Kingsmill has become the first UK bread brand to include the Carbon Trust’s Carbon Reduction label on-pack. It will be used on Kingsmill’s Great Everyday White, Tasty Wholemeal and 50/50 sub-brands from the end of June.

Additional funding has been agreed to try and increase the number of adult apprentices in Scotland in areas such as bakery.

The move follows consultation between sector skills council Improve and Skills Development Scotland (SDS), and will see 400 adult apprentice places offered at food and drink companies. It follows the Scottish government’s decision to remove age restrictions on funding for Modern Apprenticeships (MAs).

God bless Americans' grasp of historical accuracy. A new game for the PC, Ye Olde Sandwich Shoppe, has been released. It is a time management game in which players do everything from baking bread to constructing sandwiches and replenishing drinks. The story is said to begin with "the creation of the very first sandwich in England". Elise, "the sandwich inventor's" niece (look him up on Wikipedia!), decides to sell the sandwich in a shop. Delightfully ahead of its time, the shop serves bobbies on the beat, among others (sadly, the modern police force was not founded until the century following the invention of the sandwich).

Oh, woe betide thee who dabbles in the dark arts and invokes a sleeping demon. In a clear act of evil-doing, The Guardian's website provocatively reopened the whole Jaffa Cake debate on its forums. "It turns out that what the readers of Comment is Free really want to debate is not the European elections or the global economic crisis, but baked goods, specifically the infamous question:'Is a Jaffa Cake a biscuit or a cake?'" it wrote. Stop the Week thought this thorny question had been put to rest when the law courts ruled their inherent cakiness. How wrong could we be? Here is just a sample of the reponses, which ran to an alarming seven pages. Serves The Guardian right.

A visit to an industrial bakery in Britain will usually reveal that its processing lines are continuous, from the make-up plant through to packaging. However, it is not often that you encounter a continuous or fully automated batch mixing system, although there are rare exceptions.

The use of fruits, nuts and seeds in bakery continues to be an ever-popular trend and, despite the increase in the price of ingredients, one that looks set to continue. Fruits such as sultanas, currants and raisins have remained mainstays in bakery over the years and have been joined by alternatives, such as cranberries. So why should bakers use these ingredients in their products?

Birds supplies its 53 shops with more than 15 varieties of bread from its Ascot Drive bakery. Production stops at 3am on Saturday mornings and starts up again at 6pm on Sunday evenings, so installing new equipment is a challenge in time management.

Landlords are a much-maligned breed, exemplified by Alexei Sayle's Harry the Bastard in The Young Ones, who would regularly pop up to put his jackboot through his tenants' TV, proclaiming, "That's £700 you owe me!" But the tables are being turned on the Harrys of commercial property, who have grown accustomed to dictating terms and demanding rent increases.

BA: In the morning, Upper Crust serves a breakfast menu which includes soft bake rolls. This then changes to its lunchtime offering, which includes pizza baguettes and 'Great British Roast' baguettes.

Dear Editor,

Juniper berries are perhaps most widely recognised as one of the main flavourings in gin. These spicy, aromatic, small purplish-black berries can be used fresh or dried, crushed or whole. They come from a small evergreen bush and have a flavour reminiscent of pine and only a small amount is needed to impart flavour. They are often used in marinades, casseroles and pâtés. To make a coarse pâté en croute marinade chunks of pork, rabbit, duck or game with a little wine, juniper berries and other flavourings before wrapping in pastry and baking. However, although they are more often found in savoury dishes there is no reason at all why they cannot be added to sweet baking - they are very good added to a rich fruitcake mixture, for example. The berries should be crushed in a pestle and mortar before use.

Recession? What recession! Any suggestions that craft bakery might be feeling the bite of the economic downturn were put on hold at the recent Bako London & South East open day, as a record turnout of suppliers and customers celebrated the wholesaler's 50th anniversary.

While the current high UK unemployment figures, 2.5m and rising, cause any amount of misery and hardship to those directly involved and their families, they do provide a real opportunity for the baking industry. It is an unfortunate fact that, historically, when unemployment reaches these heights, recruitment does become easier and brings a higher-calibre person into our range.

