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Flaking out: is our taste in breakfast cereal changing?

Wed, 16 May 2012 16:02:46 GMT

UK sales of processed breakfast cereals are dwindling, with many British breakfasters ditching the sugary brands for healthier, more natural alternatives

This month's acquisition by a Chinese company of a majority stake in Weetabix, the UK's top-selling cereal (we eat around 336 each a year, apparently) shows there's still an appetite for processed grains for breakfast. But foreign markets unfamiliar with this relatively recent way of starting the day may now be the industry's biggest players' only hope for the future – after more than a century of growth, Britain's best-known cereals are flagging.

"I do think," says Nick Barnard of fast-growing natural foods company Rude Health, "in 20 years' time, we might look back at the past 100-odd years and say: 'We took good, natural, healthy, original grains, and turned them into sweet, scientific, industrial concoctions. Why?'"

According to the Grocer, UK sales of eight of the 10 most popular brands, including Corn Flakes, Crunchy Nut, Coco Pops, Cheerios and Special K, fell sharply in 2010-11. Rice Krispies, the worst performer, was down 12%; Weetabix bucked the trend, rising 4%, for reasons that may become clear later. People may be turning to cheaper own-brands, but processed cereals' share of the overall breakfast offer also slipped. And last month, UK market leader Kellogg's said global turnover had fallen 10% in the first quarter of 2012, partly because it "did not grow" its European cereal business.

Until now, breakfast cereals have been an undisputed triumph of modern capitalism: take a cheap agricultural commodity; process it to death; relentlessly market it as healthy (Britain's top 10 cereal brands benefited from £74m of advertising last year) and mark up the cost. Few people have fallen harder for this than the Brits, who, after the Irish, are – as campaigning Guardian writer Felicity Lawrence notes in her book Eat Your Heart Out – the world's greatest consumers of steamed, crushed, flaked, baked, puffed, extruded, shaped, salted, sugared and artificially flavoured breakfast cereal, downing 6.7kg each a year.

James Caleb Jackson started it. A follower of the Rev Sylvester Graham, who in 1830s America thought meat-eating a sin and wholemeal flour a blessing, Jackson in 1863 invented a baked, slow-cooked wheat cereal he called Granula. Seventh Day Adventists at Battle Creek in Michigan, notably the brothers Kellogg, ran with it, developing a process by which cooked wheat could be rolled then baked: wheatflakes, then Cornflakes, were born. Add Charles Post's Grape Nuts and Alexander Anderson's Quaker Puffed Rice, and by the early 1900s a whole booming new industry, complete with impressive – and fictitious – health claims and mammoth advertising budgets, had arrived. By 1903, Battle Creek boasted 100 cereal factories. Britain got Cornflakes in 1904.

There are several problems, though, with processing grains. It hikes the GI (glycemic index), meaning the food breaks down quickly during digestion, leaving you hungry sooner. It removes most of the nutritional benefits. And it leaves the end product tasting of nothing. Early on, cereal makers added sugar, in large quantities, to stop their products tasting, in Willam Kellogg's words, "like horse food". They still do: this year Which? found 12 of 14 breakfast cereals contained excessive sugar; Frosties topped the list at 37g per 100g. (Original Weetabix has only 4.4g/100g although its "Mini" variants can have up to 23g).

More recently, manufacturers countered the nutritional issue with the miracle of "fortification": Investigative food journalist Joanna Blythman refers to this as "bestowing the illusory gift of health" on a product, by adding synthetic vitamins and minerals so the manufacturer can claim it contains (as Coco Pops boasts) "thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin B6, folic acid, vitamin B12, iron and calcium", while neglecting to mention that it's also 35% sugar. "The vitamins are there," says Blythman, but they "serve as a smokescreen". Barnard is harsher: "Empty calories," he says. "Over-processed, shit ingredients; obscene amounts of sugar, salt, fat and colourings … snack foods posing as a meal." Lawrence points out that "you'd be as well off with a multivitamin pill and a glass of milk."

Might the tide be turning? Barnard detects a shift "against food that leaves you feeling hungry an hour after you've eaten it, certainly isn't cheap, and isn't even really convenient for a modern lifestyle". Sugar-free mueslis and granolas, such as those from Rude Health, Moma and Alara, are making a comeback. Sales of minimally processed porridge oats – including convenient, "one-pot" porridge – are booming: Quaker's Oat So Simple sales soared 21% last year; Moma has, in six years, grown from a stall at Waterloo East station to a £2m-a-year business. Tom Mercer, founder and CEO of the company, says that consumers want a healthy, filling breakfast, "but until recently the choice hasn't really been there."

With vast new markets to explore, Big Cereal isn't dead yet. But, as Lawrence says, here at least people "are beginning to rumble the fact that by and large, most processed breakfast cereals are not healthy at all … Shoppers are realising you can eat much better – and much more cheaply – with unprocessed grains."

Lancashire marches on East Anglia, armed with cheese

Mon, 14 May 2012 16:35:00 GMT

Corrie's Martin Platt leads a pongy invasion with a truck full of Smelly Apeth, How's Your Father and Mouth Almighty. Rebecca Smithers is clearing room in her fridge

As 'cheeky chappy' Martin Platt he was the father of the deeply
irritating David Platt and the hapless husband of the equally annoying
Gail.

But since leaving the cobbles of Coronation Street seven years ago,
actor Sean Wilson has swapped his nurse's uniform for a catering hat and overalls and turned his attention to a different art - that of artisan cheese making.

Food fanatic Wilson (who claims to have 300 cookbooks groaning on his
shelves at home) set up the Saddleworth Cheese Company in order to indulge his passion for locally-produced and sourced food and his products now do a brisk trade at delicatessens, farmers' markets and stalls in his native North-West.

But Wilson believes that Lancashire cheese has never been well-known
outside the immediate area and wants to bring its flavour to to a much wider food-loving audience across the UK. Next week he will be taking his goods down to Suffolk, as one of the exhibitors at the Flavours of Suffolk Festival being held at the historic Henham Park just outside the seaside town of Southwold.

