Issuu

September 2026 Volume 27 Issue 7 gff.co.uk

Into the wild How the Knepp Estate’s meat and charcuterie production support its mission to restore nature

ALSO INSIDE Meet the duo behind Pong Cheese An interview with Amy Poon A visit to Lower Clopton Farm Shop

September 2026 | Vol.27 Issue 7

CONTENTS 6

11 Cooking a meal for somebody is an incredible act of love. To have somebody in mind for that long is like saying, ‘you’re in my thoughts, you’re in my heart.’ Amy Poon, p.55

editorial@gff.co.uk Editor: Michael Lane Deputy editor: Tanwen Dawn-Hiscox Art director: Mark Windsor Contributors: Helen Graves, Matthew Horwood, Tina Nielsen, Patrick McGuigan, Greg Pitcher, Pip Hibbert Cover photo: Charlie Burrell

15 21 29 35 55 61 67 70 77

opportunities@gff.co.uk Sales and publishing director: Sally Coley Senior sales account manager: Becky Haskett Sales executives: Henry Coley, Will Coley Sales support: Tamsin Bullock Published by The Guild of Fine Food Ltd Fine Food Digest is published 11 times a year and is available on subscription for £75 p.a. inc P&P.

WELCOME

NEWS

ONS stats show decline in shoplifting, retailers report otherwise

VIEWPOINTS

Flynn’s Delicatessen, what the Bold Bean vs. M&S row teaches us about pricing

CHEESE

Exceptions to rules on making protected cheeses granted due to drought, Pong Cheese

ADVICE Social media 101 with or an c l nn arr p.78

REWILDING

Making charcuterie a part of the nature restoration project at Knepp

SHOW PREVIEW

International Cheese Festival

ONES TO WATCH

According to the team behind Speciality & Fine Food Fair

ONES TO WATCH Trends, retailers, people and producers to look out for p.35

INTERVIEW

With Poon’s founder Amy Poon

PRODUCTS & MERCHANDISING

THE LONG VIEW

Craggs & Co on 11 years of farming ancient grains

DELI OF THE MONTH trat ord upon von s o er Clopton Farm Shop p.70

DELI OF THE MONTH

Lower Clopton Farm Shop

ADVICE

Newsletters, working with influencers, t e read s op

© The Guild of Fine Food Ltd 2026. Reproduction of whole or part of this magazine without the publisher’s prior permission is prohibited. The opinions expressed in articles and advertisements are not necessarily those of the editor or publisher.

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Printed by Blackmore, Dorset

Vol.27 Issue 7 | September 2026

WELCOME You can see why retailers might be keen to leave some aspects of the past behind and move towards a future where people buy things instead of stealing them. Wouldn’t that be nice?

ith September upon us, change is afoot. I’m never quite sure how I feel about the expression ‘out with the old, in with the new’. I feel it implies drawing a line under the past and charging into what lies ahead with no regard for what came before. The real world is more complicated than that. Take Sainsbury’s rather questionable decision to keep rolling out its AI facial recognition systems into 200 stores before the end of the year, despite having recently wrongly accused a man it believed was a shoplifter at a store in South London, based on the tech’s assessment of his identity. I’d say that counts as embracing the future a little too hastily. But when you hear independents’ stories (p.4) about proper thieves, pocketing pocket cocktails as though that was what they were made for, or drilling holes in the backs of shops in the dead of night, you can see why retailers might be keen to leave some aspects of the past behind and

By Tanwen Dawn-Hiscox, deputy editor

move towards a future where people buy things instead of stealing them. Wouldn’t that be nice? This month marks the first issue since I joined the Guild that will not feature longstanding FFD contributor Lynda Searby, who has tucked her trusty typewriter away to start a new career as a modern languages teacher. Our loss is soon-to-be multilingual adults’ gain. I’m sure many reading this will join us in thanking her for her years of championing small producers and retailers. Taking up the mantle is food and recipe writer extraordinaire, Helen Graves, of recent Dish podcast fame. I’m sure you will also join us in welcoming her to the gang. Her email address is helen.graves@gff.co.uk, if you’d like to say hi. The end of summer is set to be bittersweet, with wet weather and storms threatening to bring what has been a glorious season (in some ways) to a soggy close. Yet the rain is sorely needed. The number of exemptions granted to makers of protected-status cheeses across Europe (p.15), exceptionally allowing dry feed to supplement

EDITOR’S CHOICE

depleted pasture, is testament to just how badly our industry needs it. Still, endless sunshine without consequence would be nice, wouldn’t it? Thankfully, in the pages that follow, we have plenty to keep you happily indoors while the wind rattles your shop-front windows. We have expanded our advice pages, giving twice as much space to our business experts (p.77). And if it’s inspirational stories you’re after, you can read all about how the Knepp Rewilding Estate makes limited amounts of award-winning charcuterie, while in keeping with its mission to restore nature (p.21). Or how the team at Lower Clopton Farm has turned selling high-welfare turkeys into a prosperous, diversified and visibly joyous business (p.70). Then there’s our interview with Amy Poon (p.55), whose successful restaurant and pantry products attest to a lifetime of eating, sharing and cooking great food, which she considers the ultimate act of love. So, how about we rewrite the expression as ‘out with some of the old, in with some of the new’?

In the pages that follow, we have plenty to keep you happily indoors while the wind rattles your shop-front windows

Namprik Tom Yum Hot and Crispy Thai Shallots Wild Rice As far as I’m concerned, adding a crunchy texture to food is only ever a good thing. Nuts, seeds, something pickled, I’m here for every dopamine-inducing bite. Imagine my elation when I tasted Wild Rice’s crispy Thai shallots. Satisfying crackle aside, they really do ring the flavours o the iconic sweet and sour sou salty, honeyed and spicy, fragrant and bright with lemongrass, ka r lime and galangal hey will enliven any rice dish, vegetable or salad. More on p.50

THE GUILD OF FINE FOOD TEAM Accounts assistant: Julie Coates Finance director: Ashley Warden support@gff.co.uk Managing director: John Farrand Associate managing director: Christabel Cairns Partner relations director: Tortie Farrand Chairman: Bob Farrand

September 2026 | Vol.27 Issue 7

Head of marketing & digital: Jenna Morice Marketing executive: Frances Coleman Marketing & operations executive: Ophelia Fortescue partnerships o cer Claire Fry Operations & logistics lead: Chris Farrand

Operations & judges lead: Sepi Rowshanaei Operations & membership lead: Chloë Warren-Wood Operations & events lead: Zara Williams Operations assistants:Thomas Jackson, Jos Holmes Warehouse lead & operations support: James McCall

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September 2026 | Vol.27 Issue 7

The full package

NEWS

CYBER CRIME

By Greg Pitcher

Business owners have warned that the fine food sector continues to be heavily targeted by criminals despite a reduction in shoplifting across the UK. Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed a 4% drop in shoplifting in the year to March 2026, the first annual reduction since lockdowndominated 2020/21. However, there were still more than half a million reported incidents of the crime in the most recent period – an unwanted milestone reached for only the second time on record. More than three in four respondents to a separate poll by the British Independent Retailers’

Association (Bira) said they had experienced theft in the last 12 months, with nine in 10 saying it had worsened since the previous year. Tom Newey, chief executive at Cobbs Farm, said shoplifting was “as bad as it has ever been”. “Because the supermarkets and big convenience stores have got better at managing it, does that make us a softer target?” he asked. Newey said Cobbs was dealing with a wave of opportunists rather than career criminals. “It is often the most unlikely people,” he said. “We’ve caught the same chap on a Zimmer Frame in Winchester twice, and he came in for the third week of stealing. It’s

extraordinary. “We found six empty mini-Prosecco bottles in the disabled-loo nappy bin the other day.” Claire Cook, general manager at Suffolk Food Hall, also feels that independents are being targeted. “We found one offender on social media selling what she’d stolen from us. We’re talking thousands of pounds’ worth,” she said. “People are coming in knowing what they are looking to steal. Jellycats are a big one, along with alcohol and butchery.” Will Simkin, director at Essington Farm Shop, said shoplifting was “rife”. “You’re seeing organised gangs going round targeting independent retailers

Alex Shuper/Unsplash

Independents refute ONS data claiming drop in shoplifting

While the ONS data shows a decline in incidences of retail theft, the reality on the ground or inde endents doesn t a ear to reflect this

because they see them as an easy target,” he warned. “People are coming in and just loading up armfuls and walking out,” Simkin said. “They are geared up for it. They’ve got pockets in

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING ABOUT... ... HOW THEY TACKLE SHOPLIFTING “We’ve got one particular line of RTD cocktails in cans, a lovely little product, but just so TOM NEWEY, nickable. I’m COBBS FARM SHOP going to have to delist it because of so much theft. The alternative is to tag everything, which is just not practical, and not really us. We have made some decisions to rejig certain layouts, to bring more high-value products closer to points that people can see.”

“We report all of our incidents to the police, regardless of outcome. The police have started an initiative locally and CLAIRE COOK, used us as a site, SUFFOLK FOOD HALL both for community engagement and as a deterrent. A couple of policemen come and sit and have a coffee outside and talk to people. It’s every few months, so it is not regular, but I am grateful for any presence really. We also do team training to raise awareness.”

“We’ve repaired the area they cut through and reinforced that bit with steel. We’ve had a very loud JEN GRIMSTONEalarm system JONES, CHEESE ETC. tted as well e had the CCTV anyway. We don’t store alcohol in that area anymore, it’s in another building, completely locked away. We’re having to go and get it all the time when we need to go and stock up. We think about locking doors more often.”

their coats, and they’re just picking things up.” Berkshire-based Cheese Etc. suffered an extreme case of shoplifting this summer. Owner Jen GrimstoneJones said masked criminals cut a hole into a storage area at the back of the shop overnight and stole £600 of alcohol. “They knew what they were doing, we have CCTV but they knew where the cameras were,” she added. “We reported it to the police and they came a week after the incident to dust for prints, by which time our builder had secured the hole, our cleaners had been, and all our team had been in and out of the area. “We were then informed the case had been closed as there was no chance that anyone would get caught.”

UK farming losses projected to hit £400m due to heatwaves Farmers in the UK could lose almost £400 from the impact of the hot summer on crop harvests. A report by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) warned that the country could be on course for its lowest cereals and oilseeds yields since records began. It pointed to rolling data provided by the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, which in early August showed oat, wheat and barley production per hectare below 10year averages. 6

September 2026 | Vol.27 Issue 7

“Even if yields are revised up, 2026 is now likel to be one o the ve orst harvests since 1984,” said the ECIU. t said this meant o r o the ve least productive harvests on record had occurred this decade, “after periods of extreme weather made worse by climate change”. Tom Lancaster, land, food and farming analyst at the ECIU, added: “Farming is now the sector most exposed to climate change and the risks and damage that it brings.

“We are in danger of UK farming entering a climate doom loop, as repeated impacts undermine the capacity of farmers to drill next year’s crop.” NFU deputy president Paul Tompkins said: “Across every sector and every part of the co ntr , armers and ro ers are seein rst hand the impact of dry weather and drought, with more extreme conditions making it harder, riskier and more costly to produce the nation’s food.”

NEWS IN BRIEF Report posits GLP-1, AI could drive ‘quality over quantity’ shift in food shopping Isabelle Plasschaert

By Greg Pitcher

Experts have spoken about the opportunity for independents after a key report heralded the biggest change in the food industry since the advent of supermarkets. Leading wholesale and retail figures insisted there was much for the artisan sector to cheer in a study that predicted huge changes to consumer behaviour in the coming years. Bramble Partners, the consultancy co-founded by former Leon leader Henry Dimbleby, this summer warned that three forces were changing what people ate: artificial intelligence (AI), appetite-suppressing drugs and diet-related selfdiagnostics. “The next few years will see a redistribution of profits on a scale that the food industry has not seen since the rise of the supermarkets,” it added in its Tomorrow’s Appetites report [see box-out]. Stefano Cuomo, chief

Bramble Partners’ report claims that a take-up of appetite suppressant drugs and the use of AI as a nutrition tool will reduce calorie intake and lead consumers to make healthier choices

executive at Macknade, said the time was right for “doubling down” on the sector’s messaging. “You’re seeing an older generation that’s been fighting with health-related elements that medicine is now solving, and then you’ve got youngsters who are tracking what they’re eating and are really into it. I think it’s positive all round and gives a real opportunity,” he said. Customers using drugs or tools to manage their diet

What does the ‘Tomorrow’s Appetite’ report say? The Bramble Partners report highlights some questions to help food-sector business leaders think about how to respond to , dr s and diagnostics. It asks retailers how much of their pro t depends on imp lse, portion si e or promotion of food high in at, salt and s ar (HFSS). “Which AI tools are reshaping your c stomers’ choices, and how?” it asks. “How will you manage suppliers and shoppers, as c stomers and their AI agents expect better food to be easier to nd

For man act rers, the science of nutritional performance is described as undervalued where it was “ahead of consumer perception , and a risk where it was behind. Impartial AI agents will “ignore” brands that don’t give them an “evidence-based reason” to be in a cons mer basket, the report warns. Wholesalers are advised that sweet bakery foods and energy drinks contribute “disproportionately” to pro t and ill likel be “exposed” as demand drops.

might view what’s on their plate or in their shopping basket differently, he said. “There is an idea of value from loading a plate full of chips or the biggest jacket potato you could find. It should be about the quality of the ingredient, the taste profile – and that’s tended towards our customers anyway.” Paul Hargreaves, founder of wholesaler Cotswold Fayre, said the impact of weight-loss drugs was “happening now”.

Pointing to a statistic in the Bramble report that 95% of the UK’s appetitesuppressant users pay privately for them, so were the “more affluent consumers”. “I don’t think this is bad for the independents,” said Hargreaves. “People buying less but better is the market they’re in. “We do quite a lot of frozen quality ready meals these days. Those are generally quite small portions. “Our butchers at Flourish openly say ‘buy less meat but buy better meat’.” Hargreaves said the sector could benefit from aligning with the change in behaviour and reducing the proportion of sweet treats it offers. But he warned that trying to move quicker than consumer trends was doomed to fail. “Maybe nine years ago, we went quite heavy on very healthy food one January, and it didn’t work. I think that was us probably trying to lead too much.”

IN BRIEF ast month, Andy Burnham unveiled a £65m funding package for farmers to develop more dro ht resistance, and committed to prioritise food and farm resilience at the same level as iss es ith de ence, ener , ater and steel’. A person has died and hundreds of UK consumers have fallen ill following a salmonella outbreak thought to have been caused by infected imported eggs. Brindisa Tapas has named Kelly Richardson as its rst ever mana in director. Richardson joined Brindisa’s foodservice arm in 2018 as its food operations director.

