All comment & opinion articles
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Comment & OpinionTaste will become retail’s next competitive advantage
Retailers have never had more data on their customers but as AI makes personalisation universal, the real edge may be creative judgement, not algorithms, says Louise Odquier, strategy director at Imagination
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Comment & OpinionThe plastic tax is doing exactly what it was built to do, and that’s the problem
The UK’s overlapping packaging levies aren’t failing, they’re succeeding at being politically useful, which is why reform has to come from shoppers not Whitehall, says Mike Coppen-Gardner, founder and CEO of WeAreSPQR
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Comment & OpinionEditor’s Picks: budget repercussions, RTD growth and Poundland on the brink
As the dust settles on this year’s budget, we explore what it means for the food and drink industry, while elsewhere demand for RTDs and protein shows no signs of slowing
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Comment & OpinionFanta raids the AI slop shop for Halloween abomination
The brand has sort-of come up with a trailer for something called ‘Halloween Forever’, which loosely revolves around ‘the magic elixir said to be the source of all power’
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Comment & OpinionJamie’s Skill Series: Oliver proves he’s still got it, whatever the platform
Old and new combine in Jamie’s Skill Series, a 10-parter that puts Oliver precisely where the audiences now are.
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Comment & OpinionGrocery resilience starts in the boardroom
The threat environment is changing, and preparedness must change with it. Boardrooms must start planning now, says Richard Barrons, co-chair of Universal Defence and Security Solutions
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Comment & OpinionCertification got tea this far, but it can’t take it further
The industry’s audit trail set a floor, but the cost of meeting them still falls on growers. It’s time brands shared the value, not just the standards, says Zahra Afshar, head of legal, human rights and sustainability at Ahmad Tea
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Comment & OpinionHealey’s budget offers little cheer for wine and spirits
Healey’s maiden budget will benefit smaller brewers and cidermakers, but larger suppliers and wine and spirits makers argue it risks widening duty disparity
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Comment & OpinionShoplifting is down. So why is retail crime getting more violent?
Co-op’s expectation that retail crime will fall to a post-pandemic low in 2026 represents a genuine milestone
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Comment & OpinionThe great protein panic: are we solving a problem most people don’t have?
Supermarket shelves and social feeds are obsessed with protein targets, but for most healthy adults the bigger risk is losing sight of everything else on the plate, says Dr Ando Ahnan-Winarno, founder and COO at Better Nature
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Comment & OpinionThe wholesalers that survive to 2030 won’t be the biggest. They’ll be the problem solvers
Buying power no longer sets wholesalers apart. Now it’s about solving customer problems, says Kaan Hendekli, chief operating officer at JJ Foodservice
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Comment & OpinionBlack History Month shouldn’t live on a shelf wobbler
Retailers have become increasingly supportive of Black-owned brands during Black History Month. But if that support disappears when the displays come down, has anything really changed, asks The Black Farmer commercial director Alex Emmanuel-Jones.
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Comment & OpinionWhy rewilding needs an ‘ag’ in it
The empty-glen imagery of rewilding is bad for farming and nature alike. Restoring Britain’s uplands means bringing farmers back in, not fencing them out, says Jamie Jack, member of UK Youth Food and Farming Forum
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Comment & OpinionWhat now for Aldi and Lidl after the CMA’s property decision?
Aldi and Lidl have said the CMA’s decision will change little, but both will have to remove restrictive clauses from their land deals
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Comment & OpinionThe grocery sector’s risky approach to risk – and how to fix it
Grocery manages cyberattack and currency risk with precision – but climate risk, which is already hitting margins and supply, still has no clear owner. Here are three fixes
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Comment & OpinionGreenwashing rules risk fuelling a new problem: greenhushing
Tougher regulation of sustainability claims is welcome. But without clear guidance on what constitutes good evidence, brands may choose silence over transparency, says Provenance CEO Sarah Arana-Morton
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Comment & OpinionHow food brands can resolve the industry’s trust problem
The problem isn’t always what food brands say. Sometimes it’s what the packaging, the language and the visual cues lead us to believe. Ben Martin asks whether the industry needs a clearer line between persuasion and implication.
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Comment & OpinionWhen everyone’s an expert, who should shoppers trust?
As influencers, AI and wearables flood shoppers with advice, brands will win trust not by shouting louder but by being verifiably honest, says Alice Pilkington, associate principal at Mintel Food & Drink
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Comment & OpinionEditor’s picks: Aldi x Lidl, budget hopes and falling fibre fans
Lidl and Aldi are now in competition with each other, rather than their full line rivals, as Tesco is taken to task on preservatives, and Andy Burnham explores different options for the UK’s relationship with the EU
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Comment & OpinionJust Eat gets sentimental as it plays up family time
Where once stars like Snoop Dogg and Katy Perry sang, a crop of new ads instead lean into food delivery’s role in preserving precious family time