Food In The News

Speciality Bites with

Paul Hargreaves

Chief executive of Cotswold Fayre

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Taking a closer look at the latest food chatter, Paul Hargreaves gives his view

The headline story on BBC 5 Live on the way to work this Monday morning was: “Government Minister tells people to stop wasting food and ignore best before dates”. Later on in the piece, the BBC correspondent showed her ignorance by not knowing the difference between ‘best before’ and ‘use by’ dates. Even making allowances for the fact that it was shortly after 6am in the morning, it was inexcusable to put people in danger of food poisoning who also would not know the difference between these two labels. The British public is ignorant enough about food without the Government sowing more confusion. To avoid waste, which was the main message, surely the Government should be putting pressure on producers to ensure that the ‘best before’ dates are explained more clearly on the label and that the dates themselves are realistic. Some producers have admitted to me that they deliberately put shorter dates than they need to on their products to encourage sell-through from the retailers. Not helpful!

This was the second ridiculous news story within a week. Last week we had the “organic food is proven not to be more nutritious than non-organic food”. Hello! I thought the point of organic food was that it was grown or made from ingredients that were grown without pesticides. This is why my friends who buy organic do so. It is nothing to do with their thinking the food is more nutritious. Whoever said that? Oh yes – it was the Soil Association! One of their five reasons for buying organic. I support organic farming and food (over 25% of our range is organic), but please let’s get the facts right and encourage people to buy organic food for the right reasons. Maybe in the face of declining organic sales the Soil Association has felt the need to emphasise the fringe benefits of organic rather than the main benefits.

Finally, I said a couple of weeks ago that I would name and shame the millionaire TV chef who owns a delicatessen currently not paying their suppliers and being taken to court by us. I heard yesterday that we have now won the court case and the full amount of money owed to us plus court costs is now with our solicitors. The money was paid at the very last minute possible - the day before the bailiffs were due to pay a visit to the shop. The delicatessen in question is Cadogan and James in Winchester and the TV Chef is James Martin. Come on James – have a bit of integrity and ensure that your businesses actually pay their suppliers before they have to waste time and money taking them to court. I would love to hear from you.

To read more of Paul’s blogs, visit www.cotswold-fayre.co.uk/specialitybites