The National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS) is a continuous cross-sectional survey, designed to assess the diet, nutrient intake and nutritional status of the general population aged 18 months upwards living in private households in the UK.The findings show that the overall picture of the diet and nutrition of the UK population is broadly similar to previous surveys in the NDNS series and no new nutritional problems appear to have emerged.

 In partnership with Making Local Food Work, Co-operative UK’s has launched a suite of financial, legal and governance resources for community enterprisesCo-operatives UK, the trade association for co-operative enterprises, has developed the resources with experts as part of the Making Local Food Work programme, a £10m project funded by the Big Lottery Fund that supports community food enterprises across England.The suite of resources, available both online and as hard copies, is free to use and includes:

The US based non profit organisation Environmental Working Group has published its report entitled  Meat Eater’s Guide to Climate Change and Health. The report was undertaken for EWG by the Life Cycle Analysis consultancy CleanMetrics (See outbound link).

A report commissioned by WRAP (the Waste Resources Action Programme) has found that the hospitality sector could save up to £724m a year through a combination of waste prevention and diverting material from landfill to anaerobic digestion. The report, is entitled The Composition of Waste Disposed of by the UK Hospitality Industry.Some of its main findings are as follows:It estimates that in  2009, UK hotels, pubs, Quick Service Restaurants (QSRs) and restaurants

In June 2011 the FCRN held a workshop, in partnership with SAIN UK-China, to explore issues relating to livestock consumption in the UK and Chinese contexts.

An article in Food Manufacture reports on Langage Farm’s new £3.4 million anaerobic digestion project which, by the end of its first year of operation, will process 12,000 tonnes of food waste collected from households across the county by local authorities. The facility will also process on-farm dairy wastes, converting these fuels into renewable heat and electricity. The renewable energy will not only power the dairy products production, but also export surplus energy to the National Grid.

This article in Food Manufacture is interesting – it argues that the proliferation of brands advertising their local identity means that individual companies find it hard to stand out; and that large retailers are only interested in carrying one regionally branded product in each category because of limited space in the freezer section, me

The Committee on Climate Change has published its third annual report to Parliament on the progress that Government is making in meeting carbon budgets and in reducing GHG emissions.The CCC’s report finds that emissions increased by 3% in 2010, mainly as a result of the colder winter months. After adjusting for weather impacts, emissions were broadly flat. It says that this is incompatible with the 3% annual average emissions reduction required to meet the first four carbon budgets and that a significant acceleration in the pace of emissions reductions is therefore required.