l What makes a winner

September 4, 1925: a bone to pick

The Trapdoor Toaster

A time long before our corrupted kids took to the streets armed with blades and economy lager (back in Victorian times they preferred catapults and pennyworths of gin), our esteemed doctor had these words of advice for child-rearers. However, BB will not be held responsible for the consequences of freezing your kids...

The benefits of allowing your pastry to rest are well-known. Just as important is letting your pastry-making wrist rest at the end of a hard day's work. After all, when it comes to powering up your PC to do your accounts, the rigours of pushing a computer mouse around could tip you over the edge into a nasty case of Repetitive Strain Injury. Thankfully, the Croissant Wrist Rest has been developed to help you tick this health and safety box. It even features a fresh baked bread smell. Sadly, this technological breakthrough was not yet available in the UK at the time of going to press. But gadget websites in America are advertising it for $6. tinyurl.com/6hy5ab

Bakers are always talking about 'adding value' to their bread. While the cost of a loaf of bread has broken through the £1 barrier, you could easily add three zeroes to that by investing in a blowtorch and sandpaper.

You don't have to be a big-scale operation to take advantage of IT, and a number of smaller bakeries have benefited from a long-established package, tailored to craft businesses, which has recently been upgraded.

People driving SUVs are not the only ones worried about rising oil prices. Its impact is being felt throughout industry, and baking is no different. Add in spiralling costs for wheat and other raw materials, and protecting margins in our business is getting harder and harder.

H alloween is traditionally about dressing up in ridiculously unscary costumes, the implied necessity for everyone - well every child - to be out roaming the streets at night, trick or treating and getting someone else in the family to buy and carve a pumpkin. However it is also emerging as an increasingly profitable event for the bakery sector.

Like many businesses, those in the baking trade often feel that they have little spare time on their hands to dedicate to environmental issues. However, this is an area where a little investment can pay dividends in terms of improved resource efficiency and cost savings.

We have a three-year plan to double the size of our business," says an excited Délifrance MD Ian Dobbie, having just cut the ribbon on a spanking new bake-off plant in Wigston, near Leicester. Having topped the £40m turnover mark at the end of last year, this represents a major kick-on for the business, which has seen around 15-20% year-on-year growth for the past decade. Until now, the firm has been largely perceived as a frozen par-bake specialist, but this is set to change, with a renewed assault on the packaged morning goods category, armed with a new ability to fully bake-off its own products.

Roly's Bistro is a modern rarity: a restaurant that bakes its own bread and confectionery, rather than relying on mixes or pre-baked products. Now it has done something even more rare: it has set up a bakery shop and café to sell the products that were previously the reserve of the restaurant. It is even thinking of franchising the concept - or at least extending it to other outlets.

To many people, beetroot is represented by vinegary crinkle-cut slices added on to a plate of uninspiring salad. Yet fresh beetroot has much to recommend it and, because of its relatively high sugar content, is suitable for use in baking.

by Dan De Gustibus

John Foster is MD of Fosters Bakery,

By bakery consultant Wayne Caddy

Synergy has launched a new range of bread aromas designed to enhance taste and reduce costs for bakers. The savoury ingredient specialist has designed the product in a number of varieties, including crusty bread, sourdough, soda farls and dough. The aromas allow for up to 20% salt reduction and, therefore, are particularly effective in reduced salt goods.

Linpac Packaging has launched a new polyolefin stretch film called MagicLIN. The film has been designed to be easier to cut than traditional cling films, and can be cut by hand, removing the need for a blade.

Délifrance has launched two new pastries aimed at maximising catering opportunities in the longer days and lighter evenings throughout summer. The first is a lighter Viennoiserie, an apricot fruit basket, topped with half a Moroccan apricot.

Premium and indulgent goods provider Rich Products has launched a new muffin range for retail and foodservice operators.

Ishida Europe is launching a new software programme that can link up to 100 checkweighers to provide valuable production data.

Pantheon Catering Equipment has launched a new range of baking ovens, for all types of baking. The range is comprised of four models: YXD-1A - convection heat only; YXD-2A - convection heat and steam; YXD-3A - convection heat and upper heater; and YXD-4A - convection heat, steam and upper heater. The ovens have an internal capacity of 2.23 cubic feet. They feature an interior light, four shelves and an audible 120-minute timer. They also have a steam pulse option and a separate upper chamber heater.

DuPont has launched the DuPont Tyvek Dual coverall, designed to offer flexibility, breathability and added durability.

Equip Line has added a new product to its range. The Fri-Jado Bake Basic 3P programmable oven, designed to meet small-scale baking needs, offers three baking positions, water injection and an oven fan and alarm signal. It operates off a 13-amp plug and is suitable for small bakeries, sandwich bars, or anywhere offering a range of bake-off products throughout the day.