His cheeses (now produced at a dairy under licence) have won many
prestigious foodie gongs including the World Cheese Award for the
blue-veined Smelly Ha'peth. Others have equally quirky and memorable Lancashire names: Muldoons Picnic (A Lancashire term
given to a room full of screaming kids: "What dya think this is,
Muldoons Picnic?!" ) which is a Lancashire Crumbly; How's yer Father,
(Lancashire Creamy) and Mouth Almighty (Lancashire Tasty). Betty Turpin would be drooling with delight over her famous Hot Pot.

Wilson and his colleague Rev will also be coming to Suffolk - and the
site which is the annual home to the Latitude music festival - to have
a good time. He explains:

Making cheese is fun and eating and enjoying cheese is fun. You don't have to be all high brow about it, and equally food festivals do not have to be all hoity-toity. We plan to have fun and get everyone sampling our cheeses. I will also be doing some cookery demonstrations.

Wilson's cheeses are now available in some supermarkets - Asda and, from July, Morrisons, and are already for sale in some parts of East
Anglia, including the famous foodie shop Bakers and Larners in Holt, north Norfolk.

He promises to give local cheese such as Suffolk Blue and Suffolk Gold a run for their money:

But it's not about competition. It's about savouring and enjoying the different
types of cheeses from different parts of the UK and appreciating the skills involved. We are very much looking forward to meeting the Suffolk cheese meisters and introducing them to the Lancashire cheese experience.

His cheeses, he adds, are suitable for vegetarians, using only
vegetarian rennets:

The aim is to stir with specially formulated cultures that connect to create a cheese that tastes like it used to taste. With traditional cutting we are preserving the all important body and character of the curd, which really does make all the difference.

The Flavours of Suffolk (and Lancashire) Festival takes place on the weekend of 26 and 27 May, the first event of its kind but set to become an annual occasion. Co-organiser Melissa Purnell says:

It's aimed just as much at families as at food connoisseurs so we've a space for kids to get involved in cooking – from decorating cupcakes to creating impressive dishes using simple techniques.

Crucially for buyers of mega-pongy cheese, there's also chilled storage for purchases with collection at the end of the day.

Banned junk food on sale in nine out of 10 academies, research finds

Mon, 14 May 2012 18:28:44 GMT

School Food Trust study contradicts Michael Gove's claim that academies would champion government's nutritional standards

Nine out of 10 academies are selling pupils junk food such as crisps, chocolate and cereal bars that are banned in maintained schools to protect children's health, research has revealed.

The findings from a study by the School Food Trust (SFT) contradict the education secretary Michael Gove's claim that the academies he champions are following the high nutritional standards introduced in 2008-09 after the chef Jamie Oliver exposed how unhealthy many school lunches were.

The research shows 89 out of 100 academies were selling at least one of the snack foods high in sugar, salt or fat that were outlawed by Labour to rid schools of products that were bad for children and damaging their concentration. Their sale in dining halls, tuckshops and vending machines is exposing children to temptations that will normalise consumption of sweet treats, campaigners warned.

The academies that sell the junk food are making between £3,000 and £15,000 a year from catering for their pupils having a sweet tooth, according to the SFT.

Of the 100 academies 31 were selling one type of banned fattening food, 33 were selling two and 15 were selling three. A total of 82 academies sold sweetened fruit juices, which often contain only a small amount of actual fruit juice and would therefore be banned in maintained schools; the national school food standards stipulate such products must contain at least 50% fruit juice before they can be offered.

Similarly, 54 sold cereal bars, which usually comprise 20%-40% sugar, 26 sold crisps and savoury snacks and 16 sold confectionery and chocolate. However, just six sold fizzy drinks such as Coca-Cola and Sprite and just two offered energy drinks such as Lucozade and Red Bull.

Dr Michael Nelson, the SFT's director of research and nutrition and a reader in public health nutrition at King's College London, said: "Although many academies have said that they are committed to the standards, in practice 89 out of the 100 in our survey chose not to follow them.

"It is particularly worrying that a third of the academies regard the standards as a burden or too restrictive, and that 10% say outright that they plan not to follow them. This is clearly not acting in the best interests of their pupils."

The last Labour government ordered the handful of academies it created to follow the tough standards brought in after Oliver's 2005 Channel 4 series Jamie's School Dinners. They also included a ban on selling the foods the survey has revealed are common in many academies.

But when the coalition took power in 2010 Gove said neither they nor free schools had to stick to the restrictions and that he trusted the schools to provide nutritious food.

Until now Gove had claimed there was no evidence that any academies were not following the standards. Gove wrote to Oliver last year saying he "would like to reassure" him that the government had "no reason to believe the academies will not provide healthy, balanced meals that meet the current nutritional standards". He went on: "As part of the broader freedoms available to academies I trust the professionals to act in the best interests of their pupils."

Last month he told MPs on the education select committee he doubted there was any proof of noncompliance with the standards by academies, which Oliver has warned risks creating a two-tier system where some pupils receive healthy food and others do not.

"All the evidence seems to me to point in the other direction: that schools that have academy freedoms have improved the quality of food they offered children", Gove added.

But the revelation of such widespread noncompliance by academies has led to fresh calls for Gove to withdraw their exemption and ensure the standards apply in all schools.

Professor Terence Stephenson, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said: "Mr Gove said he didn't know of any evidence suggesting that schools were rowing back on the nutritional standards and exposing children to an unhealthier diet. Now that he has it, let's hope he acts on it and tells headteachers their academies shouldn't be profiting from feeding their children unhealthy food.

"It's also proof that without tight legislation in place to protect children they end up being encouraged to make the wrong choices. We should be grateful the School Food Trust has established this now, before we end up falling down a slippery slope back towards the dreaded Turkey Twizzler that Jamie Oliver campaigned to banish," he added.

"If we don't act now, there will be thousands of children across the country eating unhealthy food at school, nutritional standards will plummet and we'll be fuelling what is already an obesity crisis amongst our young," he warned.

There are now 1,807 academies in England – 1,300 secondaries, 476 primaries and 31 special schools – which between them teach about 1.5million of the total 7.2million pupils.

The findings have prompted Oliver to write to every MP urging them to back an early day motion by the Conservative backbencher Zac Goldsmith urging the standards to be made universal.