Crisp manufacturer Tyrrells has launched an alternative range of impulse snacks. Tyrrells Alternatives include 80g Roasted Chilli Corn, 80g Habas Fritas Spiced Broad Beans, 50g Wasabi Peanuts and 50g Thai Chilli Crackers. Following market research, the range has been developed with convenience, packaging appeal, innovative seasonings and margin enhancement opportunities in mind.

Cake baker Fiona Cairns has launched a collection of bespoke wedding cakes in Waitrose. The rose petal design will be available in three different colours, including white with flame orange, pink and red petals. The three-tiered cakes have a cascading petal design and are available in three variations: fruit cake; vanilla sponge with raspberry jam and vanilla buttercream; or chocolate sponge with chocolate buttercream cake tiers. Rose petal celebration cakes and fairy cakes are also available. Another launch is the Vintage Fairytale range, which features a three-tiered wedding cake with sugarpaste antique pink roses and rosebuds, butterflies, gold dragées and fabric hydrangeas. The Carousel wedding cake features a top-tier cake above two tiers of 42 fairy cakes.

Fresh! Naturally Organic launched a new range of tarts for the food-to-go and chilled ready-to-eat categories in Sainsbury's earlier this month. The range, available in over 190 stores, features two 135g single-serve tarts and a 400g tart. Broccoli and Stilton and Goat's Cheese and Onion Marmalade come in the 135g format and Bacon, Caramelised Onion and Roast Tomato are offered in the 400g format.

Ireks is marketing a new product, Avena Oat Bread, inspired by the historical importance of oats. The new bread mix contains more than 60% oats, an ingredient that Ireks says is being rediscovered more and more by consumers.

Family-run biscuit company Fudges has launched new single-serve sweet and savoury biscuits for the foodservice sector. The individual packs are being targeted at cafés, hotels, offices, canteens and airline catering. Fudges saw its products take off for the first time on a BA flight in March this year.

Unifine has launched a lime and ricotta cheese fond as part of its Sucrea range. The fond comes in powder form, which then needs to be blended with 1kg of whipped cream and water to produce a Bavarois-style mix for desserts, gateaux and patisserie.

Picture this: You've left home without eating breakfast and, on the way to your second or third meeting, you realise that if you don't grab something now, you won't eat until dinner. Does this sound familiar? Or, more importantly, is this what your customers experience throughout the week? Fortunately for bakery retailers, the answer is "yes!" and therein lies your opportunity to sell them the breakfast, lunch and snacking products they need.

Pantheon has launched a new range of heavy-duty, dual-speed spiral mixers, targeted at bakeries and pizza restaurants. They are capable of kneading all types of dough and are suitable for bread products, cakes and pizzas.

United Biscuits (UBUK) has launched its new range, Go Ahead! Oat Squares, this month, designed to capitalise on the trend for healthier products. The soft baked bars come in two varieties - Apple & Blackberry and Mixed Berry - and are made using oats, sultanas and fruit-flavoured pieces. The individually wrapped bars will be sold in packs of five and are being targeted as lunchbox accompaniments and for snacking on-the-go. Nick Stuart, commercial manager, UBUK said the product will provide consumers "with a baked alternative to the existing range of Go Ahead! snacks".

Subsidiary of Finsbury Food group Livwell has added a gluten- and wheat-free pain au chocolat to its range. Livwell produces gluten-, wheat- and milk-free products including cakes, muffins, biscuits, bagels, pancakes, pies and puddings. The pain au chocolat will be available from selected Waitrose stores and direct from the bakery.

Coconut: The link between coconuts and crude oil pricing is incredibly close. Crude oil pricing strengthened in early April and coconut pricing also rose. With pricing correcting downwards in the second half of April, coconuts tracked the same trend.

The total amount of wheat milled in the UK has increased by 2.2% for the crop-year to date, according to the latest national statistics released by Defra. The figure for the 43 weeks to 25 April 2009 stood at 5,032 thousand tonnes (tt), compared to 4,923tt for the comparable period last year. However, figures for the four weeks to 25 April, showed the total amount milled fell by 3.4% to 477tt compared with the figures for April 2008.