Renewed calls for new PM to support Good Food Bill Booths chief executive Nigel Murray has added his signature to a letter calling for Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s backing for the Good Food Bill. The premium-grocer boss was joined by ke res at esco, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose in demanding legislation to boost food security and public health. More than 100 people si ned the letter, incl din eth ell, deputy director at the Food thics Co ncil, and nna a lor, chie executive at The Food Foundation. They told the PM that the UK faced “three overlapping challenges”. These were described

as “a food supply exposed to increasingly frequent environmental and geopolitical shocks; food prices rising much quicker than people’s incomes; and foodrelated ill health that worsens year-on-year”. The letter set out six ways the Good Food ill co ld intervene, from setting targets for reducing childhood obesity to requiring ministers to consider food in decisions relating to ed cation, health and farming. Legislation could also force creation of a re erence diet , ve year action plans and independent oversi ht, as well as empowering

local leaders to act, said the signatories. aken to ether, these [measures] would leave Britain better able to withstand ongoing food s stem shocks, said the letter. “It would mean children growing up healthier, ood insec rit falling rather than climbin , and less diet related illness arriving at the door of the NHS.” Murray said: “The Good Food Bill is an opportunity to take a longer-term view of food sec rit , stren then British agriculture and help ens re that health , affordable food remains within reach for future generations.” Vol.27 Issue 7 | September 2026

NEWS

CYBER CRIME

Zero-hour contract reforms could vastly increase retailers’ employment costs

IN BRIEF

Dillon Clark Photography

By Tanwen Dawn-Hiscox

Retail industry bodies have warned that the UK Government’s consultation defining the terms of a proposal to seriously restrict zero-hours contracts could be detrimental to business, as the Government’s own assessment projects that it could cost employers £350m to £2.9bn a year. The Plan to Make Work Pay, published in June and under consultation until the end of August promises to “create a modern, fairer labour market – where workers are better protected and empowered to work to the best of their abilities.” The specific proposal to regulate a significant proportion of zero-hours contracts – which would enforce a Guaranteed Hours Duty, reasonable notice for shifts and cancellation compensation – it claims, will help millions of workers facing uncertainty over their weekly hours and earnings, while supporting up to

The Make Work Pay plan could enforce guaranteed hours, reasonable notice for shift allocations and compensation for short notice cancellations

£10bn in economic growth by improving employee “wellbeing and engagement.” The Government’s objective is to apply changes to people working between eight and 20 hours a week, meaning it is likely to cost far less than the highest ceiling projected, based on a 48-hour week. Helen Dickinson, CEO of the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said the changes would impact businesses already struggling following NI

WALES APPOINTS DRS SCHEME ADMINISTRATOR EXCHANGE FOR CHANGE In a breakthrough moment for the planned implementation of the waste management initiative known as the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), Exchange for Change has been appointed as the administrator for the scheme in Wales, after a previous bid was rejected and appealed. The news has been tentatively welcomed by retailers and producer representative groups including the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) and the British 8

Soft Drinks Association (BSDA), as a positive sign that it will make the October 2027 implementation across England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland much more achievable. However, with Wales still intent on including glass in the scheme from the offset, industry bodies have cautioned that the timeframe is still tight. Wales would be the only devolved nation in the UK to do so – making operational complexities due to cross-border discrepancies likely.

September 2026 | Vol.27 Issue 7

insurance rises. “Adding further costs when youth unemployment is soaring risks being a hammer blow to young people’s job prospects, at precisely the time businesses across the country need to be creating more opportunities,” she said. The Guild of Fine Food’s managing director, John Farrand, said that “while the often maligned zero-hour contract is certainly open to abuse, “it definitely

has its place in retail and can provide flexibility for both the employer and the employee.” “Perhaps the focus should be on educating employers of best practice around zero-hours contracts rather than banning them.” The CEO of the British Independent Retail Association (Bira) Andrew Goodacre said he hoped that in concluding the consultation, the Government would listen to the retail sector’s concerns. He added that the highest estimated cost would be disastrous for retail, as it remains the largest private sector employer. “It is remarkable that the Government would consider this as being good for growth and employment by adding significant more cost to employers,” especially after the rises to NI contributions two years ago, since when, according to RTI data, retail has lost more than 10,000 jobs.

Long-term consumption of xanthan gum – used as a stabiliser in dressings, ice cream and gluten-free bakes – has been linked to a host of gut health issues in a recent study. UK consumers are more finan a optimistic than they have been for two years, according to the GfK Consumer Report published last month Con dence was rated at -14 in August, up from -25 in April. Sainsbury’s is set to pursue plans to roll out facial recognition technology to more than 200 stores by the end of the year, despite a system error leading a shopper to be wrongly accused of shoplifting from one of its stores last month.

DOWN ON THE FARM The latest from farm shops across the country

Just outside Bristol, on an acre of land in Flax Bourton, the steakhouse brand Cow & Sow is opening a new farm shop, The Field. A former pub opposite the kitchen farm is being converted for the shop and 70-seater café. This will bring fresh local produce as well as a breakfast and lunch offering. The launch is set for the autumn, and a second phase of the development could see the addition of a cookery school. thecowandsow.co.uk

A popular farm shop and café in the town of Stourport in Worcestershire is being rehoused into bigger and better premises beside the canal in Stourport. The Stourport Farm Shop & Kitchen will become The Canalside Café, and is set to open in the early autumn with its popular cheesecake at the top of the menu. facebook.com/ stourportfarmshop andkitchen

A new farm shop in the village of Bostock in Cheshire is in its infancy, with limited hours, open every other weekend, plus ad hoc pop up shop days. The owners of Home Farm Shop say the response from locals has been overwhelmingly positive. The range of farm goods includes beef burgers, traditional mixed beef and pork sausages, pork chops & belly. beechesmeats.com

In association with

Fabulous Farm Shops fabulousfarmshops.co.uk

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Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or FranceAgriMer. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

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VIEWPOINTS IF I’D KNOWN THEN WHAT I KNOW NOW... CHRIS FLYNN, owner, Flynn’s Delicatessen, Swansea, Wales

I originally trained in law, then worked in IT and tech for a decade. Although I enjoyed it, I wasn’t getting that warm, fuzzy feeling, whereas food & drink had always been a passion. There was also a clear gap in the market in Swansea; I’m a big supporter of the city and thought we deserved better. I waited 10 years for someone else to open something similar, but no one did. There was also an element of self-preservation involved; with AI coming, I knew it would affect jobs in tech, but you can never replace the human experience of retail and hospitality venues. Flynn’s is a neighbourhood deli and community space where everyone is welcome to eat, drink and be curious. We stock over 1500 products; we have meat and cheese counters, an on-site bakery and offer a veg box service. We make lunchtime sandwiches for local workers, run one dinner service a week cooking with local produce, and do outside catering. Diversity is the key to success. If you’re only going to have one location, you need to do more, and many of the services we provide have come from customer requests. I’ve used my background in tech to make running the business easier. A lot of people in this sector will say they’re too small for tech, but spending a little money and time on setup does save in the long term. We automate a lot of processes. Even though we’re a one-site business, we’ve got full inventory management and an enquiry date system, which means hardly any stock wastage. Technology is like having a low-cost member of staff who gives you time to focus on the things you know. My biggest value is behind the counter; that’s where people want to see me on a Saturday afternoon, and I can do that because I don’t have to spend all day at my desk. We’d love to open more often, but rising costs make that hard. Hospitality and retail is tough for everyone at the moment; balancing every area, from suppliers to energy and staff costs, while keeping prices down and having those loss leaders that people come to us for. We pay above minimum wage to all our team; some have options in the company, and we have plans for shared ownership. I’d like for Flynn’s to be majority employee-owned. Culture is very important to me: I want the team to be happy and engaged. We operate open-book management so they can see how much money we make, and we welcome their ideas – which are usually better than mine. The business is focused on community, both inside and out. nn e Interview e en Photography a

a e e Vol.27 Issue 7 | September 2026

The stats are lying; nothing has dropped; we just have a new, more concerning category

View from HQ FFD’s publisher and Guild of Fine Food managing director John Farrand has his say

WORLD CHEESE AWARDS 2026

Join us for the ‘Super Bowl Championship for cheesemakers’ in Spain this ovember tr l lobal event, The World Cheese Awards will take place as part of the AndalucíaGusto del Sur International Cheese Festival bet een ovember he place to be or an cheese lover tickets and nd o t more at gff.co.uk/worldcheese

FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM Keep up to date with all the Guild’s pro ects rom behind the scenes footage of features in Fine Food Digest and events we’ve attended, to interviews with Great Taste judges and cheese chat to get ready for the World Cheese Awards. g ffinef 12

September 2026 | Vol.27 Issue 7

s it a crime to lie about crime stats? Recent months have seen mixed messaging about crime generally and, more specifically for us, concerning the high street. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) released its annual data (for the 12 months up to March 2026) at the end of July. Homicides (by which they must mean ‘murder’, as we are in the UK) decreased by 7%. Crimes involving knives or sharp instruments were down 8%; offences involving firearms decreased by 8%; robbery fell by 9%; shoplifting dropped 4%. I didn’t believe that last one. Continuing my online journey, I found the British Independent Retail Association (Bira)’s report on crime, published back in June. Its survey, carried out across more than 25 retail sectors, found that almost 77% of respondents reported experiencing theft in the past 12 months – up from 64% in the previous survey – and

nearly 90% of those said theft had worsened compared to the year before. Bira’s statement opens with: “The human reality behind these figures is stark. One retailer described theft as ‘a weekly if not daily occurrence’, while another said simply: ‘It’s constant.’ Several described thieves who ‘laugh at staff while running away’, and one respondent summed up the mood bluntly: ‘We are on our own.’” If you dig deeper into the ONS numbers, it becomes clear why that 4% drop in shoplifting is misleading. Its research also found that ‘robbery of business property’ almost doubled from 15,546 incidents to 29,669 in the past year. Putting it simply, this is shoplifting with menace, and that increase is shocking. The stats are lying; nothing has dropped; we just have a new, more concerning category. But what does this all cost? Last year the British Retail Consortium (BRC) stated that £2.2 billion was

lost as a direct result of goods being stolen from UK shops. Much of that big number is alcohol and nappies, but it is curious to see cheese coming in at number five in this unwanted league table. Jen Grimstone-Jones knows her cheese, and sells plenty in her excellent shop, Cheese Etc., in Pangbourne, West Berkshire. It is now part of that ‘robbery of a business property’ stat after thieves cut a (Emmentaler-shaped?) hole at the rear of the shop and stole £600 worth of booze last month. No cheese was taken and the case was closed within a few weeks – there’s no chance anyone will be caught, according to local police. Jen told us it was more of a pain getting the hole repaired than the actual theft. She continued, ‘It would have saved a lot of effort if they’d just come in during the day and told us they were going to take it.’ The irony is criminal.

The Word on Westminster By Edward Woodall Association of Convenience Stores

WITH THE ROLL-OUT of the UK’s deposit Return Scheme drawing closer, we recently spent three days in Ireland looking at how the scheme operates in practice. eein it rst hand bro ht to li e some o the opportunities and challenges retailers can expect. e visited ei ht stores across blin, ran in from small independent convenience retailers and s mbol stores to lar er m ltiples espite their differences, all eight sites had chosen to host an automatic return point, with most locating their reverse vending machines inside their stores hat as interestin as ho each retailer had adapted the machine’s location to t their layout. Some had positioned the machine near the entrance, making it easy for customers to ret rn containers be ore startin their shop One point that really stood out was the importance of machine maintenance. Three stores had reverse vending machines which ere temporaril o t o service, not beca se o technical a lts, b t d e to ro tine iss es o needed their collection bins emptied, hile another had run out of receipt paper.

Our experience highlighted another important consideration ndin some here to make a ret rn n the nal da , e had o r empt containers to ret rn be ore travellin home and after a quick Google search, we realised that there are no ret rn points at blin airport Using the Re-turn interactive map, we searched or nearb ret rn locations hile several retailers were listed as return points, some appeared unaware they were. Four locations later, we completed our return and spent our voucher in store. The experience highlighted some important questions for any deposit return scheme: how are obli ations comm nicated to retailers, and how is compliance monitored and enforced? The scheme is clearly driving high levels o participation, b t it also hi hli hted the importance o location, accessibilit , readiness, and capacity keeping pace with demand. o ’re not s re ho or even i o r b siness is oin to be involved in the scheme, o can visit the C deposit ret rn scheme h b at ACS.org.uk, where we have a range of useful reso rces to help o prepare or ctober Edward Woodall is the CEO of the ACS edward.woodall@acs.org.uk

VIEWPOINTS CONFESSIONS OF A DELI OWNER Anonymous tales from behind the counter THERE IS A SECRET law of physics that nobody tells you when you open a food business. It dictates that every single piece of equipment has a strictly enforced biological clock of exactly six years. You can buy the heavy-duty, top-of-the-range models, but the moment you cross that imaginary mark, some strange, silent alarm goes off. Every motor, compressor, and heating element collectively decides that life is simply too hard – sounds familiar – and decides it’s had enough. This year, our deli and café decided to stage a synchronised, multi-organ failure. It started with the main shop fridge, a magnificent multi-doored beast that had previously showcased our produce without a whimper.

It chose a scorching Saturday lunchtime to cough, wheeze, and turn itself into an ambient room temperature shelf. No sooner had we scrambled to move all the produce that the main dishwasher gave up the ghost, spewing soapy water across the floor like a broken fire hydrant. The coffee machine boiler went next, followed closely by the walk-in freezer – which holds more stock than its value, and that’s saying something. The financial reality of this appliance apocalypse is enough to make you ill. People think running a rural food business is about buying lovely local tomatoes and chatting to foodies, but 80% of the job is actually just being an unpaid

The financial reality of this appliance apocalypse is enough to make you ill

Expert eye CAROLINE COOKSON, FOUNDER OF COOKSON PARTNERS, ON WHY PRICING SHOULD MATCH THE VALUE OF A PRODUCT

ast month, M&S launched a jarred bean range at around 55p a jar. The company known for giving this category a well-needed leg up, Bold Bean Co, sells its jars for around £2.50. On the face of it, that’s a huge pricing gap and an obvious challenge. M&S has clearly spotted a growing market and wants a piece of it. But that doesn’t automatically mean Bold Bean Co should respond. One of the biggest pricing mistakes businesses make is reacting to every competitor that appears – especially when that competitor is bigger, louder or cheaper. Your pricing shouldn’t be dictated by whoever launches the latest alternative. It should be driven by your positioning, your customers and the value you deliver. Bold Bean Co has built a premium brand

maintenance broker for expensive metal boxes. Commercial kit is not like domestic appliances where you can pop down to the high street and pick up a replacement on finance. Everything is bespoke, heavy, and eye-wateringly priced. When a three-phase chiller packs in, you are not just buying a new one; you are remortgaging the shop and praying your accountant does not text you. The real strain, though, falls on the team. Sourcing equipment out of hours is a grim exercise in desperation. You find yourself spending one of your precious summer evenings off hunched over a laptop, deciphering confusing spec sheets while talking to an emergency catering engineer who charges more per hour than a corporate lawyer. Then comes the installation ballet, trying to squeeze a half-tonne unit through a narrow shop door at five am before the team arrives. Our staff have been absolute troopers, juggling temperamental kit and improvising when half the counter goes down, but you can see the fatigue in their eyes. We are supposed to be selling the dream of the British countryside, but lately, my primary role feels more like an exhausted chief engineer on a sinking submarine, desperately plugging leaks with cable ties and a prayer.

with a loyal following. People don’t just buy the product, they buy into the quality, the sourcing, the brand and the experience. If that positioning is still true, why undermine it by chasing a competitor that is playing a different game? Of course M&S wants some of Bold Bean Co’s customers. That doesn’t mean Bold Bean Co has to become M&S. The hardest part of pricing often isn’t deciding what your price should be, it’s having the confidence to ignore the competitors who shouldn’t be setting it. cooksonpartners.com

Your pricing shouldn’t be dictated by whoever launches the latest alternative. It should be driven by your positioning, your customers and the value you deliver.

68%

of UK consumers say they are likely to return containers to shops after the DRS sheme is implemented in October 2027.

55%

say they will likely spend their refund vouchers in the same shop on the day. Source: Censuswide, based on a poll of 2,000 people

ARE YOU LOOKING FOR MORE?

