Zomato rider resorts to horsepower in Hyderabad after truckers’ strike causes fuel shortage and traffic jams
An Indian food delivery driver frustrated by long queues for petrol has resorted to horsepower to make his deliveries.
A video clip shows the man trotting through the busy streets of Hyderabad in southern India on a bay horse with the distinctive red bag of the food delivery app Zomato (the Indian equivalent of Deliveroo) dangling behind his back.
Continue reading...Consumers buy more items – including plenty of parsnips and sprouts – to beat last year’s spend by 7%
UK shoppers spent £13.7bn on groceries in the run-up to Christmas – 7% more than a year before – as they sought out bargains and switched to discounters to try to offset price inflation.
The number of items bought rose by 2% in December as prices climbed by 6.7%, according to analysts at Kantar, although that was down from 9.6% in November – making it the biggest monthly drop in inflation the data firm has ever recorded.
Continue reading...Measures include target for British food in public institutions and seeking veterinary deal with EU
Labour has pledged to improve food security and boost the UK’s agriculture sector with a “new deal for farmers”, including a target that at least half of the food used in hospitals, schools and prisons is British.
Condemning what the party called an abandonment of farmers under the Conservatives, the plan also includes a reiteration of Labour’s proposal to seek to sign a new veterinary agreement with the EU.
Continue reading...Smith’s Snackfood Company says it is installing extra fans in Adelaide factory where some workers reported symptoms including eye and skin irritation
Smith’s is installing extra fans in an Adelaide factory after workers claimed they were having difficulty breathing and experiencing skin irritation from dealing with the seasoning used to make “flamin’ hot” Doritos.
SafeWork SA is looking into the claims after the United Workers Union alleged employees at the Smith’s Snackfood Company factory raised significant safety concerns about the “improper handling of strongly irritating substances”.
Continue reading...Annual card spending report says consumers are prioritising travel and nights out and buying value-range groceries amid cost of living crisis
Hard-pressed consumers cut back on eating out and buying new clothes to prioritise spending on travel, entertainment and a visit to the pub over the past year, as soaring inflation and rising bills sharply curtailed the rate of spending growth.
Consumer card spending increased by 4.1% year-on-year in 2023, almost two-thirds lower than the 10.6% rise in 2022, as the sharp increase in the cost of living took its toll on households.
Continue reading...Winemakers question plan as government champions Brexit ‘freedom’ to allow old-fashioned size
The poet Robert Burns imagined a man toasting his lover with a “pint o’ wine”, and Winston Churchill was perhaps the most famous proponent of the pint bottle for champagne. Now, Rishi Sunak’s government has spied a “Brexit opportunity” to legalise the sale of wine by the pint once more – if it can persuade anyone to make the bottles.
Still and sparkling wine will be sold in 200ml, 500ml and 568ml (pint) sizes in 2024, alongside existing measures, under new rules, the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) announced on Wednesday. It said the change was made possible by Brexit.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Officially commissioned research lays out effects of shelving anti-obesity pledges
Children in England are at risk of diabetes, heart disease and other serious health problems because ministers have shelved anti-obesity policies until 2025, according to a damning report commissioned by the government.
The independent report says that ultra-processed foods (UPF) and products high in fat, sugar and salt (HFSS) have become “normalised” in children’s diets, with poorer parents powerless to curb them.
Continue reading...Government has shelved policies that could have helped to change landscape weighted in favour of unhealthy food options
Less than three weeks into her new role as health secretary, Victoria Atkins left health campaigners aghast when she suggested her approach to tackling obesity would largely focus on dietary advice.
Obesity is a devastating public health problem harming millions of people in the UK that will never be resolved by tips on what to eat and what to avoid. Two in three adults are overweight or obese and the problem costs £100bn a year.
Continue reading...Food prices were 29% higher last month than in September 2021, leaving many households still under pressure
At last, UK inflation has fallen far and fast enough to start to match countries such as France, where the annual rate of price rises has reduced at a faster pace this year.
At 3.9% last month, the headline figure remains almost double the 2% target set for the Bank of England but significantly lower than the 11.1% peak in October last year and below the 5.3% target Rishi Sunak set for the end of 2023.
Continue reading...Number rose by almost 60% in a year to 49,691 stores, making China ‘a global coffee industry powerhouse’
The branded coffee chain craze may trace its roots to a single Starbucks in Seattle’s Pike Place market in 1971, but now China has toppled the US as the country with the most branded coffee shops.
The number of branded coffee shops in China increased by 58% over the past 12 months to a record 49,691 outlets, according to research by World Coffee Portal. That was more than 9,000 in excess of the 40,062 in the US, where the market grew by just 4%. The US had held the crown as the world’s biggest coffee shop market for the entire 20-year history of the research.
Continue reading...The then chancellor’s plan proved to be of no economic benefit and was decried by scientists – but it clearly set out the political aims of ‘Dishy Rishi’
There is no blue heritage plaque above the stainless-steel open kitchen at the branch of Wagamama at London’s Festival Hall – but the restaurant might have claims to one. It was here, in delivering a couple of plates of katsu curry – one chicken, one vegan – on 8 July 2020, that our current prime minister in effect launched his campaign for the country’s leadership.
