food news

I guess we are all responsible for our world. Are they still safe to eat? Mussels are probably my favourite shellfish at the moment, especially last year when we went to France a few times. We all have to make choices in the end

For every 100g of mussels consumed, it is estimated there are approximately 70 pieces of microplastics, new research has found.

Microplastics and other debris have been found in 100 per cent of mussels sampled from around the UK coast and those bought in supermarkets, leading researchers to call for further study of health implications for humans.

Scientists from the University of Hull and Brunel University London collected samples from eight locations around the UK’s coastline between November 2016 and February 2017 as well as from eight unnamed supermarkets, representing eight different, unnamed brands.

Professor Jeanette Rotchell, of the School of Environmental Sciences, University of Hull, said: “It is becoming increasingly evident that global contamination of the marine environment by microplastic is impacting wildlife and its entry into the food chain is providing a pathway for the waste that we dispose of to be returned to us through our diet. This study provides further evidence of this route of exposure and we now need to understand the possible implications of digesting these very small levels. Continued research will hopefully drive effective human risk assessment.

Read more…

Is mackerel a safer option

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are just like us trendy millennials, let their plans to have food trucks at their upcoming nuptials be a clue.” data-reactid=”18″>If you needed further proof that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are just like us trendy millennials, let their plans to have food trucks at their upcoming nuptials be a clue.

their engagement was announced we knew these two were going to throw the most epic royal wedding ever. From bucking tradition by having an American bishop give the address at their wedding and Meghan giving a speech to her husband at their reception, the happy couple is truly making their big day their own. And the latest news promises a sweet surprise at the end of the reception.” data-reactid=”19″>From the moment their engagement was announced we knew these two were going to throw the most epic royal wedding ever. From bucking tradition by having an American bishop give the address at their wedding and Meghan giving a speech to her husband at their reception, the happy couple is truly making their big day their own. And the latest news promises a sweet surprise at the end of the reception.

The Telegraph reported that the Prince convinced his brother Prince William to have food trucks consisting of bacon and sausage sandwiches at his own wedding to Kate Middleton back in 2011. William and Kate also had an ice cream truck at their wedding as an alternative wedding dessert. That in mind, the decision to have an ice cream truck again is more or less for the same reason, and the frozen dessert will surely pair nicely with the lemon elderflower cake being served at Meghan and Harry’s reception.” data-reactid=”22″>The Telegraph reported that the Prince convinced his brother Prince William to have food trucks consisting of bacon and sausage sandwiches at his own wedding to Kate Middleton back in 2011. William and Kate also had an ice cream truck at their wedding as an alternative wedding dessert. That in mind, the decision to have an ice cream truck again is more or less for the same reason, and the frozen dessert will surely pair nicely with the lemon elderflower cake being served at Meghan and Harry’s reception.

Prince Harry and Ms. Markle have asked Claire to create a lemon elderflower cake that will incorporate the bright flavours of spring. It will be covered with buttercream and decorated with fresh flowers.

— Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) March 20, 2018

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MasterChef’s Matt Campbell died at the London Marathon

A sad end to what should have been a glorious day for Matt, a talented chef and a man on a mission. A loss to all his friends and loved ones and to the world of cooking. An inspiration to all, he went doing something he felt passionately about, wanting to make a difference in the world.

Matts Just Giving page 

Brathay Trust

We support young people by: helping them and their families into education, training or work; supporting those at risk of criminality and abuse to make positive choices; providing life changing residential trips. By focusing on an individual’s strengths we inspire them to realise their potential.

Find out more about charity fundraising

A fundraiser set up by a chef who collapsed and died 3.7 miles from the London Marathon finish line has raised more than £300,000, with nearly 13,000 people pledging to run the distance he failed to complete in his memory.

Campbell, who made it to the semi-finals of MasterChef: The Professionals last year, was running to raise a target of £2,500 for the Brathay Trust, which was where his father had worked before he died suddenly in 2016.

Contributions to the appeal started to soar minutes after the runner’s death was announced. By Sunday evening, more than £304,000 had been raised for the Cumbria-based youth charity on Campbell’s Just Giving page, with more than 24,000 individual donations.