Whether it’s staff training, business advice, event space, making industry connections or opportunities to meet trade buyers and food lovers, the Guild of Fine Food does far more than publish FFD. The Guild has been championing independent food & drink for over 30 years. Join us toda and nd o t hat e can do for your business. Support & ideas: support@gff.co.uk Training & venue hire: bookings@gff.co.uk Exhibition stands: opportunities@gff.co.uk MyGuild assistance: myguild@gff.co.uk gff.co.uk/join Vol.27 Issue 7 | September 2026

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September 2026 | Vol.27 Issue 7

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CHEESE

Protected status rules amended for cheesemakers due to extreme heat This summer’s successive heatwaves have forced producers of some of Europe’s most famous protected cheeses to seek derogations, or stop production altogether as pastures have dried up. As FFD went to press in late August, French government agency L’Institut National de l’Origine et de la Qualité (INAO) had approved 10 requests and was considering another four for temporary amendments to PDOs and PGIs, as record temperatures decimated pastures. During the hot summer of 2022, more than 20 temporary amendments were granted to protected cheeses, including Comté, Roquefort and Fourme d’Ambert, relaxing rules around buying in feed, the type of forage allowed and minimum numbers of grazing days. The PDO covering Comté was permanently changed in 2024 to increase the amount of pasture per cow from 1 hectare to 1.3 hectares, specifically to mitigate against climate risks. In the Auvergne, production of the summer cheese Salers has halted this year because there is no longer enough grass for grazing (a requirement of the PDO). “In some areas, production has already been

Natanael Laguna/unsplash

By Patrick McGuigan

Derogations have been approved for the production of Rocamadour, Fourme de Montbrison, Abondance, Cantal, Beaufort, Reblochon, Bleu du VercorsSassenage, Comté, Fourme d’Ambert and Bleu d’Auvergne

suspended for a month, significantly impacting farmers’ cash flow,” said a spokesman for the Salers PDO. The pressure from drought is affecting other countries. In Italy, cheese consortia, including Piave, Murazzano and Quartirolo Lombardo, have applied for temporary amendments to allow more imported feed to be used. In Switzerland, producers of AOP-protected Gruyère d’Alpage have brought cattle down early from mountain pastures because of the lack of forage, according to cheese consultant Emma Young. She recently visited producers in Switzerland, many of whom had already used up feed stocks that would normally last until the winter. “This could have a knock-on effect with

shortages next year,” she said. “One producer told us that next spring could be catastrophic.” She predicted that PDOs could be adapted for good to help producers manage extreme heat. “PDOs have always evolved and as we see temperatures rise, we might see them being changed accordingly.” Six cheese PDOs in France, including Camembert de Normandie, are currently involved in the Governmentbacked ‘ADAoPT’ project looking at combatting extreme weather through measures like planting drought-resistant crops and better feed storage. In the Haute-Savoie region, a seedplanting project is being trialled to improve degraded mountain pastures used for the production of Abondance PDO cheese.

NEWS IN BRIEF

To celebrate its 25th anniversary, Snowdonia has launched Purple Vale cheese. Blended with its own caramelised red onion chutney and nished ith i sti’s alsamic ine ar o Modena, it says it it crumbly and savoury with a honeyed sweetness.

Stilton

Christmas is coming, and for cheesemongers that means a surge in Stilton sales. The crumbly blue cheese, which is protected by a PDO and can only be made with pasteurised cow’s milk in Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire or Leicestershire, is classically served with Port and fruit cake at Christmas, but its sweet, savoury and spicy a a a ng diverse range of accompaniments and recipes. Lemon Curd It’s not the most obvious of matches, but a little dab of lemon curd is a star match with Stilton. The acidity lifts the cheese, but there’s also a meeting of minds between the creamy blue and the buttery spread. Mrs Darlington’s Lemon Curd is a safe choice. Cream cheese Sales of whipped Feta have soared on the back of the ‘picky bits’ trend, but the crumbly texture of Stilton also makes it a good alternative for people who want a bit more kick from their dip. Blitz equal amounts of Stilton and cream cheese with a little Greek yoghurt and a squeeze of lemon until you have a light spreadable texture. It is hard to beat.

A new shop, The Big Cheese, has been opened by owner Neil Cunningham in Edinburgh, selling more than 50 types of cheese, half of which cannot be found in other shops in the city. Newcastle cheesemonger Grate is celebrating its sixth anniversary on 4th October at a cheese festival with makers including Fen Farm, Errington and Shepherd’s Purse, interviewed by cheese judge and author Carlos Yescas.

THREE WAYS WITH...

The Academy of Cheese is on the hunt for the best young cheese retailer in the world at this year’s Young Cheesemonger of the Year 2026 award. Entries to the contest, which was won by Hanna Lee of the Uplands Cheese Company in Wisconsin last year (pictured), are open until the 20th September. Finalists must be 30 or under and will e udged over ve rounds o cheesemongering skill and knowledge at the World Cheese Awards in Córdoba, Spain, in November.

Passito di Pantelleria Move over Port. There are plenty of sweet alternatives to Ruby and Tawny that work just as well as with the salty, savoury tang of Stilton. Moscatel sherry and adeira are de nitely worth e loring, as are dessert wines, especially Passito di Pantelleria from the volcanic Italian island. Honeyed, spicy and with a fresh acidity, the wine is made from sun-dried Zibibbo grapes and is a delicious foil for Stilton. Vol.27 Issue 7 | September 2026

CHEESE

Lactalis buys up Saputo in deal just short of £1bn

BEHIND THE COUNTER TIPS OF THE TRADE Caroline Elliott, owner, The Cheese and Wine Shop, Darlington, Co Durham

By Patrick McGuigan

Canadian multinational Saputo has agreed to sell its UK cheese business, including Cathedral City cheddar and the Wensledyale Creamery in Hawes, to French dairy giant Lactalis in a £988m deal. The business, which turned over around £885m in the past year and includes brands such as Davidstow Cheddar, Clover and Country Life, will make Lactalis the largest cheese brand producer in the UK. Around 1,300 people are employed in the division across five sites: Hawes, Yorkshire; Davidstow, Cornwall; Nuneaton, Warwickshire; Kirkby, Merseyside; and the Isle of Bute in Scotland. Cathedral City is the UK’s largest cheddar brand, worth £320m a year in sales, but the deal also includes speciality cheeses, such as Yorkshire Wensleydale PGI, Kit Calvert clothbound Wensleydale and Fountain Cheddar, made at the Hawes creamery. Saputo acquired the Wensleydale

CHEESE IN PROFILE with

Wensleydale has been made at the Hawes creamery since 1897, now the production site for some 20 cheeses

Creamery in 2021 in a £23m deal and rebranded the Yorkshire Wensleydale range in 2023. It closed the company’s cutting and packing site in Kirkby Malzeard last year, transferring operations to Nuneaton, affecting around 80 jobs. Lactalis, which is privately owned by the Besnier family, owns global cheese brands such as President, Galbani and Leerdammer. Its existing UK operation comprises Orkney Cheddar PGI in Kirkwall, Seriously Cheddar in Stranraer and Cricket St Thomas soft

cheeses in Somerset. Emmanuel Besnier, chairman of Lactalis, said the acquisition marked a milestone in Lactalis’ development in the UK. “By welcoming famous brands and recognised expertise into the group, we are strengthening our position in the UK market and reaffirming our commitment to providing consumers with highquality dairy products.” Saputo said the deal would enable it to “deploy capital for organic investments, capital projects, and strategic acquisitions.

After more than 25 years at the same site, The Cheese and Wine Shop moved to larger premises in April. A risky move in some ways, but the new shop is only 200m from the old one, and the extra space has helped the b siness o rish ith sales ro in “It’s four times bigger over three stories, but the rent is not much more and the footfall is better, so it was a calculated risk,” says owner Caroline Elliott. “We’ve been able to think out the customer journey better and have more space to serve cheeseboards, plus larger storage.” The ‘customer journey’ involves visitors walking past shelves lined with ambient products and gifts to get to the cheese counter, plus a well-lit area for wine, which has encouraged more browsing. The shop also now has the space to serve takeaway cheese bo es rom a ra in cart’ lled ith pre-cut cheese and charcuterie. “We used to have to turn tables four times a night, which was quite stressful, but we have the space upstairs now to let people linger, so they tend to order more wine,” she says. @cheesewineshop

Smoked cheddar The Cheesemaker Many UK-based and international cheesemakers

anywhere between three and 12 months. Can be cloth bound, wrapped in wax or blocked.

Type Hard, smoked and aged

Perfect Pairings Pair with a spicy Alsatian Gewurztraminer or a traditional British ale.

Milk & Rennet Raw and pasteurised, vegetarian and animal rennet Tasting notes Wood smoke, tangy and savoury Texture Waxy and smooth Affinage Some cheesemakers add smoke avo rin to the curd, others cold-smoke the cheese over wood chippings of oak or maple. Matured 16

Culinary Suggestions Smoked Cheddar is great in creamy rich pasta dishes like mac and cheese, grated over roasted vegetables or in a garlic mushroom tart. Smoked Cheddar is one of the 25 cheeses studied as part of the Academy of Cheese Level One Certification. For more information on this and all of the academy’s courses, head to: academyofcheese.org

September 2026 | Vol.27 Issue 7

Rocamadour PDO is one of the 75 cheeses studied as part

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Vol.27 Issue 7 | September 2026

CHEESE

Mathew March-Smith (L) and Ben Lambourne (R)

Ping for some Pong By Patrick McGuigan

After almost two decades of selling cheese online, and hot on the heels of a deal with Savencia, Pong founders Mathew March-Smith and Ben Lambourne are keen to stay ahead of the curve in serving their community.

ype ‘cheese delivery’ into Google and there’s a good chance that one of the top listings will be a company that is unfamiliar to many in the cheese trade. Pong Cheese has been selling online for 17 years, set up when e-commerce was in its infancy, but has flown under the radar in the industry, admits cofounder Mathew March-Smith, who created the company with Ben Lambourne. “We haven’t really had much interest in exhibitions and events aimed at the trade. We’ve always just done our own thing.” They have done remarkably well for a couple of industry outsiders. Pong lists 100250 cheeses, depending on the season, and sends out 50,000 orders a year. Its ability to punch above its weight in search engine optimisation and digital marketing attracted the attention of French dairy multinational Savencia, which acquired the business just before Christmas, keeping March-Smith and Lambourne on as joint managing directors and moving operations from Bath to its headquarters in Westbury, Wiltshire. The ethos remains the same as when they first started in 2009, says Lambourne, who worked for cheese wholesaler Harvey & Brockless, while March-Smith worked in digital marketing. The two friends would meet up for dinner parties that inevitably ended with an epic cheeseboard and Lambourne waxing lyrical about each wedge. “People felt intimidated going into cheese shops at the time,” says Lambourne. “But no one cares what clothes you wear, what your postcode is or the car you drive on the internet.” March-Smith’s experience helping highstreet brands launch e-commerce sites meant the pair hit the ground running. “We’ve used

September 2026 | Vol.27 Issue 7

data capture and email marketing from the beginning to build a cheese community,” he says. Communicating with customers used to mean sending the same email to the entire database, but now systems are much more sophisticated, and communications more tailored. “We use AI in virtually every part of the business, from bidding on marketing terms on Google to customer services, copywriting and analysing trends,” says March-Smith. Pong’s product range comprises Cheese Club subscriptions, gift boxes and individual cheeses, grouped by country or themes such a ‘new mother’ and ‘explorer’. There’s also a selection of Continental cheeses under Savencia’s Haute Fromagerie brand. The pandemic was booming for Pong – cheese orders quadrupled overnight – but there was also a surge in competition. “There were eight or nine main players online before Covid, and then suddenly there were 140,” says Lambourne. “That’s dropped, but there are still around 50 online cheese companies now. It’s much easier to set up a business with things like Shopify.” The deal with Savencia will allow the business to strengthen its position in this crowded marketplace, assisted by the economies of scale in areas like cutting, wrapping, logistics, human resources, marketing and finance. But the deal cuts both ways, with Savencia able to learn more about online retail and customer demographics for speciality cheese at the same time, says March-Smith. “Savencia has experience with multiple retailers, but online sales is a new channel for them in many ways. We’ve started the journey together, and we both benefit.” pongcheese.co.uk

No one cares what clothes you wear, what your postcode is or the car you drive on the internet

CROSS Pérail

SECTION

Part of the Haute Fromagerie range of Continental cheeses, which also includes 1 Selles-sur-Cher, Époisses and aged Comté, Pérail is a soft, thinly-rinded sheep’s cheese from Aveyron in France. It gained PGI status in 2025.

2 Known as the ‘little sister’ of Roquefort,

the cheese was historically made by farmers to feed their families, using milk from Lacaune sheep left over from Roquefort cheese production. Haute Fromagerie Pérail is made with pasteurised milk by Savencia-owned company Papillon, which is well known for Roquefort. The soft cheese comes 3 in 90g or 130g discs, which are aged for a minimum of seven days. The geotrichum rind is paper thin, while avo r is cream and r it ith a hint of sheepiness.

GOD SAVE THE CHEESE.

Vol.27 Issue 7 | September 2026

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September 2026 | Vol.27 Issue 7

REWILDING Charlie Burrell

Roam with a view The Knepp Rewilding Project’s free-roaming animals are there first and foremost to restore the landscape, not to serve the butchery. The estate’s meat and charcuterie output reflects this priority, both in its volume and how it is produced. By Tanwen Dawn-Hiscox

nless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard about the Knepp Rewilding Project, one of the UK’s most influential lowland restoration initiatives. It will come as no surprise to learn that the animals that roam freely – trampling, churning up and rooting through the soil, letting seed and rain in – are not there primarily as food sources. But in the absence of apex predators, their numbers do have to be managed. This tension is at the heart of the rewilding project, and raises the question of how an estate dedicated to restoring nature turns a necessary cull into food. Contrary to what one might expect, the project did not stem from a bout of extreme altruism, but from necessity. The West Sussex estate’s owners, Charlie Burrell and Isabella Tree, had farmed the land conventionally for 17 years. But despite their best efforts, by 1999, they had accrued £1.5m of debt. With agricultural subsidies set to dry up, and with funding available to restore historic parkland, the couple decided to let nature reclaim the estate’s 350-acre Repton-designed

If you were thinking primarily in terms of food production, you could have way more animals out there. But that’s not the project. Isabella Tree, author, conservationist and co-owner of the Knepp Estate

park. “It felt amazing to do that,” Tree tells FFD. As native wildflowers and grasses returned, so did common blue butterflies and grasshoppers and crickets. Only then was the romantic dimension of the idea born. “As farmers, we hadn’t even noticed that we were missing the sound of insects. That was the epiphany, I think.” And so their great experiment began. By 2008, all 3,500 acres of the estate had become part of the project. Creating a balanced ecosystem involved restoring natural watercourses; leaving shrubs and trees to grow; and finally, after fencing the boundaries, introducing free-roaming animals. “They are the big disturbers,” says Tree. Meanwhile, what made the land hard to farm – dense clay soils that hold water and nutrients but are ill-suited for intensive cropping – made it perfect for rewilding. Standing in for the large herbivores that would once have roamed the land are around 100 Old English Longhorn cattle (replacing the now extinct wild cattle species known as the auroch); a few dozen Tamworth pigs in place of wild boar and 30 hardy Exmoor ponies take Vol.27 Issue 7 | September 2026

REWILDING the spots once filled by what would have been tarpan. There are also 200-300 fallow and red deer on the land. “But obviously in a relatively small project like this, compared to places like Yellowstone National Park or the Serengeti, we don’t have apex predators. You can’t simply let those populations of animals grow and grow, or you start eating out the habitat that you’re hoping they’re creating,” says Tree. “And so we have to become, in a sense, the apex predator.” Numbers are set according to what the land can sustain, as Knepp doesn’t supplement feed. If animals can survive a long, harsh winter, and a late wet spring, and emerge with a good body condition score – signs of a healthy distribution of body fat and muscle – Tree says “that really is the magic formula”. Restoring life and nature remain Tree’s top priority. But as the need to control numbers was accepted, ensuring that animals have an end-of-life story consistent with the project became part of Knepp’s responsibility. “We’re not producing food intensively like we did before, we are primarily about nature,” she says. “But the fact that our animals are out there free-roaming, eating what they want, selfmedicating even”, she adds, “it means that the meat and the fats that we’re eating from these animals are positively good for our health too.” For customers buying from Knepp’s shop, restaurant, and website, the link between the meat, animal welfare and the restoration project is part of the appeal. The project has also supported the local

September 2026 | Vol.27 Issue 7

We want to do the right thing by the animals in the death process as in the life process. It’s not a conveyor-belt system. Ian Mepham, head butcher and development manager

rural economy, employing 150 people, compared with 23 before rewilding, while the tens of thousands of annual visitors have encouraged nearby pubs to offer rooms to cater for them. “So it’s a really dynamic, happening thing, not just for wildlife, but for us,” Tree says. But profit definitely does not underpin every decision at Knepp. “Nature is always top dog.

