Speciality Food March 2026

@specialityfood 40 A passion for doing good through great coffee drives the DarkWoods team, and is evident throughout the business. At the heart of its mission is the triple bottom line business model, which demonstrates that carefully balancing social and environmental responsibility with financial performance not only sustains the business itself but also a healthy future for the global coffee industry. In 2020 DarkWoods became a certified B Corp and have gone on to become one of the world’s leading B Corp businesses through a combination of social and environmental practices. “These take many forms within Darkwoods,” begins Damian Blackburn, director. For example, the DarkWoods Foundation was set up to promote and support domestic and global sustainable development. “The Foundation is our way of giving back to the communities and producers we rely on, locally and around the world,” explains Damian. “It will have the resources and capability to support innovative programmes that contribute to the global sustainability goals that we have signed up to.” DarkWoods gives back to the communities it works with in Ethiopia, Peru and Panama, not only bymaking donations and providing support to community groups and charities but also bymaintaining longstanding relationships with its suppliers. “These are mutually beneficial partnerships; 99% of our coffee buying is agreed through forward-contracts, providing the certainty and trust that enables our partners to invest in their farms and communities, and secures us the quality and supply security for our customers,” explains Damian. The business has embraced circular economy principles, including using home-compostable material to house the excellent coffee in its food service and retail range and rethinking delivery and on-site waste. Plus, the team is dedicated to supporting both local and international communities. “We donate at least 2% of our annual turnover to charities and community groups,” says Damian, “and run a local community grants program, providing support to small grass- roots charities and groups in and around our local town of Huddersfield while funding the running of a childrens home and orphanage in southern Ethiopia, in partnership with Ardent Coffee.” DARK WOODS COFFEE “The Dark Woods Foundation is our way of giving back” EMILIA’S CRAFTED PASTA “Sustainability isn’t a trend for us” “S ustainability has been at the heart of Emilia’s since we opened our first restaurant nine years ago, and our retail pasta carries forward the same values,” begins Becky Gill, national account manager at Emilia’s Crafted Pasta. “One of our strongest sustainability credentials is our 100% recyclable paper packaging – designed to offer an environmentally responsible alternative in a retail market where mixed-material, hard- to-recycle packs are still the norm.” As well as being visually appealing, the range’s packaging ticks a lot of sustainable boxes. “Our packaging has no plastic windows, no laminates and no hidden films, ensuring it can be recycled in standard household paper streams. R etailers and consumers are now asking deeper questions about how food is produced, not just where it is produced. For meat and dairy, this means looking beyond the label to understand how animals are kept healthy. What systems are in place to prevent disease? What advice is the farmer receiving, and from who? These questions matter because they directly shape the product’s health and welfare credentials, nutritional quality, and sustainability. Consumers expect transparency about medicine use, what terms like ‘organic’, ‘sustainable’, or ‘regenerative’ actually mean, and whether welfare claims stand up to scrutiny. Provenance is evolving to encompass these concerns. It’s becoming less about geography and more about the whole system behind the product. Retailers and producers are closer to what happens on farm than they might realise. The choices they make about sourcing, the questions COLIN MASON BVM&S BSC CERT CHP MRCVS, VET- CONSULTANT, RUMINANT REVIVAL “Provenance has traditionallymeant knowing where your food comes from – the farm, the region, the breed. That remains important, but it’s no longer enough” they ask of suppliers, and the standards they set all influence how animals are reared and kept healthy. When retailers demand credible evidence of low medicine use or robust welfare standards, they create incentives for farmers to adopt better practices. When they ask how health problems are prevented rather than just treated, they encourage a shift towards proactive management. This ripples back through the supply chain. The good news is that there’s more information available than ever before, and asking the right questions doesn’t require deep technical knowledge. Retailers and producers can start by asking suppliers questions like: How do you keep your animals healthy? What’s your approach to preventing disease rather than just treating it? Is the advice you receive independent of commercial interests? These aren’t confrontational questions. They’re the same questions progressive farmers are asking themselves. UK farm antibiotic sales have fallen by 55% since 2014, largely because vets and farmers have shifted towards prevention. That’s a story retailers should want to tell. Empowerment comes from understanding that these conversations benefit everyone in the chain. Healthy, well-managed farms produce higher-quality products more reliably with fewer inputs. That means a more secure supply chain and better margins for retailers. It also gives them a meaningful way to communicate with customers who ask about the origins of their food. Research consistently shows growing demand for transparency around medicine use, animal welfare, and what ‘sustainable’ actually means in practice. Generic claims no longer cut it. People want to know specifics, and they’re increasingly sceptical of labels that can’t be backed up. At the same time, the farming sector has changed significantly. The 55% reduction in antibiotic use isn’t just a headline figure; it reflects a genuine shift in how progressive farms operate, with vets leading proactive health programmes rather than simply responding to problems. Retailers who understand this shift can source more confidently and communicate more credibly. Understanding this shift and seeking suppliers’ advice is a good place for retailers to start. It connects the dots between what happens on farm and what ends up on the counter. W ith a vision to develop health and happiness for people and planet, The Garlic Farm is thriving in its mission to promote sustainable farming and production to food lovers across the UK and beyond. “We are a family business which aims to protect and restore the land we rely on for the long term,” explains Natasha Edwards, managing director. “We see ourselves as custodians of the land and business for future generations of our family and our community, and aim to create net positive social and environmental impacts through a series of measurements ensuring constant improvement.” A raft of certifications, from Organic to Pasture for Life and B Corp – not to mention a 2025 King’s Award for Enterprise in Sustainable Development – help The Garlic Farm to communicate their values as well as inform their farming and business practices. “We believe that business can be a force for good, creating positive outcomes for people and planet, while maintaining commercial viability, ie a profitable business. If we focused solely on profit, we wouldmiss the core long-term reasons that our business can thrive; our community, our natural environment and a healthy, motivated team.” The business invests in land management practices that actively support nature, including carbon sequestration, water quality, soil health, biodiversity and animal health. “As a farming business, we can have significant impact in these areas,” says Natasha. “Our adaptive multipaddock grazing, WETland wastewater treatment system and agroforestry projects all make significant contributions to these sustainabilitymeasures.” “In terms of social impact, our focus has been on teamwellbeing, community engagement and support for local causes,” she continues. “We offer paid volunteering opportunities for all teammembers, support local charities with donations and fundraising events and we have a unique ‘buddy scheme’ allowing those needing extra help in the workplace the opportunity to be part of our team. Providing free access to farmland throughout the year as well as free school visits for Island primary schools and regular work experience for our local special-needs school students helps us to engage young people in nature and farming.” THE GARLIC FARM “We believe that business can be a force for good” 66% OF PEOPLE AGREE THE FOOD SECTOR SHOULD PRIORITIZE CIRCULAR PRACTICES , SUCH AS COMPOSTING AND REDUCING FOOD WASTE FOOD FUTURE 2035: THE CRITICAL DECADE, BSI GROUP