Carrot Review

NEWS Christine Tacon CBE has been appointed Chair of Assured Food Standards which operates the Red Tractor Assurance scheme. The former Groceries Code Adjudicator takes up the role on 1 January 2021, replacing Dame Lucy Neville-Rolfe, whose term ended last month. Ms Tacon joins Red Tractor with decades of experience as a leader and advocate for the British food and farming industry and with an extensive background in change management, regulation and the food chain. MORE than half of UK consumers claim to have eaten more vegetables during the COVID-19 lockdown. New research from IGD reveals significant opportunity for the food industry to shift consumers’ mindsets around vegetables. More than three-quarters (83%) of consumers changed how they planned, purchased and prepared their food during the first national lockdown, with more than half (51%) claiming to have eaten more vegetables, according to the latest research in IGD’s Appetite for Change report. The latest IGD data was drawn from 2,000 UK consumers through September and October 2020. New data from IGD also reveals that the online grocery channel is set to represent 5% of the US grocery market by 2022, with a value of hit $82.0bln. CARROTS helped Scottish Fire and Rescue Service station commander Kevin Ketchen calm a situation in preparation for a crew rescue mission recently. Having been called out to rescue a panicked deer stuck in railings, Kevin laid the carrots out in front of the struggling animal which calmed it. “It suddenly calmed down as it sniffed the vegetables,” he recently told the Edinburgh Evening news. “I was able to carry out a Dynamic Risk Assessment and provide a plan for the oncoming crews.” Kevin’s 15-year-old daughter, the brainchild behind the carrots ploy, subsequently named the deer ‘Rudolph’! Free carrots from McDonalds Chair of Red Tractor Assurance Consumer trend change Tesco apologises for mislabelling TESCO apologised for misleading customers after a bag of fresh carrots with the label “British” were incorrectly marked with a “Grown in Spain” sticker. The UK’s largest supermarket chain issued the apology after a user on social media shared an image of the mislabelled product. The slip-up was put down to a printing error. Carrots aid firefighters’ rescue mission CARROT REVIEW JANUARY 2021 5 SPANISH production of baby carrots is making its way into the European markets Production in Spain is limited and Enrique Parias, General Director of La Joya de la Corona, said the baby carrots are harvested up to a month and a half earlier than normal. “We work with carrots that are conventionally marketed in bunches, although we harvest them much earlier. This is the second year in which we are investing in the cultivation of baby carrots, with which we have taken more risks to find new clients,” he said. “This crop certainly requires a lot of specialisation, since if we cannot sell the product in the weeks prior to its harvest, they grow in size and we can no longer market them as baby. “The production is good thanks to the positive influence of the weather, although, unlike leeks, whose sales are doing well, the demand for baby carrots has started slower due to the closure of the restaurant and hospitality channel, which is very important for the sale of this product,” Enrique recently told Fresh Plaza, the global trade media platform for the fresh produce industry. MCDONALDS restaurants across the UK gave out free bags of carrots on Christmas Eve. The giveaway was offered to families nationwide as ‘Reindeer Treats’ and formed part of a series of donations to support families during the festive period in partnership with food poverty charity FareShare. The food chain’s Vice President of Marketing and Menu, Michelle Graham-Clare, said: “2020 has been an incredibly challenging year for everyone. “We’re incredibly proud to be able to play our part and our partnership with FareShare sees us support them in the vitally important work they do to support families in greatest need.” Spanish baby carrots come onto market