M&S fresh ingredients will be used by celebrities competing each week to remain in the show
Marks & Spencer is sponsoring a new ITV celebrity cooking show, which the retailer has jointly developed to boost its appeal to scratch cooking families.
M&S fresh ingredients will feature in ‘Cooking with the Stars’, as the retailer seeks to reinforce its credentials beyond ready meals.
Comedian Tom Allen and presenter Emma Willis are hosting the six-part series, due to air this summer. Eight celebrities will compete against each other, facing the threat of elimination each week.
M&S worked with producer South Shore on the concept, which will see each celebrity paired with a professional chef as mentor. The mentors will also act as judges of other contestants’ dishes.
The government’s Pick for Britain scheme encouraged UK workers to apply for seasonal jobs
The government has scrapped the Pick for Britain campaign aimed at recruiting UK-based workers for seasonal farm roles, the Grocer understands.
Launched last year when Covid-19 left many foreign workers unable to reach the UK in time for the beginning of the harvest season, the campaign consisted of advertising and a website hosted by AHDB which directed UK workers to roles.
While it attracted big interest – with tens of thousands of Brits applying for thousands of roles during the first national lockdown – and received major backing from Waitrose, relatively small numbers of recruits made it onto farms.
12 April 2021,
Could farming insects be the key to a sustainable planet? And can robots be used to plug labour shortages in horticulture? It may sound like the stuff of science fiction to some, but an innovative project to promote entrepreneurship in agri-tech is asking just these kind of big questions – and helping bring industry leaders together to find the answers.
Based at Pershore College, a renowned centre of horticulture excellence, the GrowAgri Worcestershire project is backed by the European Regional Development Fund and tasked with supporting the development of technology for use in the horticultural and agricultural industries.
Located in one of the UK’s horticultural heartlands, the Vale of Evesham, the project is headed up by Professor Roy Kennedy of the college’s Agri-Tech Research Centre. In its futuristic facilities, which include an indoor hydroponic plant-growth chamber and an outdoor vertical farm, tomorrow’s technology is already being road-t
By Henry Sandercock2021-02-18T16:05:00+00:00
Volume sales increases were primarily attributed to the lockdown-related trend of scratch-cooking
Sales of onions and leeks have soared during the latest Covid-19 lockdown, according to the British Growers Association.
Volume sales of onions are up 25% year on year, while leeks have seen a 15% rise in sales, according to the trade body.
The increases were primarily attributed to the lockdown trend of scratch-cooking, with changes in consumption habits, such as flexitarianism, also suggested to be behind the rises.
Other veg producers have also been enjoying greater demand, including brassica and carrot growers.
“It’s great to see this surge in demand. We know as a nation we don’t have enough veg in our diet and while part of the success is attributable to lockdown,” said BGA CEO Jack Ward. “There is a growing interest in healthy eating and seasonal produce.”