The promotion of the craft bakery sector through industry-wide initiatives is not new, but seems to be gaining momentum and this is a very welcome development.

Sales of frozen desserts are growing at the expense of chilled alternatives, according to the latest research from Mintel. Sales increased by 4% in 2008 and are set to increase by a further 5% over the next year, said the market analyst. This could potentially mean the market would be worth £284m by the end of 2009.

A new study has claimed that the environmental impact of the production, packaging and distri- bution of organic bread is far less than that of conventional bread, with organic bread emitting as much as a quarter less CO2 into the atmosphere.

Morrisons is using new bakery improvers in its in-store bread to meet the Food Standards Agency's 2012 salt targets ahead of schedule.

UK exports of cakes and sweet biscuits increased significantly in 2008, according to the latest report by the Food and Drink Federation (FDF), as the low value of the pound made UK products more competitive overseas. The data, supplied by Leatherhead Food International, showed exports of UK biscuits shot up 15.3% to £203.9m and cakes were also buoyant, up 12% to £156.5m.

== RGFC sees sales up ==

The Bakers' Benevolent Society (BBS) is holding a family open day, following the success of its 150th anniversary open day last year.

Pret A Manger and M&S' commitment to using sustainably caught tuna in sandwiches is likely to lead to supply problems, as fishermen struggle to meet the sudden switch in demand.

== Sigep challenge ==

Bakers' Fair 2009 will take place at Manchester's Armitage Centre on Sunday 4 October. Organised by British Baker, the show is free to attend and aims to provide inspiration and ideas for your business, as well as the chance to make important contacts.

Staff at Warburtons' Enfield Bakery are to benefit from a new learning centre called LOAF. The Learning Opens Avenues Forever centre is designed to encourage staff to take up further education courses online. It was officially opened by MP for Enfield North Joan Ryan, accompanied by executive director Brett Warburton.

The government's controversial idea to phase out 'best-before' dates to reduce food wastage could be scuppered by EU regulations, which specify that such labelling is mandatory.

== FoB revises code on bread weights ==

The popularity of cupcakes shows no sign of abating, with the category overtaking flapjacks to rival cookies in the total cake market following a 22% increase in value sales in the past 12 months.

A new qualification will allow 14- to 19-year-olds to study voca-tional courses in food and drink, including bakery, while still in school and college.

Irish bakery Brogans is set to break through the profit barrier for the first time in three years, following a deal to supply additional muffin lines to Tesco stores in the UK.

Schoolchildren up and down the country had the opportunity to become bakers for the day, as National Craft Bakers' Week took bakery into the classroom.

The inaugural National Craft Bakers' Week caught the country's imagination last week, with strong radio, TV and newspaper coverage and a surge in footfall at high street bakery shops.

Sir Terry Wogan was one of the most vocal supporters of the event on his morning radio show, helped by a daily delivery of fresh bread, savouries and cakes from craft baker Chris Freeman of Dunn's of Crouch End.

== Richemont places ==

The Village Bakery, based in Minera, near Wrexham, is to see nine of its lines stocked in 11 Tesco stores in North Wales, after clinching a deal with the supermarket.

The lines on offer include white and brown bread, barm cakes, fruit scones and tea cakes, and the firm has said it hopes to expand on the nine-strong range in the future.

Finsbury Foods’ subsidiary, Nicholas & Harris, has acquired the entire issued share capital of Goswell Enterprises for £2.2 million in cash.

Goswell supplies branded licensed speciality breads, such as Vogel and Cranks, to a number of major supermarkets, including Sainsbury’s and Waitrose. Sales for the year to October 2008 stood at £5.4m and pro forma EBIT for the comparable period was £0.4m.

Festival regulars Pieminister will once again be pitching their tent at this summer’s music festivals and is to launch three new pies in celebration of the season.

Costa Coffee is still seeing sales growth despite “harsh economic conditions”, announced parent company Whitbread yesterday.

La Boulangerie, the bread and patisserie speciality business division of wholesaler Brakes, won a number of awards at the British Frozen Food Federation awards held earlier this month.

New regulations mean that drivers of commercial bakery vehicles will need to be even more careful if they are to avoid roadside fines of up to £200.