There is a little bit of tension for Ian [Mepham, who leads the butchery and development at Knepp]”, Tree says, “who could do with a lot more meat. But they’re performing a role, these animals, in the landscape. If you were thinking primarily in terms of food production, you could have way more animals out there. And you’d be back to a conventional farm system, and you’d be pulling them indoors in the winter, and you’d be feeding them. But that’s not the project.” It is within this tension that Mepham’s dayto-day plays out. A former engineer who later worked for wholesaler The Cheeseman and cheesemaker Goodwood, Mepham joined the team in 2019 after meeting Charlie Burrell and estate manager Jason Emrich, who asked him to help process meat for its campsite. The butchery and charcuterie arm “was basically a blank canvas”, Mepham tells FFD. It now processes 35 to 50 tonnes of meat a year, with the volume determined by the ecological calculation made here. All the beef and venison comes from the estate, while pork is supplemented by partner farms and freerange poultry is bought in. As of this year, meat processing at Knepp is only just washing its face as a branch of the business. “Before depreciation and internal costs, it broke even this year, but last year we lost £30,000. This year, we’re on target to turn a reasonable profit. “For us, it’s really ethics over everything else, which is a great way to build a business – but it’s a little bit of commercial suicide,

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September 2026 | Vol.27 Issue 7

Fine Food Digest - 230x315h - 14.8.26.indd 2

14/08/2026 14:38

REWILDING

Charlie Burrell

because it is the most expensive meat you can buy.” And cost isn’t the only challenge – Knepp can’t achieve the standardisation expected in conventional supply chains, so the products are inherently variable. Because the animals are culled within a short seasonal window, most of the year’s meat arrives within a concentrated period – and the processing facility was designed accordingly. The compact facility “is a bit like a TARDIS”, Mepham says. The layout moves carcasses logically from the loading bay and hanging room to be broken down, for further processing and freezing. A small team of five, led by Mepham and including his wife Stephanie, processes all the meat at Knepp, a large proportion of which is frozen to maintain supply throughout the year. This constraint informs Knepp’s nose-totail approach. Alongside conventional cuts and sausages, everything really is used – windpipes and lungs, ears and tongues. Charcuterie is also central to the approach, extending the season and helping the team get the most value out of each carcass. The range includes Great Taste 2-star Juniper Coppa, Spiced Loin, Fennel Salami, Longhorn Salami as well as bresaola, pancetta and lardo. But before any of it could be approved for sale, they had to understand the naturally occurring yeasts and bacteria in the ageing room. “That took us about 18 months,” Mepham says. “Then we could get back to the fun bit.” The range is broadly divided into salamis and whole-muscle products. Salamis are fermented for 72 hours at high temperature and humidity, targeting a pH

within a safe acidic range, before drying for six to ten weeks. Whole-muscle products are weighed, dosed with cure and aromatics, held for four to six weeks, then washed and air-dried for as long as seven months. Both mature in a chamber held at 12°C and 70-80% humidity. “Once we hit 30% weight loss, that’s the sweet spot,” Mepham explains. The attachment to craft extends to how the mixtures are prepared – sausages and salamis are worked by hand, allowing proteins to release from the meat without using binding agents. The meat is kept close to freezing to restrict microbial growth. At this stage, the charcuterie is all sold prepacked, in ambient-stable packs which can be kept out of the fridge for three months. Knepp is planning to introduce whole salamis in the near future, offering customers a more rustic product, which Mepham says can be moister, and more flavoursome. “You might come across a more aromatic piece, there are more nuances with the thickness – we do it really well, we think, but some people want to explore themselves, and it really does change the way your mouth experiences it.” Whether pre-sliced or whole, though, Mepham advises customers to always serve charcuterie – especially whole cuts – at room temperature, as you would with cheese. “The fat melts at body temperature, so the rule of thumb is to put a slice on the back of your hand, that will warm it up really quickly.” For such a small team, producing the range is physically demanding. Mepham wants Knepp to remain an attractive place to work, and gradual investment in vacuum sausage

fillers, an automatic slicer, and a purpose-built butchers’ block has reduced the strain. These practical improvements are part of a broader set of values, displayed on a board in the processing facility as a reminder that their work forms part of Knepp’s wider purpose. “It helps keep people a little more grounded than if we were just a commercial business,” Mepham says. “We want to do the right thing by the animals in the death process as in the life process. Even though they’re a dead carcass that will come in from the abattoir and go through the system, it’s not a conveyor-belt system.” Outside the facility, the landscape tells the story of what those values serve. Cattle and their calves graze on the roadside, untroubled by our presence, while thorn scrub and naturally regenerated trees provide the habitat for returning nightingales, turtle doves and purple emperor butterflies, as well as the reintroduced white storks and beavers. The animals arriving at Mepham’s facility are part of this ecosystem: their grazing, browsing and disturbance help create the habitat on which these species depend. “We try to think as a circular economy internally,” says Mepham. Mepham credits Burrell and Tree with keeping the purpose visible across everything at Knepp. “We just want to do right by the standards they ask for,” he says. “And it’s a lovely story, isn’t it? It’s lovely to tell it, and it’s lovely to work side by side. And we get to see both sides”: the butchery and the living landscape. knepp.co.uk

Vol.27 Issue 7 | September 2026

The JOY of Realfoods

Great Taste ! s r e v o l d e s s o r c Starified

Organic Cert

Organico.co.uk 20

September 2026 | Vol.27 Issue 7

PROMOTIONAL FEATURE

Food & Drink Wales

Where meat means heritage Few food categories are as closely connected to landscape, farming tradition and sense of place as Welsh red meat. No wonder it is home to so many awardwinning protected meat products. From the upland hills where its lamb has been reared for generations and the salt marshes of the Gower Peninsula, through to the traditional and unique curing methods behind Carmarthen Ham – Wales’ protected meat products tell a compelling story of provenance, authenticity and quality. A key factor celebrating this heritage is their Geographical Indication (GI) status. Wales is home to a number of protected red meat products, including PGI Welsh Lamb, PGI Welsh Beef, Gower Salt Marsh Lamb (PDO), Cambrian Mountains Lamb (PGI), Carmarthen Ham (PGI) and Traditionally Reared Pedigree Welsh Pork (TSG). These designations not only protect the integrity of the products but also provide valuable reassurance to buyers and consumers seeking authenticity, traceability and a taste that’s genuinely unique and cannot be replicated anywhere else in the world. In an increasingly competitive marketplace, these credentials are becoming ever more valuable. Consumers, retailers and foodservice operators are placing greater emphasis on provenance, transparency and production standards, making GI status an important tool for helping products stand out and command

trust. The strength of Welsh red meat production continues to be recognised through independent industry awards. The recently announced Great Taste 2026 saw Welsh producers once again secure a host of accolades, further reinforcing its reputation for premium red meat. These include smaller, artisan producers of fine charcuterie through to its lamb, which is already known across the world for its unique quality. Moch Coch was founded four years ago with a commitment to farming sustainably, along with ensuring the highest standards of animal welfare. All of its packaging is plastic-free, biodegradable and ocean friendly and its founders are dedicated to supporting biodiversity and soil health. Moch Coch received 2-star awards for its Fennel & Green Peppercorn Salami, and Coppa, which is made from the neck muscle of the pig. Owner Bethan Morgan says: “It’s really important to us that the animals have lived a really happy, extensive life, and that that reflects in the quality of the meat and the flavour of what you’re eating.” “One of the things that makes outdoor-bred Welsh pork so fantastic, and taste so amazing, is that we’re working with hardy outdoor breeds that grow slowly and are raised in these incredible environments”, says Bethan, adding that this contributed to “a flavour that is unbeatable.” “We’re in a position where we can provide great food locally, and in a sustainable way”, before adding that “it’s part of our culture and our heritage, so it’s very important and vital to look after it for us all.” Among the other standout successes was Dunbia, whose Welsh Hill PGI Lamb Carvery Shoulder achieved a coveted 3-star award, while its Welsh Hill PGI Cap-on Eye of Lamb Loin was recognised with a 2-star accolade. Great

Taste judges praised the Carvery Shoulder’s tenderness, flavour and exceptional eating quality, describing it as “an exceptional piece of meat”. Other Welsh meat producers who have scored highly include Hindwell Farm Welsh Meats, Damara Môn UK, Black Mountains Smokery Ltd, N S James Family Butchers, Eco-Feed Rare Breeds, Edwards – The Welsh Butcher, Dolwen Welsh Lamb and Beef and Cig Oen Caron. Jess Goodwin, owner of Hindwell Farm Welsh Meats says: “We’re delighted that our 100% Grass-fed Leg of Welsh Lamb has received a 3-star Great Taste Award, while our 100% Grass-fed Shoulder of Welsh Lamb achieved a 2-star award.” “For us, these awards reflect the strength of Welsh farming and the exceptional quality that comes from raising lamb on the natural pastures of Wales. Consumers are increasingly interested in provenance, traceability and how their food is produced, and recognition from Great Taste helps reinforce the reputation of Welsh lamb as a premium product that delivers on flavour and quality.” These latest achievements demonstrate how Welsh meat producers continue to combine generations of farming expertise with rigorous production standards and a deep connection to place. Supported by robust GI protections and recognised through prestigious accolades such as Great Taste, Welsh meat products remain powerful ambassadors for Wales’ thriving food and drink sector. For more information: gov.wales/ foodanddrinkwales

Vol.27 Issue 7 | September 2026

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September 2026 | Vol.27 Issue 7

INTERNATIONAL CHEESE FESTIVAL

ANDALUCÍA-GUSTO DEL SUR INTERNATIONAL CHEESE FESTIVAL 2026 A MUST-VISIT FOR CHEESE LOVERS

he International Cheese Festival is one of the most important gastronomic events of the year, bringing together the finest cheeses and agri-food specialties. At the heart of the festival will be the prestigious World Cheese Awards, where more than 5,000 cheeses will compete to be crowned the best cheese in the world in 2026. Beyond celebrating exceptional cheese, the festival will create a unique meeting point for producers, buyers, industry professionals, universities, technology centres, experts and food press, offering opportunities to build business relationships, discover new products, and share knowledge about the latest scientific and technological advances, production methods and innovative projects. Open to everyone, the International Cheese Festival is a celebration of cheese, gastronomy, knowledge and community—a

truly unforgettable experience for cheese lovers from around the world. From November 12 to 15, Córdoba will become the international meeting point for the global dairy industry, with the prestigious World Cheese Awards taking centre stage. Over four days, the city will bring together producers, brands, experts and cheese lovers from around the world in a vibrant celebration of cheese and gastronomy. Visitors will discover an extensive showcase of exhibitors, exclusive tastings and pairings, immersive experiences, and inspiring forums dedicated to innovation and knowledge. With a unique programme, the event promises an unforgettable journey through the world of cheese, where tradition, creativity, business and gastronomy come together. CONTINUES OVER 

Vol.27 Issue 7 | September 2026

LACTÓPOLIS, an international forum to drive the future of cheese, dairy and food A dynamic meeting point where international expertise, scienti c kno led e and the real challen es o the dair sector come together. The programme will welcome more than international speakers rom co ntries, creatin a ni e space or dialo e and e perience e chan e aro nd some o the sector’s reatest challen es and opport nities, ith a partic lar oc s on innovation, s stainabilit and health ore than simpl sharin kno led e, act polis aims to connect scienti c advances and ne ideas ith the people ho can t rn them into decisions, investments, p blic policies and ne opport nities eca se the t re o the dair sector depends on creatin spaces here kno led e can move be ond research and become action For decades, the dairy sector has demonstrated an e traordinar capacit or innovation cience has developed ne prod ction technolo ies, deepened o r nderstandin o the n tritional alit o milk and dair prod cts, driven advances in enetics, microbiolo , s stainabilit , animal el are, and ood sa et , and enabled the sector to address man o the ma or challen es it aces o can e ens re that this kno led e reaches the decision makers act polis represents a ne initiative to acilitate dialo e amon researchers, b siness leaders, dair armers, distrib tors, p blic a thorities and cons mers in order to ans er these estions ith a capacit or people and ree admission, act polis ill take place on ovember and at the ain ditori m, o erin an inspirin plat orm to e plore, connect and shape the t re o the sector

EXPERIENCE LAB, a sensory journey where flavours, knowledge and creativity come together

EXHIBITION AREAS, four unique spaces, one shared passion for food, cheese and innovation

It will be a vibrant and immersive space bringing together a diverse range of high-quality agri-food products. Through a carefully curated programme of tastings, pairings and live presentations, visitors will have the opportunity to discover new products, explore unexpected flavour combinations and learn from leading producers and experts. More than a tasting area, Experience Lab will offer a sensory journey designed to inspire, surprise and deepen the appreciation of exceptional food and gastronomy.

he estival ill eat re an e tensive e hibition space brin in to ether more than companies, instit tions and or anisations rom across the a ri ood and dair sectors isitors ill have the opport nit to discover, taste and e plore an o tstandin selection o prod cts, rom cheeses, ines, vine ars, olive oils and olives to c red ham, hone , re a s and man other hi h alit specialities he e hibition ill be divided into o r distinctive areas, each o erin a ni e e perience and brin in to ether a di erent pro le o e hibitors Cheese Market ill be the estival’s international marketplace dedicated entirely to cheese, where visitors can discover, taste and p rchase cheeses rom di erent re ions hile e plorin the e traordinar diversit and richness o the lobal cheese makin tradition Boulevard, inspired b the ele ant shoppin alleries o the orld’s reat cities, ill brin to ether a ri ood, a ro astronom and a ro to rism in a d namic and en a in settin , ith a partic lar oc s on companies sho casin o rmet prod cts and hi h val e specialities Hall ill be dedicated to p blic instit tions and or anisations rom di erent re ions and back ro nds, hi hli htin the ori in, herita e and identit behind certi ed ood prod cts a vibrant sho case o the alit , roots and val es that make each prod ct ni e Finall , Arena will sho case the stren th and diversit o the private sector, brin in to ether leadin dair prod cers, marketin and distrib tion companies, and specialist service providers or the dair and a ri ood ind stries ore than an e hibition, rena ill be a space or connection, b siness opport nities and ne pro essional partnerships, helpin to b ild relationships and shape the t re o the sector

September 2026 | Vol.27 Issue 7

INTERNATIONAL CHEESE FESTIVAL FORUM ON DAIRY INNOVATION, a meeting point for driving knowledge and the transformation of the sector t ill be a ni e atherin that ill brin to ether the e perts shapin the present and building the future of the dairy and cheese industry. Researchers, companies, producers, technologists, professional organisations and leading national and international experts will come together to share knowledge, experiences and perspectives on the ke challen es and opport nities across the val e chain he programme will feature more than 15 international speakers from 7 countries, including some of the world’s most renowned scientists and researchers, who will explore the latest advances and emerging trends set to shape the future of the sector. More than a forum for discussion, this will be a space where ideas capable of transforming production, nutrition, sustainability, technology and applied innovation take shape, while addressing key issues such as science and health and providing a global perspective on the challenges and opportunities that will drive the evolution of the dairy and cheese industry. ith a capacit or attendees, the rd For m on air nnovation will take place on November 13th and 14th, and is structured around ve ma or thematic pillars Challen es, ealth, ivestock rod ction, rocessin and enetics re ectin a comprehensive vision o today’s dairy sector. From the strategic analysis of global challenges, innovation in animal production, advances in our understanding of the health effects of dairy products, to the technologies transforming cheese and dair processin , the For m, onl accessible ith a speci c pass, provides a multidisciplinary perspective aimed at identifying opportunities and creating meaningful impact. More than a programme of conferences, the Forum serves as a platform for the exchange of ideas, the creation of strategic partnerships, and the development of a community committed to excellence.

WORLD CHEESE ARENA TOURS, behind the scenes of the World Cheese Awards Discover the World Cheese Awards through the eyes of an expert. On November 13 and 14, visitors will have the opportunity to experience the World Cheese Awards from a unique and privileged perspective through exclusive small-group guided tours led by WCA experts. During the tour, participants will discover how the competition works, learn about the judging process and gain a closer insi ht into hat makes the orld’s nest cheeses stand o t he e perience ill also include the opportunity to taste a selection of cheeses, turning the tour into a ascinatin o rne thro h avo r, e pertise and the art o cheese d in o rs ill be available in both panish and n lish, o erin international visitors the chance to discover the World Cheese Awards in an engaging, informative and truly immersive way.

