Urban Food Chains

the links between diet and power

retail
Filling their boots
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UK food retailers have filled their boots selling olive oil. These days they are taking a gross margin of between 30% and 40% on own label olive oil, somewhat less on branded products. Own label is more profitable because the retailer can control every last detail of the specification. But with today’s rising costs, the retailers have to curb their expectations. Besides, if Aldi and Lidl can sell extra virgin olive oil at around three to four quid a bottle, the mainstream retailers cannot afford to exaggerate their pricing.

During the 1990s the major multiples were skimming off 60p and more from every pound spent on own label extra virgin olive oil sold on a rapidly-growing market. This naked greed went unchallenged, since UK consumers trusted retailers to supply a grade of oil that merited the price being charged. No chance.

The sales director of a UK oil packer told me of his experience in those days with an own-label project with one of the big four. “I sourced an attractive bottle and filled it with a reasonable grade of extra virgin oil.” The multiple concerned stood to earn 66p in the pound on the SKU. “When I presented it to them, they turned round and said ‘fill it with shit and we’ll make 75%.’ At which point I put the samples back in my case and walked out.”

revised November 27 2021.

Europe France retail
Knock, knock…
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The French finance ministry announced the other week that it had raided a number of multiple food retailer head  offices and some of their suppliers. In a terse staement dated November 9, the competition authority warned that it is not going to identify the retailers concerned and will not risk compromising the investigation.

In similar raids in the past, inspectors of the Direction Générale de la Concurrence, de la Consommation et de la Répression des Fraudes (DGCCRF) have carried out raids without warning and gathered thousands of invoices and other documents within 12 hours. Known as the “répression des fraudes” the DGCCRF has a justified reputation for being ruthlessly efficient.

Europe retail Switzerland
P… R… no Q!
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Switzerland’s biggest retail cooperative, Migros, is eliminating supermarket checkout queues. Customers using the Migros “subitoGo” application can scan their purchases on their smartphone and leave the store without further ado.

The system will be tried out at 80 outlets and rolled out if it proves successful. The software also links into any shopping list that might have been prepared before leaving home; fewer chances of leaving the store without a full complement of shopping.  SubitoGo combines the Italian word for suddenly and Go.

foraging fungi
Pick what you know
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Artwork copyright: Helena Barcraft-Barnes 2021

In the late 1970s, Richard Mabey sparked a passion for wild food with his bestselling book Food For Free. The title said it all and cleverly encapsulated a town dweller’s view of nature as an endless source of food.

This is overstated. Of course, there are occasional gluts, but these are uncommon. Realistically, foraging is a source of garnishes rather than whole meals: carrying a basket is no guarantee of coming home laden with wild food to order. It is however a pleasant addition to an extended walk, taking in some of the seasonal colour.

Armed with a copy of Food For Free and George Kibby’s mushroom guide, some 45 years ago I started collecting wild fungi and other crops as I learnt about their characteristics and locations. To anyone who asks if it is safe to pick fungi, I have a standard answer: pick only what you know and walk past the rest. By learning how to positively identify one species of mushroom you can be sure that you will recognise it even if it turns up in a fresh location.

In time, by adding more species to the positive list, you can build a repertoire of reliable fungi: walking past the rest will save time in the field and, if the opportunity occurs, you can always pick specimens to identify upon your return home. Just don’t mix the unidentified specimens with your supper without first making sure that they are an edible variety.

Over the years, I have been fortunate enough to encounter a paddock full of giant puffballs in Shropshire, most of which were skull-sized and some of which were bigger than a beach ball. On another occasion I spotted a cauliflower fungus the size of a large hen; when walking alongside canals in the Black Country I would routinely pick wild celery, which is widespread and as large as the cultivated variety, with a strong preference for damp soil. But, apart from the wild celery, wild food has been a bonus rather than a reliable or significant addition to the menu.

customs clearance livestock plants
Animal, vegetable, mineral
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These three words help us to navigate the arcane world of customs codes, which do in fact follow logical rules. The underlying structure is called the Harmonised System. This is made up of groups of traded commodities, referred to as chapters which add up collectively as a schedule. Merchandise is listed in the order animal, vegetable and mineral.

The first part of the Constitutio Renovata (reformed regulations) displayed on a board at the port in Lyme Regis, dated 1489. It lists the harbour charges and duty for goods unloaded there.
The first part of the Constitutio Renovata (reformed regulations) displayed on a board at the port in Lyme Regis, dated 1489. It lists the harbour charges and duty for goods unloaded there.

The opening chapters cover live animals, followed by carcases and meat, moving on to animal products. Animals are followed by fish. Plants come next and are similarly classified in the order of seeds, then plants followed by retail fruit and vegetables.

A guide to the detail of customs classifications is in preparations and will be downloadable from this page in the coming weeks.

Europe fish France sardine
What Mona Lisa tells us about sardines
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Sardines in the Mediterranean are now smaller and lighter than 20 years ago.  Mona Lisa is a European project which has been studying sardine populations in the region and has established that the average lengths of sardines had fallen from 15 centimetres to 11 and the average weight has nosedived from 30 grams to 10.

Researchers attribute the dramatic decline to a 15% drop in stocks of micro-algae in the bay of Biscay, which has lowered the nutritional value of plankton. The study carried out by the French marine institute Ifremer was able to rule out overfishing and natural predators such as dolphins or tuna. It also established that there was no virus to blame for the dramatic decline.

The  changing composition of plankton was investigated using a controlled sardine population  of 450 fish divided into four groups and fed differing strengths of plankton. This is the largest project of its kind anywhere in the world.

The sardine is one of the most heavily fished species in the world. The high demand from canneries creates a commercial value for sardines within a certain size range. Changing the size of sardine cans would entail substantial costs for retooling packing lines, not to mention major revisions to packing and cooking protocols for the autoclaves.

foraging fungi
Summer fungi in November
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Today is November 7 and this morning I picked these shaggy parasols, a fungus that I used to pick in July August or September 40 years ago. We ate them for supper. But I struggle to decide whether of not they are an out of season treat. On balance, probably not, since the season has shifted rather than the fungi.