Tesco Starts Selling World’s Sweetest Tomato
Supermarket chain Tesco is stocking a new variety of tomato, which it says tastes as sweet as a peach.
The new variety, known as Sugardrop was developed by the retail giant to cater to sweet toothed customers and indeed anyone who finds that taste of ordinary tomatoes to sharp for their liking, in particular children.
Tesco describes the new variety as the sweetest tomato ever, The Spanish grown Sugardrop is in fact a hybrid of two different varieties of tomatoes, containing approximately three times the amount of natural sugar as regular tomatoes as well as half the daily recommended dose of vitamin C.
A Tesco spokesperson said that the process of creating the new variety required two years of cross breeding amongst 3,000 varieties.
“A few years ago we sat down with our suppliers and asked them to find us a high quality tomato that would appeal to gourmets with a sweet tooth,” she said.
“It was the beginning of major research that involved our growers contacting all the major seed houses in the world in order to find varieties that they could cross pollinate to find a tomato with higher than normal sugar levels.”
“The result is the Sugardrop which is the sweetest tomato there has ever been and now this week UK shoppers will be the first to try it.”
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Shoppers Should Check Salt Content When Buying “Free From” Products
A lot of dairy free, wheat and gluten products available on supermarket store shelves have been shown to contain high salt levels, according to new research publish by the Consensus Action on Salt and Health (CASH).
CASH, established to promote awareness of the damage that results from excessive salt intake, studied 71 own label products from five UK supermarket chains which are labelled as “free from” and found that over 50 per cent contain larger amounts of salt than standard versions of the product that were also being sold by retailers.
Some of the products tested possessed more than six times the salt levels as standard product comparables, with a third of products tested being found to contain lower levels of salt.
All five supermarket chains that were tested, stocked products, some of which were labelled as ‘free from’ that contained higher levels of salt than standard versions of the product.
Products which fared worse than their standard products counterparts include, Sainsbury’s Free From Jaffa Cakes, Morrisons’ Free From Chocolate Chip Cookies.
Products which contain high levels of salt pose risks of heart disease, since salt consumption is linked to high blood pressure.
Graham MacGregor, chairman of CASH, said: “In general, it has been the supermarket own-label products that have led the way in salt reduction, but it seems that own-label products for people with existing health problems have not been a top priority for the retailers.”
“They must now reformulate the higher-salt products immediately, so that people suffering from Coeliac disease or other related conditions do not have to put their health in further jeopardy.”
The British Heart Foundation says the salt levels found in basic food items such as bread, that are eaten on a daily basis, was a cause for concern.
A spokeswoman for the British Nutrition Foundation said: “The advice for people selecting ‘free from’ foods is the same as for other consumers buying any foods – check the labels. Be savvy about what you buy.
Mr. Macgregor added that the recommended daily maximum salt consumption limit is 6 grams a day.
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Asda Offers Ridiculously Low Priced Christmas Dinner
Asda is offering the UK’s best value Christmas dinner at the unbelievable price of just £11.
The supermarket chain says it will offer a dinner consisting of roast turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, potatoes, vegetable and Christmas pudding that will be able to feed a family of six for the ridiculously low price of just £1.83 a head.
To underline just how good a deal it is, Asda is teaming up with Andy Park, better known as Mr. Christmas who is famous for eating a Christmas dinner every day of the year.
Asda says it will deliver a Christmas dinner, every day for a full month until Christmas day to Mr. Park an electrician who lives in Melksham, Wiltshire.
Mr. Park says he will provide Asda with his festive knowledge and act as the retailers “Christmas consultant”.
Mr. Park claims to have eaten a full Christmas meal including all the trimmings every lunch time for the last 15 years and says he and his dog Sky have consumed between them 5,475 turkeys, over 100,000 mince pies. Mr. Park reckons his average annual bill over the last 15 years has been £20,000.
Asda believes it can save Mr Park around £1,300 a month with the meal.
Halli O’Neill, from Asda’s food innovation team, said: “We are happy to help Mr Christmas out this year with our low-priced Christmas dinner. Hopefully this will give him a little extra festive cheer. Our dinner offers Christmas dinner with all the trimmings.”
Mr Christmas said: “When you celebrate Christmas every day, they can all start to blend into one, but Asda have made this a Christmas I will never forget – my house is like a winter wonderland.”
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Fresh Produce Most Environmentally Friendly
A conference in Sweden discussing environmentally friendly produce production was told that fresh produce is amongst the most environment friendly foods available.
The conference was organized by the Swedish European Union presidency and was held as part of the build up to the Copenhagen UN Climate Change Conference.
Delegates to the conference made the point that fresh produce generates a smaller average carbon footprint than foods such as cheese meat and coffee.
Data from a study conducted in 2002 suggests that the average carbon emission resulting from a kilogram of fresh green vegetables was 1.67 Kg compared with 19.30 Kg per kilogram of beef.
