Bringing you the latest news on British products in the supermarkets and other major items of interest about British food; here is our round-up for January.

Bringing you the latest news on British products in the supermarkets and other major items of interest about British food; here is our round-up for December.

• It's all about Brussels sprouts this December! Thanks to the unusually warm weather there is a bumper crop of sprouts in shops.  20 per cent bigger than normal and particularly sweet and flavoursome!  Sales of sprouts have risen in recent years, with 40,000 tons already sold this year! And that's not all – farmers are getting inventive, launching stronger flavoured red sprouts in Morrisons and M&S to add a splash of colour to Christmas dinner. Red sprouts are said to contain higher levels of Vitamin C than the traditional green sprouts. The Morrisons variety is sourced from Lincolnshire and will be available until January; the M&S variety is also grown in the UK and will be available until the end of December.


• The Women's Institute has launched its own food range! Hoping to create ‘the closest thing to homemade’ the range includes jams, chutneys, biscuits and flour. See wifoods.co.uk


• Speciality birds such as pheasant, partridge and wild guinea fowl have become the fastest growing meats on sale in the UK as more Brits seek roast dinner alternatives.  Tesco has seen demand soar by a staggering 100 per cent in the last six months. And Morrisons has joined the game and is stocking pheasant and partridge for the first time!


• ASDA has announced that its fresh Chosen By You sliced bread reaches the shelves in five hours from when its team of bakers begin mixing the dough, which is said to be 19 hours faster than other UK supermarkets.


• The British egg industry has launched an attack on the government for not doing enough to protect domestic producers against competition from illegal imported eggs. The uproar comes after the Food and Farming Minister said the UK would not impose a unilateral trade ban on shell eggs and liquid egg products from EU states that were not fully compliant with the EU-wide ban on ‘battery’ cages which comes into effect on 1 Jan 2012.


• Meanwhile, British Lion Eggs will be launching a ‘Think Outside The Box’ campaign next year to encourage consumers to make more of eggs in main meals and buy packs of 12. The www.eggrecipes.co.uk website will launch in January and feature a collection of recipes which together use up 12 eggs. 


• After decades of being off the shelves, mutton is back in supermarkets! Waitrose is now selling Duchy Originals mutton chops, rib and shoulder joints.


• The British Leafy Salads Association is launching a national grow your own salad scheme for primary schools in spring 2012. The project will complement the National Curriculum and is targeted at the young parent demographic, aiming to reinforce to schoolchildren and their parents where their food comes from.


• The Tesco online website now features dedicated ‘counters’ offering a selection of specialised products – from a cheese counter to a fishmonger to a butcher. See this link. Although other retailers already offer fresh food online, Tesco is the first supermarket to do so on this scale.   


• Whisky exports are booming! Scotch exports have increased to nearly £3bn in 9 months to September – a 23 percent rise since the same period last year!


• EBLEX is offering Christmas kits to farm shops. The kits include posters and banners to help promote beef and lamb sales over the Christmas period. Click here to order yours today.


• The European Commission has come under fire for failing to adequately promote and protect PGI and PDO products such as Jersey Royals and Blue Stilton. A study concluded consumer recognition of the scheme was low – citing a 2008 survey of 16,718 consumers, revealing only 8% recognised the PDO and PGI symbols.


• Gin drinkers rejoice! The juniper, with its fragrant fruit, is being revived in Britain. Juniper berries are the essential flavouring ingredient in the clear spirit. Juniper numbers have declined over the years with many southern English counties having lost 60 to 70 percent of their population.  Although the bush may be undergoing a revival, many leading distilleries are still reliant on foreign imports to meet the requirements of a booming gin industry.


• The Happy Egg Co owner has launched a new brand of eggs – Posh Birds. The range is available from Tesco and comprises duck and quail eggs. Aside from flagging up the eggs' free range and free to fly credentials, Posh Birds packs also carry information about the breed of bird behind the eggs.


• Finally, it has been revealed that The Department of Work and Pensions only source 11 percent of their food from UK producers. And government standards as a whole regarding eggs, coffee and milk in the public procurement sector are lower than those at McDonalds!  So lots of work for Love British Food to do in 2012!

Seasonal foods at their best to look out for in the supermarkets this month: 
Vegetables: beetroot, Brussels sprouts, carrots, cauliflower, celeriac, celery, chicory, horseradish, Jerusalem artichoke, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, onions, parsnips, potatoes (maincrop), pumpkin, radishes, rocket, salsify, shallots, spinach, swede, turnips and watercress.
Fruit: apples,medlars, pears and quince.
Herbs: chestnuts, chives, coriander, mushrooms (cultivated), mushrooms (wild), parsley (curly), and sage.
Meat: beef, chicken, duck, goose, grouse, guinea fowl, hare, mallard, partridge, pheasant, pork, rabbit, turkey, venison and wood pigeon.
Fish: brill, clams,cockles, cod, coley, crab, dab, haddock, hake, halibut, john dory, langoustine, lemon sole, mackerel, monkfish, mussels, oysters, pollack, plaice, scallops, sea bass, sea bream, skate, squid, turbot and winkles.
See at the touch of a button all the British produce currently available in the supermarkets - [search Want to Buy British by product or by supermarket].

Bringing you the latest news on British products in the supermarkets and other major items of interest about British food; here is our round-up for November.

• Self-sufficiency in the UK has fallen from 75 per cent to 60 per cent for all food.


