Celebrate British Food Fortnight
Celebrate British Food Fortnight – 23rd September – 8th October
The 16th British Food Fortnight will run from 23rd September to 8th October 2017. It’s the biggest annual national celebration of British food & drink and as such is a great opportunity for all those who work in the industry to join together to promote the benefits of buying and eating British products
Of course, we should be doing this all year round, but a concentrated effort over 2 weeks is great for focusing the mind and its timing coincides nicely with the traditional British Harvest Festival.
To draw further attention to the promotion there are some famous names taking part – including Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, the BBC, the National Trust and Harrods. We’re not sure it means we can just pop round to the Queen’s for a bit of tea though!
Who should join in?
Anyone and everyone involved in foodservice should plan to take part, whether they are providing staff catering services, feeding patients, visitors and staff in hospitals, encouraging schoolchildren to eat well or working to bring customers to a restaurant, pub or café.
What sort of things should they do?
Using and promoting British food and drink doesn’t need to be complicated. Think of the most wonderful simple dishes that people love best and make sure all the component parts are British. Bangers and mash with onion gravy is a good starting point. Homemade seasonal vegetable or pumpkin soup with crusty local bread is another easy idea – and it also taps into the Harvest Festival theme.
You could have fun making a foreign-sounding dish all British too – like French Onion soup made with lovely local onions and topped with British cheese, or Tarte Tatin with British apples and British butter and served with British cream.
Schools are urged to make it educational by producing British themed school lunches and providing menu cards detailing where the food has been sourced for children to learn from.
Promoting British Food and Drink
Let everyone know you’re promoting British Food Fortnight by displaying point of sale material such as Union flags, stickers or bunting. Make sure your staff know where the menu’s ingredients come from so they can communicate this to your customers.
Use social media to tell the world that your establishment is celebrating British Food using #LoveBritishFood and tagging @LoveBritishFood on Twitter and Facebook.
What are the benefits?
Participants in British Food Fortnight in previous years have commented how well the promotions worked for them to increase sales. They attracted new customers, increased spending by existing customers and by continuing to source and use British products year-round, established a point of difference for themselves that their customers welcomed.
British food and drink is very important to Total Foodservice too. As part of our commitment to the environment and sustainability we work with many local and regional suppliers and look to source food as locally as possible, helping to cut food miles.
For more information about getting involved with British Food Fortnight click here or have a chat with the Total Foodservice sales team.
