Palm oil and our
supply chains
We are very aware of the environmental issues
around palm oil. It's a complex area, as
boycotting it has the potential to drive further
land conversion for lower yield alternative
vegetable oil crops, and it is also impossible to
function as a viable competitive large scale food
wholesaler without selling products that involve
palm oil at some stage in the manufacturing
process. Palm oil's unparalleled qualities as an
ingredient, in terms of its effect on taste and
texture mean that it's added to a huge range of
both branded and own brand products. The key,
it seems, is to influence the sourcing of the palm
oil so that it's more sustainably sourced, so this
has been our focus to date. Our focus has also
been on own brand, as this is within our gift to
influence.
Like many retailers and foodservice providers,
we set out a bold objective to remove mass
balance by December 2020, but have found this
to be ambitious in the time given .We are
reviewing the policy in line with market
availability, with an updated policy to be
produced by December 2021. Our 2020 annual
communication on progress (ACOP) reported
98.5% certified sustainable palm within our own
brand products.
Soy and our
supply chains
More and more customers are asking us about
soy sourcing, as both a product in itself and as
animal feed in supply chains for meat and dairy,
due to the link between soy, tropical
deforestation and conversion of native
vegetation to produce soy. We are aware that
unsustainable soy is a huge driver of
deforestation and biodiversity loss and we aim
to have developed a policy on soy by the end of
December 2022, Anyone wanting more
information on the scale of the challenges and
the issues involved is recommended to visit the
EFECA website.
V-Kitchen
2020 saw the launch of V-Kitchen, a brand new
Bidfood brand dedicated to helping you attract a
growing demographic of vegan and vegetarian
diners.
If you missed it at our virtual Big Food and Drink
Show, click here to watch Chef Martin and Matt
Tebbutt host an exclusive Bidfood Kitchen,
where Martin takes us through some appetising
dishes using V-Kitchen ingredients.
Insert P11 V Kitchen logo and hyperlink to
https://www.bidfood.co.uk/v-kitchen/