"Academies selling junk food should be named and shamed for profiteering at the expense of pupils' health. In refusing to make academies follow the same rules as other schools Mr Gove is putting ideology above children's wellbeing," said Charlie Powell, director of the Children's Food Campaign.

"All the evidence – as well as common sense – says that legally binding nutrition standards for school food are good for children's physical and mental development. Ignoring this is shameful, and not befitting behaviour for an education secretary," Powell added.

Lynda Mitchell, national chair of the Local Authority Caterers Association (LACA), said that while many academies do apply the standards, "a significant number" of others do not. "LACA has evidence itself from around the country that many heads are allowing the return of banned food and drink items back into schools and now there is additional proof that our fears were justified.

"There is considerable financial temptation for academy heads to allow a slide backwards to the old ways, but there is a real danger that this erosion of standards could undermine the progress being made to ensure healthy eating in schools."

Steve Iredale, president of the National Association of Head Teachers, said he feared the commitment to ensure pupils eat healthily had been "marginalised" in academies that do not apply the standards.

Non-compliant academies were using the freedom Gove gave them "in the wrong way" and should take a long, hard look at their policies, he added.

The standards should apply in all schools and make life simpler for them, said Iredale, who urged Gove to examine very carefully the case for them being universal. "If you present children with a healthy or unhealthy option, quite a lot of them will go for the unhealthy option. When children have a more balanced diet, they are more ready to learn", he said.

Alasdair Smith, the national secretary of the Anti Academies Alliance, said: "It comes as no surprise that some academies are seeking to profit by selling junk food to their children. For a long time we were sold the myth that academies were philanthropic or charitable organisations. But behind the mask of charitable status lie businesses intent on maximising profit margins."

The Department for Education declined to comment directly on the SFT's findings. "We trust teachers – the professionals on the frontline – to do what is best for their pupils. Many academies go over and above the minimum requirements and are offering their pupils high quality, nutritional food," a spokeswoman said."The School Food Trust's own research on all secondary school food shows that even with food standards in place, many maintained schools – far from being paragons of nutrition – are not meeting all the standards and are still offering cakes, biscuits, confectionery and noncompliant drinks to their pupils. Clearly there is room for improvement in all schools – maintained schools as well as academies," she added.

Street food: a bit of a performance

Wed, 16 May 2012 08:50:00 GMT

Successful street traders have always understood that a little theatre brings in the punters, and the new generation is no exception

On my first day selling fruit and veg down the market, the boss entrusted me with my own costermonger's cry – "new potaters, easy scrapers, all the way from En-ger-land." I was studying drama for A-level (and, to be honest, had rather wowed in the school's production of The Italian Straw Hat) and was happy to try channelling a time when food on the street was all "cried" or "hawked". Yes, a bit too Dick Van Dyke, but I put a smile on people's faces. And I sold. People love food with a bit of theatre.

Which is where street food always scores. It's all about the show – whether it's a woman tending a well-fed wok over the gas, or a man extruding thin fingers of churro dough into a deep-fat fryer. People like to watch the crepe makers working their scrapers (to smooth the batter across the griddle) and their spatulas (to scrape the burnt batter off the griddle and throw it into the bin). They love to see all that drama that normally gets hidden away behind the restaurant kitchen door.

But the new generation of traders is raising street food drama to new heights – with costumes and scripts. Three old school friends founded What The Dickens to revive iconic British fare – dressed in cravats and cuff links, and riding round on a Victorian tricycle. "We're not trying to do anything theatrical" says Dominic Rose. "We just do what we do. We're three well-dressed gents larking about. And that just happens to include an element of performance."

Some days Adam and Michael will serenade the crowd on ukeleles while Dominic serves up home-smoked bacon and devilled kidneys. Other days, the friends will just banter – "and we'll try and flog people a bit of kedgeree off the back of it" says Dominic. "But we always wear ties. That's quite important. And Michael wears his brown bowler – the less formal version of the black bowler. He couldn't get away with black – this isn't the bank."

Robin Dunlop started off in a kilt, serving the family's seafood to tourists at the Edinburgh Festival from a window basket that he had slung round his neck. But his look is now 1920s strongman – and he's one of the Mussel Men. Every hour, on the hour, he and his cousin challenge the crowd to freestyle shows of strength. Whether it's press-ups, picking up a whisky barrel or a bit of an arm wrestling, "It's just a chance for everyone to win some seafood."

The Mussel Men want to bring their moules – traditionally a restaurant food – to a wider audience. "And the world is full of people who love oysters but don't even know it" says Robin. "All this stuff about 'snot in a shell'? Just give them a try. We converted one guy who had a phobia – his dad was a fisherman and used to chase him round the house with oysters. When we opened one he was shaking. It took eight attempts but we cured him. We shared the love. That's the spirit of our business."

With What The Dickens and The Mussel Men there is the slight issue of trying to monetise something that's just bloody good fun. They are both edging away from the food truck model (although none of What The Dickens can actually drive) because they want to be thoroughly approachable. "People buy into people" says Robin. "When you are doing something different and adding your own element, people are more willing to support you. I really believe that. I hope so. We'll just have to see."

What The Dickens' devilled kidneys recipe

4 lamb's kidneys
Small glass of sherry
1 tbsp white wine or cider vinegar
1 tsp redcurrant jelly
1 good tbsp English mustard
1 tsp cayenne pepper
Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp cream
1 tbsp chopped parsley

First you need to cut the kidneys in quarters and remove and discard the tough white cores. Now briskly fry the kidney pieces in some hot oil for only one or two minutes. Kidneys will go tough if overcooked. Once the kidneys are browned, add the sherry and vinegar and bring up to simmer a little before adding the redcurrant jelly and stirring to dissolve.

Now add the mustard and cayenne pepper and follow them with a few decent shakes from the Worcestershire sauce bottle. Add a little salt and pepper, stir until you have a smooth sauce then stir in the cream.

Serve on toast with a sprinkling of chopped parsley. This ought to do two people as a light supper or a few more as a snack or breakfast side.

For the love of sausages

Mon, 14 May 2012 09:30:00 GMT

All over the world the sausage is the embodiment of comfort food. What's your favourite?