During that lockdown spring as pandemic chancellor, Rishi Sunak had one of the few enviable public roles: he was cast as the man who saved the economy by giving money away. By the time he pitched up at Wagamama that lunchtime, his various Covid-help schemes had dished out £176bn in furlough payments and loans and deferred taxes. In those efforts Sunak, little known before the crisis, had sometimes looked like the only sober and responsible member of her majesty’s government. The headline act of his summer budget statement, “eat out to help out”, changed that narrative.
Continue reading...Kenyan parents of Peter Mutuku Mutisya claim his neck had marks like he had been strangled. No injuries were recorded on the official report
When Peter Mutuku Mutisya’s body was found floating in a dam on Del Monte’s farm in Kenya last month his family and friends had already been searching for days.
Mutisya, 25, worked as a chemical sprayer at the neighbouring farm and was relied on by his relatives, to whom he would offer lifts on his prized motorbike.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Inquiry comes after discovery of body of Peter Mutuku Mutisya, 25, in a dam on the plantation
Human rights groups are investigating a death at a Del Monte pineapple farm in Kenya after a man’s body was found in a dam there last month.
The body of Peter Mutuku Mutisya, 25, was discovered floating in the dam on Del Monte’s plantation near Thika on 17 November, four days after friends said he had gone there to steal pineapples.
Continue reading...Georgina Mansergh, 24, reacted to sesame oil in a tahini sauce in the meal and collapsed at the Angel Inn in Ferndown
A student died after suffering an allergic reaction to sesame seed oil in a mushroom risotto she ate at a family dinner in a Dorset pub, an inquest has heard.
Georgina Mansergh, 24, was visiting the Angel Inn in Ferndown with her family on 11 February when she suffered the reaction to the oil used in the tahini sauce included in the dish. She was studying for her masters degree.
Continue reading...New restaurants – serving more complex, customisable drinks – will be trialled in the US
McDonald’s is launching a new kind of restaurant, CosMc’s, a retro-style store with treats and customisable drinks including “s’mores cold brew”, “churro frappes” and “turmeric latte” that could rival chains such as Starbucks.
The fast food company said it would open its first pilot site in a Chicago suburb near its headquarters this month, as part of efforts to “solve the 3pm slump”, when it gets fewer customers between the lunch and dinner rush.
Continue reading...Only 17 out of 82 companies investigated were found to use suppliers that paid cocoa farmers enough to live on
Leading chocolate brands have been criticised for having “inadequate” ethical standards in their cocoa supply chain in a report from Ethical Consumer. Only 17 out of 82 brands investigated by the consumer organisation were judged to be using chocolate from suppliers that ensured farmers were paid enough to live on.
As a result, there is a risk that Advent calendars, chocolate Santas and other Christmas treats will have been produced with child labour. About 60% of the world’s cocoa comes from west Africa, and about six in 10 cocoa-growing households in Ghana are estimated to use child labour, with four in 10 in Ivory Coast.
Continue reading...Richard Walker calls for price cap on infant formula as competition watchdog finds evidence of greedflation
The boss of Iceland has hit out at “exploitation” of new parents and joined calls for a price cap on baby formula after the competition watchdog found evidence of greedflation by leading manufacturers.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on Wednesday revealed manufacturers had increased prices by more than their costs during the inflation crisis, fattening profit margins and imposing an average 25% increase on shoppers in two years. It warned competition could be hampered because the market is dominated by two companies, Danone and Nestlé, which between them account for 85% of sales.
Continue reading...Rolling coverage of business as US revises up GDP growth in third quarter to fastest pace of 2023
At lunchtime in the UK and western Europe markets are fairly flat all around.
The UK’s benchmark FTSE 100 has barely moved, although grocery delivery company Ocado is the top gainer, up 4.8%. (An Ocado director buying shares may have helped.) Trainer retailer JD Sports was the second biggest, up 4.5%.
These allegations are false, not true, incorrect, are not accurate. And it’s an attempt to undermine the work of the COP28 presidency,
I promise you, never ever did I see these talking points that they refer to or that I ever even used such talking points in my discussions.
Continue reading...Five-year project to reduce environmental impact of industry has ‘all but failed’, report finds
British retailers and seafood companies have been accused of making misleading claims over “responsibly sourced” scampi or langoustines, according to campaigners, who say a five-year project to reduce the environmental impact of the £68m industry appears to be failing.
The companies, including Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Waitrose, Young’s and Whitby Seafoods – the last of which is currently the largest supplier of breaded scampi to UK pubs, restaurants and fish and chip shops – are all part of a fishery improvement project (FIP) aimed at making the UK langoustine industry more sustainable.
Continue reading...Report quantifies UK food inflation caused by extreme weather reducing global crop yields since end of 2021
Food bills in the UK have risen by £605 a year for the average household because of the effects of climate breakdown, according to research.
Floods and droughts, which scientists have said were probably exacerbated by global heating, have reduced crop yields over the past two years, said the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), a nonprofit organisation.
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