UK exports of cakes and biscuits increased significantly in 2008, according to the latest report by the Food and Drink Federation (FDF).

The Bakers’ Benevolent Society (BBS) is holding a family open day, following the success of its 150th annniversary open day last year.

Frozen desserts have been experiencing a revival, according to the latest research unveiled by Mintel. Sales increased by 4% in 2008 and are set to increase by a further 5% over the next year, said the market analyst.

Starbucks is currently trialling its new Live Well range in selected UK stores. The range has been designed in response to customers’ specific requests for additional fresh food choices, said a spokesperson for the chain.

The Real Good Food Company announced improved sales for its bakery ingredients and bakery divisions in its preliminary results for the year ended 31 December 2008. However, increased costs have seen its profit take a hit.

British bakery companies are being urged to take advantage of grant funding made available to businesses planning to exhibit at international food and drink trade show Anuga.

Bakery equipment specialist Eurobake is holding a Refurbishment Roadshow at Greenhalgh’s Craft Bakery in Bolton on 11 June, 2009.

The Organic Trade Board (OTB) has made its first senior appointment as part of its plan to double the value of organic trade over the next five years.

There is a very frequent misconception of the true meaning of heroism, and one can only pity the misguided youth whose death is reported this week from Berlin and who took his own life as a consequence of desiring to star as the hero of a tragedy.

£4.31

"Most of the [barista] training in this country seems to start Before Christ - we always seem to jump into the sun-dried tomatoes of the subject and miss the journey. Learn to make three drinks and clean the machine. When you can do that, then you can learn how the bloody thing was picked and roasted and packaged and all the other bits of it"

Another delight on the web is the Erotic Cakes Baker - a US bakery specialising in risqué cakes. All of them - from breast cakes to more X-rated anatomical fare - are "hand-carved" and the bakery offers a bespoke service. "We will create any design you can imagine, from a couple making love on top of a cake to a female torso with edible panties and bra," it proudly states. See www.eroticbakeryusa.com

We've also spotted a trend emerging for sushi cupcakes. Call us traditionalists, but we prefer our cupcakes to be non-fishy.

Hot on the heels of Sir Ranulph Fiennes' epic conquering of Everest, at the age of 65, comes a far greater test of willpower and endurance - one man's effort to visit every Starbucks outlet in the world. We have The Telegraph to thank - and, revealingly, an almost identically worded version of the same article in The Times - for taking time off from witch-hunting MPs over dodgy expenses to copy and paste the following story from the newswires.

Sacher torte originated in Austria in 1832, and is a rich chocolate cake, flavoured with rum. We use it as our staple chocolate celebration cake.

British Baker is delighted to announce the launch of a cupcake cake-off competition in the run up to National Cupcake Week, which takes place from 14-19 September.

It's a sign of our environmentally conscious times that reducing food waste was one of the driving factors behind Honeytop Speciality Foods' decision to invest in technology for applying resealable closures to a line of own-label tortilla wraps.

For every yin, there is always a yang. While some firms suffer in the face of recession, pie producers can take heart that comfort foods are on the up, with Mintel even revising its market growth figures upwards.

Despite stemming from an Australian concept, BB's Coffee & Muffins appears British in every sense, and certainly caters for our love of tea and cake. But that's not all it offers. Producing freshly baked goods on a daily basis and the ability to understand its customers' needs are just some of the reasons it won The Customer Focus Award, sponsored by BakeMark UK, at last year's Baking Industry Awards.

Bakery is an industry full of challenges, but also of immense importance to customers, and everyone has an opinion and an emotional response to the category. I'm a customer, former manufacturer - I worked from 2004-2007 for RHM - and current retailer, a blend that I hope allows me a different perspective and a valuable opinion. I will let you judge that.

Consultants with specialist knowledge of the sector say that bakery businesses should no longer expect to see year-on-year reductions in insurance premiums, even where they take steps to reduce risks.

By bread with sprouts I don't mean the vegetable variety, but whole sprouted grains of wheat. Sprouted grain breads have become a permanent category in the American bakery sector and some strong brands have been built around the concept. The products have a particular appeal to health-conscious consumers and there are bakeries that specifically target this market, offering products solely produced from sprouted grain. Although not recommended for conventional bakery processes, they are increasingly being used to add functional and sensory benefits to mainstream products, particularly where health attributes are part of the product feature.

