Food

This summer take the Veg Pledge - simply go meat and fish free for 7 days and donate the money saved to the charity Beating Bowel Cancer. To make it even easier, the charity has developed an online calculator which you can use to work out how much money you will save, based on your average weekly meat consumption and where you shop. It’s a great way to look at your diet and spending habits and raise funds to help those affected by bowel cancer at the same time.

A restaurant in the Highlands has beaten eateries across the country to be named the Regional Winner for Scotland in the Good Food Guide Local Restaurant of the Year Awards. The Whitehouse Restaurant, in Lochaline has been nominated by its customers to be the top local choice in Scotland, despite its remote location. The Whitehouse Restaurant is described by the Good Food Guide (GFG), which is published by Waitrose, as being “about as remote as you can get without leaving the mainland”.

In response to both the recent media attention and consumer concern over the recycling of paper cups, the Foodservice Packaging Association (FPA) and Paper Cup Recovery and Recycling Group (PCRRG) have launched an industry-wide Manifesto with the objective of significantly increasing paper cup recovery and recycling rates by 2020. The Manifesto has more than 30 signatories, representing each stage of the paper cup supply chain from raw material suppliers, cup manufacturers and retail high street brands to waste and recovery operators and paper reprocessors.

As anticipation builds for the 29th annual World Cheese Awards, which is being held in San Sebastián this year as part of the International Cheese Festival, awards organiser, the Guild of Fine Food, is delighted to officially announce its first judge for 2016, Andrea Power of Hatchman's Premium Cheeses, the only cheesemaker in the whole of Barbados. The Barbadian producer's trip to the Basque Country will be sponsored by Cobblers Cove, a luxury retreat on Barbados' west coast, as part the celebrations being held to mark 50 Years of Independence for this small and proud nation.

Lovers of extreme hot food – you have been warned! If you thought the notorious Komodo Dragon – a chilli pepper launched last year by Tesco - was hot stuff then just wait till you try the Carolina Reaper which goes on sale at the supermarket tomorrow. It's officially the hottest chilli pepper in the world according to the Guinness Book Of Records, measuring an average 1.5 million Scoville units.

Devon is renowned for its exceptional culinary gems. People travel from all over the country, and further afield, to taste some of the county's outstanding offerings. There's a new force to be reckoned with on the national food map, Devon's Deer Park Country House Hotel has just announced that Hadleigh Barrett has come on board as the new head chef. 

Too many children under the age of five consume foods and drinks with high levels of sugar at least once a day, according to a survey published by charity Action for Children. Over half (59 per cent) of parents in the West Midlands give their children sugary drinks like squash and cordial at least once or twice a day, exceeding the maximum daily allowance of five sugar cubes for children of that age.

Waitrose has become the first supermarket to sell own label products through British Corner Shop, the online store that delivers British food to customers worldwide.  It will enable Waitrose to enter entirely new territories from the 138 countries British Corner Shop regularly ships to, including two of its largest markets, the USA and Germany, neither of which is among the 60 countries the UK retailer already exports to. 

Misconceptions about how to freeze food safely are contributing to food waste in the West Midlands and across the UK, according to new research by the Food Standards Agency (FSA). The research – released as part of Food Safety Week – identified a number of freezing ‘myths’ that are preventing people in the West Midlands from using their freezers to make food go further.

Speciality food company Cottage Delight has been producing award-winning handmade fudge in Staffordshire for over 40 years and now the company's best-selling range is even more scrumptious following the addition of a locally produced butter.  Developed with the help of the Staffordshire Cheese Company, Sea Salted Butter is made with rich double cream sourced from a local family farm.

It was a clean sweep for Blackacre Farm Eggs at the Taste of the West Awards this year, with owners Dan and Briony Wood picking up Gold Awards for their entire Free Collection, including their brand new Dabbling Free goose eggs. Judges described the goose eggs as “simply delicious – very mellow with a great depth”, while also commenting on the unique packaging, saying that the “eggs would make a really lovely gift.”

Leiths School of Food and Wine, famous for training top chefs like Florence Knight and Henry Harris, TV cooks including Gizzi Erskine, Lorraine Pascale and Matt Tebbutt, and legendary writers like Diana Henry, revealed which students gained the ultimate accolades in the 2016 Diploma in Food and Wine. The announcement was made at a celebratory lunch at Tom's Kitchen at Somerset House. Mary Harding won I&P Olive Oils Student of the Year and Mark Norris won Louis Latour Wine Student of the Year.

Tesco stores in Wimbledon are gearing up for a fortnight of tennis as 500,000 visitors are expected to visit Wimbledon over the next two weeks. Tesco will be offering strawberry and cream tastings in their Wimbledon Metro store as the fruit has become intrinsically associated with the tournament. Tesco expect to sell 1,500 tonnes of strawberries over the fortnight meaning that nearly 250 punnets are sold every minute.

Summer is one of the liveliest seasons to visit Lisbon, especially in June, as the city plays host to its most popular annual festival, the Festas de Lisboa. Throughout the month, thousands of people take to the streets of Lisbon's oldest neighbourhoods for music, dance, processions and street entertainment, while the smell of grilled sardines fills the air. 

Five of the best Mexican chefs known internationally for their trend setting culinary art will highlight the best of the new trends in Mexican cuisine with the Best of Mexico Riviera Maya. The event will be held at the five AAA Diamond resort (3 Michelin Star equivalent) Grand Velas Riviera Maya from 5-9th October 2016. The exclusive resort invited the prestigious chefs including Zahie Téllez, Carlos Gaytan, Francisco Ruano, and Mikel Alonso to share their creativity, talent and passion for Mexican cuisine through this gastronomic event.

Taste couscous from all over the world at Sicily's annual Couscous Fest in September.  From 16 to 25 September visitors can wander around the streets of San Vito Lo Capo in North West Sicily and try over 30 different recipes, which are served every day from midday to midnight in traditional couscous houses dotted around the town.  The huge variety of couscous recipes ranges from the extravagant to the traditional, meat, fish, seafood and vegetables to gluten free.