nickshanagher

Mark Bittman writes an excellent article in Time on How to Eat Now encouraging people to eat at home because it’s good for you, for your family and it’s far easier than you think. He challenges why so many people are eating “hyperprocessed food, the stuff that is correctly called junk and should really carry warning labels.” He believes preparing food should be a source of comfort, pride, health, well-being, relaxation and sociability for people. Something that connects us to other humans. The solution to the obesity epidemic he says is to do it yourself, eat meals and stop gaining 25% of our daily calories from snacks. Helpfully, Time prints a list of store cupboard basics so that you know what to stock for local shoppers who subscribe to the above ideas. Here are Mark’s pantry basics. How many do you stock? Spices and herbs ·         Salt and black pepper ·         Ground cumin ·  ...

Six out of 10 McDonald's outlets in the UK are run by franchise owners, each of whom contributes 4.5% of sales to the group's marketing budget. This may be a useful benchmark for your business when you think about how much you spend on promoting your business. While McDonald's frachisees expect to see great TV advertising for their money, local retailers might like to think about the strategies behind the advertisements. In 2005 McDonald's had a terrible year in the UK, losing sales and generating bad PR. In the past year, sales have grown by £460 million, chief marketing officer Jill McDonald tells Campaign magazine, driven by £90 million of marketing spend. The turnaround has been achieved by refreshing the outlets, investing in better kitchen equipment so it could deliver hot food faster, and by promoting the quality of its food. If you look behind most successful local shops in the UK you will see a similar pattern: investment in making the store attractive, gettin...

Betty McBride, policy and communication director of the British Heart Foundation, has written to the FT today to attack the food industry for its objections to traffic lights labels appearing on food. Shopkeepers need to watch this pressure for regulation closely. She was responding to an FT column which highlighted discussions in Brussells over what a portion was: one biscuit or three. It depends, the industry suggests. Ms McBride disagrees and is happy to define "realistic portions". "Independent research has shown that a combination of traffic light colours, guideline daily amounts, and the words high, medium and low would be the best way to give shoppers the at-a-glance information they want," she writes in support of labeling. The industry, she suggests, desires to "deliberately confuse people about how unhealthy some of its products are." The danger of her words is real. For example, in Scotland, the government has suggested it might remove confectio...

It is a slogan coined by or for Dawn Primarolo, UK Minister for Public Health, who used it to welcome the commitment of major UK retailers to work with her Food Code of Good Practice. She said retailers provided neither a scapegoat or a panacea for people's unhealthy lifestyles; people are ultimately responsible for their own health. But retailers who helped to shape people's minds and tastes would help shift the commercial landscape; to one where children saw fruit at eye level and not candy bars, for example. She sees that major retailers are headed for the same destination, albeit perhaps not travelling on the same path. She clearly likes the progress that she sees in the major corporates' initiatives. What is the big deal: No-one likes to say they are selling stuff that is bad for you! But setting aside any cynicism, her fundamental point is correct. Influencing shopping baskets creates and reinforces behaviour. What the major stores do today will impact what e...