Roberts Bakeries in Cheshire has installed five purpose-designed high-speed Series 515 print-and-apply labelling machines. The machines allow individual loaves, fed from different lines, to be identified at a central point for loading into trays - either by operators or automatically.

Enco Products is launching its first mainstream snacking range. The new range consists of green banana chips, plantain chips and sweet plantain chips, and will be available in 85g bags.

Crisps and snacks manufacturer Walkers is launching its Baked range in a larger pack, aimed at impulse channels.

Sun Valley is relaunching its Pretz brand this month following an image revamp. The brand has also added a third flavour to the range and will be focusing on widening its distribution channels into the impulse, foodservice and convenience markets.

United Biscuits' (UBUK) brand KP Nuts is refreshing its image from July, with revamped packaging and new flavours. It will also be launching a new Clip Strip merchandising unit for its salted and dry roasted peanut. Two new flavours - MSG-free Salt & Vinegar and Spicy Chilli - will be available in 200g and 80g price-marked and non price-marked packs. On the back of the success of KP's Baked & Seasoned Nuts, it has launched Baked & Seasoned Mixes, containing inclusions rather than just mixed nuts. These will be available in Chilli & Lemongrass with Sweet Fire Red Pepper Pieces, and Sea Salt Rosemary with Toasted Pumpkin Seeds, in 110g packs.

Such is the pace of change in the spy vs spy world of supermarket buying, that the greatest delight in developing new products comes in creeping up and mugging a competitor with a category first.

OK, so let me confess straight up - I am an accountant and the amount I truly know about baking can be written on a grain of baking powder. The only time I have ever baked was on a 72-foot, 50-tonne yacht in the mid-Atlantic, which was racing for Boston on a 40-degree tilt... and I can assure you that is not good for making bread evenly sliceable!

A recent announcement by the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA) suggests that the number of foreign workers being exploited is higher than previously thought, particularly in the food processing industry. To tackle the problem of rogue employers, the GLA launched Operation Ajax, an initiative that will see the authority carry out up to 30 raids during the next 18 months.

With many messages on the subject of our economy travelling like wildfire around the baking industry, you won't be blamed for supposing we're about to suffer the first recession this century.

American bakery café chain Au Bon Pain has struck a deal with Indian-owned Spencer's Retail, to open 100 stores across India. Au Bon Pain signed a master franchise agreement with Spencer's Retail, part of RPG Enterprises, which plans to open the target number of stores within the next two years.

Carr's Milling Industries has raised its profit forecast for the year to 30 August, 2008. The mil-ling and machinery giant said it had enjoyed strong trading since its last update on 27 May.

Coffee Republic's chief executive Steven Bartlett is to stand down at the company's forthcoming Annual General Meeting.

Singapore-based bakery retailer BreadTalk plans to open around 800 more stores around the world over the next three years. The company, founded in 2000, currently owns 83 BreadTalk and Toast Box shops and 118 franchised outlets worldwide.

Premier Foods has said it expects an increase in sales for its Baking & Milling division in the first half of this year.

The Richemont Club of Great Britain will judge its fifth National Competition at The Bakers' Fair on 19 October at Sheffield's Don Valley stadium. The event will see bakers battle it out to take top position in a range of categories.

Pupils from Manchester High School for Girls used their loaf in an Apprentice-style lesson with a difference at Cheshire's Frank Roberts & Sons bakery.

A nationwide ratings system for food hygiene needs to be implemented as soon as pos-sible, bakery retailers have told British Baker.

An All-Party Parliamentary Food and Drink Manufacturing Industry Group has been launched this month. The group has a broad remit, including providing a forum for debate and discussion for industry issues, such as increasing food prices or the impact of the food industry on the environment. It also aims to raise the awareness of these issues in Parliament.

The waiting is over - British Baker can now reveal the first batch of finalists in our Baking Industry Awards 2008.

Food manufacturing group the Real Good Food Company (RGFC) has reported strong sales in its bakery ingredients division, up 13%. RGFC indicated it would seek to again increase prices in response to its own rising costs.

The Foods Standards Agency (FSA) has published new salt reduction targets for food manufacturers for products including bread, cakes, biscuits and snacks. The FSA has launched a public consultation on proposals that will make its voluntary targets stricter. They include tightening 2010 salt reduction targets for 85 categories of food and setting more challenging 2012 targets for 80 categories of food.

Warburtons enjoyed another successful year in 2007, with profits and turnover up on the previous year.

The Federation of Small Busi-nesses (FSB) has accused large firms of "exploiting small businesses" by delaying invoice payments and imposing new terms and settlement fees.

