Blogs

Doing it for the kids

The news that Unilever is changing its marketing plans towards children comes as no surprise.

End products

The rise of the angry

Mr Phoenix seems to be a self-identified expert on the dairy industry and used his acceptance speech to rant about what he perceives to be the shortcomings of the dairy industry and the “abuses” the cows suffer.

Brexit and next steps

The big news last week was the advent of Brexit here in the UK. This week, we start figuring out what this actually means, and what the EU and UK will wind up with as a partnership.

Business & trade, Dairy processing

The challenge of climate change

If you haven’t been paying attention, the world is waking up to the fact that climate change is occurring.

Business & trade

Getting the public involved

The Ethical Dairy up in Scotland is running a series of cheese making courses for the public, along with farm tours for vegans and morning milking experiences. All of this is to help open the farming experience to people who wouldn’t normally be seen at a farm.

Dairy processing

The evolving dynamics

At first glance, the recent travails of Dean Foods and Borden Dairy in the US appear to be a grim toll for dairy. Two large processors filing for bankruptcy is a sign of things going wrong, the idea goes.

Business & trade, Sustainability

January perspective

In much of Europe, this week people return from holidays and get back to their routines. Children return to school. However, dairy farmers and processors don’t have such luxuries.

‘Tis the season for butter shortages

It is the festive season here in Europe and as usual, there is a butter issue. For example, Switzerland’s largest supermarket chain is selling imported butter.

The way of waste

With the COP 25 meeting in Madrid, many minds were on the environment.

Notes from a small planet

We tend to not discuss the farmer, or even other aspects of the food chain aside from dairy, in this dairy processor’s space.

All private label now

It used to be that with private label, own brand dairy was the poor relation to branded products. The commodity SKUs that everyone bought just when they couldn’t be bothered buying branded, or the brand wasn’t available.

What is in a name

The European Union plans in its post-2020 renegotiation of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), to include an amendment to EU regulations on a common market organisation for agricultural products, which includes restricting the name use of vegan and vegetarian products.

We are all eating mozzarella

I put out a cheeseboard at a party this weekend and it was demolished. The cheddar, manchego, brie, goat cheese and aged gouda was cleared, as was the mass of bread and oatcakes. I also put out some homemade membrillo (quince paste), which was also duly gobbled up.

Less volatility but more uncertainty

It’s been a relatively quiet year for dairy, despite the political machinations globally.

Doing a rain dance

My computer is acting up, and I am watching the rainbow wheel spin around. However, I have been trying to be a bit more sanguine about most things, and I guess this is another opportunity to ponder while the desktop restarts.

More cheese please

The news that Arla Foods has inaugurated a cheese production site in the Kingdom of Bahrain to support the increasing demands for dairy in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) comes as no surprise.

Loving the domestic

The European Dairy Association’s annual policy conference always provides a lot of food for thought, and this year was no exception.

Colours in nature

Had some very nice aged Gouda that I picked up at Schiphol last week when visiting the colouring foods fields of the Netherlands and Germany.

Taking back the narrative

I have been travelling a bit this month, and one of the themes has been taking back the dairy narrative from the people who seem to think 10,000 years of history and farming, plus science, count for nothing when looking at whether or not to eat dairy as a human.

Where dairy was born

Istanbul is a vast city, and the 1,300 attendees at the IDF World Dairy Summit may have been just a drop in its 14.6 million inhabitants for the last week.