More than 12,600 people have signed up so far for the “Finish for Matt” Facebook page, where they pledge to run the 3.7 miles Campbell was unable to finish and donate £5 to the fund. One of the group’s founders, Matt Dorber, said he set a new target for £400,000 by the end of Sunday.

Writing on Facebook on Saturday, Dorber said: “When myself, Martin Doyle and Helen Phillips first realised how big this whole thing was becoming, we set a target of £250,000. We thought it was a dream figure but something to aim towards. We did it!

“And that’s all of us – runners in 6 continents, 40 countries, 30 US States, absolutely everywhere in the UK … you’ve all been incredible! The circumstances we’ve all come together under are tragic, and we’ll never forget that – but I’m so proud of what we’re all achieving as a group. We’ve created something so special as a running community of 13,000+ members on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and beyond.”

Writing on his fundraising page before the London Marathon, Campbell said: “As many of you know, I lost my father Martin 18 months ago suddenly. The past year and a half have been the toughest of my life but his spirit and energy live on in me.

On Wednesday, Theresa May paid tribute to the chef, who finished second on BBC Young Chef of the Year when he was 20. Speaking to MPs in parliament, the prime minister said: “I’m sure members across the house would want to join me in offering condolences to his family and friends.”

Image courtesy of BBC News

Via theguardian.com

Antonio Carluccio dies 

Sainsburys To Buy Asda

Sainsburys To Buy Asda, well Walmarts share of Asda. What does this mean for us consumers in the UK. You can be sure that some jobs will be shed in the process. Not a very good for those who are effected. Will this mean better value for money for us in the long term. The headlines suggest that with greater buying power it should happen.

What do the papers say

Sainsbury’s shares surge 20% after agreeing Asda merger – business live

Sainsbury’s reports higher sales but warns bank profits will take a hit this year

Walmart sells its UK supermarket business in $10 billion deal

Sainsburys To Buy Asda

FTSE 100 expected to make a positive start; £15bn Asda-Sainsbury tie-up to hog the business headlines

Sainsburys To Buy Asda ! Will the people benefit?

Other blogs Carluccio Dies

More food news on the Blog 

The Coveted Michelin Star

It seems that most chefs want a Michelin Star next to their name. The of course the restaurant but is it the golden egg that it promises to be. Of course it brings in the crowds of eager wana-be critics. The day after the food probably tastes as good as it the day before. However the new customers that it draws in travel the globe in gastronomical delights along with the badge of “I have eaten there” The ultimate food snobbery one liner often mouthed by people whom can not cook unless its a M&S ready meal.

The Coveted Michelin Star

So is the Michelin Star a far and just rating system and does it just elevate the price of the food. After all the staff must be worth more money if they helped get the star. So it is actually refreshing to read a story not about greed or vanity but about humble beginnings. We salute the Bangkok Street Vendor

The Bangkok Vendors Tale

People passing by Maha Chai Road, almost on the corner of Soi Samran Rat in the Phra Nakhon area of Bangkok, might be startled by the crowd snaking down the footpath around an impromptu assembly of plastic tables. As they wait in line, crowd members take out their cell phones to snap pictures of the “crab omelet queen,” newly famous after Bangkok’s first-ever Michelin Guide awarded her eatery Raan Jay Fai one Michelin star.

Ever since Michelin — the a French tire company that also publishes international dining guides — announced that it would be publishing a guide to Bangkok, many wondered whether the guide, famous for favoring European fine dining, would include the city’s thriving street food scene in its starred recommendations. (“Most people I spoke with in the local food scene believe Michelin will give a nod… to some of Bangkok’s generations-old shop houses,” wrote Eater contributor Micaela Marini Higgs last summer.)

When the guide came out in December, Raan Jay Fai, a popular eatery in Bangkok’s Old Town, was the only street food venue in the city to be awarded a star, appearing alongside 13 other restaurants with one star (and three with two stars). Since the announcement, the distinction has drawn the attention of tourists, foodies, and even a couple of curious tax department officials to Raan Jay Fai’s small space.

