• 2021 Winners announced today by the Peas Please Initiative 
• Morrisons, Strong Roots and TastEd latest pledgers to join initiative 
• A third (29%) of children aged 5-10 years old eat less than one portion of veg a day  
• 77% of adults eat less veg than the amount recommended in the Eatwell Guide 

In a specially shot ceremony from River Cottage the writer and chef Hugh Fearnley- Whittingstall today announced the winners of the 2021 Peas Please Prizes; the highlight of the year for the the Peas Please initiative which was established to drive up vegetable consumption across the UK. Peas Please is a partnership with The Food Foundation, Food Sense Wales, Nourish Scotland, Belfast Food Network and Food NI. Since the project launched 4 years ago it has delivered 162 million additional portions of vegetables into our food system working across all 4 nations. 

Now in its fourth year the initiative has over 100 pledgers from across food production, retail and the Out of Home sectors who have all made pledges to promote and encourage people to eat more veg across the UK.    

The Prizes are to recognise the businesses that have gone above and beyond and are leading the way in terms of transforming their businesses to drive up vegetable consumption. 

The recently released Veg Facts Report 2021 continues to show that both adults and children are not consuming enough veg to meet the Government’s EAT WELL GUIDE recommendations. This is likely to have a long term impact on our health with diets that are low in vegetables and legumes being associated with just under 18,000 premature deaths a year in the UK. It therefore remains crucial that organisations working within the UK’s food system continue to support and deliver their Peas Please commitments to serve and sell more veg.  

New Pledgers have also been announced today 

Morrisons and Aldi UK have joined other major UK retailers in making significant new pledges this year. Morrisons becomes the latest UK supermarket to join the Peas Please scheme, making a pledge for more veg that will see them commit to supporting more advertising and promotion of veg both in-store and online, and working to increase the amount of veg in their new and reformulated own-brand products. 

Aldi UK have also become the first UK-wide retailer to set a SMART sales-based target for a % increase in veg portions sold across their own-brand products. A significant step forward  for supporting the Peas Please mission of boosting veg consumption across the UK.  

Strong Roots are a plant based frozen food company providing convenient and healthy meals for home cooking. They’ve pledged to continue their mission to Make Veg Poverty History through a number of initiatives, including affecting change at a grass roots level to increase access to veg. They have also committed to driving increased consumption of veg based meals. 

TasteEd is a charity working to change the way that food education is taught in the U.K. through ‘taste education’. They’ve pledged to train 100 schools in taste education lessons using the TastEd scheme of work, which gives teachers the resources to help children learn to love eating vegetables and fruit, using their senses.  

 Watch the Ceremony and Policy Panel here: 

• The policy panel
• Peas Please Prizes 

Peas Please Prize Winners: 

The Peas Please Individual Champion: Recognising outstanding contribution made by an individual working within one of our participating pledger organisations to inspire and demonstrate leadership on their organisation’s Peas Please pledge.  

• Winner: Amanda Whatley, HC3S 
• Runner-up: Charlotte Newman, Havering Catering 

Amanda’s support for Peas Please and Veg Power has been invaluable, especially during last  year’s Peas Please monitoring cycle. She went the extra mile to get the correct data and submit it in time, ensuring that we had the most accurate data available for monitoring. 

The Peas Please Innovation Prize: Recognising inspiring and/or innovative activities to support organisational Peas Please pledges and our overall mission of boosting veg consumption.  

• Winner: Compass, with their Plantilicious! range 
• Runner-up: Aldi, with Project Fresh 

Compass Group launched their plant forward range, Plantilicous, into their business, industry, colleges, universities, and healthcare sites in January 2020. The new plant-based range ensures the vegetable content of meals makes up at least two portions of veg contributing to your 5-a-day. 

The Peas Please Pledger Champion: Recognising pledger organisations who have effectively championed and implemented their Peas Please pledge/s across their organisation as a core part of their business proposition, for example including Peas Please in their company reporting.  