ADM Milling has announced a flour price increase of £18.20 per tonne. The rise will be effective from 1 September, 2008.

To refer specially to the fact that bread has been made entirely by hand does not create any impression - at any rate, favourable - on the public of today, who associate the use of machinery with almost every conceivable manufacturing process. The public also associates improved hygienic standards with the greater use of machinery, so that "made entirely by hand" has nothing to commend it on that score.

Here's a great candidate for our regular shop design feature Interior Motives. One café in a strife-ridden suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, has been decked out like a military post. Patrons at Buns and Guns can enjoy scoffing 'Terrorist Bread' to the sounds of gunfire, blasted over the speakers. Other delights on the menu include 'rocket-propelled grenade' (chicken on a skewer), which you can eat surrounded by replica weapons and camouflage netting, reports the BBC.

Whose fruity smile was used to beguile? Who learned the ropes promoting soaps? Yes it's the gorgeous, glamorous Sara Reid of Rank Hovis - advertising Pears soap in 1972, aged 31/2.

We're not sure what the doctor was getting at when he suggested eating this meal for "good staying power".

This little curio popped into our inbox tagged with the eyebrow raising heading: "Belcolade's chocolate Manneken Pis jets in for 20 Years of Passion celebrations", accompanied by a snap of a nude child made of chocolate.

The Bakers' Benevolent Society (BBS) celebrated its 150th anniversary with a family open day on Sunday 15 June at Bakers Villas in Epping.

The dairy sector has seen prices of raw ingredients rocket alongside all the other commodities, and the café and bakery retailing sector is no stranger to this. But aside from cost, what issues do bakery retailers and cafés face when it comes to the dairy products they use? Is it important to them to use locally sourced and/or organic products, and do customers care?

Over the last year, healthy breads such as whole grain have experienced the fastest growth within the bread sector. The same period has also been marked by the widespread cleaning up of ingredients labels. This all amounts to great news for the shelf-life of the people eating the breads, but not so great for the bread itself.

Last month saw the London opening of an Italian coffee chain that harbours ambitions to reassert Italy's easily overlooked status as the godfather of espresso - since its position was usurped around the globe by Starbucks and its bastard (in the nicest possible way) offspring. I know what you're thinking: "Great, that's just what the UK needs, another branded coffee chain."

Matt Scott knew he faced a battle to make flour sexy when he bought Bacheldre Watermill seven years ago. After all, producing organic and traditional flours from a 16th century Welsh water-powered mill in Powys was, literally, miles away from his former life as a postman in Gosport.

Greener packaging - it's straightforward, right? Plastics are "bad", while paper and cardboard are "good". Well actually, it's not quite that simple, and even the experts don't agree. Landfill, where most of the UK's waste ends up, is under huge pressure. Space is due to run out within the next five to 10 years, according to Defra. And with conventional plastics taking between 200 and 500 years to break down in landfill, it's obvious that we cannot keep burying it underground, then burying our heads in the sand about the environmental impact.

For some, looking for government support - whether in grants, tax incentives or simply advice and training opportunities - has something of a stigma about it. That is, until they see who else is already benefiting from this type of support.

I must respond to your News Insight item 'Crunch time for training' (27 June), to address what seems to be a lack of understanding regarding the important and entirely positive developments currently underway in bakery training in the UK.

Courgettes, also known as zucchini, are a very versatile vegetable with a delicate flavour. Courgettes were not widely eaten in Europe before the 20th century, but have been cultivated in Central America for 5,000 years and are related to watermelons, gherkins and cucumbers. They are plentiful in the summer months and anyone who has ever grown courgettes will know that they seem to turn into marrows before your eyes and are best when picked young, as they have more flavour and less water.

Wednesday morning is my favourite morning of the week, not because I get up at 3am, but because, an hour later, I find myself at Billingsgate fish market, right in the hustle and bustle of one of the oldest fish markets in Europe, writes Adam Gilbert.

Tom Herbert a fifth-generation baker and director of Hobbs House Bakery, a multi award-winning craft bakery based in south Gloucestershire

The Carford Group's new Lincoln CTI Countertop impinger oven (1300 Series) has digital controls that allow for easy programming, said the firm.

French bakery manufacturer, Délifrance UK, has added a hazelnut and chocolate-flavoured brioche to its range. The product has a chocolate filling with crushed hazelnuts and is produced using French flour. It is ready to thaw and serve in two hours and is sold in packs of 30.

Biscuit maker Island Bakery is adding a new fruit offering to its range, as well as updating its packaging. Apple Crumbles are to join its existing range of organic biscuits, and contain chunks of apple, oats and juice and a sprinkling of cinnamon.