TICKETS & PASSES ickets are no available thro h the o cial nternational Cheese Festival website. Whether you are a dairy professional, an innovation enthusiast or simply a passionate cheese lover, there is a pass designed for you. 1. Professional Pass provides unlimited access throughout the estival t incl des the opport nit to attend the orld Cheese ards d in sessions and rand nal live, as well as access to the exhibition areas, professional tastin s, act polis and orld Cheese rena o rs 2. Innovation Forum Pass is aimed at professionals interested in the future of the dairy and cheese industry, o erin access or three da s t incl des access to the exhibition areas, professional tastings, the World Cheese ards niversal hibition, act polis, the rd For m on air nnovation and orld Cheese rena o rs 3. General Admission Ticket is designed for the general public and food lovers, providing one-day access to the estival he ticket incl des a tasting of a selection of outstanding cheeses, access to the World Cheese Awards niversal hibition, the exhibition areas and the Lactópolis Forum—the perfect way to discover, taste and experience the world of cheese. Choose your pass and get ready to experience four unforgettable days where cheese, gastronomy, knowledge and innovation come together. Vol.27 Issue 7 | September 2026

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September 2026 | Vol.27 Issue 7

PROMOTIONAL FEATURE

The Garlic Farm

THE GARLIC FARM’S NEW DRESSINGS COLLECTION

ORGANIC GARLIC, HONEY & MUSTARD DRESSING Sweet and tangy with a garlic twist. Perfect drizzled over potatoes, sausages & vegetables.

Farming organic garlic, for the future With help from an expert collective of farmers and researchers, the team at The Garlic Farm is trying to learn ways to balance progress of production while minimising the harm to soil health and nature. THE TEAM AT The Garlic Farm on the Isle of Wight is aiming for production and restoration alongside each other. The evidence shows that doing both is possible, by combining techniques new and old. The team base their garlic growing on the four principles of organic farming: health, ecology, fairness and care. All of these encourage a restorative, repeatable process that actively increases the resilience of a farm and its people rather than simply sustaining it. A balance between the often-invisible wisdom of nature and the creative innovation of modern farming appears to be where the sweet-spot sits. Since 2023, The Garlic Farm has been certified as organic by the Soil Association. This means it doesn’t rely on synthetic input. Instead, the farm’s team has adopted practices that enhance soil fertility and promote biodiversity. Out in the fields, they use nature-friendly farming methods, such as mob-grazing (rotating livestock through parcels of land to promote optimal soil health and carbon sequestration) and alley cropping (planting trees within crops to provide wildlife corridors, browse for livestock and improve soil structure). Moving to organic farming methods has meant the company is witnessing, first-hand, the positive impact organic farming has on the natural world. It has been tracking changes, monitoring soil health and biodiversity. The evidence is clear: the soil structure, chemistry and biology are all moving in the right direction. Earthworms and dung beetles are often sighted in the garlic fields, both great indicators of soil health.

LAUNCHING NEW ORGANIC PRODUCTS Now, The Garlic Farm is well on its way to transitioning all of its products to organic. This year, the team has relaunched the range of garlicky dressings, with new organic recipes certified by the Soil Association. Packed full of bright, fresh flavours, the collection of versatile dressings enhance salads, pastas and meat. This new collection builds on the shift to organic produce, reflecting growing customer appetites for foods that deliver on flavour, without compromising on values. Barnes Edwards, director, says: “Quite simply, our own practise is showing us that organic food and farming is better for soil, biodiversity and people – and this has galvanised us to transition all our products to organic. “The process will take a while, but it’s already underway, and we’ve made some great organic products – all packed full of flavour and with a healthy dose of garlic. Our new organic collection features dressings, sauces, cooking pastes and salts so far, and responds to customers’ needs for versatile cupboard staples that add depth of flavour, made using high quality, organic ingredients. “Ultimately, our aim is to make good food great with garlic, while farming the land in a way that sustains nature recovery. Each new organic product marks another step on this journey.

ORGANIC GARLIC & BASIL PESTO DRESSING Aromatic and creamy, this versatile dressing is delicious with chicken, pasta and greens. ORGANIC GARLIC, CHILLI & LIME DRESSING Warm and spicy with a punchy kick. Liven p pasta, salad or sh ith this o rmet dressing. Size: 330ml RRP: £7.95 Stockists: Available direct, and through Cotswold Fayre or Cress Co.

ABOUT THE GARLIC FARM

The Garlic Farm is a third-generation, family-run business, based in Newchurch on the Isle of Wight - a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. t arms arlic, c ltivates arlic based food products, and operates retail, restaurant and on-farm accommodation. It holds Soil Association Organic and ast re For i e certi cations, demonstrating leadership in re enerative a ric lt re One of eleven farms to achieve B Corp status in the UK (2023), the farm offers educational outreach to schools, the general public and local businesses. The Garlic Farm was awarded the prestigious King’s Award for Enterprise in Sustainable Development in 2025. The Garlic Farm prioritises carbon insetting, biodiversity conservation, and circular resource management, implementing initiatives like multi-paddock grazing of livestock within the garlic rotation, woodland restoration, habitat creation, and soil regeneration. Web: www.thegarlicfarm.co.uk Email: enquiries@thegarlicfarm.co.uk Phone: 01983 865378 Vol.27 Issue 7 | September 2026

September 2026 | Vol.27 Issue 7

ONES TO WATCH

Keep an eye out for… In 2027, Speciality & Fine Food Fair will begin an exciting new chapter, moving to Excel London as part of Food, Drink & Hospitality Week on 5th-7th April. To mark this evolution, the Fair and Fine Food Digest have come together to explore the current state of the speciality food & drink sector, highlighting some of the key people, producers, retailers and trends making waves and driving innovation across the industry. The people and businesses named in this ‘ones to watch’ feature offer a glimpse into the future of fine food & drink, revealing how the sector can continue to evolve, reach new audiences and build even closer connections with communities across the UK. Some of the names will already be familiar, while others may inspire you to take a closer look at an exciting emerging brand or idea. Above all, we hope the feature sparks conversation, and we would love to hear who and what you believe will shape the industry through the rest of 2026 and beyond.

Vol.27 Issue 7 | September 2026

September 2026 | Vol.27 Issue 7

ONES TO WATCH

Kirsty O’Connor/Flickr

ANDY BURNHAM

High streets, hospitality and farming have moved surprisingly close to the centre of the economic agenda of the UK’s new PM, Andy Burnham. During his leadership campaign, Burnham suggested taking cafés and shops out of business rates altogether, alongside a 20% reduction for pubs and music venues. Since becoming PM, Burnham has confirmed the latter from April 2027 and launched a review into the way pubs and hotels are valued for business rates, as well as promising wider reform in the Autumn Budget. The PM has given food production some attention too. As a consequence of this summer’s drought, Burnham announced £65m of support for farmers, measures to improve access to water and farm reservoirs, and said Britain needs to “guarantee our own food production”. Add his pledge to revitalise what he called “hollowed-out” high streets, and there is plenty here for independents to pay attention to. Whether all of his promises materialise is another matter, but few recent Prime Ministers have arrived with policies so directly relevant to our sector.

PRIMROSE CREAMERY

At a time when the pressures surrounding raw milk soft cheese production have led many British makers to pasteurise, Primrose Creamery has gone decisively in the other direction. Cheesemaker Jake Goldstein started making at a new dairy at the School of Artisan Food on Nottinghamshire’s Welbeck Estate in late 2025, using raw cows’ milk from the same herd that supplies Stichelton. Its cheeses are deliberately made at a small scale to let the milk shine and express where it is from. Lindley is a decadent creamenriched raw milk cheese, and Eggleston is a soft-ripened cheese with a chalky centre and a gooey, mushroomy breakdown. In Primrose’s irst season o enterin reat aste, leston is in contention or the Golden Fork from England, while Lindley has been nominated for the Golden Fork for Outstanding Bursary Winner. primrosecreamery.com

Vol.27 Issue 7 | September 2026

ONES TO WATCH NOURISHED COMMUNITIES, LONDON

THE END OF THE WORLD FOOD AISLE?

re e inall reachin the end o sections dedicated to orld ood’ in retail? Consumers are knowledgeable about international flavours and products, and they expect to find harissa nestled among the condiments, kimchi alongside the vegetables and paneer cosying up with cheddar in the cheese fridge. With the explosion in popularity of TikTok recipes, shoppers are arriving with dishes in mind and looking for the ingredients to recreate them at home. This presents an opportunity for independent retailers, who are uniquely positioned to respond with curated ranges, informed recommendations and a personal approach to discover Shop teams can explain unfamiliar ingredients, suggest complementary products and help customers build confidence beyond a single viral recipe. Sampling can take that engagement further, turning curiosity into a purchase and introducing shoppers to flavours they may otherwise overlook. The future may not be a world food aisle, but international products integrated throughout the store.

Isabelle Plasschaert

First opened during the pandemic to connect small-scale farmers with hungry, locked-down Londoners, Nourished Communities now has foustores across North London, but still maintains its market-stall soul Co-founders Rollo Millership and Rory Gillies source from more than 200 independent producers, taste-testing everything and putting provenance ahead of polished branding. Their latest shop opened in Walthamstow in May 2025, providing another platform for independent makers. Its role goes beyond retail, with the shops serving as spaces for regular local events, neighbourhood information and producer collaboration. Nourished shares local news, runs workshops and exhibitions, and supports schools and charities with fresh produce. Its sustainability efforts are practical too: it has refill stations, offers regenerative veg boxes, uses reused packaging and the team has clocked more than 8,500 miles by electric cargo bike. Nourished Communities shows how a modern retailer can grow quickly while remaining rooted in the people and producers around it. nourishedcommunities.com

importing and distributing the finest olive oil since 2001

September 2026 | Vol.27 Issue 7

Seven Great Taste Awards Three Consecutive Years 2024 - 2025 - 2026

Great Taste 2026 Triple Win

Dubai Viral Style Kunafa & Pistachio Milk Chocolate Bonbons

Pistachio Spread

Milk Chocolate Crème with Pistachio Paste

The Joy of Living, The Pleasure of Giving Award-winning luxury chocolatier

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September 2026 | Vol.27 Issue 7

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September 2026 | Vol.27 Issue 7

ONES TO WATCH JEREMY CLARKSON

Love him or loathe him, Jeremy Clarkson has done something few agricultural campaigns have achieved before, by persuading millions of people to watch farmers discuss fertiliser costs, planning disputes, weather changes, animal welfare and margins. For independent retailers, Clarkson’s Farm has also become a visible experiment in diversification. Diddly Squat Farm Shop, established with Lisa Hogan in 2020, sells produce from the farm and local producers, as well as white-labelled goods from businesses well-known in the industry. Cotswold Gold, itself an established speciality producer, manufactures Diddly Squat’s entire range of oils, condiments, chutneys, sauces and mayonnaise from its Broadway site. Meanwhile, Cotswold Fayre has been the exclusive fine-food wholesaler for around 20 Diddly Squat lines since January 2025, putting the range directly into independent farm shops and delis. Rural retailers have long argued that consumers need a better understanding of what food production actually costs, and Clarkson has a platform of a scale the sector could never manufacture for itself.

THIRD CULTURE KAT

Chilli oil has become a rather crowded market, but Third Culture Kat distinguishes itself by the quality of its products, and because founder Saliha Khan is attempting something more than just making tasty condiments. She wants to tell stories about traditional Pakistani food and farming, to which she has a real connection, as she grew up around her family’s mango orchards in South Punjab. The Le Cordon Bleu-trained chef first introduced Kashmiri Chilli Oil before adding Multani Mango and Lahori Tamarind chutneys. Khan works directly with Pakistani farmers, selling the products in bright, modern jars, as a novel kind of British speciality brand that is culturally specific and unwilling to flatten heritage into a generic ‘world food’ offer. The Kashmiri Chilli Oil picked up Great Taste recognition in 2025, and this year, the Lahori Tamarind Chutney gained 2-star status. thirdculturekat.com

6FU Dill Sauce Gin Gravalax

Gravalax is a classic Scandinavian dish made from fresh salmon, cured with a mixture of sugar, salt and dill, amongst other ingredients. Unlike a lot of mainstream products, ours is not smoked in any way. That is not proper Gravalax! We also only use sushi grade fish that is lkeJime certified. Our Gravalax is a healthier alternative to smoked salmon, perfect as a starter or a healthy snack, makes a great sandwich and all complemented by our own award winning signature dill sauce. With our soon the be published recipe book, the possibilities are fairly endless. “Stone Pool”, Benson, OXON, OX10 6FU Tel: 01235 419 351 / 07748 633379 taste@gravalax.co.uk Vol.27 Issue 7 | September 2026

ONES TO WATCH

Stefanos Aktipis

BARBAKAN DELICATESSEN, CHORLTON AND WILMSLOW

Sixty-two years after opening in Chorlton, Barbakan now has a sister business. The Manchester institution opened its second site in Wilmslow in April, under managing director Frankie Dyer, who bought the business from her father in 2021. The new shop is smaller than the original, but doesn’t try to replicate it. Bread, bagels, cakes and pastries are baked at the Chorlton bakery and delivered to Wilmslow every morning, while the new site also has a foodservice element to it. So after six decades of building up its business and its reputation as a destination bakery and deli, Barbakan’s new Wilmslow site is a great example of how a production base can support a smaller satellite site without needing the entire operation to be duplicated. As many independents wrestle with the cost of diversification and physical expansion, Barbakan seems to have identified a sensible way of growing in a way that works in 2026. barbakan-deli.co.uk

A ar innin . ris . r ani . Artisan.

September 2026 | Vol.27 Issue 7

STIFF TEA BREWING COMPANY

Kombucha has long been sold as the virtuous alternative to a soft drink, but Stiff Tea would rather take it to the pub. Zach Taylor founded Stiff Tea after a decade working across craft beer and traditional kombucha, bringing the two drinks together in what he describes as the UK’s first hard kombucha brewery. Importantly, the alcohol isn’t just added to finished kombucha, but brewed and fermented to strength. The core range spans different strengths and drinking occasions, from the 2.5% Mango-ist through to 5% Raspberry Blower. The range has since become still more playful, including Grapple Soda and a gherkin, cucumber, dill and brine-flavoured hard kombucha, ‘In a Pickle’. It’s tart, savoury, and taps right into the pickle craze sweeping the UK food & drink scene. For independents, Stiff Tea is devised as intriguing and novel, in that it is notably different from beer, cider and conventional kombucha. stifftea.com

Suma Organic Casarecce Oat Pasta

September 2026 | Vol.27 Issue 7

From nutrient-dense essentials to plant-based innovation, Biona’s organic range delivers the flavour, function and integrity today’s conscious consumers demand.

Stock Biona today and bring your customers pantry staples they’ll return for. Contact our team at salesteam@windmillorganics.com

September 2026 | Vol.27 Issue 7

ONES TO WATCH MORGAN MCGLYNN-CARR

The question of how to introduce a broader demographic of consumers to artisan food is one the UK’s fine food sector is always a good one. Meanwhile, Morgan McGlynn-Carr is busy doing it. The cheesemonger behind Cheeses of Muswell Hill has spent almost two decades working behind the counter, is now a fixture on Sunday Brunch, has written three books and has an increasingly prominent social media presence, as well as being a longstanding World Cheese Awards judge. McGlynn-Carr has a unique skill of democratising and breaking down technical subjects to make them understandable. A recent video of her unwrapping one of Butlers Farmhouse Cheeses’ traditional clothbound cheeses attracted more than six million views on social media, showing that it is possible to communicate provenance, technique and flavour without intimidating people who don’t know as much as you do. morganmcglynncarr. com

IS I R T

R T IN

Everyone from Mintel to Marks & Spencer seems to think that fibre is the next big buzzword to disrupt supermarket shelves and drive new product development, but does it have a bit of an image problem? While protein has enjoyed an association with clean label products, health and fitness, fibre is most commonly discussed in the same sentence as, ell, re lar bo l movements While ‘fibremaxxing’ was apparently trending on social media at the start of 2026, and according to M&S, 92% of its customers want to eat more fibre, it has some way to go until it reaches the astonishing, borderline money-printing benefits of adding the word ‘protein’ to any given new product.

EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL

NOT JUST ANOTHER OLIVE OIL HIGH IN POLYPHENOLS Award-winning, certified organic, extra virgin olive oil from PGI Lakonia, Greece. Crafted by an Olive Oil Sommelier.

