Colors: Green Color
Colors: Green Color

Food & Drink Expo 2016 will return to the NEC Birmingham in April, providing buyers from the grocery, wholesale, speciality retail, manufacturing and foodservice sectors with a unique opportunity to source new products and learn about the trends set to shape the UK food and drink industry over the coming years. The future of food and drink in the UK will be a key theme throughout the 2016 instalment of the event, which will run from 18-20 April, alongside the Farm Shop & Deli Show.

Health chiefs in Wolverhampton are encouraging people try out some healthier options as part of a new year health kick. This week marks JanUary –a week-long campaign by the National Obesity Forum encouraging people to make small lifestyle changes to improve their health and wellbeing. And health chiefs in Wolverhampton say a quick and easy way is to choose healthier food and drink at mealtimes.

Whether you're going gluten-free yourself or you're ready to add gluten-free baking to your repertoire, you are now able to come and learn everything about coeliac-friendly baking with the expert tutors at Squires Kitchen International School. Choose from three new classes coming up in 2016 – Gluten-Free Baking: Bread & Pastries, Gluten-Free Baking: Cakes, and Bake and Decorate Cupcakes Gluten-Free.

If you’d told Nadiya Hussain a year ago that she’d one day be dining with Nicole Kidman she’d never have believed it. But rubbing shoulders with Hollywood royalty is just an average weekday now for the reigning Great British Bake Off champion since winning over Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood - and the nation - in the show’s emotional final. “That’s weird, right?” said Nadiya, still incredulous after her encounter with Kidman at the Women of the Year Awards this week.

Roll out the red carpet and cue the music as the ‘Oscars’ of the fish frying industry prepare to return for their 28th year. The National Fish & Chip Awards have cast their net far and wide having trawled the nation for the last year, and are now set to make or break the hearts of friers from around the country as they announce the UK’s best fish and chip businesses on January 20 at the Lancaster London Hotel.

As of this week, HelloFresh and Jamie Oliver are teaming up to create a new cooking experience to make living a healthy lifestyle easier than ever before. Each week one of Jamie’s recipes will be in HelloFresh’s boxes, giving the British public the best possible set-up for easy, tasty home cooking. Jamie is thrilled that HelloFresh’s service gives more people the chance to prepare his dishes: “For me, HelloFresh makes cooking from scratch even easier. Their delivery of ingredients straight to people’s doors is a hugely convenient way for everyone to try my recipes”, says the chef.

Families in Wolverhampton are being urged to download a new app and check how much sugar they are consuming – as new figures show children eat their own body weight in sugar every year. The free Sugar Smart app, launched today (Monday 4 February, 2016) by Public Health England, works by scanning barcodes to reveal the total sugar in food and drink in cubes or grams.

City of Wolverhampton Council’s thriving Meals on Wheels service delivered a record number of Christmas dinners this year. Meals on Wheels provides a vital lifeline to mainly elderly residents by delivering a hot, nutritious meal seven days a week. The number of people using the service has tripled since the council scrapped old rules which meant people had to pass an assessment before they could use the service. Meals on Wheels are now available to anyone who wants them and there are currently 633 people on the books.

It may be the season of good will to all men but the festive season call also mean an abundance of calorific temptations to both men and women. Leading Weight Loss Hypnotherapist and the founder of HypnoSlimming, Michael A Cox has investigated the eating patterns of those people planning on dieting in the New Year. Even before the Christmas decorations were put up many people have already decided that January will be the time to lose weight.

NFU Mutual is urging owners to put certain foods on the ‘naughty list’ for their dogs this year. Christmas is well known as a time of excess for humans but, according to the insurer, pet dogs are also prone to eating too much during the festive period and sometimes, what they choose to eat could have serious health implications and end-up in an emergency visit to the vet.

It’s rare that people step out of their comfort zone and try something a little different, especially at Christmas when the traditional roast turkey reigns supreme. A firm UK favourite, Chinese cuisine is often seen as a treat at the weekend or for a special occasions – and what occasion gives a better excuse for a celebration than Christmas? With four stores across the UK, in Birmingham, Manchester, Cricklewood and Croydon, the UK’s leading Oriental grocer, Wing Yip, brings traditional Asian cuisine one step closer to UK homes.

The UK's largest cheese fair will return for its sixth year in 2016 when the Artisan Cheese Fair takes place in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire from 30 April to 1 May. Last year, over 8,000 cheese-lovers visited the Cheese Fair and with over 50 cheesemakers showcasing in excess of 250 different products at this year's event, visitors will have the opportunity to taste and buy some of the UK's rarest and most popular artisan cheeses.

This December, The Scotch Whisky Experience is lighting up the Royal Mile by hosting a Whisky Enlightenment tour to coincide with Virgin Money's Street of Light. Launching on 30 November and running until Christmas Eve, the Whisky Enlightenment tour and tasting experience is perfectly timed so visitors can either begin or end their visit to Street of Light with an illuminating whisky experience.