• Sainsbury’s has pledged to double the amount of British food on its shelves by 2020! And the supermarket is off to a winning start with expectations of selling more than 5,000 tonnes of British vegetables this autumn. The retailer said over 1,000 tonnes of cabbage, 635 tonnes of cauliflower, 940 tonnes of broccoli, 500 tonnes of sprouts and 2,000 tonnes of onions would be available in its stores in October-November thanks to a strong crop yield across the country.


• Aldi has claimed that up to 60 per cent of its fruit and vegetables are sourced locally, depending on seasonality and region. Promoting national sourcing has become an increasingly standard practice among UK discounters, particularly in fresh food categories.


• Morrisons is switching its entire own-label bread range to 100% British-sourced wheat.  The retailer hopes that the ‘Baked By Us’ range, which comprises 90 lines, will make Morrisons the destination retailer for bakery shopping.


• Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has called on all chefs and caterers to make significant changes ahead of the Olympics. Johnson has called on them to produce healthier meals from sustainable and British ingredients to leave a lasting food legacy and to revitalise London’s food sector.


• The Co-operative has launched an in-store campaign to flag up its support for the British fresh produce sector. Packs of pears, apples, potatoes and onions will all carry QR codes which shoppers can scan with smartphones to access information about products, growers and recipes.


• Rubens apple grown in Kent has been crowned Britain’s Tastiest Apple for the second year running at the National Fruit Show, beating over 150 varieties of apples.


• Exports of British cheese and butter are soaring as suppliers take advantage of the favourable exchange rates. Butter exports increased by 40.2 per cent between January and July this year compared with the same period in 2010, while cheese exports were up 15.5 per cent.


• Lidl has started to stock fresh cut mint, parsley and coriander for the first time. Supplies of the herbs are currently from the UK but will switch to Spanish produce during the winter months.


• Morrisons has launched a new premium range of beef from 19 traditional British breeds, including Shorthorn, Hereford and Aberdeen Angus. The retailer has recruited 200 British farmers to produce the traditional range which includes prime steaks that have been dry-aged on the bone such as sirloin, ribeye, rump and fillet steaks, as well as a range of new steak cuts such as the Denver steak, the Flat Iron and the Bullet.


• New Covent Garden Market has become the first market in the UK to have Red Tractor status. New Convent Garden Market is the UK’s largest wholesale fruit and vegetable market, with over 200 businesses supplying 40 per cent of fresh fruit and vegetables in the London area.


• EBLEX has launched a new range of innovative lamb cuts to help retailers offer competitive priced lamb even though global lamb prices are soaring. The new cuts include lamb rosette, lamb chunky and Victoria roast and allow suppliers and retailers to make better use of the entire carcase.


• 94 per cent of consumers believe that animal welfare standards for fresh meat should also apply to frozen and processed foods, with 98 per cent believing that supermarkets should enforce the same standards of animal welfare on imported meat as on meat from British farms.


• New EU-wide rules on the use of sow stalls, which come into force on 1 January 2013, will add an average of £4 to the production costs of each pig – and are set to put an end to super-cheap European pork, warns BPEX. The price difference between British pork and European imported pork will be far smaller in the future.


• Stilton is launching a National Stilton Week commencing 15th April 2012.


• And finally, blackberries could become the new blueberries!  Asda predicts that the UK blackberry market has the potential to double from £30m to £60m over the next three to five years if producers can deliver consistently high quality fruit and develop larger, sweeter varieties.

Seasonal foods at their best to look out for in the supermarkets this month: 
Vegetables: artichoke, beetroot, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, butternut squash, carrots, cauliflower, celeriac, celery, chicory, chillies, garlic, horseradish, Jerusalem artichoke, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, onions, parsnips, potatoes (maincrop), pumpkin, radishes, rocket, runner beans, salsify, shallots, spinach, spring onions, swede, sweetcorn, turnips and watercress.
Fruit: apples,elderberries, medlars, pears and quince.
Herbs: chestnuts, chives, cob nuts, coriander, mint, mushrooms (cultivated), mushrooms (wild), parsley (curly), rosemary, sage and sorrel.
Meat: beef, chicken, duck, goose, grouse, guinea fowl, hare, mallard, partridge, pheasant, pork, rabbit, turkey, venison and wood pigeon.
Fish: brill, clams, cockles, cod, coley, conger eel, crab, dab, dover sole, eel, haddock, hake, halibut, hake, herring, john dory, langoustine, lemon sole, lobster, mackerel, monkfish, mussels, oysters, pollack, plaice, prawns, scallops, sea bass, sea bream, skate, squid, turbot and winkles.
See at the touch of a button all the British produce currently available in the supermarkets - [search Want to Buy British by product or by supermarket].

Bringing you the latest news on British products in the supermarkets and other major items of interest about British food; here is our round-up for October.

Bringing you the latest news on British products in the supermarkets and other major items of interest about British food; here is our round-up for September.

Bringing you the latest news on British products in the supermarkets and other major items of interest about British food; here is our round-up for August.

Bringing you the latest news on British products in the supermarkets and other major items of interest about British food; here is our round-up for July.

Bringing you the latest news on British products in the supermarkets and other major items of interest about British food; here is our round-up for June.

Bringing you the latest news on British products in the supermarkets and other major items of interest about British food; here is our round-up for May.

Bringing you the latest news on British products in the supermarkets and other major items of interest about British food; here is our round-up for April.