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CERTIFIED ORGANIC

Greek Provenance. UK-based. Trade enquiries: | info@back2roots.uk | back2roots.uk Vol.27 Issue 7 | September 2026

ONES TO WATCH

ape one to

If fibre really is going to have its protein moment, SUCSEED has joined the fold at an opportune time. Founded by former magazine editor-turnednutritionist Helen Johnston, the brand makes blends of seeds and botanicals to be sprinkled over both sweet and savoury food. Its range currently spans Gut Health, Focus, Immunity and Energy blends. Rather than take the ultra-processed, heavily engineered route into functional food, SUCSEED has picked the wholefood path. It cold-mills flax, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, with ingredients sourced from organic suppliers and regenerative UK farmers where possible. The products are inherently full of fibre and designed to fit into meals consumers are already eating, rather than requiring a left-hand turn change of diet. Consumers have shown that they want functional food, but for independents, the need to sell products with recognisable ingredients, provenance, that actually taste good – SUCSEED might tick all the boxes. sucseed.life

MOUSE & GRAPE, LONDON

In less than two years, Mouse & Grape’s bricksand-mortar business near Harrow in London has doubled in size. Jessica Summer launched an online cheese and wine retail business in 2021, and opened the physical shop, deli and wine bar in Pinner in November 2024. A year later, it expanded upstairs, adding dedicated capacity for tastings, private hire and events. The business’ different parts mean that customers can eat a cheese & wine pairing at the bar, learn about it from the team and then buy more to take home. The same cross-pollinating logic informs Summer’s approach to e-commerce, corporate tastings and events. This hybrid model is clearly doing something right, as the business has won a string of awards, and Summer says another site could soon be on the cards. mouseandgrape.com

Where Ancient Fermentation Meets Mediterranean Elegance Creamy, Complex, and Unforgettably Rich

A clever symphony of two rich culinary worlds. This artisanal fermented tofu is crafted through traditional rice koji fermentation and immersed in aromatic, herb-infused olive oil. It delivers a melting, pâté-smooth texture with deep notes of miso, dark chocolate, and savory umami. Perfect spread on crusty sourdough, paired with fine wine, or elevated on a curated charcuterie board. Ambient storage. Enjoy it anywhere.

Garlic Oregano, Extra Virgin Olive Oil Infused Vegan Cheese

Embellish with Relish WWW.HAWKSHEADRELISH.COM 46

September 2026 | Vol.27 Issue 7

www.ruralchees.com/pages/ENGLISH

Isabelle Plasschaert

SUCSEED

Ireland’s award-winning food and drink Congratulations to the 609 products from Ireland who have been awarded 1, 2 and the highly coveted exquisite and extraordinary 3-stars this year

September 2026 | Vol.27 Issue 7

Your recipe for more customers

AWARD-WINNING TIRAMISU BROWNIE

Lemon Bakewell

Tiramisu Brownie

Tiramisu Slump

Releasing 2027 @CakeheadB2B

Proud to have achieved 31 Great Taste awards

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September 2026 | Vol.27 Issue 7

ONES TO WATCH INT RNATI NA

M S

Mexican and Korean food have found a natural home on TikTok, where bold colours, punchy flavours and highly visual preparation make dishes eminently shareable. Birria tacos, elote and salsa recipes sit comfortably alongside Korean fried chicken, tteokbokki and kimchi, encouraging UK cons mers to e plore in redients once considered specialist Increasingly, creators are bringing the two cuisines together through dishes such as bulgogi tacos, kimchi quesadillas and gochujang-spiked salsas. The fusion has roots beyond social media, particularly in Los Angeles, where Korean and Mexican communities have lived and cooked alongside one another for decades. The close bond between the two cultures reached a global audience during the 2026 World Cup, as supporters celebrated their countries’ friendship even while their teams competed, and their popularity with UK consumers is showing no sign of slo in do n

MORRIS’ OF USK, LLANBADOC

Vol.27 Issue 7 | September 2026

Matthew Horwood

Morris’ of Usk is a fine example of what is possible when a longstanding family business gives a new generation proper handson responsibility, rather than just sticking with things the way they were done before. The family-run Monmouthshire business started as a nursery, opening its garden centre to the public in 1990. More recent additions include the farm shop, bakery, butchery, café and deli. The youngest addition to the business, Lily Morris, has been instrumental in developing the cheese and deli offers, as well as getting the business onto social media in a way it never was before. Lily Morris set up the shop’s deli and cheese counter in 2022, and now curates its artisan range. She was named the Academy of Cheese’s Young Cheesemonger of the Year in 2023 and is a fervent promoter of artisan cheese both in store and via her social media channels. The business is currently refurbing the Usk site, extending and improving the delicatessen and cheese counter, with a view on offering a broader range of quality food & drink. uskgardencentre.co.uk

ONES TO WATCH DEV SHARMA

WILD RICE

At the tender age of 21, Dev Sharma has achieved more as a food campaigner than many manage across an entire career. He helped found Bite Back 2030 with Jamie Oliver aged 14, playing a leading role in the campaign for restrictions on online junk food advertising, which came into force in January 2026. His work has also addressed child food poverty, free school meals and the pressures facing young people in a complex food environment. Now, as chair of the Food Education Network, Dev is applying that campaigning experience to the push for more comprehensive food education across England’s schools. The alliance of 33 organisations wants food education embedded more consistently throughout school life, spanning cooking, nutrition, farming, sustainability and biodiversity, and the fine food sector has its own vital role to play in making that ambition a reality.

Founded by Thai chef-restaurateur Pan Serirak, Wild Rice makes Thai cooking sauces designed for consumers who want to cook a dish quickly, without needing to source coconut milk, spices and other ingredients separately. Its range includes Green and Panang curries, alongside 3-star Great Tasteawarded Mushroom Soy Sauce, and a duo of moreish Nam Prik crispy Thai shallot toppers. With an emphasis on ingredients and tried and trusted traditional techniques, Wild Rice sources ingredients directly from small Thai farms and makes its products without preservatives, artificial additives, stabilisers or flavour enhancers. As consumers become more knowledgeable about regional Asian cuisines, convenience is still at the forefront of their minds – putting Wild Rice in the enviable position of offering them exactly what they want. wildricelondon.com

NEW AWARD-WINNING ORGANIC MAPLE DAIRY R FREE BUTTER RY

www.puremaple.co.uk 50

September 2026 | Vol.27 Issue 7

LIMITED EDITION

BACK BY PO PU LA R DE M AN D

Vol.27 Issue 7 | September 2026

W E A L D S M O K E RY FINE FOOD EXPERIENCE Smoked Chicken Breast Sliced Smoked Scottish Salmon Smoked Eel Fillet Cold Smoked Trout

A taste of Venezuela, crafted into exceptional gelato. Our Venezuelan Chocolate Gelato has been awarded 1-star at Great Taste 2026. Crafted in small batches using carefully selected Venezuelan cacao, it delivers an intense, beautifully balanced chocolate flavour with the smooth texture and craftsmanship that define Raga’ Gelato.

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September 2026 | Vol.27 Issue 7

Discover Raga’ Gelato www.ragagelato.co.uk

ONES TO WATCH THE GRAZE CRAZE

ict re this a bea ti ll presented charc terie board, piled hi h ith meats c rled into lo ers, hand selected miniat re cheeses, apricots, rapes, ch tne s, herkins, and plent o other delicio s acco trements emptin bsol tel price a to recreate at home e initel t’s little onder, then, that rape Fi ’s residenc at rit ard on e ent treet has set social media b in ith its assemble o r o n sharin platter’ station all the home deliver ra in bo brands that emer ed d rin the pandemic, rape Fi appears to have en o ed the reatest sta in po er t’s eas to ima ine a similar ormat orkin ell or other specialit retailers, combinin the theatre and personalisation o an in store e perience ith the convenience shoppers increasin l e pect For independents, it co ld be a compellin a to enco ra e discover , sho case complementar prod cts and t rn ra in into an occasion

MATELO

he boomin ener drinks market has made erba mat amiliar as an in redient itho t necessaril teachin ritish cons mers hat it act all is nter atelo, a ne drinks brand that ants to chan e that nl la nched earlier this ear, the ondon brand bills itsel as the ’s irst sparklin erba mat , cold bre in hole leaves rather than sin mat simpl as an e tract in a nctional drink ts c rrent ran e comprises ri inal at and at int, ith st o r in redients and no arti icial additives erba mat has a cent ries old drinkin c lt re in o th merica, b t in ritain, its ro te to market has lar el been thro h the lan a e o ener and per ormance and via a sin le, ell kno n erman brand atelo is hopin to ain its share o the market based on its reat lavo r, provenance and rit al convenientl packa ed in a can drink-matelo.com

Speciality & Fine Food Fair returns in 2027 Speciality & Fine Food Fair will be back, bigger and better than ever, as part of Food, Drink & Hospitality Week on 5th – 7th April 2027. In its new home at Excel London, the Fair will continue to celebrate everything that makes the speciality and fine food sector so special, with new features, stages and industry partners. While the move represents an exciting evolution for the event, its distinctive identity and dedication to championing the people, products and businesses shaping the sector will remain stronger than ever. ta p to date ith all the latest anno ncements at specialityandfinefoodfairs.co.uk

Vol.27 Issue 7 | September 2026

Original Cultured Ghee

Original Ghee

Turmeric Ghee

Morel Pâté Ghee

NOW PAIRING WITH THE STARS

September 2026 | Vol.27 Issue 7

INTERVIEW Amy Poon is the founder of one of the UK’s most beloved modern Chinese food businesses, but her story is less about ambition than instinct. Drawing on family legacy, a gift for bringing people together and a deep understanding of Chinese culture, she has built a restaurant and pantry brand that reflect her generous, joyful approach to food and hospitality. By Tanwen Dawn-Hiscox

All roads lead to

Poon’s

eeting someone like Amy Poon, in principle, can be a slightly nerve-wracking experience. The owner of Somerset House restaurant Poon’s and of the pantry brand of the same name is known in the food industry as a force of nature. But reader, this isn’t the story of a person who has fearlessly achieved a succession of highly impressive things. It is about someone who, in her day-to-day life, strives to be good, and to do good: by the people around her, by her parents, by the food and culture she inherited, and by the people she feeds. Amy Poon does not move through the world trying to execute some grand plan. Reminiscing back to how she envisioned her future in her twenties, she tells FFD: “I was very much in the moment. I didn’t have the three-year plan, fiveyear plan, 10-year plan. It was all about taking opportunities as they presented themselves. It was all quite organic and not very strategic.” Poon credits much to chance: meeting people who gave her opportunities and loaned her money, crossing paths with Adam

Lawrence, Poon’s director of operations, who she describes as her “anchor”; and marrying her husband, whose banking background brings rigour to her “back of the fag packet” calculations. And if her career has unfolded with much improvisation along the way, the standards she holds herself to were established early on, by her parents, restaurateurs Cecilia Poon and the late Bill Poon. Their restaurant group counted seven restaurants at its height in the 80’s, and the Covent Garden site was the UK’s first Chinese restaurant to be awarded a Michelin star. So food was central to Amy Poon’s life, even back then: her parents’ idea of a cultural outing was driving to restaurants around the country on Sundays; young Amy Poon was sent to school with roast duck as her packed lunch, and watched aghast as her friends gobbled up Marmite sandwiches. And Bill Poon had an extraordinarily exacting palate. When she was 17, Amy Poon spent three days preparing him a lamb dish from scratch. After trying it, he awarded it a percentage score of 62. “Obviously, I was a little bit frustrated,” she recalls. But her mother took her aside and told her: “That’s very impressive. The first time I cooked for him, he gave me 32%.”

“I’ve always said that actually, in a way, perhaps my mother was a better cook, because she had to cook for my father,” Poon laughs. After studying Japanese at Oxford, Poon ricocheted through advertising and PR, art, events and luxury recruitment. The latter appealed because she liked bringing people together, but “I didn’t like to do it forcibly,” she says. “I just love to gather people.” Meanwhile, she cooked for her friends at any given opportunity. “Cooking a meal for somebody is an incredible act of service, an incredible act of love,” she says. “To have somebody in mind for that long is like saying, ‘you’re in my thoughts, you’re in my heart’.” A turning point came for Poon when a friend, seeing that she was miserable in her job, offered to cover three months of her salary so she could set up her own restaurant. Poon resigned the next day. She envisioned “a Chinese Carluccio’s, but when Carluccio’s was good: good food, beautifully branded products, not prohibitively CONTINUED ON PAGE 56

Vol.27 Issue 7 | September 2026

INTERVIEW

expensive.” She raised money from investors, but sites fell through and Brexit made lenders cautious. Eventually, in 2018, she opened a three-month popup in Clerkenwell, which was a sell-out success. “I think part of me didn’t particularly want it to work, because then I wouldn’t have to follow it through,” she says. But customers arrived in droves, many with memories of her parents’ restaurants. “Everybody had a story,” she says. “I felt like, ‘oh, I don’t have an excuse now’.” After a Covid-induced hiatus, a Chinese New Year 2021 collaboration with Stevie Parle at Joy saw Poon prepare over 5,000 wontons over a weekend, and make an emergency call to her father for him to join her in the kitchen. “It was actually a golden time,” she says. “We’d stop wrapping wontons for half an hour, and he’d say, ‘we’re going to have a bottle of Riesling, ham and cheese and whatnot.’” This is also when the chilli vinegar served alongside the wontons, known by the chefs as “crack sauce”, took off. Customers pinched portions from other orders, to which Poon’s response was: “Bring a jam jar, and I’ll give you some.” This marked another new direction for Poon, but in fact was not her first attempt to make condiments commercially. She had once “quite petulantly” quit an advertising job with about £23 in the bank to make sauce. On an old newspaper clipping she found recently, she says, “I had scribbled, ‘authenticity, question mark, question mark, question mark.’” This was quietly prophetic, as years later, while telling a friend she needed a soy sauce producer, the friend improbably pulled a bottle from her handbag. This led Poon to Taiwan and to her producer, who uses high-quality whole soybeans, pressing them once. Compared with commercial production, which uses husks left after oil extraction and adds colour, sugar and salt, Poon says the difference is like night and day. “I liken it to trying to make wine out of grape skins,” she says. The pantry offer has grown from there, often drawing on family recipes. Poon’s Extraordinary Chilli Oil was her father’s creation, and the winddried meats date back generations. In fact, the bacon replaced hard-to-source Jinhua ham in her XO-like WO Sauce. “I called it WO, because W is almost X, it’s almost an XO, and I’m so corny and cheesy, so it stuck,” she laughs. A stickler for detail, Poon agonised over the 56

September 2026 | Vol.27 Issue 7

packaging for the soy sauce. She wanted the phoenix’s neck to tuck “like a Hanoverian horse”; the length of the prawns’ whiskers troubled her. But a Soho House launch do forced her to make haste. “If it wasn’t for that deadline, I would probably still be fiddling with talons and whiskers.” Then Harvey Nichols called. “They sent me this telephone directory’s worth of forms. I was like, ‘oh, so I can’t just drop it off to you? I don’t live very far, I could just take it up to the food hall…’” As she found her feet in commercial food production, her products had already found their

Part of me didn’t particularly want it to work, because then I wouldn’t have to follow it through. audience. “For that first year, I didn’t make a single sales call,” she says. They now have roughly 300 UK stockists, including independents, Selfridges, Natoora, Booths and Ocado. And the demand for the pantry products is likely to remain steep, as every single Poon’s condiment has achieved either 2- or 3-star Great Taste status over the past three years. Since the soy sauce launch, time has sped up for Poon’s: in 2024, the company set up its headquarters and production kitchen at Spa Terminus in Bermondsey, and in June 2025, Poon signed a 10-year lease at Somerset House; the restaurant opened that November. What is she trying to achieve with her food, at the restaurant and on shelves? Poon says she is frustrated by the shallow treatment of regional Chinese food in the UK, but still, always wants pleasure to come first. “I really don’t want to be preachy,” she says. “There has to be joy about it. I don’t want to bash people on the head with a bottle of soy sauce and go, ‘this is better’.” And it’s not just about the food: the restaurant is filled with Chinese books, porcelain and objects

Poon grew up around. “I often talk about the restaurant as a platform, to celebrate and showcase beautiful Chinese things,” she says. It also had to be her own, rather than a recreation of the old Poon’s, she says. “That would have been a battle anyway. Nostalgia is so strong, and nothing tastes as good as nostalgia.” Unsurprisingly, Poon is still coming to terms with the loss of her father, who died in June. “I don’t think grief is linear,” she says. “And it’s not chronological either. It can be triggered by music, a taste or a smell. I still sometimes talk to him as if he were there.” She is glad he lived to see the restaurant, as he had worried that she was taking on too much. She misses the practical questions she could ask him every day, and simply eating with him. “He smoked like a chimney, had cigars for breakfast and drank like a fish. He didn’t deserve his palate, but if you served him chicken, he’d tell you what the chicken ate. From its texture, from its aromas, from the taste of it.” She misses his mischief too, describing him as “incorrigible, difficult and unapologetically so”, but infallibly logical, with a tremendous sense of humour. “He was always a bit of a rule breaker. Maybe that’s where I get my being a little bit subversive from,” she says. But despite his rebellious side, her father did have rules, and even now, she says, “The question at the back of my mind is always, ‘will this pass master?’” Poon hates being asked “what’s next?” – information she thankfully volunteers before we ask – as the assumption is always more sites. She would rather stay put and strive to do better. “For me, this is the heart of hospitality: you being there to be hospitable,” she says Her vision is more circular: old customers returning, working with people from her parents’ past, putting her own stamp on the family recipes she cherishes, and being back so near to the Covent Garden restaurant. “I hesitate to use big words like fate and destiny and legacy,” she says, “because they’re really heavy. But maybe there was just a little umbilical cord.” Maybe Poon never needed a plan – because somehow, every road led her back to Poon’s. poonslondon.com

F GETYOURFILTODAY

Vol.27 Issue 7 | September 2026

Bringing Northern Ireland to the table Over the last decade, our food and drink sector has become one of the region's most dynamic and innovative industries with growing international appeal. From premium ready meals and ice cream to artisanal craft drinks and baked goods, our producers are winning awards across the globe.

