The seventh British Food Fortnight that took place from 20th September to 5th October 2008 was the biggest ever national celebration of the diverse and delicious range of food that Britain produces.  More shops, pubs, restaurants, schools and food festivals took part than ever before producing a myriad of events and promotions. 

Highlights included:

• ‘Buy British’ message reaches millions… this year’s British Food Fortnight reached an unprecedented number of the public.  Thousands of events were held with food festivals in Horsham, Alnwick, Manchester, the East Midlands, South Somerset, York, Abergavenny, Liverpool and London’s Southbank Centre; a national school cooking competition sponsored by Kenwood; grow-your-own competitions and a quest to find the quintessential British Banger; exhibitions on ‘The Story of Our Daily Bread’ and ‘From Rabbits to Rams, Longhorns to Leicester Longwools’; a giant picnic at Whipsnade and Apple Days at National Trust properties; and a Quorn Bacon Roll Day in Leicestershire.




• Is it British? Yes Minister!… more British food was consumed through the catering sector over the two weeks than ever before with eight of the largest food service organisations, led by ARAMARK, and six of the biggest pub groups all putting British food on the menu.  And for the first time, the public sector supported the event en masse: the NHS, schools and many major Government departments put British food on their menus including the Cabinet office, the Treasury, Portcullis House (where MPs have their London offices), the Department for Transport, the Department for Work & Pensions, HM Revenue & Customs, the Department for Culture, Media & Sport, many NHS Trusts and school catering services.  Oxfordshire County Council report the event enticed double the usual number of school children to eat school meals!

  “Since we’ve sponsored British Food Fortnight, we have seen sales of certain British lines increase by more than 80%.”
  Val Carter, Corporate Responsibility Director, ARAMARK

  “Schools in Oxfordshire had a fantastically successful British Food Fortnight - the number of children eating school meals doubled in some schools!”
  Sue Edridge, Food Development Manager, Oxfordshire City Council

• Hundreds of schools participate… hundreds of schools tapped into the event’s network of 9,000 chefs who are available to go into class to teach children how to cook.  Even a school in France participated!  There was a huge emphasis on local food with lamb from local farms, plums from teacher’s gardens, vegetables from allotments and produce donated by local suppliers all being incorporated into cooking lessons.  Judging is now underway to select the 66 schools that participated in the most imaginative way, all of which are being rewarded with class sets of Kenwood cooking equipment.  The overall winner is being invited to put their new cooking skills into practice by preparing a sumptuous tea for HRH The Duchess of Cornwall with the help of one of London’s top chefs. 

  “Every pupil loved taking part in British Food Fortnight and celebrating food!”
  Ashley Drummond, Pinewood School, West Lothian

  “British Food Fortnight was a great experience; the children’s enthusiasm for a ‘Real Chef’ showing them how to cook was infectious”
  Gary Bolton, one of 50 ARAMARK chefs who worked with schools during the event.

• Promotions galore in shops… four supermarkets, 200 Budgens stores and hundreds of independent stores offered a mass of British food promotions and tastings.

  “Get behind British Food Fortnight!  The customers love it, so we’ll be doing it again.” Jonathan James, Store Manager, Budgens, Cambridgeshire

  “You’d be crazy not to get involved in British Food Fortnight.”
  Atul Sodha, owner of Peverells, a Londis store in Uxbridge, Middlesex

Alexia Robinson, organiser of the event, says: “The success of this year’s British Food Fortnight proves that, even in these gloomy economic times, consumers care about where their food comes from.  Yes value for money is paramount but value is not just about price, it is also about quality.  Long gone are the days when British food was the poor relation to our continental neighbours - it is now synonymous in people’s minds with quality.  The proof in the pudding is the effort that retailers are putting into increasing their local lines and highlighting British in-store and the fact that the catering sector got behind British Food Fortnight this year in a bigger way than ever before.” 

British Food Fortnight 2008 was sponsored by Budgens, ARAMARK and the Department of Health’s 5 A DAY Just Eat More (fruit and veg) programme and featured the ‘Cook for Life’ Challenge, sponsored by Kenwood.

British Food Fortnight 2009 takes place 19th September to 4th October 2009.