• Quiz: test your sausage knowledge
• In pictures: 10 interesting sausages

While I've been writing this guide I've found that sausages hold a special place in people's affections. With little prompting, friends, acquaintances and strangers would invariably smile and tell me about their favourite type or a fond memory. For everyone loves sausages; even the most sophisticated gourmet finds them nigh irresistible. That's probably down to the fact that they evoke just the right sort of childhood memories: of barbecues on the beach or camp fires in the forest, a football match or cosy Sunday breakfast.

They also reveal strong feelings of national pride. British people adore their bready bangers. Germans, on the other hand, are proud of their high meat content and their sausage laws dating back hundreds of years. I recently met an Italian blacksmith living in France who carries an electric meat slicer in the boot of his car because, coming from Bologna, he is convinced that no Frenchman will be capable of slicing his salame as paper-thin as it should be. But when you look closer at the sausages of any country you realise that you can't really make hard and fast rules: everywhere has too many exceptions.

The more I delved into this world of sausages, the more delightful examples I discovered. As well as beautiful ruby red salami and nut-brown kielbasa, there are comically shaped, bulbous creations stuffed into stomachs, there are long dried sticks, gleaming coils, tiny round balls, and more. Making use of local ingredients or sometimes a seasonal glut (I love the creativity that seasonal gluts produce) generates startling sausages made green with spinach, black pudding pungent with sweet potato leaves, or cuttlefish sausages teamed with fermented rice.

We scoured the world to find examples of these brilliant varieties but occasionally we had to admit defeat. The flour-filled lamb's lung made by the Uyghurs, the strawberry-flavoured chorizo from Mexico and the fish sausages from Finland all eluded us. I'd love to find them one day.

But above all, hot sausages are the best possible comfort food, especially during a cold wet spring. Served up with some spectacularly good mashed potato or tangy sauerkraut, or even just in a roll with ketchup, they induce what is known as "hygge". It's a Danish word, meaning a warm, cozy feeling of well-being. Soul food. But I think it could just as well be translated as "sausage".

For me, of course I love my native sausages: beef, venison, and haggis, so long as they are made with natural casings. But the more I researched, the more I realised why I liked particular types better than others - the way they are made greatly affects the underlying flavour. With so much variety I now find it far more difficult to be tied down to favourites; it depends on my mood, the weather, what I'm doing and so on. I'm still collecting sausage stories so tell us yours: what you like best, and why. And I keep smiling at the thought of them.

BBC receives hundreds of complaints over TV chefs cooking foie gras

Wed, 16 May 2012 13:29:51 GMT

Foie gras, made by force-feeding geese, is banned from production in the UK, though it is still a legal ingredient

Hundreds of complaints have been made to the BBC after two chefs competing on its Great British Menu programme were shown preparing dishes including foie gras.

Johnnie Mountain made foie gras ice cream while Aiden Byrne served black cherry and foie gras terrine in an episode screened last week.

Production of foie gras – made by force-feeding ducks or geese until their livers are enlarged – is prohibited in the UK, although it is still a legal ingredient.

The BBC said it had received 418 complaints following the programme, which was watched by 2.1 million viewers.

Two animal rights groups have been campaigning to persuade the broadcaster to stop promoting recipes using foie gras either on its programmes or on its recipe websites.

In a letter to the BBC director general, Mark Thompson, Yvonne Taylor, senior programme manager for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) said: "Foie gras is uniquely cruel in that it is one of the few 'foods' that is produced by intentionally inflicting illness on animals.

"The scientific consensus against foie gras is so strong that its production is banned in more than a dozen countries, including the UK. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts, the Brit awards, Wimbledon, Lord's cricket ground and the Royal Shakespeare Company have all pledged not to serve or sell foie gras, and Prince Charles refuses to allow it on royal menus.

"Almost every major shop in the UK, including Selfridges and Harvey Nichols, has dropped foie gras because its production is so cruel. As condemnation of this vile industry continues to grow, we hope you'll agree that this 'torture in a tin' is worthy of neither promotion nor praise on the BBC."

Viva, which promotes vegetarian and vegan lifestyles, has written an email for supporters to send to the BBC. Part of it says: "Foie gras is not produced in Britain, as the government has made it clear that its production would contravene existing animal welfare regulations, but sadly it is still perfectly legal to import it.

"It is my understanding that foie gras is not served to staff at the BBC, which is commendable. However, allowing it to be cooked and served on TV helps publicise it and the abject cruelty behind its production. I also find it highly offensive that part of my licence fee indirectly goes towards doing so. Why can't chefs be told not to cook with it?"

The BBC said in a statement: "There is currently no ban on the use of foie gras in the UK, and while we appreciate it is a controversial matter, many people do enjoy it. As long as foie gras remains legal and freely available there is the possibility that it could be used as an ingredient in cookery programmes, just as it remains on restaurant menus around the world. If it were to be banned we would of course no longer allow it to be used."

Some academies ignoring healthy food guidelines, report says

Mon, 14 May 2012 18:35:36 GMT

A new report reveals that many academies are selling unhealthy food and drinks that are banned in other schools. Now doctors and campaigners are calling on the government to intervene

When Michael Gove wrote to Jamie Oliver last August in response to the chef's concerns about the coalition's school food policies, he could not have been more soothing. He noted – but discounted – Oliver's fear about academies not having to follow the nutritional standards that have applied in maintained schools since 2008-09. "I would like to reassure you that we have no reason to believe that academies will not provide healthy, balanced meals that meet the current nutritional standards. As part of the broader freedoms available to academies, I trust the professionals to act in the best interests of their pupils," the education secretary said. So he was clear – there was no problem.

Nine months later, though, Gove's reassurance has been contradicted by the first hard evidence about whether the growing number of academies are applying the school food rules that Labour introduced after the row over Oliver's 2005 TV series "Jamie's School Dinners", which exposed the poor quality of school food experienced by many pupils. They obliged maintained schools to offer only healthy, nutritious fare and banned snacks such as sweets, crisps and fizzy drinks from school tuckshops and vending machines.

New research by the School Food Trust (SFT) among 100 academies shows that while many of them follow the guidelines, many do not. They do not have to – Gove exempted academies from Labour's insistence that all schools apply them – but the secretary of state has insisted until now that they all were doing so anyway. Despite having the freedom not to comply, almost none was using it, he suggested.