For more information on Northern Ireland’s wide range of quality and innovative food and drink products, contact: Alex Taggart E: alex.taggart@investni.com

Michelle Charrington E: michelle.charrington@investni.com

Northern Ireland. Altogether more 66

September 2026 | Vol.27 Issue 7

A71701 INI L2 FINE FOOD MARCH AD STAGE 1 .indd 1

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Vol.27 Issue 7 | September 2026

Not-so-squeaky cheese!

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September 2026 | Vol.27 Issue 7

PRODUCTS & MERCHANDISING French high-fruit preserve brand looks WHAT’S NEW to shake up the category in the UK

Café Direct has simpli ed its out-of-home coffee range. House Espresso, Honduras Arabica, Arabica Espresso and House Decaf now come in refreshed packaging highlight the brand’s sustainability credentials and long-term partnerships with farmers. WSP is £16.41 for 1kg, sold in cases of six. cafedirect.co.uk

By Helen Graves

Following its debut at the Farm Shop & Deli Show 2026, premium French preserves brand Léonce Blanc has secured a nationwide Blue Diamond garden centre listing, with HooGe Brands as its exclusive UK importer and distributor. The growing French market for premium preserves has secured the brand as a leading (top five) producer in its home market – a level of success it hopes to repeat across the Channel. Founded in Lubersac in the Corrèze region of south-west France in 1892 and now part of the Valade group, Léonce Blanc jams are made with 70% fruit and ‘the right amount of sugar’ – 30% less than standard recipes. “Sugar is treated as an ingredient with a purpose, rather than simply added to a standard formula,” a spokesperson for Léonce Blanc told FFD. “We carefully adjust the amount according to each fruit, using just what is needed to balance the recipe and enhance its natural flavours. We apply the same attention to texture and consistency, including the proportion and size of real fruit pieces.” For HooGe Brands, the aim is to make the preserve category relevant to younger consumers looking for a variety of ways to use spreads: “Great preserves don’t have to live at the back of the fridge waiting for a piece of toast,” Henry Elsby of HooGe Brands told FFD. “These are products you can spoon over yoghurt, pair with cheese, use in baking and desserts, or simply enjoy straight from the jar. We want to get people thinking about preserves

UK-based premium snack and nutrition brand Protermars has launched two new hi h protein prod cts avo r enhancin Umami Gold Seasoning and Smoked Chilli Seasoning are both made with freeze-dried chicken breast. Designed for seasoning, they can be used for BBQ rubs, sprinkling and snacking. The is ro hl or a t in pack of 100g jars. protermars-snacks.co.uk differently.” Strawberry, Apricot, 4 Citrus, Pear & Vanilla, Raspberry and Blueberry SKUs are available in premium packaging, making the preserves a strong option for merchandising as a cheeseboard addition, a baking ingredient or for gifting – in line with the trend for replacing wine with luxury food items like olive oil and sweet treats. WSP is £17.99-19.76 per case of six 320g jars; RRP is £4.99-5.49. leonce-blanc.com

Seasoned Pioneers has launched a range of premium Chicken, Beef and Vegetable Stock Powders focused on convenience and avo r he l ten and ree s are positioned as premium, with versatile appeal across everyday cooking and special per occasion meals 70g, WSP £21.60 per case of 8 or £2.70 per unit. seasonedpioneers.com

The gut-health drink boom rumbles on

Artisan bakery New Forest Shortbread has introduced ve limited edition flavours in recent months iced, geared towards the estive season le and ennel araway ardamom hocolate and e ermint he handmade, small atch iscuits are itched as the er ect ite si ed snack and are availa le in es oke ackaging and mi ed cartons on re uest or a o o and or a snack ack o two newforestshortbread.co.uk

Gut health still dominate headlines, with brands jostling to make an impact in a market enjoying continued momentum. Naturally ermented drinks like ke r and kombucha have been consumed for thousands of years, but only recently has evidence emerged of their digestive health-boosting potential. From Windmill Organics, two new organic ater ke rs nder their Raw Vibrant Living brand come in Cherry and Mango assion r it avo rs, £2.89 per 250ml. Meanwhile, MOMO Kombucha has once again teamed up with artisan vegetable supplier Natoora to

produce a Sentinel Watermelonavo red kombucha. The Italian slowgrowing variety was chosen because of its intense avo r and concentrated s eetness from £4.50 per 330ml glass bottle. Now, products are beginning to bridge the gap between fermented beverages and functional drinks. enefi e has relaunched its range of 100% natural, zero added sugar drinks with a brand-new look and revamped avo rs titled

‘Cleanse,’ ‘Enrich’ and ‘Vitality’, all ith the addition o bre and vitamin D. WSP £16.75 per case o si ml Belvoir Farm,, best known for its range of cordials, has debuted functional beverage brand Happi, with Ginger, Lemon & Turmeric (still) and Blueberry & Lemon sparklin avo rs available. Made with real fruit juice and ree rom arti cial avo rs, the drink was developed to bridge the gap between avo r and nction £1.75 per 330ml can. windmillorganics.com momo-kombucha.com e enefi an belvoirfarm.co.uk Vol.27 Issue 7 | September 2026

PRODUCTS & MERCHANDISING WHAT’S NEW Dr Will’s Sriracha Mayo has relaunched with a new recipe and packaging. Enriched with free-range eggs for a creamier te t re and richer avo r, it now comes in a 170g glass jar, bringing the product weight in line with the wider Dr Will’s range. RRP £3.50 per jar. dr-wills.com Nourish has added sin le serve Matcha Coconut Cookies to its range, in collaboration with OMGTeas. Made with high-grade Japanese matcha, Sri Lankan coconut and Madagascan vanilla, they are also plantbased, re ned s ar ree and or anic he RRP is roughly £1.50 per 20g cookie. nourish-growcookenjoy.com

South Asian street food-inspired brand Curry Smugglers has branched out from its core range of gourmet Indian snacks and launched a Desi lager – in a bid to steer consumers away from the idea that curry should be paired with bland, lower-quality beers. Basmati Rice Lager is a clean, crisp and light-bodied brew (4.2% ABV) inspired by India’s proud brewing heritage: “Beer was being brewed in India before IPA became the headline, and rice forms part of that history,” said Curry Smugglers founder and brewer Steve Dass. Also launching is an alcohol-free Mango Mirchi Lager combining Alphonso mangoes with habanero chillies. Fruity and refreshing with a slow-building warmth, it’s pitched as a ‘serious beer in its own right’ rather than a lesser option for those choosing to avoid alcohol. The lager has an RRP of £4.99, while the alcohol-free version is given an RRP of £4.50. currysmugglers.com

Tracklements has launched a limitededition contribution to the sweet-and-spicy trend with its Wholegrain Figgy Mustard (RRP £3.95/160g). Perfect for cold cuts, pies, sandwiches and cheese boards, it’s also vegan and gluten-free. Available in cases of six from September, until stocks last. tracklements.co.uk

Heritage brand Chillis Galore has repositioned itself as a challenger in the chilli jam and hot sauce categories. Founded in 1999, the Norfolk producer found new ownership in 2025 when former Food and Beverage investment analyst Sonya Zhong and Commercial Cinematographer Max Witting saw the opportunity to modernise and broaden the brand’s appeal in a market they feel is saturated with extremes. Keen to jump on the UK’s rapidly growing ‘swicy’ trend, the couple produce condiments that combine fruit avo rs ith di erent chilli varieties to provide a spectrum of options: “We see the chilli jam market as really underdeveloped,” Sonia told FFD, “while everything we make is spicy, we’re not aiming for crazy heat levels. We want our jams and sauces to be versatile and accessible.” “There’s an extreme end of chilli-head 62

September 2026 | Vol.27 Issue 7

Let’s review your ranges MERCHANDISING TIPS FROM RIGHT PRODUCT RIGHT PLACE FOUNDER JUDY ROBERTS I’m often asked by independent retailers how many suppliers is too many. The simple answer is that two is too many if you are short on space – or convinced that the supplier you have chosen is the best maker of that particular product.

Choice paralysis is a very real phenomenon

Chillis Galore rebrands to reflect its blend of tradition and modern appeal By Helen Graves

Less is more

culture where people want their products to be really hot, and then there’s traditional British preserves. We think there’s a spot in between the two, and that’s the space we want to own,” she explains. “We want to make table condiments that aren’t going to dominate – they’re something everyone can reach for as part of their everyday meal.” Chillis Galore currently o ers ei ht avo rs across SKUs, with four chilli jams and four hot sauces (available in 100ml and 200ml formats). The jams include Chilli Jammi Relish, Jalapeño, Coriander & Chilli Lime Jam, Chipotle Smokey Chilli Jam, Habanero Chilli Jam. The hot sauce variants are Fruity Caribbean, Mango Habanero, Peach Habanero and Smokey Naga. WSP is £3.20 for the jam and relish (RRP £5.50), £3.20 for a 100ml hot sauce bottle (RRP £5.50) and £4.95 for the 200ml hot sauce (RRP £8.50). chillisgalore.co.uk

o ever, retailers nd it hard to resist sales pitches from producers after they have selected their initial range. The danger is that by constantly adding more products, you dilute the impact of your stock, and end p ith o r or ve di erent makes of strawberry jam, for instance. Customers will then struggle to decide on any of them. Choice paralysis is a very real phenomenon; we humans tend to avoid deciding between too many things. If you have the space to display two or more brands, go with a maximum of three, adopting a Good, Better, Best approach. This gives customers choice and a reason to buy each of the brands. If you are more limited on space, having st one brand is per ectl ne n p ttin that brand forward for your customers to buy, you are effectively recommending it. Your loyal customers will trust your opinion and follow your advice. All the products you sell should make you proud and justify their place in your store by amplifying your own brand and reputation. You’ve gone to the trouble to review all the available options and have decided to run with this particular brand over others, so if the recipe changes or the packaging no longer works in your spaces, reserve the right to change products and move to an alternative that ts o r speci cation more closel rightproductrightplace.co.uk

I N T E N S E B U T T E R S C O T C H A N D VA N I L L A N O T E S , W E L O V E D T H E D E P T H O F F L AV O U R A N D B A L A N C E D S W E E T N E S S T O T H E S E D AT E S , W I T H A L O N G D E C A D E N T COFFEE-LIKE FINISH, THESE ARE A TRIUMPH OF S O U R C I N G A N D W E R E Q U I T E S I M P LY FA U LT L E S S .

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I put a spelt on you A shift from traditional wheat production to spelt has turned a small family business into the UK’s most prolific supplier of ancient grains. Director Janet Craggs shares its story. Interview by Tina Nielsen

What’s the story behind Craggs and Co? We are the UK’s leading producer of ancient grain wheat products. We are based in the Northeast and North Yorkshire area where we produce 100% British ancient grains. We grow einkorn, spelt and emmer along with wheat and rye. We are a family business, and we have been farming for more than 70 years. My father-inlaw set up the farm and now my husband has taken it over – and the sons are coming along too. So we have always done farming. How has the business evolved in recent years? We used to specialise in milling wheat, but the returns were dreadful. Then in 2015, a friend who is a chef asked us if we could grow some spelt for a year, and we planted a really small eld o it e uided us in ma in t e flour, and it has just grown from there. How quickly has this new line grown? n t e rst ear e planted acres, t en e had 300 and a year after that we had 2,000 acres. Before us, everybody was importing spelt, and as a business we have displaced UK imports – I think we probably are the UK’s biggest producer of spelt today. What has that meant for the farm? It’s not a grain you can just sell through a grain merchant like your normal farming product. We sell it directly to customers now, whereas before we were operating as a normal farm, selling everything through the big agricultural merchants. We do it all ourselves and get it contract milled at a mill just north of us. Where are the challenges in running the business today? It’s a lot more complicated than just selling grain from the farm because now we’ve got

Spelt isn’t a grain you can just sell through a grain merchant like your normal farming product.

to get into all the food safety side of it. So we’re all HACCP compliant, and everything’s got to go through a process that we weren’t used to, but we’re getting there now. Have there been an gn fi an points of growth? During Covid when t ere as a bi flour shortage, everything went berserk. We did struggle with the small bags because they have to go off and be contract packed and they were all run off their feet. o ever, because e et t e flour milled locally, we could get the 20 kilo sacks out to people.

How sustainable is it to produce spelt? There is a lot of bulky waste because the spelt grains come in a husk, so one third of the product has no food value. We have spent a lot of money to put a biomass boiler system in so we can use all those husks to produce heat. What is special about spelt? It is a high-protein alternative to wheat that is gentler on the digestive system because its gluten is more soluble. I think it is tastier, it has a nutt flavour t is t e onl flour use no and can be used as a straight substitute for wheat flour

living from it.

