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].