The Small Print

The Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare (BBFAW) ranks 149 leading food companies, including many in the hospitality and foodservice sector, on their policies, practices and performance. This year’s report highlights pockets of good progress, including a UK-led reduction in reliance on animal-sourced foods, yet overall food companies are struggling to match ambition with action on farm animal welfare. In this week’s episode, Nick Hughes speaks with Nicky Amos from the consultancy Chronos, which oversees the BBFAW, to drill down into the key results for the UK foodservice sector, explore current barriers to change and hear why a lack of investment in animal welfare should be viewed as a systemic risk to the future food industry.

School food standards in England are set for their first overhaul in over a decade following the publication of a government consultation. Ministers say the current standards are out of date and want to align them with the latest health guidance to ensure children are getting the nutritious food they need. But how effective a lever for change can standards alone be? In this week’s episode of The Small Print, Nick Hughes speaks with Naomi Duncan, chief executive of the charity Chefs in Schools, to assess the pros and cons of the new standards and what other conditions need to be in place to drive a transformation in school food culture.

Scotland has the ambition for high quality, nutritious food to be available to everyone as set out in the Good Food Nation Act. In this week’s episode of The Small Print, Jayne Jones, chief executive of the newly launched Scottish Food Commission, tells Nick Hughes how this landmark piece of legislation can help break down the barriers to food systems change and the role of the Commission in supporting its effective delivery. She also highlights key policies impacting the foodservice and hospitality sector, including those relating to public sector food, and offers advice for those seeking to make the case for a Good Food Bill in England.

Mike Barry has been working at the coal face of food sustainability for several decades, as the architect of Marks & Spencer’s pioneering Plan A strategy and most recently as co-founder of food systems consultancy Planeatry Alliance. In this week’s episode of The Small Print, Mike shares with Nick Hughes his vision for a future-fit food system in which businesses and policy makers have created healthy, sustainable food environments; high quality data is driving effective decision making; and industry collaboration is married with competitive leadership to deliver food business transformation at scale.

A new Netflix documentary, The Plastic Detox, has questioned the link between infertility and human exposure to microplastics. In this week’s episode of The Small Print, Nick Hughes is joined by Pierre Paslier, who worked as a plastics packaging engineer before co-founding the Earthshot prize winning start-up Notpla, which makes packaging out of seaweed. In a wide-ranging conversation they discuss the risks to human health from microplastic exposure, why it's proving so difficult to curb global plastics production, and what the path to a plastic-free society and foodservice sector could look like.

A new NGO-led campaign is calling on the UK Government to deliver a Good Food Bill. Supporters say that only by having food system targets written into legislation can they withstand a continuous cycle of political change and provide long-term stability for businesses and investors. In this week’s episode, Nick Hughes speaks to Anna Taylor of The Food Foundation, a driving force behind the campaign, and Charlotte Wright from Elior which is among over 100 organisations to have lent its support.

Professor Chris Elliott is a global expert on food safety and security and a leading voice in a coalition campaigning for the use of nitrites to be banned as additives in cured meat products. As data shows falling demand for bacon, Chris tells Nick Hughes why he believes the direction of travel is towards an outright ban on nitrite-cured ham and bacon, and why foodservice operators need to move quickly to offer their customers nitrite-free alternatives.

Robin Sundaram has spent almost four decades working in sustainability roles within the food industry, including 30 years with Nestlé. In this week's episode, Robin shares lessons from his career to-date including how a role working in sustainability has changed since he started in the sector, why resilience is the current industry watchword, and how collaboration with suppliers is key to delivering a company's environmental ambitions.

BaxterStorey has committed to double volume sales for all bean products by 2028 as part of its support for The Food Foundation and Veg Power's new Bang In Some Beans campaign. In this week's episode Nick Hughes talks to BaxterStorey's head of nutrition and ESG, Lizzie Foskett, about how the caterer plans to ramp up bean sales, how chefs are empowered to get creative with beans, and why nutrition and sustainability are two sides of the same coin.

New polling of parents and young people shows access to food education in England is fragmented, inconsistent and insufficient with fewer than half of young people receiving dedicated curriculum time, and with the food served in schools often misaligned with what young people are being taught about good food and nutrition. Nick Hughes is joined by Jenny Paxman, CEO of The School of Artisan Food, to explore why the provision of food education is so inconsistent, what are the benefits of high quality food education, and how good food education in schools can act as a gateway into a career in the food and hospitality industries for more young people.

Chantelle Nicholson is a champion of veg-forward cooking through her work as a chef, author and advocate. In this first episode of The Small Print, Chantelle tells Nick Hughes what inspired her love of fresh produce, how plant-based cooking and eating can go mainstream, and why she advocates for seasonality, circularity and regenerative practices in the hospitality sector.