• Winner: Sainsbury’s 
• Runner-up: Henderson’s Group/SPAR NI 

Sainsbury’s have committed to transparent reporting on sales of veg across their business, as well as launching a number of innovative programmes to boost veg consumption. For example, discounting a range of fruit and vegetables to 60p to encourage customers to try new veg, and their ‘Great Big Fruit and Veg Challenge’ – which is personalised to each Nectar customer and rewards them for increasing the portions of fruit and veg they buy. 

The Peas Please Rising Star: Recognising new Peas Please pledgers who have made particularly impactful and ambitious pledges for helping us all to eat more veg. 

• Winner: University of Edinburgh 
• Shortlisted: Zizzi’s  

The University of Edinburgh have pledged to serve more veg across their catering service by adding more servings to pre-prepared grab n go items – doubling the number of veg side-servings options in their retail outlets. They have set SMART targets to implement all this by June 2023. 

The Peas Please Good Society Prize: Recognising pledger efforts to decrease inequities in accessing veg, for example around those issues that are particularly relevant to Peas Please such as school food, healthy start, and agricultural initiatives.  

• Winner: Tesco 
• Runner-up: Lantra 

Tesco were the first Peas Please pledger to add £1 onto the government’s Healthy Start voucher scheme, which provides money for fruit and veg and other essentials for eligible low income families with young children across all of the four nations. 

The Veg City Prize: Recognising impactful and integrated place-based approaches to increasing veg uptake at a local level for cities participating in the Veg Cities campaign  

• Winner: Food Cardiff, Cardiff https://www.vegcities.org/local/cardiff/   
• Runner-up: Hull Food Partnership, Hull https://www.vegcities.org/local/kingston_upon_hull/  

During the pandemic Food Cardiff worked to generate mass participation in community growing schemes through the Cardiff Growing Together and Good Food Cardiff Autumn Festival. They also worked with the city council to roll out detailed mapping of fruit and vegetable “deserts” in the city in order to provide a robust evidence base to help inform planning policy and enable direct intervention. 

The Veg-O-Meter Prize: Recognising the biggest % increase in vegetable portions sold or served by our pledgers between 2018/19 and 2019/20 reporting cycles  

• Winner: Cardiff and Vale University Health Board 
• Runner-up: Veg Cities 

Cardiff and Vale University Health Board increased the amount of veg they were serving year on year by a staggering 701.7% from just one of their sites. 

VEG FACTS REPORT 2021 

• Veg Facts Report 2021 

SOCIAL MEDIA ASSETS 

• You can download the Veg Facts assets here:  Graphics 
• You can download the winner’s rosette badges here: Award Badges 

 Quotes 

Victoria Prentis MP, Under-Secretary of State for Food, Farming and Fisheries 

“It was a pleasure to take part in this year’s Veg Summit panel. The UK produces a wonderful and wide range of fruit and vegetables and it is so important that we look at new and innovative ways to increase vegetable consumption as part of a sustainable, balanced diet for everyone. We all need to eat more fruit and vegetables – with too few adults and children getting their recommended 5 A Day portions of fruit and vegetables – and we need to work together to increase these numbers. 

That is why it’s so inspiring to see successful action taking place across the food system to promote fruit and veg. I congratulate and thank every one of the winners and finalists for their role to promote and enable sustainable, healthy choices”. 

Compass Group UK & Ireland. Liz Forte, Director of Health and Wellbeing, Business and Industry at Compass Group UK & Ireland said:  

“We are delighted to have won the Innovation Prize. We are really proud of our Plantilicious range, which puts plant forward food at the heart of our dishes. We have continued to evolve and develop the offer, listening to our consumer feedback. Sales of plant forward dishes are in strong growth and continue to build, currently representing 40% of our food offer. As well as encouraging healthier eating, plant forward is also more sustainable too, as our dishes increase use of seasonal and locally sourced food. Following the announcement of our commitment to reach Climate Net Zero by 2030, new innovations such as the Plantilicious range, contribute towards achieving our targets.”   