As recently as 24 April Gove, in evidence to the Education Select Committee at Westminster, pooh-poohed the idea that any academies might not be implementing a policy that has wide support, been proven to boost learning and helps to improve pupils' health. "It has been claimed, but I have not seen, and I would be interested in, any evidence that any academy has introduced, as a result of those freedoms, lower-quality food. All the evidence seems to me to point in the other direction: that schools that have academy freedoms have improved the quality of food they offer children. There are bound to be cases that people have heard about where they fear that might not be the case, but I have not seen any cross my desk," he told the MPs.

When Labour MP Alex Cunningham told Gove that "some of our children … are being let down", by being at academies that do not apply the standards, Gove replied: "You assert that they are being let down; I fear that they may be. But I do not have any evidence that they have been. I am not denying that it is a possibility, but ... until I know, I cannot see."

Happily for evidence-hungry Gove, evidence now exists. Unfortunately it bears out the concerns of Oliver, doctors, teachers' leaders, school caterers and children's health campaigners that some academies are exploiting the freedom Gove gave them and not doing their best by their pupils' health by ensuring that their school serves only healthy fare.

"The evidence shows that academies are, on average, doing less well in providing healthy food than other secondary schools in which standards are compulsory", says Dr Michael Nelson, the School Food Trust's director of research and nutrition. He is the expert who supervised the survey and also a reader in public health nutrition at King's College London.

Out of 99 academies that told researchers what foods they served or sold, 89 were selling at least one type of unhealthy food that is banned in maintained schools. Confectionery and chocolate were being sold in 16, crisps and savoury snacks in 26, and cereal bars – which contain 20%-40% sugar – in 54. In addition, 82 sold fruit juice drinks and squash, including drinks such as Robinson's Fruit Shoot, Drench and Capri-Sun. "They have as little as 7% or 10% of fruit juice in them, whereas the school food standards say that such drinks sold in maintained schools have to be at least 50% fruit juice", says Nelson.

More reassuringly, though, just six sold fizzy drinks such as Coke and Sprite and only two let pupils buy energy drinks such as Lucozade and Red Bull, despite their popularity.

Academies' attitudes to the standards proved revealing. Ten per cent said they were either unwilling or unable to follow them, or certainly not across the entire school day. One in three either said that the standards were too restrictive or needed to contain an element of flexibility. A third also saw the regulations as "a burden" while, worryingly, 18 agreed that school catering is "mainly a commercial service to provide food and drink at school".

Those concerned at Gove's failure to maintain Labour's consistent policy are worried. "For the first time, we have solid evidence from the academies themselves that nutritional standards are in real danger," says Jamie Oliver.

"These standards are there for a reason – to help prevent England from sliding further behind when it comes to essential action to fight child obesity and diet-related disease. Mr Gove is putting our children's future health at risk."

Alasdair Smith, national secretary of the Anti-Academy Alliance (AAA), sees the findings as proof that many academies are putting profit before pupils' health. "This report illustrates an unintended consequence of deregulating and privatising our schools. The secretary of state boasts that academies are about giving freedom and autonomy to schools. It is hard to imagine any parents supporting the 'freedom' to feed their child junk food."

Professor Terence Stephenson, who as president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health is the voice of the UK's children's doctors, says he is "concerned that academy schools are allowed to ignore nutrition-based government standards. Mr Gove said he didn't know of any evidence suggesting that schools were rowing back on the nutritional standards. Now that he has it, let's hope he acts on it and tells headteachers their academies shouldn't be profiting from feeding their children unhealthy food."

Like Oliver and the SFT, he wants Gove to force academies to apply the standards. "If we don't act now, there will be thousands of children across the country eating unhealthy food at school, nutritional standards will plummet and we'll be fuelling what is already an obesity crisis amongst our young," he warns.

Why are some academies ignoring the standards? They cite money, pressure from pupils, parents or staff and a belief that the service would be "better" for not following the maintained schools model. The SFT found that about half the academies thought their catering services would break even, but about 25% expected a loss. Tellingly, 22 of the 76 converter academies they studied and three of the 24 sponsor-led ones – 25 schools in all – thought they would make a profit or surplus. Of these, 75% of the converters but only one of the three sponsor-led academies said the surplus would be reinvested in their catering service.

Gove also insists that some academies serve such good food that they exceed the standards. "Any good teacher or indeed parent would tell you that a child who is badly fed cannot concentrate and cannot learn", says Dr Dan Moynihan, chief executive of the Harris Federation, which runs 13 academies. Those 13 "not only comply with the minimum standards, but also subsidise meals so that they go beyond this".

Similarly, the 11 academies in London, Birmingham and Portsmouth run by ARK Schools generally follow the guidelines. "That's our intention, though the odd flapjack has crept in and the odd packet of crisps has been found by our auditors," says spokeswoman Lesley Smith. "I'm slightly at a loss to know why you wouldn't use these guidelines, because if you want children to do well in school, you want to ensure they are properly nourished."

E-ACT, however, could not confirm if its 19 academies apply the standards because its headteachers have discretion on that.

Sausages of the world - in pictures

Mon, 14 May 2012 09:30:00 GMT

Sausages come in all manner of shapes and sizes, but are united by the unbridled enthusiasm people all over the world have for them

Rise of the single dish restaurant

Tue, 15 May 2012 09:10:00 GMT

From mango monomania to the meatball menu, restaurants offering Hobson's choice are appearing everywhere

It's often said that less is more, and the restaurant industry has taken this literally with a flurry of single and dual dish restaurants opening lately. Like the trend for shorter wine lists, menus are becoming pared down with just a handful of options. But are simple menus here to stay? Or are these restaurants just one, or two, hit wonders?

Dual dish restaurants are having a bit of a moment right now. The folk behind Goodman opened Burger & Lobster in December last year to rapturous reviews from London's bloggers. The restaurant keeps it simple with just three options - a burger served bloody, a whole lobster and a lobster roll.

Former Ledbury chef James Knappett will launch Bubbledogs, an unorthodox marriage of hotdogs and champagne, in July. The menu is slightly longer, with 10 dishes on it, but still restrained by most standards. Head west to Bristol and you'll find a more traditional combination of craft beer and pizza at Beerd, where the beer list is considerably longer than the pizza menu. And back in London, Mark Hix is soon to open The Tramshed, a Shoreditch hangout with a no-fuss menu of chicken and steak.