Looking back, what has the shift to ancient grains meant for your farm? If we hadn’t changed over to spelt and ancient grains, I don’t know whether we’d actually still be farming. We still sell a little bit of the traditional wheat, but you can’t sell it because they’re importing so much, and it’s so much cheaper. You can’t make a

What do you enjoy about the farming life? I got involved on the farm in 2010 and I just really enjoy the variety of it, no two days are ever the same. craggsandco.co.uk Vol.27 Issue 7 | September 2026

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Alongside its working farm, wholesale operation and bustling café, Lower Clopton’s retail arm thrives by striving to be the best local food supplier in the Stratford-upon-Avon area. By Tanwen Dawn-Hiscox

Voting for turkeys at Christmas K

ids these days aren’t really into traditional Christmas food. Every year, supermarkets seem to churn out alternatives to old-school festive bakes: here’s a salted caramel tart for those averse to mince pies; chocolate bombes replace Christmas puddings, and Bird’s custard is nowhere to be seen. Similarly, turkey consumption is in decline: only one in two UK households picked a big bird as their centrepiece last year. Waitrose didn’t stock any whole turkeys for Christmas. There are a whole host of reasons for this, namely that people choose several smaller cuts of meat, turkey legs or a crown – or skip animal protein altogether. Plus, “People think turkey is always bland,

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September 2026 | Vol.27 Issue 7

or it’s always dry,” Richard Baldwyn, a fourthgeneration farmer and the owner of Lower Clopton Farm Shop, tells FFD. “But if you grow them to full maturity and dry pluck them, you get exceptional flavour out of them. And once people have tried ours, they come back every year for one.” The Stratford-upon-Avon business shifts some 3,000-odd Golden Turkey-assured birds every year. Most of the bronze and white turkeys go to local butchers, while 500 are held back to sell in the shop. Farming is all that Baldwyn has ever known, but rearing turkeys only dates back to his father, whose father-in-law bought him his first 50. “He said, ‘if you’re going to marry my daughter, it’s no good relying on those pigs, you need some Christmas turkeys’,” Baldwyn chuckles, sitting in the café next to the farm shop on a hot, decidedly unfestive summer’s day. Upon receiving his gift of 50 turkeys, Baldwyn’s father sold them through his sister’s hairdressing shop, in nearby Chipping Campden. He kept it up, and in subsequent years customers would buy them at the farm gate every Christmas. Fast forward a few decades to 2003, when his father and uncle’s partnership on a nearby farm dissolved, the Baldwyns – Richard and his wife Suzie – took on the current 211-acre farm. They never sold their turkeys as an add-on to a haircut, but for the first year, they too sold them directly at the farm gate. They knew the farm wasn’t big enough to sustain them financially with wholesale meat sales alone, Baldwyn says, “so we were either going to have to take more land on, which wasn’t available at the time in the area, or look to diversify.” They considered converting the Victorian outbuildings on site into holiday lets, but the council denied their planning application. “So we thought it would be really lovely to open a farm shop, because we’ve sold

Christmas turkeys since I was knee-high, and I could see the benefits of selling more direct,” he adds: people liked buying meat fresh from the farm. One business plan and a rural enterprise grant later, and the Baldwyns were cooking. Richard took the lead on the butchery, which would become the backbone of the business. Suzie is equally hands-on, initially looking after vegetables and turkeys, while her role now centres on accounts, bookings and admin. As they’ve grown, they’ve built a team around them, including general manager Tracey Gardner, who oversees day-to-day operations. At Lower Clopton, they sell what they rear: beef and lamb, turkeys and chickens – plus eggs from laying hens, which are one of the shop’s best sellers. They also have geese for Christmas, catering for the customers Baldwyn calls “the goose customers”. “Even though there’s not a lot of meat on

I thought, ‘people don’t want to come and listen to me rant about sheep’, but they loved it geese, and they’re quite high cost,” he says, “those who love it, no matter what, they’ll buy it.” Alongside this, the Baldwyns bought in from other nearby producers, with the idea that customers could come to Lower Clopton and buy a complete meal of local food. Thanks to the farm’s proximity to the Vale of Evesham, they have access to things like local strawberries, asparagus, onions, tomatoes and brassicas.

DELI OF THE MONTH

As for other food & drink categories, they have had to adapt to stay ahead of the competition. “When we set up, we were very niche,” Baldwyn says. “But then other retailers saw what we were doing and pinched a lot of those local products”, eroding the shop’s point of difference. So they decided to take on some production in-house. The meat and pork pies, sausage rolls, cakes and sweet treats help them reduce wastage, and not only mean they don’t stock the same brands as other retailers, but allow them to wholesale some of their ownlabel products to smaller farm shops in the area. For the first 13 years, Clopton’s café, butchery, deli counter and shop floor were all under one roof. It became too busy: it wasn’t possible to offer customers the full meals they wanted, and there wasn’t enough seating, so they decided to expand. They built a new shop adjacent to the old one, which is now the 50-seater café – in addition to half a dozen outdoor tables, which also seat 50 people. And whereas the usual way it goes is that an expanded foodservice offer slightly cannibalises retail, here they had almost the opposite problem. “When we opened the new café, we thought, ‘it will be easier, we won’t have to market that’. But what we found was, because people were just coming here to shop, it was a different kind of clientèle we needed to get for the café.” It did help Lower Clopton become more of

a destination, though. What Richard credits the success of the shop to, though, is that, he says, “We’ve stuck to our core values. People can be sure everything we sell is fresh and local and really good quality,” he says. “They have to accept that it is going to cost,” he adds, “but we’re getting even better products all the time, and what has really

come through in the last couple years is that people are willing to pay, if it’s what they want and it’s a good product.” “And we don’t stack masses of each line. We only stock lines that sell really well for us.” The shop is almost entirely stocked with British products – the cheese counter doesn’t have a single foreign cheese in it and, bar the odd exception (like lemons), the shop floor is largely devoid of produce from outside of the UK. The retailer works with fewer than a handful of wholesalers – Cotswold Fayre, Cress Co., Holleys and Craft Drinks – and roughly 70 individual suppliers. This isn’t always easy logistically, but it gives Lower Clopton its edge. Indeed, most customers are locals, Baldwyn tells us. “They come from a 15-mile range, like Stratford and surrounding villages. There’s not much in the way of local stuff available to them, so they’re prepared to travel to us.” Numerous local lets – the very ones that led Stratford District Council to deny the Baldwyns’ application to develop their own – also help bolster numbers from passing trade in the summer. Footfall used to come in peaks (Christmas) and troughs (mid-Spring), but Baldwyn says numbers have stabilised, partly thanks to events celebrating lambing in the spring, pickyour-own cherries picking in the summer, and pumpkins at harvest time in the autumn. Recently, they hosted their first “farmer’s CONTINUED ON PAGE 72

Vol.27 Issue 7 | September 2026

DELI OF THE MONTH

MUST-STOCKS Madhuban Curry Sauces Monsoon Coffee Cotswold Gold Raspberry Drizzle Salad Dressing R Oil Cotswold cold-pressed rapeseed oil Matthew’s Flour Strong White Bread Flour Tracklements Sweet Mustard Ketchup Stokes Tomato Ketchup Darlington’s Lemon Curd Waterlip feta-style Goat’s Milk Cheese Croome Worcestershire Gold Cheddar

supper” – a small, ticketed event where Richard and the chef discussed the produce with guests. Baldwyn wasn’t sure the tickets would sell. “I thought, ‘people don’t want to come and listen to me rant about sheep’, but they loved it, and I loved doing it.” They might now hold one a quarter, he says, provided they can make them stack up financially. Instrumental to the supper – as well as to the shop’s several TV appearances and its Farm Retail Association Best Small Farm Shop of the Year 2026 win – was a chance encounter with a marketing agency specialising in rural retail. “We started doing a few videos with them, and it’s grown from there.” The team visits once a month to record them going about their normal activities. Though reserved and uncertain at first, Baldwyn says, “We have a feel for what people like now, so it’s easier.” “And I don’t mind doing it, because I’m proud of what we’re doing.” Thankfully, that’s also what makes for engaging content – and has translated into more people visiting the shop. Managing Lower Clopton means, as Baldwyn puts it, “continually spinning plates”. Gardner already has a lot to look after 72

September 2026 | Vol.27 Issue 7

between the shop and café, and they are looking for someone to manage the latter and lighten her workload. Asked whether she enjoys working at Lower Clopton, Gardner is effusive, but whispers, “even though Richard and Suzie do work too hard.” It’s easy to see why. “I suppose really, foremost, I am a farmer,” Baldwyn says, who also calls the butchery “my baby”. And in a family farming business, he adds, “you don’t clock in, you don’t clock out, you just do the job.” Fortunately, sons Tom, 20, and Ben, 18, are both keen on farming and likely to eventually join the business; 16-year-old Eva remains undecided. And before too long, there will be Christmas to contend with again. Last year was Lower Clopton’s first taking Christmas orders online; this year, with wholesale margins increasingly tight, the team plans to push direct turkey sales harder – including courier delivery for the first time. Sixty years after Baldwyn’s father started selling his first 50 through a hairdressing shop, there are rather more moving parts at Lower Clopton. But come Christmas, they’ll still be selling turkeys. lowerclopton.co.uk

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ADVICE years, website optimisation actively funnel the browser Changes in For to are unique experiences processes have remained interactions: stockist almost static. Since July 2025, the search conversational, mainstream, and finders, recipe builders, event search have changed booking systems and loyalty landscape generative programmes provide value that that landscape, as have the

FREELANCE CONSULTANT ANNIE VEALE ON GETTING YOUR WEBSITE AI-READY

use of ChatGPT, Genimi and Claude. These three combined are gaining approximately 715 million new users a year. This provides opportunities and challenges for organic search visibility and performance. The shift is significant. Instead of typing “luxury chocolates”, consumers are asking detailed questions, comparing products through AI assistants and seeking personalised recommendations. This means your website is no longer just competing for search rankings, it is becoming a source of information for AI systems. Content creation has turned into the most frenzied output over the last decade, yet information alone is becoming less valuable as AI tools can summarise and reproduce general knowledge almost instantly. What AI cannot easily replicate and will

generic content cannot. Tracking is becoming increasingly important, helping businesses understand how visitors engage with products, newsletters, recipes and online sales. AI crawler permissions, robots.txt updates and emerging standards like llms. txt are also now nearly a year into their evolution. Much the same as the high street seeking ‘experiential’, the browser is seeking experiences as opposed to text. The consumer wants timesaving, personalised resources, not time-consuming reading. AI readiness is not simply a technical exercise. It is about ensuring your website remains visible, useful and commercially valuable in a world where information is abundant, but engagement is increasingly scarce. annieveale.com

On Newsletters VHARI RUSSELL, FOUNDER OF THE FOOD MARKETING EXPERTS, ON WHY NEWSLETTERS STILL MATTER (AND HOW TO GET YOURS RIGHT) Social platforms can shadowban you, change algorithms overnight, or disappear entirely. Your email list is different; it’s yours, and it’s a direct line to people who have already told you they’re interested. For food and drink brands, that matters more than most categories. Customers aren’t just buying a product; they’re buying into a story, a producer, a place. A newsletter is where you get to tell that story properly and, for trade audiences, keep buyers and stockists warm between orders. It’s worth the effort, and this is h rstl , it b ilds trust over time. Consistency in someone’s inbox builds familiarity, and familiarity drives repeat purchase. It’s also trackable. Unlike social reach, email gives you real data: opens, clicks,

conversions. And last but not least, it gives you room to say more. Provenance, process, people – the things that actually differentiate food and drink brands rarel t in a caption. Top tips for getting your newsletters right 1- Lead with something worth opening for. Tease the best thing inside in your subject line. Skip the generic “Newsletter August” titles. 2- Keep a consistent rhythm. Monthly or quarterly, whatever you can sustain – reliability beats frequency. 3- Balance promotion with value: share recipes, producer stories, and seasonal tips alongside product news. 4- Show the people behind the brand. A note from the

o nder or a shop oor photo humanises in a way polished product shots can’t. 5- One clear call to action. Too many links dilute results. Pick one thing you want readers to do. 6- Segment if you can. Trade contacts want listings and margins; consumers want avo r and stor 7- Test subject lines. Small tweaks can meaningfully shift open rates. 8- Get the compliance basics right. GDPR, working unsubscribe links, genuine opt-outs. Trust is easily lost. thefoodmarketingexperts. co.uk

FOUNDER OF TALKING TORTOISE MARTIN BLYTH-SWEETINGHAM ON WORKING WITH INFLUENCERS Collaboratin ith in encers can be a powerful way for your food retail business to reach new customers, build your reputation and create a real buzz around your business. It’s also worth remembering that it is not only the biggest names who can make an impact. maller, local in encers can be particularly valuable. We’ve worked with some who seemingly know everyone in town, giving a recommendation that feels personal and carries real weight within their community. At the other end o the scale, lar er in encers can brin fame and prestige, often with impressive engagement and a much wider audience. In some cases, their visit can even generate traditional media coverage. One of our clients found themselves featured in a a ine ollo in a visit rom a ell kno n in encer A direct message on Instagram or TikTok can be a good place to start, although do not be disappointed if you do not receive a repl op lar in encers can receive a huge number of requests. If they have an agent, contacting them by email may increase the likelihood of getting a response and can also make arrangements more straightforward. n encer a reements are a se l way to manage expectations on both sides, setting out what is being offered and what both parties hope to achieve. ven in encers ho aren’t bein paid are generally happy to have clear arrangements. ost importantl , in encers love a bespoke experience. Give them the opportunity to discover and showcase the full breadth of what you offer, from standout produce to the real story behind your business. The most important thing is to make sure the best version of yourself is presented on the day. Great hospitality, great products and an experience worth sharing are what turn a visit into valuable publicity. talking-tortoise.com Vol.27 Issue 7 | September 2026

ADVICE

Expert View MORGAN MCGLYNN-CARR MCGLYNN-CARR, OWNER OF CHEESES OF MUSWELL HILL ON GETTING YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA BASICS RIGHT

If people don’t see you, they forget you. There’s a shift happening in retail that a lot of people still haven’t fully accepted. Brilliance behind the counter is no longer enough. You can have the best product, you can know it inside out, and you can care deeply about what you do. But if people don’t see you, they forget you. Social media is no longer optional; it is the modern shop window. And for independent food retailers, it has become something more. It is business insurance. What you say, and how often you show up, matters. From counter to camera At nineteen, I took on a cheese shop. It was an ambitious, risky and slightly mad decision. Muswell Hill is beautiful, but footfall is not guaranteed. So I posted, constantly. Some of it worked, a lot of it didn’t. I overshared; I missed the mark, I went viral more times than I can count. And over time, something shifted. When I was pulled away from the shop, first by television and later by illness, social media stopped being marketing. It became continuity. The shop stayed visible. It stayed relevant. People kept coming in. That’s when I understood its real value.

MODEL RETAILING

This jam is quite expensive…

The biggest mistake I see Most independent shops are still treating social media like an announcement board. Opening hours, new stock, the occasional photo. And then wondering why nothing changes. Because people don’t follow shops, they follow perspective. They follow people who show them something and teach them something, people who bring them into the process. The content that works isn’t polished, it’s real. The counter, the prep, the deliveries arriving. The decisions you make every day without thinking. That is the content. So where should you start when you’ve got nothing? No followers, no posts, no momentum? Good. That means you’re exactly where everyone starts. The algorithm doesn’t respond to hesitation. It responds to action. Post. Post again. Then post again. You will feel self-conscious. Ignore that feeling. People want real content from real shops. Momentum is built through repetition, not confidence. cheesesonline.co.uk

Most independent shops are still treating social media like an announcement board

Setting up shop for Preventative maintenance good hygiene To ensure premises are kept in good condition, a preventative maintenance programme is recommended. Any equipment deemed to present a risk to food safety must be taken out of use. It must be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected before returning to use. The following precautions should be implemented to reduce risks to food safety: • Service engineers should be treated as visitors and follow the same rules as visitors. • Prior to any maintenance work, all foods or food contact equipment must be removed from the area. • The area must not be used for food preparation or storage during maintenance. • Maintenance personnel must have effective systems of work in place for small pieces of equipment. This may be achieved by the use of a plastic container for the engineer to put small pieces of equipment in. • Following all maintenance, the area must be thoroughly cleaned prior to the room/ equipment being used for food preparation and storage. This advice is an excerpt from the Guild of Fine Food’s Assured Code of Practice for Deli Retailing. The guide is available in PDF format (free for Guild members, £250+VAT for non-members). To request a copy of the Code, email support@gff.co.uk

SOLVING EVERYDAY SHOPKEEPING DILEMMAS. IN MINIATURE.

…but this coffee is an absolute bargain.

Maybe I should stop setting everything at a 50% margin and vary my GP across categories.

You could at least offer us a free drink. FFD says: Not all categories are created (or costed) equally. It’s quite tough to make bi pro ts on ambient lines, b t items o are preparin in ho se ith lo er nit costs, like a c p o co ee or sand iches, sho ld be the kind o s eet spots here o are ma imisin hat o make adl , there isn’t one percenta e to rule them all. With kind permission of Geobra Brandstätter Stiftung & Co. KG, Germany. PLAYMOBIL is a registered trademark of eobra randst tter ti tun o , or ic also t e displa ed to ures are protected

September 2026 | Vol.27 Issue 7

regional italian specialities make the season bright lore the estive treats talians ait all ear to ather aro nd and share ro reshl a ed holida anettoni and hone rich torroni to tter isc its and other seasonal s ecialties Cra ted s all a il rod cers across tal or Christ as iscover the se iano co

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September 2026 | Vol.27 Issue 7

MBER

SUPPORT | KNOWLEDGE | CONNECTION | ADVOCACY

WE’RE AT THE CENTRE OF INDEPENDENT FOOD RETAIL. BE A PART OF IT.

Scan the QR code to find out more, or email support@gff.co.uk gff.co.uk/join-the-guild | +44 (0)1747 825200 | @guildoffinefood

September 2026 | Vol.27 Issue 7