Allspice, also known as Jamaican Pepper, should not be confused with mixed spice. It is a pea-sized, dark brown berry, available whole or ground. As the name suggests, it has a flavour reminiscent of a mixture of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and ginger and, therefore, will go with similar dishes and baked goods.

FP: To speed up lunchtime sales we now have more multi-deck self service chill units in busy shops.

Many column inches have been given over lately (in between swine flu and MPs' expenses) to 'the demise of organics'. According to an oft-quoted TNS report, organics generally were down 1% despite spiralling inflation, while bread sales allegedly fell by 29%. Gloomy reading? As owner of a 100% organic bakery, I'd like to say: not a bit of it. Because it's just not something that we're seeing, from where we're sitting. (Not that you ever do much sitting, as such, in a bakery.)

== Artisan style ==

Lavazza Coffee has launched a capsule system called Lavazza Blue. Guaranteed by the company to deliver "the perfect Italian espresso every time with no compromise on flavour or body", Lavazza Blue claims to turn every user into a real "cappuccinatore".

The Lotus Original Caramelised Biscuit from Belgian firm Lotus Bakeries has been launched as a twin-pack.

Wiltshire-based Marshfield Bakery launched its new mini display box at the recent Caffè Culture show.

Organic bakery Honeyrose launched two new ranges at Caffè Culture last week - Honeyrose Kids and Honeyrose Minis. MD Lisa Rose said the bakery saw a gap in the market for the ranges. "It is the first organic cake range developed specifically for kids, that we are aware of in the market. We tried them on our kids and got a big thumbs-up."

The blurring between foodservice and traditional retail continues unabated. Forty-nine per cent of consumers who buy food- or drink-to-go now choose a convenience store, the latest IGD research reveals. Most of these purchases are chilled or ambient, rather than hot/warm, but it shows you how far the convenience industry has come in the last decade with range diversification and innovation.

Hollands Pies has launched its new cheese and onion pie recipe, using mature cheese from the award-winning Dew Lay Creamery in Garstang. The new recipe has been developed using Holland's 'Pie Panel' of amateur pie tasters. The manufacturer says the pie reflects consumers' growing desire for local provenance, with the new cheese being sourced from a creamery 30 miles from the pie factory.

BakeMark UK is soon to launch a new doughnut product for the foodservice and retail markets. Its Do'Dotz is a single doughnut made up of four connected bite-sized iced sections. They can be marketed as sharing products, and are available in a thaw-and-serve case of 48 doughnuts.

Oven manufacturer Thomas Chandley has introduced a more environmentally focused rack oven. The model has been enhanced to make it run more efficiently, saving energy usage.

Judging by the number of bakery suppliers working the room at the UK Coffee Leader Summit 2009 two weeks ago, you could easily imagine 2010's event being rebranded the UK Coffee & Bakery Bandwagon Jumpers' Summit. And why not? With the branded coffee sector set to grow by at least another 1,000 outlets before it gets anywhere near saturation, who can blame them?

I couldn't decide whether it's genius or a disaster..." was one onlooker's response after being introduced to the twin-cyclone effect of the Lewis brothers and their artisan bakery concept.

Rather than finding a happy half-way house between the demands of health campaigners and the needs of plant bakers, the Food Standards Agency's (FSA's) 2012 salt reduction targets were greeted with criticism from both sides when they were published last month.

In Edible Oils Market, Eccelso MD Gordon Kirkwood's monthly report, he noted the food industry was relatively recession-proof, even if margins were under some pressure. And a product mix between indulgence and value items was essential.

Almonds: From mid-May, the first of the official crop estimates start to generate and pricing will react accordingly. Demand appears to be stronger than ever, especially from the Far East and, despite the global economic downturn, will probably prevent any major further price decrease, despite bearish news on a big crop size.