Kate's Cakes has added three new cereal bars to its You Can! range. A Dairy Free Muesli bar, Wheat Free Nut 'N' choc bar and Dairy & Gluten-free Fruit & Seed bar join the existing range of dairy, gluten, wheat-free and low-fat cakes.

BakeMark has launched a line of icings in response to consumers' needs for natural colours and flavours. The new Crembel line is free from preservatives and uses the most natural ingredients where possible, said the firm.

Compass Group may have recently won the contract to supply catering and hospitality services for staff working at London Heathrow's new Terminal Five, but, like many of the people who will be using its services, the company is keen that its feet stay firmly on the ground.

The Whole Grain Stamp - a nifty little black and yellow food packaging label that has done wonders for the bowels of our American cousins - was launched recently into the UK, in a move that would have our back-page dietician Dr Allinson rolling around joyfully in his grave.

Drinks company Abbey Well, has launched a new fruit beverages range, called Abbey Well Juice. The range, made with juice concentrate is available in apple, orange, raspberry blend, blackberry blend and tropical blend. The apple and orange varieties come in 180ml pouches, the others in 200ml pouches.

Independent company Aqua Botanica, has signed a deal with regional distributor JD's Food Group to enable it to sell its products outside its current London location.

Organic drinks producer RDA Organic has launched a new range of 'fresh functional superfruit' drinks.

Chief executive

Starbucks is to close around 600 underperforming stores in the US as part of its "transformation strategy". The stores are expected to close over the remaining part of this financial year, and second half of next.

Bakers in New York City have been banned from using any kind of trans fat. The ban, which applies to all foodservice establishments in New York, has been phased in since last year, with the first phase applying to fry oils and spreads.

Japan is to import 5,000 tonnes of emergency butter supplies from Europe, New Zealand and Aus-tralia, in response to a serious shortage. Bakeries and supermarkets are among businesses that have been experiencing shortages, due to a decrease in milk production following an unusually hot summer. Farmers have been asked to focus all their efforts on increasing milk supplies.

Finsbury Food Group (FFG) has warned investors that rising commodity costs and consumer caution could affect its growth rate over the next 12 months.

It seems fitting that Asda's Boldon Colliery got the gong for best in-store bakery at BIA07 - gongs being something of a recurring theme at Asda's in-stores. Remember the advertising campaign earlier this year, featuring Victoria Wood ringing a bell to tell customers that freshly baked bread was on-shelf - part of Asda's novel approach to promoting its scratch baking? Well that was filmed in Boldon, Asda's flagship bakery, and deemed the best in-store in the UK by the BIA judges.

Cornish bakery Rowe's is refitting and rebranding its 16-strong chain of shops. The stores will get new fixtures and fittings, and signage will change from WC Rowe to the simpler 'Rowe's'.

Warburtons has launched a 'Learn for Life Centre' at its Stockton bakery in Teesside to encourage employees to continue with learning and education.

The new owner of the former Best Bakeries business in South Wales has pledged to "bulldoze" the current site in Hirwaun, as part of plans to modernise the business. Healthier products and expanding business within Wales are also priorities for Megans Bakery, which has bought the business from administrators Grant Thornton.

The Bakers' Fair is to take place on Sunday, 19 October 2008, at Sheffield's Don Valley Stadium. As the UK's only autumn exhibition for progressive and professional independent bakery companies, cafés and coffee shops, it comes at a time when key purchasers will be making final decisions about the Christmas selling period, as well as looking ahead to 2009.

Waitrose has seen a "phenomenal" uplift in sales of its packaged cake lines, following an overhaul of pack design, the addition of new lines and changes to recipes, including a complete switch to free-range eggs.

More than 200 staff have been made redundant at the Peter Hunt bakery, after it ceased trading on 7 July.

Finsbury Food Group's chief executive Dave Brooks has been elected chair of the National Skills Academy Bakery Steering Group. Brooks was elected at the group's second meeting on 7 July.

Lawrence Watson has been appointed as head of sales and marketing at Rank Hovis, effective 1 September. He is currently sales director at Bowmans Milling in Hitchin, Herts.

Rank Hovis, part of Premier Foods, is in consultation with employees about the proposed cessation of milling and pac- king at its Rotherham Mill in South Yorkshire.

South Cheshire bakery, Chat-wins, has made the switch to Fairtrade in all its 20 coffee shops and four lounges.

The glitz and glamour of Las Vegas will come to London's Grosvenor House hotel for this year's Baking Industry Awards.

Flour millers association Nabim has warned that steeply rising energy prices, combined with other rising costs, are having a serious impact on the milling industry and overall grain sector.