“I wish I could give the star back already,” says Supinya Junsuta, Raan Jay Fai’s chef and owner — but at this point, everyone, including the 72-year-old cook herself, calls Supinya “Jay Fai.” Jay Fai made the spot famous with her signature khai jeaw poo (crab omelet), poo phad phong karee (stir-fried crab made with curry), and noodle dishes; her desire to give the Michelin star back wouldn’t be the first time a chef expressed that wish.

On an afternoon two weeks after the Bangkok Michelin announcement, Jay Fai tries not to take her eyes — prudently covered with ski goggles, her trademark — from the hot oil pan above the charcoal flames where she cooks beaten eggs with crab meat. She seems annoyed by the sudden attention of her restaurant and concisely responds to questions from journalists, while not for a minute diminishing her movements to prepare the orders that never stop coming.

“Many people come just to see and take pictures and not necessarily to eat,” she says. Even so, wait time for tables can be up to two hours during the busiest times of day, such as right after the restaurant opens at 3 p.m. A handwritten sign on the register warns: “Time not guaranteed.”

In the small room with less than a dozen tables, three waiters work to serve all the guests. Varisa Junsuta is exclusively in charge of the queue, managing the names and calling the clients in order to seat them. Jay Fai cooks alone behind wooden screens that separate her from the crowd. It’s a safety measure to protect the patrons from the scalding oil where she deep fries many dishes. In addition to wearing goggles to protect herself, Jay Fai covers her head in a black beanie and uses long skimmers to stir the food.

Read more…

It is about time that something was done to cut the food waste in this country and a big hands up to the CO-OP people great move. The labels are designed to be confusing after all because us the consumers buy more often than needed as we are unsure what the labels really mean.

Personally on fresh produce I go with the look and the smell and not any labels on the product. Tomatoes for example as long as they are firm they are good for salads and fresh dishes, once the tomato starts to go soft and even if it has started to split at the top I discard and mould spices and then use them to make sauces for pasta.

So do not be led by labels but of course be wise and if you are ever unsure about a product then throw it away, hopefully the explanations below will clear things up a little.

A major retailer has become the first to start selling food that is past its “best before” date in a drive to reduce food waste.

From this week, the East of England Co-op – the biggest independent retailer in East Anglia – will sell tinned goods and dried food such as pasta, crisps and rice for a nominal 10p once they reach their best-before date. The offer will not apply to fresh and perishable foods, however, which carry a “use by” date indicating when a product is safe to eat.

The move by the retailer, which is independent of the Co-operative Group, follows a three-month trial in 14 stores that found that the 10p items generally sold within hours of being reduced.

‘Best by’ or ‘best before’ date labels only refer to when food is at its best and tend to be used for quality control by retailers. For this reason it is perfectly safe to sell food at or after its ‘best before’ date.

‘Use by’ labels are more important as they indicate when a product is safe to eat, protecting consumers from potentially dangerous bacteria that could be in food after that date.

Simplification of labelling is underway through new guidance from the Government’s waste advisory body Wrap, the Food Standards Agency and Defra, which advocates the use of only one date on a pack in order to reduce consumer confusion.

‘Display until’ labels have been phased out and food manufacturers are advised to select a ‘use by’ date only when there is a food safety reason – otherwise they should use a ‘best before’ date.

Despite concerted efforts to reduce food waste through the entire supply chain, the government’s waste advisory body, Wrap, says £13bn-worth of edible food is thrown out in Britain every year.

The Food Standards Agency advises that products past their best-before date are safe to eat but may not be at the optimum quality intended by the producer. The products will remain on sale for a month past their best-before date.

read more at theguardian.com

community cafe putting good use to food

What a brilliant  and fantastic use of food that normally goes to waste. Even when the food is bought and brought home by people around 40% of the food will not get eaten. Some will be simply left to long in the house and go out of date and then be thrown into the bi. The other waste is the amount of food cooked for one sitting then just scrapped into the bin.

We are all guilty of it but in our household we try to use and then reuse what ever we have. Only last week we had Beef brisket for or Sunday dinner and with the beef that was left on the Tuesday I made beef ragu adding only to it a tin of tomatoes, 1 onion, 1 garlic bulb and a few herbs (oh and half a glass of red wine) served with pasta. A meal for four people that cost less than 50p each.