Strong Roots. Sam Dennigan, Group Chief Executive Officer of Strong Roots said:   

“1 in 4 Brits live in Veg Poverty, meaning they can’t afford or access the government’s five-a-day recommendation. Through our Veg Pledge we continue in our mission to Make Veg Poverty History by educating around the issue and affecting change at a grass roots level by increasing the provision of freezers and frozen veg to food banks nationwide. We believe healthy and nutritious food should be accessible to all and we have joined Peas Please to unite with likeminded organisations who are committed to the same goal.” 

Anna Taylor OBE, Executive Director, Food Foundation said: 

“Although this year’s Peas Please prizes show some great progress being made by many of our pledgers, UK veg consumption remains far too low and it’s really worrying to see dietary inequalities continue to widen. More action urgently needs to be taken by both the retail sector and the food service sectors to support everyone in the UK to eat more veg.” 

Rebecca Tobi, Peas Please project manager said: 

“It’s fantastic to see so many organisations making such great progress when it comes to promoting, serving, and selling more veg. Particularly during what has undoubtedly been one of the toughest years on record for the UK’s food sector. However, we’ve some way to go before we meet our goal and get everyone in the UK eating more veg, and continued support from pledging organisations will be crucial in helping us to go further faster.” 

It is really encouraging to see the strong influence from Northern Ireland on the development of the inspirational Foundation Earth initiative designed to raise further awareness of the need to focus on preserving our precious and threatened environment. Artisan and smaller food and drink businesses here have already been making a major contribution to sustainability,

The Foundation Earth initiative will roll out eco-scores on food packaging, similar to those we are used to seeing on consumer appliances. It is the brainchild of the late Denis Lynn, the founder of Finnebrogue Artisan in Downpatrick. As I have written before in this column, Finnebrogue is a leading innovator in plant-based food products and a Food NI member company. 

The scientific adviser to the new not-for-profit organisation is Queen’s University’s Prof Chris Elliott, the driving force in global food safety, and an expert on food security.

Another key player in the initiative is Dominic Darby, previously on the senior management team at Finnebrogueand now head of innovation at Marks and Spencer Food. 

Among the early support pledgers for the scheme is Mash Direct from Comber, another Food NI member company and among our most environmentally friendly food producers. The successful company, of course, draws its focus on the environment from its base on the Hamilton family farm and its vast experience on producing plant foods for international customers. Mash Direct, in addition, has been at the forefront of conservation and recycling schemes in the business and on the family farm.

Global food giants such as Nestlé, alongside retailers including M&S, the Co-op and Sainsbury’s, are among the members of the new organisation which aims to roll out front-of-pack eco-scores on food from September.

This potentially very important labelling scheme will draw on data from the world’s leading systems for measuring the environmental impact of food production – devised by advisory company Mondra and the EU-funded food innovation initiative EIT Food.

It’s an ambitious scheme. The foundation is aiming for a full rollout of the labelling scheme across Europe from next year. What the scheme will do is to indicate carbon emissions, water usage, impact on biodiversity loss and water pollution in a product. The scheme will also analyse a product’s environmental impact from farming, processing, packaging and transport.

The foundation aims “to promote more sustainable buying choices from consumers and more environmentally friendly innovation from food producers, who will be determined to secure a better score”.

Each business pledging support has signed up to “explore the potential for environmental labelling on food products and to support Foundation Earth’s ambition to help build a more sustainable food industry”. A separate scientific committee will be led by Professor Elliott.

It’s a worthy and a very important initiative. Much will depend on how the information is presented on packaging which also often includes nutritional traffic lights. The obvious concern is that labels could become confusing with too much health and safety data on the front. I am sure the experts will come up with a format that makes it easy for consumers to comprehend. I think consumers are ready for it.

It’s almost a relief to see a developing global approach to the growing and threatening environmental challenges from climate change.

Foundation Earth said the scheme would “create a universal eco-labelling scheme that is based on good science and that customers can easily follow”.

