with carcass meat and suggesting of a more discriminatory pattern of buying on the part of consumers. Interestingly, if we look at the total of all non-carcass meat and meat


products, there has been a pronounced downward trend in purchases since 2010, from 805 grams per person per week in 2010 to 742 grams in 2015. Bacon and ham seem to have featured quite strongly in the downturn for which no reason is immediately apparent. Uncooked pork sausages have also shown declining purchases, from 62 grams per person per week in 2010 to 52 grams in 2015. The data for 2016 will be updated in February 2018.


GREAT BRITISH FOOD? A Guardian article, headlined as ‘Hard to Stomach’, described the foodie revolution of the past few decades as having been made possible by ‘the wealth of exotic produce from the EU’ and asked whether Brexit Britain was now ‘sleepwalking into food insecurity or are predictions of catastrophe as overhyped as the millennium bug?’. The article concentrates strongly on the likely effects of Brexit on


the number of immigrant workers who are employed to tend and harvest fruit and vegetables in the UK, a significant number of whom appear determined to go home. I have recently been questioned as to the number of such people, particularly those who are from Eastern Europe, who are working in whatever capacity, in the feed industry. A DEFRA spokesman was quoted as saying that the government was ‘absolutely determined’ to get a good Brexit deal for the food and farming sector, adding that ‘leaving the EU provides us with a golden opportunity to better support our farmers to grow more, sell more and export more great British food while continuing tariff-free trade for all our goods’. The Guardian article points out that, at least so far, much of the


political focus has been on these opportunities for exporters rather than potential headaches for importers or consumers. Another aspect, as regards the large number of seasonal labourers from eastern Europe is the fact that, following the referendum result and the collapse of sterling, the value of the remittances that they are able to send home has sharply diminished. The Guardian quotes one Bulgarian worker as saying that the fall in the value of sterling, to an eight-year low against the euro, meant that he and his colleagues were working as hard as ever but for 25 per cent less money. One of the comments on the state of UK farming in recent years has


been the fall in self-sufficiency as regards UK food supplies. This is largely a reflection of changing British tastes for products that are not produced locally. One challenge for those who dream of British self-sufficiency, following the UK’s exit from the EU, is that what the country chooses to eat rarely matches up with what the UK is good at producing. From the point of view of the agricultural supply trade, one of the


major concerns must be the idea that Brexit offers the opportunity to ‘shake off meddlesome food regulations and strike tariff-free trade deals with cheaper importers’. As a result, in the UK, ‘only the leanest farmers will survive, but the resultant fall in consumer prices will ensure that capital flows to more productive sectors of the economy instead’. An additional effect would, of course, be a dramatic shrinkage of the


PAGE 16 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017 FEED COMPOUNDER


supply trade itself, including the livestock feed sector. In the meantime, our consultant and researcher, Roger Dean points


out that, according to the Guardian newspaper, the county in which he grew up, Cornwall, has become ‘Britain’s new foodie capital’. Ruth Huxley of the organisation Cornwall Food and Drink, which


helps local food companies identify and develop market opportunities says that ‘Grass grows year-round. Livestock is out year-round. Cornish produce tastes fabulous. It just wasn’t very widely known beyond Cornwall.’ Although Roger is not entirely sure that her contention of round the year grass growth is accurate, several factors have combined over the past few years to change that lack of knowledge. Ironically, EU funding has bolstered Cornwall’s economy, allowing local businesses to evolve, grow, and create more and better jobs. Huxley is quoted as saying that ‘there are many more £30,000-a-year jobs here than there were before,’ encouraging more energetic young families to come to Cornwall, essentially for the quality of life. Huxley adds that, before Rick Stein, whom she describes as ‘the


godfather of Cornwall’s burgeoning food movement’, first started in Padstow, many restaurants simply shut down outside the main tourist season, making it hard for them to attract permanent staff, and for their suppliers to build quality businesses. Roger adds that Rick Stein has also opened in his home village of Porthleven where there are now as many restaurants as there once were fishing boats.


EXIT FISHMEAL? An interesting article in All About Feed recently, enlivening the debate about the prospects for insect meal replacing fishmeal in a number of diets, a subject that has been touched upon several times in this column as well as discussed in such forums as the Advisory Committee on Animal Feeds (ACAF), part of the Food Standards Agency. The article noted that the potential of insect meal for aquafeed is


huge and trials showed that mealworm meal can effectively replace fish meal and blood meal in the diet of juvenile Nile tilapia. The article went on to present the results of a three-month study. The article noted that the ingredients used in aquafeed are


generally based on fish meal and soybean meal but are nowadays regarded as non-sustainable as regards feeding farmed fish. Novel sources of proteins are thus necessary to replace or, at least, partially replace conventional ingredients for which there is an increasing demand due to the intensification of farming methods. Several studies have shown that insect-based ingredients could be a good candidate as fish meal alternative. And, significantly, as of 1 July 2017, the EU Regulation 2017/893 has authorised the use of insect proteins in aquafeed from seven insect species, including the yellow mealworm, Tenebrio molitor.


Meal produced by Tenebrio molitor is reported to be safe, have a


protein content in excess of 70 per cent and an essential amino acids profile which shows a good correlation with fish requirement values. The article notes that the popularity of insect meal as a novel protein has taken off, with increasing interest being expressed not only by farmed fish operators but by other livestock sectors.


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