Last week saw the Federation of Bakers' annual conference and, once again, it proved to be poignant and thought-provoking (see pg 8). John Cridland from the CBI set the scene with an open and honest report on the recession, predicting that recovery will not start until the spring of 2010, but will be sluggish, with economic growth expected to be at around 0.1% for next year. That said, the food industry is worth £74bn and employs around 400,000, making it the biggest manufacturing sector in the UK - a statistic we should all be proud of.

Portadown-based Howell House, the cakes and biscuits division of Northern Irish bakery Irwin's, has secured a £250,000 deal to export its Howell's Handmade Jammy Joeys cakes to 47 Asda stores in Scotland.

Continental bakery retail concept Belgique is planning a three-year period of growth, which will take it from eight to 25 outlets by 2012.

Predictions of continued rapid growth in the branded coffee shop sector (see pgs 18-19) is at odds with falling disposable income levels, which will cause the market's growth to stall, according to one analyst.

Products from newly launched brand Swiss Bakery could hit the shelves before the summer is out, following presentations and a successful stand at Caffè Culture, said marketing and sales director Gerry O'Reilly.

== Northern highlights ==

A panel discussion at the FoB conference, chaired by Julian Hunt of the Food and Drink Federation, touched on the issue of salt.

Dr Susan Jebb, head of human nutrition research at the Medical Research Council, looked at health and what is in store for the population.

Scott Clarke, Tesco category director of bakery, stressed the retailer's strategy to put the customer first, at the FoB conference. Coming from a background of bakery at RHM, he said his first five months at Tesco had "felt like a lifetime". He commented: "It is an industry full of changes and everyone has an emotional response."

At the Federation of Bakers conference last week, John Cridland, deputy director general of the CBI, told the 100 delegates: "We predict 0.1% growth for the British economy next year, not 1.25% like the government."

== Peter's new pasties ==

Employers have been invited to set the agenda for a new food and drink 'excellence' qualification.

Giles Foods plans to strengthen its position in the sweet bakery market by increasing space at its Warminster factory by a third.

London-based Grain D'Or has launched two coffee shop brands for pastries and muffins, which it hopes will cross over to supermarket shelves.

== Egg mark on-pack ==

The British Society of Baking's (BSB) conference will take place on Tuesday 16 June at the Ardencote Manor Hotel, Claverdon, Warwick.

McCambridge has sold off five bakeries in its 'niche' division to D&G Food Group - a company newly created by former Roberts Bakery chairman Graham March.

Family pie firm Chappell's Fine Foods has revealed ambitious expansion plans following its sale to food industry expert Ian Nicholls.

The publisher of British Baker, William Reed Business Media (WRBM), has acquired Decision News Media (DNM) - an internet publishing company dedicated to reporting breaking news for the global B2B industries.

National Craft Bakers' Week (NCBW) is almost upon us, so make sure you've got all your promotional materials at the ready and posters up in your shop windows to tempt the customers into your stores.

The volume of UK plant bread sold has increased for the first time in 35 years, announced Tesco, after TNS figures revealed marginal growth.

== Finsbury speculation ==

A new study has claimed that the environmental impact of the production, packaging and distribution of organic bread is far less than that of conventional bread, with organic bread emitting as much as a quarter less CO2 into the atmosphere.

Decision News Media (DNM), publisher of bakeryandsnacks.com and 16 other websites serving the international food, nutrition, pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries, has been acquired by British Baker's publisher William Reed Business Media (WRBM).

Zurich-based speciality bakery Aryzta has seen its Food Europe division shrink as growth falls by 1.4% in the nine months to 25 April 2009

Its Food North America and Food Developing Markets both experienced growth or 22.7% and 14.9% respectively, resulting in an overall growth of 5.7% for its food businesses.

Finsbury Foods’ shares have shot up by around 5% following a preliminary approach regarding a potential offer for the company. However, the company moved to dampen speculation that a bid would be successful.

Portadown-based Howell House, the cakes and biscuits division of Northern Irish bakery Irwin’s, has secured a £250,000 deal to export its Howell’s Handmade Jammy Joeys cakes to 47 Asda stores in Scotland.

Employers have been invited to set the agenda for a new food and drink ‘excellence’ qualification, aimed at raising the bar on productivity and efficiency in the workplace.