Some restaurants go one step further and specialise in a single dish or ingredient. There Soho's aptly named Madd, which serves only mango based dishes, and the slightly less eccentric Meatballs in Clerkenwell, which sells, yes, you've guessed it, meatballs. Leeds has Primo's Gourmet Hotdogs, which dishes up nine variations on the sausage theme. Taking it to the extreme is Le Relais de Venise in Manchester or London, which has a grand total of one dish on the menu. Well I suppose you can't go wrong with steak and chips.

The trend for single dish joints originated in New York (don't they all?). From macaroni cheese to fries to rice pudding, if you can think of a comfort food, there's a New York restaurant for it. And if the queues are anything to go by, niche restaurants are doing very well on these shores too.

Putting all your eggs in one basket isn't without its pitfalls though. As Jay Rayner pointed out in his review of risotto bar Ooze, if you do only one thing you need to do it well. With a lone dish on the menu there's no hiding if it's not up to scratch. If you're not a jack of all trades then you need to be master of one.

Assuming a restaurant does excel at the dishes it sells, a simple menu should make life easy for the diner. Research by Columbia & Stanford universities suggests giving a consumer too many options means they fail to make a decision at all. Simple menus with few choices make dining straightforward. That's as long as you can decide which of the many niche restaurants to go to in the first place.

Simpler menus bring benefits for the restaurants too, with potential for less waste. This is something Gordon Ramsay was always banging on about in Kitchen Nightmares. It can only be a good thing for both the environment. And of course the restaurateur's pocket.

I can't help thinking that churning out the same old dishes must get boring for the chefs though. And these no-fuss menus bore me too. I like to turn up at a restaurant and choose what to eat as the mood takes me. In fact, I love specials, even though I know half the time it's just the chef using up leftovers. There won't be too many surprises if I have dinner at Meatballs. And what happens if I fancy a hotdog but my friend wants a burger?

Ultimately the buzz around niche restaurants tells us that plenty of people love these one trick ponies. But once the dust settles, will we still be standing in line for a lobster roll?

What do you think? Are specialised restaurants just a gimmick? Or does a narrow focus mean a better executed dish? Do you prefer a stripped down menu, or is more more?

'Fat tax' on unhealthy food must raise prices by 20% to have effect, says study

Tue, 15 May 2012 23:03:00 GMT

Researchers say levy on junk food should be accompanied by subsidies for fruit and vegetables

"Fat taxes" would have to increase the price of unhealthy food and drinks by as much as 20% in order to cut consumption by enough to reduce obesity and other diet-related diseases, experts have said. Such levies should be accompanied by subsidies on healthy foods such as fruit and vegetables to help encourage a significant shift in dietary habits, according to research published in the British Medical Journal.

Academics led by Dr Oliver Mytton and Dr Mike Rayner of the Department of Public Health at Oxford University examined the evidence from around the world for what they call health-related food taxes. Denmark has brought in a "fat tax", Hungary a "junk food tax" and France a tax on all sweetened drinks. Peru intends to add levies to junk food and Ireland may also introduce such taxes. David Cameron last October said the UK should considering following suit.

While it is unclear how such taxes could be brought in and enforced, they could help ensure that poor diet plays less of a role in future in a range of illnesses such as heart disease, type two diabetes and tooth decay, as well as obesity.

Although the less well-off are affected more by health-related food taxes, they may also ultimately benefit because "progressive health gains are expected because poor people consume less healthy food and have a higher incidence of most diet-related diseases, notably cardiovascular disease", the authors say.

Evidence suggests that bigger health gains result from increasing the price of a broad range of foods rather than a narrow one, and sugary drinks offer the best proof that such a move can be effective. Research in America found that a 35% tax on drinks sweetened with sugar sold in a canteen, which added about 28p to the price, led to a 26% drop in sales. Studies have estimated that a 20% levy on such drinks in the US would cut obesity by 3.5% and that adding 17.5% to the cost of unhealthy food products in the UK could lead to 2,700 fewer deaths from heart disease.

But the food industry attacked the research. "When the whole of the food industry is focused on continuing to give hard-pressed families great tasting food at an affordable price, discussion of adding 20% to food prices seems fanciful if not irresponsible," said Terry Jones, director of communications for the Food and Drink Federation, which represents food producers and retailers. Firms were working with the Department of Health through its Public Health Responsibility Deal "to make meaningful improvements in public health through pledges in areas such as salt and calorie reduction, and our commitment to improving the health of our employees", he added.

Anne Milton, the public health minister, said the Department of Health was keeping an eye on all the evidence emerging internationally about such taxes. She defended the policy of relying on voluntary deals with food firms, which critics have criticised as an inadequate substitute for regulation of the food industry. "We are working with food companies through the Responsibility Deal to reduce calories and ensure healthier options are available. We believe that collective voluntary action can deliver real progress quickly," Milton added.

Baked sole with asparagus recipe | Angela Hartnett

Wed, 16 May 2012 11:23:52 GMT

A simple way to serve this versatile, delicately flavoured fish, with fresh spring vegetables

I love the delicate taste and fine texture of dover and lemon sole – wonderfully versatile fish that can be cooked in many ways including goujons, classic sole meuniere and, as here, baked.

Serves four

30ml olive oil
100ml water
8 large or 16 small sole fillets
200g breadcrumbs
50g parmesan, grated
50g gruyère, grated
16 asparagus spears

Spread a teaspoon of oil across an oven tray with a splash of water. Season and roll the sole fillets, place them on the tray and cook in a preheated oven at 180C / gas 4 for 7 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine the breadcrumbs and cheese and snap the woody ends from the asparagus.

Pour 25ml of oil into a lidded pan large enough to hold the spears and put on a medium heat.

Add the asparagus and the water, replace the lid and cook for 3-5 minutes.

Remove the fillets from the oven and check they are cooked through by piercing with a skewer or sharp knife.

Sprinkle the top of each rolled fillet with the breadcrumb mixture and put them under a medium grill.

When the sole is light golden brown, remove and place on a plate on top of the asparagus, with the cooking juices.

