The ire of the industry over regulation is being kept in check, at the moment, by the more pressing concerns surrounding the economy - and survival - but this week came two reminders of the parallel universe in which Government, and its many quangos, operates.
The first was a report on packaging waste by the Local Government Association, which fingered Waitrose, Asda and co. for excessive packaging. I'll leave it to Don Pumsey, our satirist-in-chief on the back page, to point out in a way only he can the irony of the Government criticising supermarkets for waste, adding only that last week it announced plans to start printing extra bits of paper - also known as cash - to throw at the economic problem.
Talking of things going down the drain, however, leads me nicely on to the second: the Food Standards Agency's satfat campaign. We've consciously steered our coverage away from the health and obesity debate in the past 12 months, to focus on the more pressing concerns around commodity and raw material inflation, the intensifying price wars and recession.
But the FSA is unrepentant. Even though the dairy industry has pledged to reduce the fat content in milk in return for a little bit of leeway on cheese, the quango wants its pound of saturated flesh, with an ominous-sounding consultation on reformulation targets set for this spring.
The BRC has promised to oppose these. "It took United Biscuits three years and £6m to reduce satfat in three lines by 50%," BRC food policy administrator Andrea Martinez-Inchausti told The Grocer. "Imagine what it would cost Tesco to reformulate 10,000 lines."
Which reminds me. How will Tesco feel now about its commitment to painstakingly carbon footprint every one of those self-same lines? Will their well-intentioned plans go out the window? I sense more waste to come.
The first was a report on packaging waste by the Local Government Association, which fingered Waitrose, Asda and co. for excessive packaging. I'll leave it to Don Pumsey, our satirist-in-chief on the back page, to point out in a way only he can the irony of the Government criticising supermarkets for waste, adding only that last week it announced plans to start printing extra bits of paper - also known as cash - to throw at the economic problem.
Talking of things going down the drain, however, leads me nicely on to the second: the Food Standards Agency's satfat campaign. We've consciously steered our coverage away from the health and obesity debate in the past 12 months, to focus on the more pressing concerns around commodity and raw material inflation, the intensifying price wars and recession.
But the FSA is unrepentant. Even though the dairy industry has pledged to reduce the fat content in milk in return for a little bit of leeway on cheese, the quango wants its pound of saturated flesh, with an ominous-sounding consultation on reformulation targets set for this spring.
The BRC has promised to oppose these. "It took United Biscuits three years and £6m to reduce satfat in three lines by 50%," BRC food policy administrator Andrea Martinez-Inchausti told The Grocer. "Imagine what it would cost Tesco to reformulate 10,000 lines."
Which reminds me. How will Tesco feel now about its commitment to painstakingly carbon footprint every one of those self-same lines? Will their well-intentioned plans go out the window? I sense more waste to come.
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