When we push trolleys around the supermarket, order the weekly shop online or visit a restaurant, we invariably look at the price of the items we buy, but how often do we look to see where the product is from? It\u2019s easy to grab the first bag of apples or carrots that you see, or pick up a pack of sausages or a ready meal. We might assume that because this type of produce can be grown in Britain, that the items we\u2019ve selected are British \u2013 however that\u2019s not always the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many items we buy on a regular basis travel thousands of miles to reach the UK \u2013 take, for example, runner beans which are flown nearly 5000 miles from Zambia, or carrots form Spain, which travel 1000 miles by lorry. These figures are just mileage from the port to distribution centre. Subsequently they will be transported by road to the individual retail outlets. That\u2019s quite a lot of mileage in total! Not to mention fuel!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Supermarket price wars (yet again) are partly to blame \u2013 they can often buy more cheaply from other countries \u2013 and so is seasonality. In the past we wouldn\u2019t have been able to buy certain produce all year round. However before we grab the thing that\u2019s closest to hand, let\u2019s take a second to look at the country of origin labelling and see if there\u2019s a British alternative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019re currently in the second week of British Food Fortnight<\/a> \u2013 an annual celebration of the diverse and delicious range of food that Britain has to offer. British Food Fortnight<\/a> began in 2002 and just gets bigger every year. This year\u2019s theme is \u2018Bring Home the Harvest\u2019 designed to \u2018rekindle the tradition of celebrating British food and the harvest across the nation.\u2019 (Incidentally, did you know that the word \u2018Harvest\u2019 comes from the Old English word \u2018haerfest\u2019 meaning \u2018autumn\u2019?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n To help us celebrate all that\u2019s great about our nation\u2019s food, Love British Food, organisers of the Fortnight, have suggested several ways in which people can get involved. A few of them follow, but to see the full list, why not visit the website at www.lovebritishfood.co.uk ?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The French used to think that they led the world in fine dining, but that is no longer the case. They do not feature in the top ten best restaurants in the world, whereas Britain holds two spots. So it\u2019s official! \u2013 British food is great! Let\u2019s vote with our forks and eat British whenever we can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s a recipe from the Love British Food website for you to try:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Serves 4<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cut the peeled carrots and shallots into matchstick pieces. Sweat for 5 minutes in a covered pan with 1oz butter and the olive oil. Add the mushrooms and cook for 5-6 minutes stirring occasionally. Cook the scallops in a separate for 2 minutes in 1oz butter then sprinklewith brandy and wine and season to taste. Remove and place them in a warm covered dish. Add the vegetables and cream to the pan, then the remaining butter. Reduce the liquid by placing on a high heat and removing the lid. Place equal portions of the scallops onto a plate, cover with vegetables and pour over the sauce. Serve immediately.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When we push trolleys around the supermarket, order the weekly shop online or visit a restaurant, we invariably look at the price of the items we buy, but how often do we look to see where the product is from? It\u2019s easy to grab the first bag of apples or carrots that you see, or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[543,544,539,545,546,542,541,540,548,547],"class_list":["post-3871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food-safety-hygiene-news","tag-arbroath-smokies","tag-bakewell-tart","tag-british-food-fortnight","tag-cheddar-cheese","tag-harvest-festival","tag-lancashire-hot-pot","tag-local-sourcing","tag-love-british-food","tag-scallops-recipe","tag-scallops-with-mushroom-and-brandy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3871\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}How to get involved in British Food Fortnight<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Scallops with Mushrooms and Brandy<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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