British Food Fortnight 19th September – 4th October 2009

The eighth British Food Fortnight that took place from 19th September to 4th October 2009 was the biggest 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 across Britain including in more than half the English counties; a national school cooking competition led by the BBC’s Hairy Biker celebrity chefs; a Harvest Swap Shop in St Paul’s Cathedral; ‘Mash of the Day’ menu in Wembley Stadium; foraging walks, food trails and fungi forays in National Trust properties; a People’s Picnic in Brighton; Plot to Plate cooking demonstrations and a drop-in cooking theatre; the world’s biggest bread and butter pudding baked by Hovis to commemorate the national food celebrations; Alan Titchmarsh trumpeting the Fortnight on his show; Radio 4’s The Archers featuring a running story on the event; Meet the Farmer events; a ‘Dancing with Dabs’ musical fish procession and Dudley Zoo which served local produce to the giraffes, penguins and sea lions proving that animals too can eat British!


• More British food on menus than ever before... more British food was consumed though the catering sector over the two weeks than ever before with eight of the largest food service organisations, led by ARAMARK, six of the biggest pub groups led by Young’s, all the chef associations, the Youth Hostel Association, Anchor Care Homes and many others all putting British food on the menu. The public sector supported the event en masse: the BBC’s canteen staff donned ‘Love British Food’ t-shirts; major hospitals and school catering services ran special menus; Oxford’s Waste Partnership hosted live cookery demonstrations to encourage people to use up their leftovers and even the Cabinet Office participated!
  
  “The number of children eating school meals in Shropshire Primary Schools increased by 20% as a result of the British Food Fortnight menu we ran.”
  Bill Campbell, Operations Manager, Shropshire School Meal Service
  
  “350 schools in Kent took part in British Food Fortnight and we’ll definitely be doing so again next year - I would love to see the whole of Kent getting involved, pubs, hotels and hospitals!”
  Mark Sleep, Client Services Manager, Kent County Council
  
  “Why are we doing this?  Simple.  British Food Fortnight increases the enjoyment of tasting different foods and increases the income in the staff restaurant by 12%”
  Mike Duckett, Catering Services Manager, The Royal Brompton Hospital, London


• More British promotions in shops than ever before…all the major supermarkets ran special British promotions during British Food Fortnight signifying the greatest support in the history of the event. Hundreds of independent stores flew the Union Jack in the high street with tastings, meet-the-producer events and special offers on British food, led by Budgens official sponsor of the event, who also invited local schools to design British food bunting for their local store to display.
  
  “So many people turned up to our British Food Fortnight event that we couldn’t fit them all inside the store!”
  Kanna Mahunda, store owner, Budgens, Stoneleigh
  
  “British Food Fortnight was a phenomenal success with Asda's customers, particularly our meat, chilled and seasonal produce offers.”
  Paul Dover, Customer Planning Manager, Asda
  
  “British Food Fortnight is an important date in Morrison’s calendar. We found the event to be extremely successful in helping communicate our values.”
  A spokesperson for Morrisons


• Young and old participate… Anchor Trust, the biggest provider of Care Homes for the elderly, organised lots of activities for residents, including meals made using recipes from the 1940s.  And schools all over the country tapped into the event’s network of 9,000 chefs who are available to go into class to teach children how to cook. Some schools even had visits from local shops and producers.  There was a huge emphasis on 5 A DAY and also on local food with vegetables grown in school gardens, free-range eggs direct from the school grounds, locally hunted game and produce donated by local suppliers all being incorporated into cooking lessons. Judging is now underway to select the 110 schools that participated in the most imaginative way, all of which are being rewarded with class sets of Kenwood cooking equipment. 
  