UK Environment secretary George Eustice said the foundation’s ambition to develop a universal eco-labelling scheme had “the potential to help address the urgent challenges of sustainability and climate change”. 

It’s a great step forward for our industry and heartening to know that it was inspired by the vision of one of our most forward thinking entrepreneurs, Denis Lynn. 

Irwin’s Bakery, Northern Ireland’s leading independent bakery, has secured a deal worth £3.5 million annually to supply Waitrose and Morrisons stores in Great Britain with its new Irwin’s Together range of speciality breads.

The family-owned bakery, which is based at Craigavon, county Armagh, has rolled out the eight-strong range of products in 600 stores. The full NPD line-up comprises:• Stoneground Wheaten Bread, rsp £1.25• Brown Soda Bread, rsp £1.35• 4 Mini Soda Breads, rsp £1.10• 4 Buttermilk Muffins, rsp £1• 4 Ancient Grain Muffins, rsp £1• Fruit Loaf, rsp £1.55• Cinnamon & Raisin Toasty Loaf, rsp £1.25• 4 Potato Breads, rsp £1.40

The latest deal in Britain, according to Irwin’s, demonstratesits continued success in creating demand for speciality breads amongst consumers in Great Britain. Earlier this year the bakery also secured a £2.7 million annual contract with Lidl Northern Ireland which it has been working with for 20 years – to supply a range of bread, rolls and sweet treats to all of the retailer’s stores in Ireland.

“Winning new business contracts of this scale are a clear sign we are continuing to grow our share of the speciality breads market in GB,” said Irwin’s Bakery chief executive Michael Murphy. “Currently just under 50 percent of our business is outside Northern Ireland, with the bulk of that going fresh, daily, to GB, and we expect this to grow with the introduction of the Irwin’s Together range.”

Murphy added that the business has invested over £500,000 in both consumer research and brand development to ensure Irwin’s “understands consumers’ needs and usage occasions, alongside a brand identity that reflects our values, skill, and heritage as craft bakers”.

The business has also invested in additional capability at its Portadown bakery to help produce NPD, he said.

“Cultures are changing constantly, and Irwin’s prides itself on keeping up with these changes,” Murphy added. “Consumers have enjoyed and experimented with food throughout lockdown and continue to look for ways to create great meals with everyday staples such as bread as the main ingredient for the whole family. We believe our breads lay the foundations for a great meal.”

Clandeboye Estate, Northern Ireland’s only producer of yoghurt from its own dairy herd, has launched a deliciously innovative product for Tesco stores here.

The original product from the multi-award winning producer, based on the estate’s acclaimed dairy farm, is a crunchy and nut-free granola topped Greek style yoghurt available in two outstandingly tasty flavours – Senga Strawberry and Mango. The new Greek style yoghurts with granola are available in convenient 150g pots RRP £1.29.

The new product range is launched as the successful food business, which has won a host of UK Great Taste and other prestigious awards, is completing a state-of-the-art processing operation also on the estate.

The new £2 million factory will enable the ambitious company to quadruple production and create 13 new jobs, 

The investment is being undertaken to enable the business to meet increasing demand for its products in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic and also to develop exciting opportunities from approaches from retailers in Britain.

Explaining the development of the new luxury granola yoghurts, Bryan Boggs, Clandeboye Estate Yoghurts general manager, says: “The new product has been developed to meet a business opportunity for a premium yoghurt topper we’ve identified in our on-going market research and regular discussions with Tesco and other supermarkets which we supply in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

“We currently supply our range of yoghurts to every supermarket and the leading symbol groups in Northern Ireland, as well as hundreds of delis and smaller specialist stores.

“Tesco was keen on the new product and keen to be the launch customer…and we’re delighted that the new product will be on sale in many of its stores across Northern Ireland this month (July),” he adds.

The new retail product is also influenced by Clandeboye’s longstanding and successful experience in producing luxury granola topped yoghurt snack pots for the hospitality sector especially leading café chains in Northern Ireland.