As parents it is always to easy just to give the kids what they want in convenience  foods and we are creating a society of fussy, demanding, uncompromising and unhealthy children.

The community cafe

It is 5pm on Thursday and as with every week at the St Christopher’s Church Hall in Sneinton, Nottingham, an orderly queue is beginning to form.

There are single mothers with toddlers, disabled adults and children, and elderly residents who otherwise would be eating at home alone. Delicious smells of pan-fried chicken fillets, home-made ragout and a vegetable and bulgur wheat stew emanate from the kitchen serving hatch.

The cafe was established three years ago last July by Steven Doig, who lives in the economically deprived Nottingham city centre suburb. Initially the former pub chef did so as a means of coping with a crippling depression following the death of his 13-year-old son, Jordan.

Everybody looks hungry and happy to see each other in equal measure. Whatever is on the menu, their favourite meal of the week is soon to be served.

Steven discovered the teenager hanging from his bunkbed by a mobile phone lanyard in June 2008 (a coroner later recorded a verdict of accidental death). The 45 year-old, who has four other boys with his wife, Cristy, says the tragedy drove him into a spiral of drink and despair.

At his lowest ebb, Steven estimates he was drinking two litres of brandy every day. But after being warned by doctors he would lose his pancreas if he continued, he decided to face up to his demons.

Having always enjoyed cooking he set up his own community cafe in the church hall called Growin Spaces. It would have been a pipe dream, he says, were it not for the fact he could sign a contract with the food waste charity FareShare to provide him with the food required to make the cafe a reality.

Now Steven receives fortnightly deliveries from FareShare – which the Telegraph is backing in this year’s Christmas charity appeal – of food which otherwise would have been ground into animal feed, burnt for energy or simply dumped. At present he uses what he is given to feed around 70 adults and children of all colours, creeds, needs and backgrounds each week. A fortnight ago he recorded his busiest ever night.

“This surplus food is breaking down barriers, making people talk, battling loneliness, depression and hunger,” Steven says as he piles up another customer’s plate. “We have families on very low incomes but they can come here and eat out as a family of four for less than £10.”

Last year FareShare redistributed 13,552 tonnes of otherwise unwanted food to 7,000 frontline charities, including homeless and domestic violence shelters, breakfast and lunch clubs for young and old, mental health clinics and drink and drug rehabilitation centres and countless other small yet vital causes such as the Growin Spaces community cafe.

Currently, FareShare estimates it feeds a staggering 500,000 vulnerable people nationwide in this manner every single week and at the same time saves the charities it works with – many of whom are already plugging shortfalls in local authority funding – £30m a year.

The community cafe

read more at telegraph.co.uk

The Coop gives back 

What a sad great loss for all of us who enjoyed simple Italian food. A great likeable man with a simple passion for food LONDON – Celebrity chef Antonio Carluccio, who helped popularize inexpensive Italian fare as the founder of an eponymous restaurant chain and a prolific cookbook writer, has died. He was 80.

His death was announced on Carluccio’s website, by the restaurant business on Twitter and by his agent on Wednesday. The cause was not immediately revealed.

“Antonio built Carluccio’s from one restaurant to the fantastic brand it is today,” the restaurant company said in a statement. “It isn’t just Antonio’s name above our doors, but his heart and soul lives and breathes throughout our restaurants.”

Carluccio first came to prominence in Britain while running the Neal Street Restaurant in Covent Garden in 1981, earning a number of accolades and hosting famous patrons who included Prince Charles and Elton John.

Antonio bought Neal Street Restaurant in 1989, and the Naked Chef himself, Jamie Oliver trained under Antonio in the kitchen.

Later in 1991 Antonio and his then wife set up an Italian deli called Carluccio’s.

In 1994 the company branched out into wholesale and in 1999 the first Carluccio’s cafe was opened.

The business incorporated both a food shop and a restaurant and it expanded into a chain across the southeast of England.

In 2010 the group was sold to the Landmark Group for £90million (Source Sun)

He also helped launch the career of chef Jamie Oliver by hiring him to work there.

He co-founded what became the Carluccio’s chain in 1999 and remained involved after selling his interest in the business.

Celebrity chef and author Antonio Carluccio dies at age 80 – Winnipeg Free Press