With a fresh, new look and interactive programme of events, IFE13 certainly played host to many new innovations and enthusiastic companies. In fact, the show featured more than 1,200 exhibitors from 52 countries around the globe.
There was a large number of imported, high-quality beverages in 2013, with a large number of buying teams from over 60 countries, from small retailers to the major supermarkets, all looking for the newest and coolest products to offer customers.
The Hub stage at this year’s event played an important role in informing visitors about the latest issues in food and drink. I attended one of the key sessions: a Question Time style, heavyweight panel interview featuring Andrea Martinez-Inchausti (deputy director of food policy at the British Retail Consortium), David Heath (minister of state for Defra), Melanie Leech (director general at the Food and Drink Federation), journalist Rosie Boycott, and Ufi Ibrahim (chief executive at the British Hospitality Association).
Hosted by food journalist Clive Beddall, the line-up was treated to some hard-hitting questions about recent food industry crises, including whether recent UK government cuts were responsible for the horse meat scandal, and if now is the time to champion genetically modified food in Europe.
Veteran journalist and campaigner (and now chair of the London Food Board) Rosie Boycott was typically controversial in her responses, while minister David Heath steered a typical politician’s path through his answers.
With regards to the horse meat scandal, he stated that: “There is no excuse for what happened, but we must remember that this was fraud and likely an international criminal conspiracy. Around 99% of products in the UK have now tested negative for horse meat. We do need to examine our systems for the future, but I do stand squarely behind the extremely high quality of British food.”
Ufi Ibrahim, who heads up the BHA which represents restaurants and catering companies across the UK (and the 8.3 billion meals served nationally in 2012) said she “had faith in our suppliers, moving forward, to do better”.
The panel also addressed the issue of nurturing more innovation in the food and drink sector, encouraging recruitment and better staff retention in the UK’s biggest industry and helping independent food chains and retailers to flourish.
I came away thinking that we should be proud of what the UK food and drink industry continues to achieve, and believing that measures are now in place to ensure even higher quality standards for our food and drink products in the future. And then I slipped into the crowd at IFE to taste and sample some more of those excellent products …
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