It’s been a busy week at The Grocer, dominated by the Grocer Gold Awards at the Royal Albert Hall on Tuesday. Our spectacular celebration of the industry’s outstanding achievements saw 33 winners crowned and the stories behind their victories (and lots of pictures) are captured in the magazine. Or there’s extended reads online.

The Golds are also the subject of my leader.

But we’ve still found time to break lots of exclusive stories. Like the big commercial team restructure at Asda, the second this year. Or Morrisons offering £2k switching incentives to Morrisons Daily franchisees. Are they really so easily bought?

Or the ASA’s key rulings that mean fast food restaurants have been able to swerve the government’s HFSS ad ban. The ruling is sure to cause anger but also might prompt a political backlash. And while the ASA’s rulings have brought advertisers greater clarity, the ASA have also tightened the net, argues Katrina Anderson, a partner at Mills & Reeve. From the fate of Mars’ yellow M&M character to tougher scrutiny of brand imagery, it’s still a more restrictive advertising landscape.

Meanwhile all eyes will be on new PM Andy Burnham (who could be in office as soon as this time next week) to see how the former health secretary responds. And we’ve also examined other key impacts from an Andy Burnham premiership on the food and drink industry.

With the scorching weather farmers are really struggling. Rapid fluctuations in temperature are simultaneously scorching produce and shutting down growth. Riverford Organic farms reports that veg are bolting, developing uneven growth or suffering stress, for example. The heat also increased pressure from pests including the silver Y moth, whose caterpillars have damaged lettuce crops after migrating from mainland Europe.

The irony is that the hot weather is great news for salad sales, as well as soft drinks and ice cream. And this week we spoke to Jamie Farrell, GM of the recently created Magnum Ice Cream Company, to find out more about its new-found entrepreneurial spirit since its split from Unilever last year, as well as its fluctuating share price fortunes and how it’s keeping up with changing consumer tastes.

One category that’s probably not performing well is Dubai chocolate. But that’s not just down to the weather. In the rush to jump on the viral craze the Food Standards Agency’s new retail surveillance programme found that only one of 45 samples passed its food safety checks. It’s an outcome that Natasha’s Foundation founder Nadim Ednan-Laperouse said “must serve as a wake-up call” to the dangers of undeclared allergens.

On the sugar confectionery side our Focus On Confectionery report looks at how candy brands are adding wellness messaging to their packs to lure health-conscious consumers. It’s not all lip-service, however. Leading brands have been reducing the sugar content of their treats and adding fibre and real fruit to make them HFSS-compliant.

In drinks, Diageo gave us a first glimpse at what its retail strategy might look like under Dave Lewis, announcing a tie up with Asda to promote smaller format spirits bottles in 230 of its stores. Historically 35cl or 20cl spirits bottles – colloquially known as ‘fractionals’ – have been the preserve of smaller local convenience stores and independents. But as drinks editor James Beeson explained in his Daily Bread blog yesterday, Diageo’s decision to push them in larger stores reflects both the cost pressures facing consumers, and how people are shopping the spirits category from a more occasion-led perspective.

This week Warburtons celebrated its 150th anniversary with a lavish bash at Manchester Cathedral. But it’s likely to face increased competition in the not too distant future after rival Allied Bakeries completed its acquisition of Hovis on Wednesday. In an exclusive interview, Sarah Arrowsmith, CEO of the newly dubbed Hovis Bakeries, promised to “come out fighting”.

And finally an investigation into accessibility has found that retailer websites are ‘locking out disabled shoppers’ with basic fails. The audit – by AllyRadar – found 33 of the 44 websites scanned had “at least one critical or serious accessibility failure on their homepage alone”. And most could be fixed with just a couple of words of code. Food for thought.

Of course there’s loads more stories brilliant stories in this week’s magazine. And even more on thegrocer.co.uk. But those are some of my faves. And we would love to know your thoughts on our coverage. Or is there anything we’ve missed? We’re all ears! Please get in touch via LinkedIn or adam.leyland@thegrocer.co.uk.

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