Delegates acknowledged that much of the carbon emissions associated with food production are as a result of transportation, and that improvements could be made to the supply chain.Currently, 25-30% of total consumption related to greenhouse gas emissions are estimated to come from farm-to-fork food production.
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Asda Helps With Flood Relief Effort
UK retail chain Asda made an important contribution to the UK flood relief effort, sending home delivery vans packed with food, clothing and other essential items to community centres in Cumbria on Tuesday.
The Asda foundation and staff picked up the tab for the supplies, whilst staff from Asda Carlisle pitched in by helping deliver the relief to Workington and Cockermouth.
Asda sent three vans packed to the brim with fresh food, milk, nappies, coffee, tea, cereal and warm clothing, that were received by grateful volunteers at the relief centres.
Asda sent the supplies in response to a request from Workington Council leader Judith Glynn for assistance.
Workington has been badly affected by the floods, losing two of its bridges, leaving people stranded and unable to reach the main shopping centre and facing a 30 mile drive to reach the nearest supermarket.
Asda Carlisle store manager Alison Hanford, who personally delivered some of Asda’s emergency supplies to Northside Community Centre said: “There was a great community spirit. People helped us offload the vans. It makes you count your blessings when you get out and see people in circumstances like that and they’re just getting on with it. The people we saw were coping fantastically well.”
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Asda Launches Low Carbon Beef Range
In a bid to bolster its environmentally friendly credentials even further, Asda Groceries has launched a range of low carbon beef.
The retailer says the new range has “the lowest carbon footprint in the industry” and is produced using one third less CO2 than regular beef.
The savings come from reducing the lifespan of cattle from the standard 24 months, to between nine and eleven months.
Since the animals used to produce the beef are dairy bulls, the carbon dioxide emitted is technically classified as a by-product of milk production, and the reduction in emissions can be used to offset those from the dairy farming process.
Reducing the age at which cattle is actually brought to market to between 9-11 months results in significantly lower carbon emissions than standard cattle, which is brought to market after 24 months.
The resulting smaller animal size means that portions can be managed more easily, resulting in lower retail prices to standard beef.
Pearce Hughes, Asda’s agriculture development manager, said: “We’ve been working on this programme for a number of years and are proud to finally see it come into fruition.”
“We wanted to create a low carbon beef that was both accessible to our consumers and viable for our farmers.”
“Should the product prove successful, we could be looking to extend it into our successful ‘Respectful’ low carbon range of free range eggs “
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Asda Picks Up Best National Retailer Prize At World Food Awards
UK retailing giant ASDA, has won an award for Best National Retailer, during the inaugural World Food Awards 2009, held at Hilton in Park Lane, London, on 31st October.
The awards ceremony is run by the World Food Association (WFA) and the award seeks to celebrate the increasing contribution of ethnic foods from around the globe to the UK’s grocery sector.
Harry Dulai, of the World Foods Association said: “Our aim is simple – to ensure that ethnic food is recognised as the important sector that it is. World food is now a thriving and fast-paced industry that has long crossed over into mainstream markets.”
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Retailers Grappling With Spanish Satsuma Shortage
UK supermarkets have been grappling with a shortage in the stock of Spansish satsumas as a result of poor weather conditions.
Industry website freshinfo.com suggests that supply of the popular fruit is at just 60 per cent of last years season, and the shortage was as a result of heavy rain in September, which has resulted in serious problems for Spansih growers of the fruit.
Large portions of the crop were washed away, and the part that did end up surviving the rainfall, has grown to a size that accorfing to freshinfo is “outside the usual specifications for the UK market”.
A British importer told the website: “The cost price for our size profile is very inflated. On top of that the crop is about seven to 10 days late and this is putting massive pressure on a very short market.”
” Retailers are intent on pricing for a market that is in recession and with weak sterling we are really struggling to get the prices we need – we just can’t procure for the prices the supermarkets are selling at.”
“It is a massive problem and basically a big fight out there to get the fruit we need. We are all feeling very squeezed.”
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Asda Starts Selling “Welsh” Curries
A Welshman who tried his hand at making curries with a Welsh twist, now has his curries on sale at Asda.
Paul Trotman, 47, from Penyard, founded The Authentic Curry Company in 1995.
The company creates Welsh curries including Welsh Black Beef Curry, Tan y Ddraig, which translates as Dragon’s Fire, and Sws y Ddraig, which means Dragon’s Kiss.
Now Asda customers can avail Welsh curry’s alongside their traditional chicken tikka masala at Asda deli counters in branches across Wales.
Manager Paul said: “After the huge success of the trials in five Asda stores, the range has been rolled out to all 19 deli counters in Wales. We are delighted that Asda has given us this opportunity.”
The Authentic Curry Company produces 120 different dishes and sources as many ingredients as possible from Wales.
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