organic produce

A new producer mindset

Sir, Reading Anna Rosier’s Saturday Essay ‘The organic revolution forges ahead’ (3 June, p22), I found myself nodding in agreement. It is great to see a number of healthier choices in children’s food thanks to regulatory changes and those who campaign hard for change. But more needs to be done. There is an alarming amount of hidden sugar in babyfood, which leads to children developing a sweet tooth. We as an industry should be committed to building preferences for savoury tastes, with less fruit and more vegetable content, helping to give children a healthier future.

Tom Redwood, professional chef and founder of Babease


Better for you is a duty

Sir, When it comes to social corporate responsibility, ensuring healthy options are available and well supported in-store has to be a priority. We are seeing more of this from the retailers, particularly through Tesco Food Love Stories. It also has its free fruit for kids and ‘Helpful little swaps’. Asda too has signified its commitment to providing honest health advice. And retailers already place stringent health restrictions on events such as back to school.

The convenience trend exacerbates this healthy eating challenge as, typically, convenience meal solutions are less healthy. Brands need to take responsibility for product innovation that answers shoppers’ need for convenience while also aligning to the government and retailers’ better for you agenda.

Matt Lee, director, Capture


Online must step up

Sir, The Mintel findings (‘Online grocery set to rise 12% to pass £11bn in 2017,’ thegrocer.co.uk, 14 June) mirror our own. We anticipate this sector will maintain this momentum of growth over the next five years, mainly because it is becoming more convenient. Already we are seeing improvements in the user experience, especially on retailers’ smartphone apps. We also anticipate voice-controlled digital assistants such as Amazon Echo will add another dimension of convenience.

What will be interesting to watch is how millennials adopt online grocery shopping as a higher proportion of this important demographic start to have families. Their expectations of user experience and convenience will be higher than the current base of online grocery shoppers. The onus is on retailers to step up innovation.

Alastair Lockhart, insight director, Savvy


Protect forest wildlife

Sir, What is a forest? To most, it’s simply a place with lots of trees. With luck, you might glimpse an animal, and so you might say a forest is a place with lots of trees where some animals live. This suggests that animals are an optional extra - and on this, you’d be categorically wrong. Through Motion 27, to be tabled at the Forest Stewardship Council General Assembly in October, the Born Free Foundation is encouraging members to ensure animal management in FSC-certified forests is conducted in a way that minimises or avoids harm.

Ian Redmond OBE, senior wildlife consultant, Born Free Foundation

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