  “British Food Fortnight was highly successful in Anchor’s care homes - our residents really enjoyed it.” 
  Richard Herne, Anchor Homes’ Catering Manager
  
  ”The children thoroughly enjoyed British Food Fortnight - helping the chef to cook the food and, of course, tasting it!“
  Tony Phillips, Head Teacher of Godolphin Primary School, whose pupils had a cooking lesson from a local chef
  
  “British Food Fortnight really benefited our students and helped promote cooking within the school”
  Lynsey Cox, Food Technology Teacher, St. Mary Redcliffe school
  
  

  Alexia Robinson, organiser of the event, says: “The major retailers and caterers have almost unanimously given a high five for British food during this year’s British Food Fortnight.  Why?  They know that consumers don’t just want it, they are demanding it.  In these tough economic times, people are thinking more carefully about the sustainability of the food chain.  They want value for money but value in the case of food has never been just about price – it is about taste, freshness and quality.  The best guarantee of these values is British food, produced to the highest standards in the world.  Food, glorious British food’s moment has arrived!” 

  British Food Fortnight 2009 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.  It was supported by over 60 organisations led by Brakes, Compass Group, Country Markets, National Trust, Sodexo, Young’s pubs and Youth Hostel Association.

  British Food Fortnight 2010 takes place 18th September to 3rd October 2010.
  For further information see www.lovebritishfood.co.uk

   

                                                               ENDS                            

  Notes to Editors:

  1. For further media information and photography, please contact Alexia or Danielle       T: 020 7840 9292. E: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

  2. What people said about this year’s British Food Fortnight:

  “What’s really exciting is that we’ve seen a clear increase in sales as a result of British Food Fortnight.”
  Lucy Worrall, Marketing Manager for Warner’s Budgens

  “British Food Fortnight has once again been a hugely successful event for ARAMARK. Thousands of employees in some of Britain’s biggest organisations have enjoyed special British menus and schools, colleges and the local farming community have all been involved.”
  Victoria Clarke, Marketing Communications Manager, ARAMARK

  “YHA was delighted to take part in British Food Fortnight and to stamp its foot on British soil in support of British farmers and producers.  More than 2,000 of our guests tucked into our Great British menu and gave a ringing endorsement to the quality that British food represents.  Cheers to British Food Fortnight from the YHA!”
  John Mcgrath & Lauren Pethybridge, Food & Beverage Managers, YHA

  “British Food Fortnight has been a great success for Sodexo and once more we are delighted to be associated with it.”
  Jeff Brades, Marketing Director for Sodexo

  “Our new Best of British recipes were served in more than 1,000 workplaces across the UK during British Food Fortnight and were well received by our customers.”
  Nick Vadis, Executive Chef at Compass Group UK & Ireland

  “British Food Fortnight definitely had a positive impact for Kent Frozen Foods. We saw a good uplift in the products on promotion throughout the month.”
  James Brenchley, Kent Frozen Foods, suppliers to the catering industry

  “British Food Fortnight has been a great experience for Young’s.  Customers were very interested and impressed that we were promoting British food.  Such was the response that the British Food Fortnight menu is staying on as an option for all pubs to use as specials, a request that came directly from the pub managers.”
  Tara Buffini, Director of Food Development, Young & Co's Brewery PLC
  
  “Yet again British Food Fortnight has proved to be a big winner for us. Not only did it boost sales significantly, but it was the perfect opportunity to show customers that they can enjoy fantastic British produce at reasonable prices in our pubs.”
  Sharon Hammond, Marketing Manager, Orchid Group Pubs
  
  “S&N Pub Enterprises fully supports British Food Fortnight.  It offers the chef a chance to shine using local produce which provides positive PR for the pub in its local community.  This year for the first time lessees were able to use our new food website to obtain information on taking part in British Food Fortnight.   50% of those visiting the site visited the British Food Fortnight page.”
  Ben Bartlett, Head of Food Development, S&N Pub Enterprises
  

  “It was a great idea for The Great Inns of Britain to take part in British Food Fortnight.  We have had a wonderful response to our seasonal menus during the event.”
  Simon Rhatigan, Feversham Arms Hotel, North Yorkshire on behalf of Great Inns of Britain

  3. Details of what retailers did during British Food Fortnight

  Budgens is official sponsor of the event. Many of their stores ran special British promotions during the Fortnight. Budgens is also a leader in encouraging retailers to work with local schools as part of the Fortnight's activities to help children learn about healthy British food.  This year stores linked up with schools to invite children to design decorative Union Jack bunting featuring pictures of their favourite British food. The winning entries were displayed in their local Budgens. See this link .