The yoghurt is produced from fresh milk sourced daily Clandeboye’s award-winning Holstein herd free to graze the rich pastures of the 2,000-acre estate outside Bangor, Co Down.

The new retail yoghurts are a further example of the product innovation which is at the heart of the business founded by the late Lady Dufferin as a farm diversification project in 2007, now among the most successful of its type in the UK

Successful craft brewery McCrackens Real Ale in Portadown, county Armagh has invested in a new brewery and canning line to quadruple production to meet demand in Northern Ireland and to develop opportunities identified in export markets. The brewery is a Food NI member company.

Owner Ryan McCracken developed the new brewery with a manufacturer in China to position the small business for faster growth beyond the current pandemic.

With 80 percent of the island’s craft beer and cider revenue streams shut off virtually overnight, Ryan and the entire industry were forced to switch from on-trade sales to targeting online sales and off-trade outlets. 

“I had started reviewing my options for upgrading our brewery in response to a growing demand for our beers in December 2019 but decided to put everything on hold due to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic,” he explains. “I decided instead to pivot our strategy to sustain the business by building up our online presence,” he adds. 

“This was the best way to keep some cash flowing while bars, restaurants and hotels, our biggest market sector, were shuttered. There was scope too to develop more contacts in retailing here and further afield especially in Great Britain. Sales are now growing again from the lifting of restrictions in hospitality,” he continues.

Ryan subsequently decided that planning for the future of the business would also require significant investment.

“We picked things back up again in the summer of 2020 and decided to review the operations and experiences of brewhouses all over the world to enable us to weigh up our options for the future. I saw an opportunity, for example, to expand our retail sales and was encouraged to gain a listing last year on Ocado, the biggest online store in Britain.”

Ryan quickly recognised that the business would require a complete revamp, a new brewery with bigger tanks and associated systems. The review pinpointed a manufacturer of brewing kit in China’s Shandong province as the clear leader in terms of requirements set by Ryan. “But purchasing a brewery from afar was always going to be challenging,” he explains. 

“With the world in various stages of lockdown we were, of course, unable to visit any of the factories and to see the equipment they were producing.  Our concerns, however, were alleviated once we spoke with some breweries around the UK, including one in Northern Ireland, which already used brewing equipment from the same manufacturer,” he adds.

Several months were spent working with the manufacturer’steam of designers by phone, email and other digital communications to build the sophisticated brewing systemsfrom the ground up. “Shaping a brewing system remotely was really quite a challenge. It’s certainly not an easy way to shape a brewery,” he says. “Our objective was to create a fully bespoke system that was a perfect fit for our aim of quadrupling capacity, increasing efficiencies whilst reducing comparable power and water consumption,” he adds. 

A key element of the new brewery complex is the introduction of a canning line in response to pre-pandemic market research which showed that more people than ever were keen to taste craft beers in cans. This was reinforced by information that the trend had strengthened during the lockdowns.

 “There are many advantages of craft beer in cans,” he continues. “They are lighter, better for the environment, easier to store, and ideal for exports. The increased label area has given us the opportunity to update our brand and base it on something that is intertwined with our rich heritage,” he adds.

 The brewery is continuing to supply its range of beers in bottles and kegs as well as cans, giving customers a far greater choice. The increased capacity and versatility from the new brewery is also enabling the introduction of new beers and enhancing its overall focus on innovation in the months ahead.

McCracken’s Real Ale, launched by Ryan, an IT manager on the back of a home brewing hobby in 2014, is already benefiting from the investment in the new brewery. It now offers a very broad range of pale ales, Irish pale ale and chocolate and vanilla Irish stout are all hand crafted in various formats in the brewery.

Ryan’s bold investment has positioned the brewery to seize opportunities predicted by marketing experts suggesting that the craft beer category is in line for large scale growth in the global marketplace. There’s now a growing recognition of the entrepreneurship of the brewers like Ryan McCracken and their success in brewing Irish beers that are unique, richly flavoured, local and creative.