Speciality Food - October 2025

6 @specialityfood Allergen assessment template created to boost safety and consistency With instances of food allergies rising across the UK, IGD has created an allergen risk assessment template to improve consistency in allergen procedures and therefore the safety of allergy sufferers. The new template is the result of collaboration between IGD’s Technical Leaders Forum and Network, a group of senior stakeholders throughout the food and consumer good industry. Kate Reynolds, senior manager, Resilience Programme at IGD, said, “The launch of this allergen risk assessment template demonstrates how industry collaboration can deliver positive change. We understand that adapting to new procedures will involve some policy updates and staff retraining, but we see the template as a positive development, designed to streamline risk assessment, empowering teams to deliver safer food for all.” Outlook for plant-based milk category remains positive despite dip in sales Despite dropping in value by 0.8% over the past 12 months, data has shown that the plant-basedmilk sector is still viewed favourably by 62% of UK shoppers. Research carried out by Oddlygood Group found that of the lapsed plant- basedmilk shoppers who responded to the survey, 53%would return to purchasing it, citing health information (28%), taste (26%) and price (26%) as the reasons to reinvest. Coconut milk is considered to be the strongest entry-point for non-users (13%), but perceptions of quality are proving to be an issue – with 21% of shoppers describing the taste of plant-based dairy alternatives as artificial, 22% considering them bland, and a fifth feeling that they are overpriced. Ross Dennison, technical director at Bakkavor and Technical Leaders Forum co-chair, said, "Together with the IGD, we are bringing retailers and foodmanufacturers together to create a consumer first approach to allergenmanagement through a cross-industry framework." NadimEdnan-Laperouse OBE, founder of The Natasha Allergy Research Foundation, the UK’s food allergy charity, said, “We are pleased that the food industry is coming together to improve allergen management. We welcome the launch of the new guidance and risk assessment template and hope this will give greater reassurance to the millions of people living with food allergies in the UK and their families.” T he British Prime Minister in the late 1950s, Harold Macmillan, used a phrase summing up the state of the nation post the second world war. It was ‘most of us have never had it so good’. The remark has left a notable legacy in the lexicon of British politics, and funnily enough I often have recalled it when working at Partridges in Chelsea on the Kings Road when I thought we were doing well. Yet on reflection, and for many reasons, we were very lucky to survive there for so long. Despite the day-to-day challenges in running a speciality food shop known to all of us and the constant threat in dodging so many bullets, suddenly emerging out of the darkness, we had managed to carve a sustainable niche in the community that endured for 53 years. Which, I note, is longer than the life span of an African elephant. The background to all this is that our lease had come to an end. Our original plan was to stay for as long as possible but circumstances beyond our control intervened. Negotiations for a new lease did not go well and we had to confront the logistical difficulties of closing a large food shop. There was a lot of work to be done at great cost and under depressing circumstances. A redundancy situation, a lot of stock and equipment to dispose of and dilapidations to be considered which in the end were avoided by leaving the fixtures and fittings to the landlord. With a deadline fast approaching timing was everything. At the end the departure was an extremely costly endeavour. Our shop lease like many others in Chelsea was ’outside the act’ which JOHN SHEPHERD PARTRIDGES “Rise in the fall” meant no compensation for the tenant on surrender of the lease. On February 2nd we closed our doors for the final time. It was not the best spring we had ever had. It took us until summer to regroup and fortunately we have another, smaller Partridges just one mile away from our original location. It is a third of the size of our old shop but perhaps more manageable on a human scale. It also needed some attention, and in the summer we carried out a renewal of the shop refrigeration which has cut our energy costs considerably, I am pleased to say. It is a different environment to our old shop and there is still structural work to be done and the usual challenges to endure – we have a rent review this year as an example. But whereas on the King’s Road we were focused on managing the very large costs, in Gloucester Road we can concentrate on growing the business – something that has become apparent as we reached the end of the summer. So now in the autumn there is something to celebrate. With the launch of our new website, online sales have increased above those of our old shop, we have attracted new corporate customers, have received an export order from Japan, been filmed for a Channel 5 documentary and been invited to hold the World Chelsea Bun Awards in a prestigious location and as part of a British Fair in Osaka. We have also been granted a new Royal Warrant from HM King Charles. Plus, our overheads are just 20% what they were in our old shop. Dare I say it, there may be a growing upsurge of energy and a greater feeling of independence as we head towards our busiest time of the year. Who knows what lies in wait around the corner in these unstable political and economic times? But perhaps we didn’t have it quite so good in Chelsea as we thought. Dare I say it, there may be a growing upsurge of energy and a greater feeling of independence as we head towards our busiest time of the year. Who knows what lies in wait around the corner in these unstable political and economic times?