  Morrisons hosted Best of British activities in all its stores. Activity included food preparation demonstrations and in-store food tasting.
  Asda promoted 117 British lines during British Food Fortnight plus special offers on 100 local lines all available at £1.
  Tesco supported British Food Fortnight in all its stores highlighting British produce on counters and fresh produce aisles and offering sampling of locally sourced products.
  
  Sainsbury's launched its Great British Classics oven ready meals during British Food Fortnight and reported that 2009 has been its best year ever in terms of selling British produce.
  
  And 'Love British Food - it's British Food Fortnight' stickers abounded in the meat aisles of Tesco, Morrisons, Asda, The Co-operative, Sainsbury's and Somerfield - on the reverse of each sticker people were details of how people could win £1,000 in a free cash prize draw!
  

  4. What pubs, restaurants and caterers did during British Food Fortnight

  A record eight of the largest food service organisations took part (ARAMARK, Brakes, Compass, Sodexo, BaxterStorey, NCB Foodservice, One Complete Solution, Anchor Trust Residential Care & Nursing Homes).

  Thousands of employees in some of Britain’s biggest organisations such as the BBC, Aegon, Boots, Northern Rock, Nationwide, JP Morgan, the Royal National Lifeboat Institute and the Ministry of Defence enjoyed British food courtesy of ARAMARK which ran special British Food Fortnight menus at over 400 of its sites. Leading sponsor of the event for the fourth year, they also sent 50 of their chefs into schools to teach children about food and how to cook.

  1,200 Sodexo sites, including schools, universities, hospitals, offices and military facilities, ran special British Food Fortnight menus (an increase of 500 sites from last year!).  They also ran a competition to discover what their customers’ favourite British dish is; the winner? Sunday Roast.  For further information please contact Mandy Van Hagen, Sodexo Tel: 01438 341400).

  1,100 workplaces catered for by Compass featured Best of British menus during the Fortnight; as did 400 BaxterStorey restaurants and many more.

  150 YHA Youth Hostels took part in British Food Fortnight with special menus celebrating the best of British produce.  For further information see this link.
  

  Anchor Homes, the largest not-for-profit provider of residential and nursing care in the UK, took part for the second year.  All 97 Anchor Homes served seasonal British produce during the event.  For further information contact: Simon Peyton at Anchor Tel: 0207 759 9134

  Six of the biggest pub groups (Enterprise Inns, Everards, Marston’s Pub Company, Punch Taverns, Scottish and Newcastle and Young’s) advised thousands of their pubs to put British on the menu for the Fortnight led by Young’s which ran special British Food Fortnight menus for 200,000 customers in their London pubs, see this link.

  John Lewis stores around the country ran a competition for their chefs throughout the summer to design a special menu to run throughout British Food Fortnight in association with their suppliers, Brakes.  The winning 'Let's Go British' menu of Line-caught Cornish Mackerel with Horseradish Creme Fraiche and Frangipane Bramley Apple Gateau was featured on menus in all John Lewis stores during the Fortnight.

  22 Great Inns of Britain supported British Food Fortnight with a seasonal celebration of the best of local, seasonal game and regional produce across Britain. See this link for more information.

  Wembley Stadium served a 'Mash of the Day' menu to celebrate British Food Fortnight.

  St Paul’s Cathedral ran a ground-breaking ‘Harvest Swap Shop’ inviting people to fill a shoe-box with homegrown vegetables, head to London’s famous landmark Cathedral and enjoy a complimentary Sunday roast in the Cathedral’s restaurant. Produce was then used in the restaurant’s kitchen with outstanding offerings highlighted on the following week’s menu.  The National Trust ran a similar activity inviting people to donate surplus vegetables they have grown to Trust restaurants.
  And Grey Gables Hotel in Radio Four’s The Archers held a ‘Meet the farmer, cook the Dish’ session.

