social media and our website within the first month. Some readers re-tweeted the comments on Twitter resulting in a small but growing number of people who have decided not to use pine nuts in their salads anymore nor to east pesto sauce.

It appears from my research that the global uptake of pine nuts for food for human consumption is about 100,000 tonnes a year. It sounds a lot, or rather it sounds as though millions of people must use and  consume Pesto sauce and indeed millions of people must eat Pine nuts on their salads.

I am sure that there is an alternative source for these nuts and indeed readers will undoubtedly make suggestions of alternative homemade sauces and their commercially available equivalents.

Adrian Binsted, Editor, Food Trade Review

Adrian Binsted, Editor

Message from the Editor

Posted on by

Benson GroupThe Benson Group is one example of an innovative packaging manufacturer in the UK. Above: “Benson’s design team created packaging with a concorra opening and carry handle, adding a point of difference for a leading popcorn brand.”
The Benson Group (www.bensongroup.co.uk)

What packaging can supermarket customers recycle these days?

For the last few years there have been enormous efforts made in this country to reduce packaging materials used to protect our food and make it safe. We now have thinner cardboard outer packaging, thinner cans for our canned foods, ever lighter-weight glass containers without mentioning the plethora of plastics materials that have been reduced in thickness.

There are now more packs than ever that tell you that they cannot yet be recycled, only in a few local council areas, or only at your local supermarket.

So many jobs have been lost in the packaging and converting industries through quantity reductions in the UK. How much time is wasted by all those committees and government-funded organisations to arrive at this situation.

We all want to do our bit to save the planet apparently, but we are stymied by regulations that do not necessarily work. We still want to buy a pack of food that does not fall apart. A pack that can be opened safely without the paper ripping, the foil tearing, or simply the weight of the product being too much for the container.

There is still a great deal of work to be done. We are lucky in this country as we enjoy a British food industry that has a huge pool of talent from food technologists, engineers, packaging technologists and production people who make sure that our food is safe. Other countries look to the UK to lead in this area, let us make sure that it happens.

Adrian Binsted, Editor

Message from the Editor

Posted on by

Henkel_InterpackHenkel, an adhesives manufacturer for the packaging industry, showcased numerous innovations and proven adhesives systems at Interpack 2014. Committed to food packaging safety, they have also launched an initiative to support the fight against global food wastage. 

At last it looks as though the supermarkets have realised that we do not all want two packs for the price of one, the famous BOGOF deal, so hopefully for most people needing less rather than more, we shall now reduce the amount of food waste. At least it is a start.

It is noticeable that the pricing strategy at supermarkets is now all over the place. It is little wonder that the food manufacturers and particularly the suppliers of fresh fruit and vegetables are not that happy with their ‘remuneration’.

Next, up we come to my hardy perennial, packaging and packaging waste. It appears that quite a few local authorities in the UK now collect from households, who are required to sort into different bins and boxes, but the collectors now put everything together – for re-sorting later presumably.

There are many new developments in the packaging industry and undoubtedly we will be able to see even more at the forthcoming Interpack Show in Düsseldorf this May. There are numerous new ideas for creating packs for the ever-increasing ready meals markets of the world as the new product developers of our food industry deliver ever better products, ever more adventurous dishes. The burgeoning middle class in India and China are creating an expanding market for better quality products that are better packaged, in particular they are looking for prepared meals.

Adrian Binsted, Editor

Message from the Editor

Posted on by

Binsted Lecture

Spring is here and we have a batch of important exhibitions taking place in the coming month or two.

Exhibitions that we have visited recently covering the machinery sector have been well attended and more importantly the exhibitors have told us of their surprise at the level of genuine enquiries that they received. It looks as though business confidence is coming back across the food industries and people are prepared to invest in the latest technology in food processing equipment, packaging equipment, robotics and indeed in hygienic pallet systems and end-of-line equipment.

It will be interesting to see if this new found confidence continues at Alimentaria in Barcelona, Interpack in Dusseldorf, and the shows covering the catering industry as well.

Spring may be here but then so is the wet weather as was predicted by the Met Office. This is a double-edged sword as we need the rain for the crops but those who have been flooded will not take too kindly to more water. As I said in my last article, the flooding of large areas of agricultural land will both take time to dry out and will be affected by the standing water that means it could take a long time to come back into agricultural production.

