Tesco has signed up 50 spice ingredient companies to its list of provisional suppliers, one week after the deadline for applications passed.
The creation of the list, an accredited roster from which its suppliers are obligated to choose spice companies, is a reaction to the Sudan 1 and Para Red scandals and gives Tesco complete control of ingredients purchasing.
Tesco has written to its suppliers informing them of its new policy of dealing only with registered and approved spice companies in its supply chain in future (The Grocer, ‘Suppliers’ spice move fury’, June 4, p4).
However, Tesco has now backtracked on one of its strict demands, increasing its limit on the detection of banned substances to align with guidance from the Food Standards Agency.
Tesco had set detection limits for Sudan 1 and Para Red at 0.1 parts per million for future testing. But new standards set by the FSA recommend a figure of 0.5-1ppm.
A Tesco spokeswoman said although the application and information packs sent to suppliers had specified the lower level of detection, it was recontacting companies to let them know it had changed to the higher threshold.
The release of Coldplay’s third album X&Y has sparked a CD pricing war. Asda, Tesco and Sainsbury have all introduced special offers both in-store and online, with Tesco offering the lowest price of £6.47 if the album is bought with any other album in the CD chart.

Scotland is one step closer to imposing a 10p consumer levy on plastic carrier bags after First Minister Jack McConnell pledged support. A member’s bill is due before parliament next week. The Scottish Retail Consortium and the Scottish Grocers’ Federation have both condemned the plans.

Diageo has agreed to back Pernod Ricard’s £7.5bn bid for Allied Domecq by not talking to rivals and buying two brands if the deal is successful - Pernod’s Irish whiskey brand Bushmills for £200m and Allied’s Montana wine brand, excluding Corbans, Stoneleigh and Church Road. Pernod’s bid has been accepted by Allied.

The nutritional labelling of food sold in the UK is the most comprehensive in the EU. A European Commission survey of EU member countries found that 75% of all UK products surveyed were labelled with nutritional values.

Like-for-like sales in the retail sector fell by 2.4% last month compared with the same period last year, according to the British Retail Consortium. For the three months to May, like-for-like sales declined 1.5%, the BRC said.

Waitrose is giving 20% of the profit it makes from citrus fruit to South African farming communities - £250,000 would go to education and health projects. More than 80% of all citrus fruit it sold this year is from 18 SA farms.
coldplay cd war
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retail sales fall
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