  ENDS

  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 across Britain including in more than half the English counties; a national school cooking competition led by the BBC’s Hairy Biker celebrity chefs; a Harvest Swap Shop in St Paul’s Cathedral; ‘Mash of the Day’ menu in Wembley Stadium; foraging walks, food trails and fungi forays in National Trust properties; a People’s Picnic in Brighton; Plot to Plate cooking demonstrations and a drop-in cooking theatre; the world’s biggest bread and butter pudding baked by Hovis to commemorate the national food celebrations; Alan Titchmarsh trumpeting the Fortnight on his show; Radio 4’s The Archers featuring a running story on the event; Meet the Farmer events; a ‘Dancing with Dabs’ musical fish procession and Dudley Zoo which served local produce to the giraffes, penguins and sea lions proving that animals too can eat British!
  
  
  • More British food on menus than ever before... more British food was consumed though the catering sector over the two weeks than ever before with eight of the largest food service organisations, led by ARAMARK, six of the biggest pub groups led by Young’s, all the chef associations, the Youth Hostel Association, Anchor Care Homes and many others all putting British food on the menu. The public sector supported the event en masse: the BBC’s canteen staff donned ‘Love British Food’ t-shirts; major hospitals and school catering services ran special menus; Oxford’s Waste Partnership hosted live cookery demonstrations to encourage people to use up their leftovers and even the Cabinet Office participated!
    
    “The number of children eating school meals in Shropshire Primary Schools increased by 20% as a result of the British Food Fortnight menu we ran.”
    Bill Campbell, Operations Manager, Shropshire School Meal Service
    
    “350 schools in Kent took part in British Food Fortnight and we’ll definitely be doing so again next year - I would love to see the whole of Kent getting involved, pubs, hotels and hospitals!”
    Mark Sleep, Client Services Manager, Kent County Council
    
    “Why are we doing this? Simple. British Food Fortnight increases the enjoyment of tasting different foods and increases the income in the staff restaurant by 12%”
    Mike Duckett, Catering Services Manager, The Royal Brompton Hospital, London
  
  
  • More British promotions in shops than ever before…all the major supermarkets ran special British promotions during British Food Fortnight signifying the greatest support in the history of the event. Hundreds of independent stores flew the Union Jack in the high street with tastings, meet-the-producer events and special offers on British food, led by Budgens official sponsor of the event, who also invited local schools to design British food bunting for their local store to display.
    
    “So many people turned up to our British Food Fortnight event that we couldn’t fit them all inside the store!”
    Kanna Mahunda, store owner, Budgens, Stoneleigh
    
    “British Food Fortnight was a phenomenal success with Asda's customers, particularly our meat, chilled and seasonal produce offers.”
    Paul Dover, Customer Planning Manager, Asda
    
    “British Food Fortnight is an important date in Morrison’s calendar. We found the event to be extremely successful in helping communicate our values.”
    A spokesperson for Morrisons
  
  
  • Young and old participate… Anchor Trust, the biggest provider of Care Homes for the elderly, organised lots of activities for residents, including meals made using recipes from the 1940s. And schools all over the country tapped into the event’s network of 9,000 chefs who are available to go into class to teach children how to cook. Some schools even had visits from local shops and producers. There was a huge emphasis on 5 A DAY and also on local food with vegetables grown in school gardens, free-range eggs direct from the school grounds, locally hunted game and produce donated by local suppliers all being incorporated into cooking lessons. Judging is now underway to select the 110 schools that participated in the most imaginative way, all of which are being rewarded with class sets of Kenwood cooking equipment.
    