Serve with lemon juice drizzled over the top and a wedge on the side.

• Angela Hartnett is chef patron at Murano restaurant and consults at the Whitechapel Gallery and Dining Room, London. Twitter.com/angelahartnett

Test your sausage knowledge - quiz

Tue, 15 May 2012 08:30:00 GMT

From the familiar and comforting to the strange and exciting, there's a whole world of sausages and sausage-lore out there

Ten of the best tea towels - in pictures

Wed, 16 May 2012 10:48:00 GMT

From smiling sausages to historic prints, we've scoured the UK's best online boutiques to find 10 tea towels that will make washing up less of a chore

How to cook perfect chocolate macarons

Wed, 16 May 2012 23:10:00 GMT

Of all the food crazes of recent years, are macarons worth the hype?

I must admit that, when my editor suggested macaroons for this column, I hoped she was talking about the sweet, coconutty kind found in every high-street bakers or, at a pinch, the crisp almond biscuits of the same name from Lorraine. Basically, anything but the impossibly pretty sort found posing in every Parisian patisserie window.

While I fondly believe my Victoria sponge would have a fair chance at an averagely competitive village fete, macarons (they deserve the dignity of a fancy French name, let's face it) strike fear into my heart. They demand patience and precision – both skills that come about as naturally to me as unicycling. They're just so ... stylish. And sadly, that's not the first word most of my friends would use to describe me.

On that basis alone, I'd like to be against macarons in the same way I'm firmly contra-cupcake – but I just can't be, because unlike said sugar-stuffed monstrosity, they're more than just a pretty face. The crisp, rainbow-bright shell that cracks at the faintest dental pressure, that soft, delicately chewy, nutty interior, to say nothing of the silky smooth ganache which sandwiches the two halves together: quite simply, they're sublime, one of the finest examples of the French patissier's art.

Until last week I was, like most Parisians, of the opinion that, like the croissant, they're best left to the experts. After all, why sweat over a hot stove in a frumpy apron when the likes of Ladurée and Pierre Hermé make better macarons than I could ever hope to for just £1.85 a pop – ah. That's why. Also, of course, a challenge is fun.

I've chosen to make chocolate macarons, on the basis that this is one of the few flavours which allows a like-for-like comparison of recipes from some of the masters of the art, but once you've nailed the basic technique, macarons are one of those things that reward a little bit of creative cookery. And you will master it, I promise. All right, so, as experienced macaron makers will no doubt observe, my piping could use a little work – but trust me, practice makes even more perfect. And I intend to do a lot of practising.

Method

Oddly, given the precision necessary in patisserie (every ingredient, including liquids, must be weighed precisely) there are two quite distinct ways of making a macaron. OK, both are based on meringues, but still, c'est bizarre, non?

The first, using a French meringue, involves beating egg white and caster sugar together until stiff then folding in the dry ingredients (ground almonds, icing sugar and, in the case of chocolate macarons, generally cocoa powder), and is favoured by the famous Ladurée chain, and Claire Clark, one of the world's finest pastry chefs. Mavericks of the macaron Pierre Hermé ("the Picasso of pastry", according to French Vogue) and Sydney's Adriano Zumbo come down on the side of the Italian meringue, which means adding the sugar to the egg white in hot syrup form – as the whites are being whisked.

Australian food writer Duncan Markham, who has written an excellent, and extremely comprehensive guide to the macaron on his blog, Syrup and Tang describes the French meringue as the simpler method, but "fraught with disappointment", and indeed, trialling Claire's recipe against Zumbo and Hermé's versions, I'm inclined to agree. Although the results are lighter, and less intensely sweet, they also look less impressive.

I'm torn: juggling hot syrup (which must be added to the whisking whites at exactly 118C) and the stress of cleaning the solidified residue from my beloved KitchenAid mixer is pointing me in the direction of Claire's recipe, but the results seemed to speak for themselves. And then, thank goodness, I had an epiphany. Perhaps it was the extra practice (hitherto, piping hasn't been my strong point), but David Lebovitz's recipe came out near perfect. Undeniably recognisable as a macaron, and proving, to my relief, that it is indeed possible to make a good one without hot syrup. Throw the superior lightness of texture into the ring, and there's no contest: French meringue it is. Leave the sugar burns to those getting paid for them.

Do you need stabilisers?

As with any piece of kitchen magic, the whisking of egg whites is surrounded by much mystique, and many macaron recipes involve some trick in order to ensure the whites remain stable and billow obligingly into a pleasing meringue when requested. Claire Clark uses a pinch of cream of tartar in her recipe in Indulge, Zumbo adds 2g of powdered egg white to strengthen the foam, and Hermé ages his egg whites for a week before use. He calls the results "liquified egg whites", explaining in his glorious book Macarons, "during that time, the egg whites lose their elasticity, the albumen breaks down and they will be much easier to whisk to soft peaks without the risk of turning 'grainy'". I give it a go, but given I'm not lucky enough to have access to hyper-fresh eggs, it doesn't seem to make much difference to my inexperienced eye.

In any case, because there's a limit to how much custard one woman should eat, I'm using the dinky little cartons of egg white available at most supermarkets – they make measuring it out exactly much easier too. Because looks are so very important to the macaron I do think it's wise to get the most from your egg white, so some sort of stabiliser seems in order – but why faff around with cream of tartar or powdered egg white when a pinch of salt will actually enhance the flavour of the finished dish?

Tips, tricks and temperature

Hermé has me making a macaron template, consisting of 3.5cm circles spaced 2cm apart on a sheet of baking parchment, to pipe on to, which proves incredibly helpful for the novice, and can be reused again and again. Dropping the tray a couple of times from a slight height will help to flatten the mixture.

Zumbo bakes his macarons at 135C, as opposed to everyone else's 180C – even after the 16 minutes specified, they're still sticky. 180C seems popular for a reason: any higher and the tops begin to crack, but you do need to dry the mixture out.

