The Grocer – 20 July 2019

(Chris Devlin) #1

bogof


PB | The Grocer | XX Month XXXX Get the full story at thegrocer.co.uk Get the full story at thegrocer.co.uk 20 July 2019 | The Grocer | 57


Burger King in Sweden is
trialling the Impossible
Burger, backing it with a
giveaway that challenges
customers to spot the dif-
ference with ‘real’ meat.
It’s doing better than
BK UK on the enlight-
ened front, then. It turns
out the halloumi burger,
launched last week to the
delight of vegetarians,
er, isn’t vegetarian – it’s
cooked in the same fryers
as chicken and  sh.

Veg Swedes in
burger heaven

ad of the week: Morrisons pushes price message with cheap and cheerful duo


‘Our Brand. Lower
Prices’ is the slogan for
a pair of new Morrisons
ads. Not staggeringly
original or interesting,
but shoppers never
dislike a price message.
And it feels like ‘not
staggeringly original or
interesting’ may have
been the brief for the
ads. A mum and a dad
respectively recite a
shopping list , before we
hear about Morrisons’
daily deliveries of ‘over

15 million items to our
stores’ – that’s the
availability box ticked!
Generic George Ezra
soundtracks the shop,
before we’re back home.
It pays o well for ad
dad, whose wife leans
in for a smooch, while in
the other one ‘mum’ has
to be content washing
the dog with her family.
It’s forgettable – but
it’s obviously super-
cheap. Thri y shoppers
should feel reassured.

Bread ahead:


Japan enjoys a
slice of life

Bogof is always keen to
bring you the latest food
trends from around the
world – particularly if the
food is unusual or (pref-
erably and) gross.
So it’s exciting to learn
(via The Guardian) of the
craze currently rocking
Japan – the land where
it’s possible, a er all, to
get snake venom sake
and girls’ hair- avoured
chicken.
It’s toast. Yep, so
white slices are in. And
Japan’s famous tech and
artistic knowhow is being
applied in full e ect.

So if you want, you can
spend ¥30,000 (about
£220) on a metal box
‘toaster’, which uses hot
plates to heat just one
slice at a time.
Or you can head to
cafés that allow you to
toast at your table, or

where food artists metic-
ulously decorate slices
with ingredients includ-
ing sushi, mango paste
and black sesame.
The Japanese Toast
Association (a real thing)
doubtless has more infor-
mation if you need it.

Land of the rising loaf: two Japanese chaps enjoy a slice

What’s the di er-
ence between porridge
and oatmeal? The lat-
ter is just a confusing
Americanism, right?
Apparently not.
German supermarket
Edeka is taking heat
from consumer group
Foodwatch for charg-
ing three times more for
‘porridge’ than it does for
‘Hafer ocken’ (oatmeal).
‘The  akes are the same,’
insists Foodwatch.

Edeka claims por-
ridge is more ‘swella-
ble’ and can be eaten
a er  ve minutes, while
Hafer ocken requires
more simmering. Now we
know the di erence!

Swellable: some porridge
(or possibly oatmeal)

German mult
knows its oats

W

hen your delicious Donna was starting
out as a public servant there was always
a ‘silly season’ a t this time of year, when
politicians and media embraced their inner idiot
and you couldn’t quite believe anything you read.
Well, it won’t have escaped you that the ‘season’
is now downright stupid, and is now a year-round
phenomenon. All the leading intelligentsia of
the food supply chain are now warning of Brexit
shortages of everything from fresh produce to
clean underpants.
And yet (perhaps because the above
commodities are of little interest to them) our two
Tory hopefuls are careering towards a no-clue
Bwrecksit as if it were a public school jape. Well,
my Frexit department exists to protect Hard-
Working Families from this national debagging,
and so it is with all due modesty that I claim credit
for the latest brilliant M&S initiative.
Hard-Pressed Families (see above) have only to
switch all of their food spend away from the grey
desperation of Aldi and Lidl to the sunlit aisles of
M&S and they will be amply rewarded with tiny
plastic and cardboard facsimiles of pizzas, Percy
Pig sweeties and Peruvian co ee beans.
Yes, it’s true. Those Christmas present woes
are now o cially over. Imagine the look of joy on
Johnny/Jenny’s face when they open a tiny plastic
model of some Cornish Cove Mature Cheddar.
Moaning Minnies will point out that by simply
staying with the discounters, your average
HWF/HPF could save enough for Mummy’s new
Beemer, but pish tush! This is genius of a truly
Brexit kind, and a few hundred extra tonnes of
super uous plastic is surely a price worth paying.

DONNA
PSEY
FOOD RETAIL EXPORT IMPORT & TRADE MINISTER
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