NEWS University challenge


A team of three first year Durham University students has been crowned champions of Unilever’s Sustainable Business Challenge, a competition open to all current UK and Ireland university students in order to engage the next generation of business leaders in the subject of


sustainable growth. The nine shortlisted teams


from universities all around the country were invited to Unilever’s UK head office in Surrey to develop their ideas with a Unilever graduate employee and present them to UK board members.


Caroline Spelman speaks ahead of Rio Summit


The need for secure and sustainable food supplies – producingmore, fromless and with less environmental impact – wass the key theme of a Food and Drink Federation event in London on 21May ahead of the Rio + 20 summit in June. The Defra Secretary of State,


Caroline Spelman, gave the keynote address, outlining the UK Government’s aims and ambitions for the Rio conference, atwhich food,water and energy securitywill feature heavily as world leadersmeet to take stock of progress since the first Rio Earth Summit 20 years ago. Theywill considerwhatmore


needs to be done to promote sustainable development and green growth to dealwith the increasing pressures of population growth and climate change over the next 20 years and beyond. Other speakers at the FDF


event included Professor Tim Benton, UK champion for Global Food Security, David Norman fromWWF, and Harriett Lamb, executive director of the Fairtrade Foundation. It was chaired by Nick Bunker, President of Kraft Foods UK and Ireland and chair of the FDF’s Sustainability Steering Group. Caroline Spelman, secretary of state for Defra said: “Ensuring a


secure, stable and sustainable food supply for a growing population is one of themost pressing issues of our time. The Rio+20 summit nextmonth is an opportunity to get theworld on the right path tomore sustainable ways of growing and supplying food at less environmental cost. “I amdelighted that both the


Food and Drink Federation and Forumfor the Future areworking with the Government tomake sure the food industry is fully behind this ambition.We have some of themost progressive and forward thinking food suppliers in theworld. I look forward to discussing howwe can build on this and share our expertisewith others at Rio.” Speaking ahead of the event


FDF director of sustainability, AndrewKuyk said: “We are looking forward to


hearing from our distinguished panel of speakers about how the Rio summit will help address the growing demand for safe, secure, nutritious and affordable food while protecting and enhancing the vital natural resources on which production depends. Our event will also showcase


what UK food and drink manufacturers have been doing to improve their own resource efficiency.”


DIARY DATES


12 JUNE Appetite for Engineering Hinckley Island Hotel, Leicestershire www.fponthenet.net


Appetite for Engineering 2012 is for food manufacturers who are responsible for investing in automation, engineering, production and skills involved in a food and beverage plant. Jim Moseley, FDF President and Managing Director, General Mills will be speaking at the event.


18-22 JUNE Achema 2012 FRANKFURT, GERMANY www.achema.de


This exciting show covers chemical engineering, environmental protection and biotechnology and promises to be full-packed with businesses showing their wares.


19 JUNE 4th Biennial Savoury Snack Summit 2012 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM www.esa.org.uk


Amust-attend event for representatives of all stakeholders involved in nutrition and healthy lifestyles. ESA's 4th biennial Summit brings together top level speakers from industry, regulators, EU institutions, NGOs and consulting agencies to engage in a pro-active and progressive debate.


5 JULY How Apprenticeships can deliver for your business PRESTONMARRIOTT HOTEL, PRESTON www.fdf.org.uk


As part of FDF's Apprenticeship Pledge, the organisation is raising awareness amongst food manufacturers by rolling out a series of regional road shows across the country.


Food tax reaction


The Federation of Food and Drink has responded to the recently published BMJ paper,which proposed "health related food taxes". FDF director of communications Terry Jones said: "When thewhole of the food


industry is focused on continuing to give hard-pressed families great tasting food at an affordable price, discussion of adding 20%to food prices seems fanciful if not irresponsible. "Under the PublicHealth


Responsibility Deal,wewill continue toworkwith government and other stakeholders tomakemeaningful improvements in public health through pledges in areas such as salt and calorie reduction, and our commitment to improving the health of our employees." The BMJ paper claimed that


taxes on healthy food and drinks would need to be at least 20 per cent to have a significant effect on diet-related conditions.


Unite calls for supermarkets


to scrutinise Supermarkets need to scrutinise supply chains more closely, says Unite. Supermarkets should look more closely at the companies in their supply chain to root out any abuse of migrant workers, Unite, the largest union in the country, has said. Unite called on the


government to get tough when it comes to legislate on its supermarket code, following a new report, Experiences of Forced Labour in the UK Food Industry by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Uniteʼs national officer for


the food sector, Jennie Formby said: “One of the key ways to ensure workers get decent treatment and protection from exploitation is for trade unions to organise at these workplaces. “The fact that these


companies will all be supplying supermarkets makes it imperative that senior supermarket executives should be scrutinising those firms supplying their chains of stores for abuses.”


FMCGNews.co.uk | FMCG News | 5


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