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NEWS Scotland extends health commitment


The Scottish Government, in partnership with the Scottish Food and Drink Federation, is running a further two-year programme for small businesses to make their products healthier. The scheme sees hands-on


support for small companies across Scotland, aiming to help them to reduce levels of sugar, fat and salt in their everyday products. Since the programme launch


good progress has been made with a number of manufacturers based across Scotland, with the SFDF's Technical Industry Manager providing tailored recipe change advice to businesses.


Minister for Public Health


MichaelMatheson said: "It is really encouraging to see small businesses making their products healthier, crucially without impacting on sales. Simple updates to recipes or processes can make all the difference, often without much impact on taste. And every little improvement in the product can help meet customer preferences for healthier shopping baskets. "We must take steps now to


tackle obesity. We have already introduced a range of measures to improve diet and are spending over £2.5m this year and the next on projects to encourage


healthy eating, from diet projects in deprived areas to the HealthyLiving Award on the high street. "Our programme for small


businesses makes an important contribution, and we are having wider discussions with major manufacturers, retailers and caterers about broader actions to inspire healthier choices across the whole food spectrum." Dr Colette Backwell, Director,


Scottish Food and Drink Federation said: "This programme gives the smaller companies at the core of our industry access to in-house new product development expertise".


Coca-Cola recycles


TheCoca-Cola SysteminGreat Britain (‘Coca-Cola’) has announced that it has recycled 10.5million bottles collected from the London 2012Olympic and ParalympicGames, returning them toGB shelves as part of new bottles. Thiswill result in 42million bottles, each containing 25 per cent rPET. The success of this large-scale bottle-to-bottle recycling process is part ofCoca- Cola’s commitment to helping the LondonOrganisingCommittee of theOlympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) deliver themost sustainableGames possible. The opening ofContinuum


Recycling,Coca-Cola Enterprises’ new£15million joint venture recycling facilitywith ECO Plastics, allowed over 10.5million clear plastic bottles fromLondon 2012 venues to be recycledwithin just sixweeks of disposal, saving an estimated 310 tonnes of carbon.


Exports remain upbeat


Today, the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) has reported that UK food and non-alcoholic drink exports have continued to grow in 2012, rising to £5.9bn in the first six months of the year – an increase of 2.2 per cent on the same period in 2011. FDF’s latest update also


found that exports to all non-EU regions, apart from those surrounding the Eurozone, were in growth of over 7 per cent. The EU fared less well with a rise of 0.7 per cent, largely due to the Eurozone debt crisis which has resulted in sharp falls in exports to some key markets, namely France and Italy. Outside of the EU, the


strongest gains were in Africa 6 | FMCG News | FMCGNews.co.uk


(+23.6 per cent) and the Middle East (+17.7 per cent). Within the Middle East there were significant increases in exports to the United Arab Emirates, which rose 37.8 per cent to £80m, due to strong demand for chocolate and fish and seafood.


EU approvesmerger


ArIa Foods amba and Milk Link have confirmed that regulatory approval has been granted by the European Commission to merge. The Commissionʼs approval completed on 1 October, enabling the formation of the UKʼs largest dairy company. The approval of the merger


was given subject to Arla implementing a remedy to address the Commissionʼs concerns relating to a perceived reduction of competition in the UK long life milk market. As such, in order to restore


effective competition, Arla has committed to divest Milk Linkʼs milk drinks business at


Crediton on a viable and separate, standalone basis. This business includes Crediton dairy, which produces all of Milk Link's long life milk, long life cream, extended shelf life milk and flavoured dairy drinks and fresh bulk cream. Arla Foods UKʼs long life


milk business, based at its Settle creamery, will not be affected by the remedy and will retain an established market position in long life and flavoured milk.


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