    “British Food Fortnight was highly successful in Anchor’s care homes - our residents really enjoyed it.”
    Richard Herne, Anchor Homes’ Catering Manager
    
    ”The children thoroughly enjoyed British Food Fortnight - helping the chef to cook the food and, of course, tasting it!“
    Tony Phillips, Head Teacher of Godolphin Primary School, whose pupils had a cooking lesson from a local chef
    
    “British Food Fortnight really benefited our students and helped promote cooking within the school”
    Lynsey Cox, Food Technology Teacher, St. Mary Redcliffe school
    
    

    Alexia Robinson, organiser of the event, says: “The major retailers and caterers have almost unanimously given a high five for British food during this year’s British Food Fortnight. Why? They know that consumers don’t just want it, they are demanding it. In these tough economic times, people are thinking more carefully about the sustainability of the food chain. They want value for money but value in the case of food has never been just about price – it is about taste, freshness and quality. The best guarantee of these values is British food, produced to the highest standards in the world. Food, glorious British food’s moment has arrived!”

    British Food Fortnight 2009 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. It was supported by over 60 organisations led by Brakes, Compass Group, Country Markets, National Trust, Sodexo, Young’s pubs and Youth Hostel Association.

    British Food Fortnight 2010 takes place 18th September to 3rd October 2010.
    For further information see www.lovebritishfood.co.uk

     

    ENDS

    Notes to Editors:

    1. For further media information and photography, please contact Alexia or Danielle T: 020 7840 9292. E: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

    2. What people said about this year’s British Food Fortnight:

    “What’s really exciting is that we’ve seen a clear increase in sales as a result of British Food Fortnight.”
    Lucy Worrall, Marketing Manager for Warner’s Budgens

    “British Food Fortnight has once again been a hugely successful event for ARAMARK. Thousands of employees in some of Britain’s biggest organisations have enjoyed special British menus and schools, colleges and the local farming community have all been involved.”
    Victoria Clarke, Marketing Communications Manager, ARAMARK

    “YHA was delighted to take part in British Food Fortnight and to stamp its foot on British soil in support of British farmers and producers. More than 2,000 of our guests tucked into our Great British menu and gave a ringing endorsement to the quality that British food represents. Cheers to British Food Fortnight from the YHA!”
    John Mcgrath & Lauren Pethybridge, Food & Beverage Managers, YHA

    “British Food Fortnight has been a great success for Sodexo and once more we are delighted to be associated with it.”
    Jeff Brades, Marketing Director for Sodexo

    “Our new Best of British recipes were served in more than 1,000 workplaces across the UK during British Food Fortnight and were well received by our customers.”
    Nick Vadis, Executive Chef at Compass Group UK & Ireland

    “British Food Fortnight definitely had a positive impact for Kent Frozen Foods. We saw a good uplift in the products on promotion throughout the month.”
    James Brenchley, Kent Frozen Foods, suppliers to the catering industry

    “British Food Fortnight has been a great experience for Young’s. Customers were very interested and impressed that we were promoting British food.  Such was the response that the British Food Fortnight menu is staying on as an option for all pubs to use as specials, a request that came directly from the pub managers.”
    Tara Buffini, Director of Food Development, Young & Co's Brewery PLC
    
    “Yet again British Food Fortnight has proved to be a big winner for us. Not only did it boost sales significantly, but it was the perfect opportunity to show customers that they can enjoy fantastic British produce at reasonable prices in our pubs.”
    Sharon Hammond, Marketing Manager, Orchid Group Pubs
    
    “S&N Pub Enterprises fully supports British Food Fortnight. It offers the chef a chance to shine using local produce which provides positive PR for the pub in its local community. This year for the first time lessees were able to use our new food website to obtain information on taking part in British Food Fortnight. 50% of those visiting the site visited the British Food Fortnight page.”
    Ben Bartlett, Head of Food Development, S&N Pub Enterprises
    

    “It was a great idea for The Great Inns of Britain to take part in British Food Fortnight.  We have had a wonderful response to our seasonal menus during the event.”
    Simon Rhatigan, Feversham Arms Hotel, North Yorkshire on behalf of Great Inns of Britain

    3. Details of what retailers did during British Food Fortnight

    Budgens is official sponsor of the event. Many of their stores ran special British promotions during the Fortnight. Budgens is also a leader in encouraging retailers to work with local schools as part of the Fortnight's activities to help children learn about healthy British food. This year stores linked up with schools to invite children to design decorative Union Jack bunting featuring pictures of their favourite British food. The winning entries were displayed in their local Budgens. See this link .