For our technologists and scientists we are looking forward to the Institute of Food Science & Technology’s 50th Anniversary Conference in London this May which this year will also include the Annual Binsted Lecture.

Adrian Binsted, Editor

Message from the Editor

Posted on by

Nick (Sarebi) FlickrSomerset, February 2014. Photo: Nick (Sarebi) Flickr

The effects of flooding in the South of England look as though they will be with us for some time to come as further rain is predicted by the Met Office for the coming weeks.

The immediate problems for the many farmers and householders still affected by so much standing water has prompted the Government to issue a Health Advisory.

Will food prices rise in the longer term is a subject for discussion as is what to do to prevent these catastrophic conditions affecting such a large swathe of our country again.

How to protect our homes, our farms, our businesses, when the inexorable power of water comes knocking at our doors will exercise minds greater than mine. We need expert advice from water engineers, civil engineers, builders and architects to ensure that flood plains are not developed without greater thought of flood proofing at the very least.

Our geologists and civil engineers need to consider coastal erosion to see how we can defend our shoreline; and they need to consider our roads and railways as we plan into the future with projects already proposed, to ensure safety against wind and water. All of these things affect our agricultural and food production industries at some stage.

For further information:
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/feb/11/englands-floods-everything-you-need-to-know
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-floods-2014-government-response

Adrian Binsted, Editor

Message from the Editor

Posted on by

Women picking beans_Photo_K. Stefanova_USAID_flickr

“Imports – such as Kenyan green beans and Fairtrade tea and coffee – provide vital income for communities in the developing world”. David Wilson, manager of Duchy Home Farm. Photo_K. Stefanova_USAID

'Greener by miles' Telegraph articleIt worries me sometimes to read, hear or see those who should know better, telling us how we could produce much more food here in Great Britain so that we could replace food imports and banish food miles.

Most of us in the food industry know that the land area in this country already supports a larger population that most if not all of the countries in Europe.

A recent suggestion was that Scotland could vastly increase meat production. Excellent meat, but the Highlands do not have much suitable grazing with so much granite around. Another proposal was to double fruit production – which would actually mean higher prices since we cannot compete with the vast amounts of excellent quality imports that arrive by the shipload from Canada, South Africa and Australia.

Can we double the vegetable production in this country. Why not dig up all the golf courses, bowls greens, tennis courts, parks and football pitches just as was considered during the Second World War. I know that because my father, Raymond Binsted sat on the committee of five people with the Minister of Food to find ways to feed our nation under siege.

Plenty of people out there want to tell our industry what to do – most of them with little knowledge of how UK PLCs largest industry by far, operates.

Adrian Binsted, Editor

Message from the Editor

Posted on by

PAFA

PAFA has come out fighting on the side of sense and the packaging industry.

Plastic bags, lightweight plastic bags, recycled plastic bags and so-called lifetime carrier bags are all in the news again.

I have said before that the idea of charging for plastics bags in the shops so that you and I can safely separate our food shopping is ridiculous. We should not put our health at risk for the benefit of some ill thought-out legislation to make us pay for the privilege of putting our shopping in a bag. Perhaps we should ask the shop to carry our ‘loose’ fruit and vegetables to our homes. So really it is just a tax after all!

At last PAFA has come out fighting on the side of sense and the packaging industry. We are already in danger, as I have said many times, of reducing packaging too far; its strength, its usefulness as a guard against the migration of harmful materials into the foods that we buy at the shops.

At the moment we have bags that are so thin that the bag breaks with just a couple of groceries inside, requiring a second bag to contain our shopping – what a great idea to reduce the use of bags! What we need are bags that are strong enough to carry as much grocery as we can hold; then, that saves bags.

I have been against the so-called lifetime bag for a long time on the basis of hygiene. We now have microbiologists and bacteriologists suggesting that the uncleaned, unwashed bags, kept in the broom cupboard can harbour germs and bacteria.

What we need is some sensible thinking from the quangos and the government advisers. As I have said many times, scientists and technologists have designed food packaging for a reason; so that we have less tummy bugs and we live longer!