Give it a rest

Clark, Hermé and Zumbo all tell you to leave the piped macarons to rest for about half an hour before baking, the last explaining in his book Zumbo that the skin which will form "is important as it lifts while the macaroon cooks, creating a 'foot' at the base". The foot, a term which always reminds me of molluscs, is the frill at the bottom of each shell. Cracking, while frowned upon on the top, is positively encouraged at the base of a macaron. David Lebovitz questions the need for this, and initially I'm with him: his macarons have better feet than the many of the ones which have rested, but to test the theory, I make two batches of the same batter, and rest one while the other bakes. The difference is clear: relaxation seems to have flattened the tops, creating a more even foot around the circumference. It may not be absolutely necessary, but it certainly helps.

Ingredients

Clark, Zumbo and Lebovitz add chocolate to the shells by sifting cocoa powder along with the ground almonds and icing sugar, while Hermé uses melted chocolate. This makes the flavour too intense for my taste – the biscuit itself should be sugary and light, to contrast with the rich, chocolatey bitterness of the ganache filling.

Granulated sugar, as chosen by Lebovitz and Edd Kimber adds more crunch to the macaron shells, but as I'm struggling to achieve a smooth texture as it is, I'm going to stick with the more usual caster. On that note, David helpfully suggests whizzing ground almonds in a food processor or spice grinder before use, to break them down a bit more, which is a good tip (although however many times I sieve them, some pesky bits still get through. Maybe I need to invest in a finer sieve).

Ganache

Chocolate macarons demand a chocolate filling. No doubt Nutella would do for the lazy, but if you've gone to this much effort, you may as well make a ganache, the basic ingredients of which are, in this case, cream, chocolate and butter. Zumbo adds cocoa butter as well, which makes it rather oily, and Lebovitz adds corn syrup, which I don't think is necessary: the filling should, I think, be slightly bitter, in contrast to the sweetness of the shell. The double cream he and Claire Clark use seems to set too solid for easy spreading: Zumbo's whipping cream gives a more pliable result.

Most importantly, it's true that, as all the chefs note, macarons actually improve with age. It may seem improbable for something so delicate, but the filling gradually melts into the shell – they can be rather dry on the day they're made. But if you can wait 24 hours without "testing" any of them, you're a better person than me.

Perfect chocolate macarons

Makes about 10

65g ground almonds
85g icing sugar
25g cocoa powder
75g egg whites (about 6 large eggs, but weighing is preferable)
Pinch of salt
60g caster sugar

For the ganache:
100g whipping cream
100g dark chocolate, chopped
20g butter, cut into small pieces
Pinch of sea salt

1. Make the ganache first. Heat the cream in a small pan until it's just beginning to boil, then take it off the heat and add the chocolate. Leave it be for a couple of minutes, then stir furiously until smooth. Gradually beat in the butter and finish with a pinch of salt. Set aside to ... set.

2. To make the macarons, you'll need a template. Cut two pieces of baking parchment to fit your baking tray and, using a glass or pastry cutter about 3.5cm in diameter, cover one piece with dark ink circles spaced about 2cm apart. Put this on the baking tray and cover with the other piece of parchment: you should be able to see the circles through it. Prepare a piping bag with a 1cm nozzle, or cut the end off a disposable one so you have a hole about 1cm in diameter.

3. Blitz the almonds in a food processor or spice grinder for a couple of minutes, then sift these, the icing sugar and cocoa into a bowl. Repeat, so they're well mixed.

4. Put the egg whites and a pinch of salt into the mixer and begin whisking. As soon as the whites begin to hold their shape, whisk in the caster sugar, and continue whisking at high speed until you have a stiff meringue – you should be able to hold the bowl upside down without fear (go on!).

5. Fold in the dry ingredients, and then beat the mixture vigorously until it's of a consistency which falls off the spatula: if it's too thick, it will be hard to pipe. Don't worry about beating the air out of it: you don't want too much trapped in the shells.

6. Spoon the mixture into the piping bag and carefully pipe on to the circles. Pick the baking tray up and drop it on to the worksurface a couple of times, then leave to rest for about 30 minutes until the macarons feel dry to the touch: they should not be sticky. Meanwhile, pre-heat the oven to 180C.

7. Bake the macarons for about 17 minutes until firm, opening the oven door briefly a couple of times during cooking to let off any steam. Once you're sure they're cooked, slide the baking parchment off the tray immediately to stop the macarons cooking. Cool completely on the paper, then carefully peel off: if they're cooked, they should come away easily.

8. When cool, match up equally-sized macarons, and then, using a small palette knife or spoon, sandwich them together with ganache. Refrigerate for 24 hours, then serve at room temperature.

Of all the food crazes of recent years, are macarons worth the hype? If so, is there any point in us mere mortals attempting to make them at home when the likes of Hermé and Ladurée do it so well; and if not, what else do you think is best left to the professionals?

Thai firm linked to Birds Eye swoop

Sun, 13 May 2012 15:24:16 GMT

CP Foods tables £2.5bn bid for British frozen food firm – just one week after Chinese food giant swallows Weetabix

First they came for Weetabix. Now a second giant Asian corporation is eyeing our fish fingers.

A Thai food manufacturer has tabled a £2.5bn bid for Birds Eye, the British frozen food firm whose avuncular captain has overseen the seafood initiation of millions of tiny mouths. The firm, part of the Iglo group, has its home under the Heathrow flight path in Feltham and employs 2,500 people.

The proposed fish-finger grab has come barely a week after a Chinese firm, the state-owned Bright Foods, bought a controlling stake in the breakfast cereal maker Weetabix.

The potential buyer of Birds Eye, CP Foods, is part of Charoen Pokphand, a Bangkok-listed group with global businesses employing 280,000 staff worldwide. It claims to be the world's largest producer of animal feed and shrimp, and its Thai food sales dwarf even Birds Eye's. CP Foods also has operations in Britain producing Thai food for supermarkets.

Permira, the private-equity firm, put the Birds Eye Iglo group up for sale in March, five years after buying it from Unilever for £1.4bn. It recently reported a 7% cent rise in annual profits to £267m on the back of rising sales of frozen fish, poultry and vegetables.

At least two other private-equity investors, Blackstone and BC partners, are reported to be making rival offers for Birds Eye.

In 2011 Birds Eye Iglo manufactured 2.2bn fish fingers – enough to put a 58% cod or haddock fillet, breadcrumbed girdle round the earth five times.

• This article was amended on 14 May 2012