    Morrisons hosted Best of British activities in all its stores. Activity included food preparation demonstrations and in-store food tasting.
    Asda promoted 117 British lines during British Food Fortnight plus special offers on 100 local lines all available at £1.
    Tesco supported British Food Fortnight in all its stores highlighting British produce on counters and fresh produce aisles and offering sampling of locally sourced products.
    
    Sainsbury's launched its Great British Classics oven ready meals during British Food Fortnight and reported that 2009 has been its best year ever in terms of selling British produce.
    
    And 'Love British Food - it's British Food Fortnight' stickers abounded in the meat aisles of Tesco, Morrisons, Asda, The Co-operative, Sainsbury's and Somerfield - on the reverse of each sticker people were details of how people could win £1,000 in a free cash prize draw!
    

    4. What pubs, restaurants and caterers did during British Food Fortnight

    A record eight of the largest food service organisations took part (ARAMARK, Brakes, Compass, Sodexo, BaxterStorey, NCB Foodservice, One Complete Solution, Anchor Trust Residential Care & Nursing Homes).

    Thousands of employees in some of Britain’s biggest organisations such as the BBC, Aegon, Boots, Northern Rock, Nationwide, JP Morgan, the Royal National Lifeboat Institute and the Ministry of Defence enjoyed British food courtesy of ARAMARK which ran special British Food Fortnight menus at over 400 of its sites. Leading sponsor of the event for the fourth year, they also sent 50 of their chefs into schools to teach children about food and how to cook.

    1,200 Sodexo sites, including schools, universities, hospitals, offices and military facilities, ran special British Food Fortnight menus (an increase of 500 sites from last year!). They also ran a competition to discover what their customers’ favourite British dish is; the winner? Sunday Roast. For further information please contact Mandy Van Hagen, Sodexo Tel: 01438 341400).

    1,100 workplaces catered for by Compass featured Best of British menus during the Fortnight; as did 400 BaxterStorey restaurants and many more.

    150 YHA Youth Hostels took part in British Food Fortnight with special menus celebrating the best of British produce.  For further information see this link.
    

    Anchor Homes, the largest not-for-profit provider of residential and nursing care in the UK, took part for the second year.  All 97 Anchor Homes served seasonal British produce during the event.  For further information contact: Simon Peyton at Anchor Tel: 0207 759 9134

    Six of the biggest pub groups (Enterprise Inns, Everards, Marston’s Pub Company, Punch Taverns, Scottish and Newcastle and Young’s) advised thousands of their pubs to put British on the menu for the Fortnight led by Young’s which ran special British Food Fortnight menus for 200,000 customers in their London pubs, see this link.

    John Lewis stores around the country ran a competition for their chefs throughout the summer to design a special menu to run throughout British Food Fortnight in association with their suppliers, Brakes.  The winning 'Let's Go British' menu of Line-caught Cornish Mackerel with Horseradish Creme Fraiche and Frangipane Bramley Apple Gateau was featured on menus in all John Lewis stores during the Fortnight.

    22 Great Inns of Britain supported British Food Fortnight with a seasonal celebration of the best of local, seasonal game and regional produce across Britain. See this link for more information.

    Wembley Stadium served a 'Mash of the Day' menu to celebrate British Food Fortnight.

    St Paul’s Cathedral ran a ground-breaking ‘Harvest Swap Shop’ inviting people to fill a shoe-box with homegrown vegetables, head to London’s famous landmark Cathedral and enjoy a complimentary Sunday roast in the Cathedral’s restaurant. Produce was then used in the restaurant’s kitchen with outstanding offerings highlighted on the following week’s menu. The National Trust ran a similar activity inviting people to donate surplus vegetables they have grown to Trust restaurants.
    And Grey Gables Hotel in Radio Four’s The Archers held a ‘Meet the farmer, cook the Dish’ session.

    ENDS