Briefs

n Three drug addicts were jailed this month after threatening a baker with a sawn-off shotgun and an axe. In April last year, the burglars forced baker Royston Owen - who was working at Mr Bunn the Baker in Long Stratton, Norfolk - to hand over £500 in cash. Owen was made to draw money out of his account from a cash machine and was hit on the side of the head with the gun.

n Two bakers have secured a scholarship at the Richemont School in Lucerne, Switzerland. Barry Egerton and Graham Banks of Waterfields bakery in Leigh, Lancashire, won a competition that was held by the Worshipful Company of Bakers. They were chosen out of 22 applicants and will take up their scholarship in November.

n Ingredients specialist Beacon Foods has recruited five food science graduates. One of the graduates includes Helen Curnock, who has joined the new product development team as a process technologist after graduating from Nottingham University with first class honours. Linda Lloyd, Beacon Food’s human resources director, said: "It’s a real feather in our cap to be able to employ these five graduates." (See recruitment, page 29)

n Abertillery Magistrates fined the owner of a Gwent bakery £10,000 for ’filthy’ conditions. Owner Michael Todhunter of Toddie’s Café and Bakery in Brynmawr, pleaded guilty to five offences under food hygiene regulations. The court heard that environmental health officers found the basement bakery area of the premises unfit for the operation of a food business and said that it had not been cleaned for a considerable amount time.