Seafood processor Paramount 21 has invested in a 464.5m2 warehouse adjacent to its Newton Abbot production site in Devon to release production space as it steps up its new product development.

Retailers need to be bolder with their own-label ready meals and stop relying on the basics, such as spaghetti Bolognese and lasagne, former food industry rivals Jonny Bingham and David Jones have said.

Targeting the ageing population will boost the UK’s “stagnating” functional food and drink sector, a leading analyst has predicted.

The boss of Dairy UK has criticised the Department of Health (DH) for putting obstacles in the way of the dairy industry in the form of salt targets.

Innovation is vital in a retail market increasingly dominated by discount outlets, says Jonathan Warburton, chairman of Warburtons.

Food and drink manufacturers had a good recession, despite the economy not recovering from it yet, according to leading economist Sion Roberts.

UK food manufacturers are still being unfairly criticised for using palm oil, despite the work they have done to source it sustainably, according to the corporate social responsibility (CSR) director of a global food oil business.

Britain’s big four supermarkets have been “totally and utterly complacent”, in failing to keep pace with key developments in retailing and are now paying the price, warns a leading City analyst.

UK-based food and drink firms are investing in jobs as much as internationally-owned outfits, according to Owen Paterson, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) secretary of state.

More than £3M has been pumped into Meadow Foods’s fresh division in Peterborough to improve operating efficiencies, said site director Paul Jackson.