Frying Filter News

Taste for takeaways outlasts Covid lockdowns

Thu, 28 Oct 2021 09:28:35 GMT

Taste for takeaways outlasts Covid lockdowns

During lockdown there was surge in demand for takeaways and home deliveries as people discovered that, as well as the traditional pizza or curry, it was easy to have other favourite dishes delivered, from brunches to late night snacks.

Food outlets pivoted on the spot to keep up with these sudden new demands.

But perhaps more surprisingly, even as the chance to dine out has returned, demand for home deliveries and takeaways has continued to grow.

Nearly a quarter of people are spending more on takeaways and food deliveries now than before the pandemic, according to market research group Mintel.

Prior to Covid, Britons were spending around £38 per month each on takeaways, home deliveries and meal kits, according to accountancy firm KPMG, a trend that was already growing. But between spring 2020 and spring 2021 average monthly spend per person reached £53.

To read the full online article and view it at its original source please click here at the BBC News Website.

UK Vaccine Update

Fri, 05 Feb 2021 08:54:35 GMT

Covid-19: Novavax vaccine shows 89% efficacy in UK trials

A new coronavirus vaccine has been shown to be 89% effective in large-scale UK trials.

The Novavax jab is the first to show in trials that it is effective against the new virus variant found in the UK, the BBC's medical editor Fergus Walsh said.

The UK has secured 60 million doses of the jab, which will be made in Stockton-on-Tees in north-east England. Meanwhile, a single-dose vaccine developed by Janssen is 66% effective , trial results have shown.

Janssen, a company owned by Johnson & Johnson, is also investigating whether giving two doses will give either stronger or longer-lasting protection.

The company said its initial findings showed one dose prevented 85% of severe cases. Both the Novavax and Janssen jabs will need to be reviewed by regulators before they can be used.

The PM welcomed the "good news", with doses of the Novavax jab expected to be delivered in the second half of this year if approved for use by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), the government said.

The UK has so far approved three coronavirus vaccines for emergency use - one from Oxford University and AstraZeneca, another by Pfizer and BioNTech, and a third from drug firm Moderna.

The Novavax jab, which is given in two doses, was shown to be 89.3% effective at preventing Covid-19 in participants in its Phase 3 clinical trial in the UK, and around 86% effective at protecting against the new UK variant. The jab's efficacy against the original Covid-19 strain was calculated to be 95.6% .

The Phase 3 trials - the final stage before a vaccine is looked at by a regulator - enrolled more than 15,000 people aged between 18-84, of whom 27% were older than 65, US firm Novavax said.

In the South African part of the trial, where most of the cases were the South African variant of the virus, the vaccine was 60% effective among those without HIV.

Stan Erck, chief executive of Novavax, said the results from the UK trial were "spectacular" and "as good as we could have hoped", while the efficacy in South Africa was "above people's expectations".

He told the BBC the manufacturing plant in Stockton-on-Tees should be up and running by March or April, with the company hoping to get approval for the vaccine from the MHRA around the same time.

To find out more information and to read the original source of this post, please click here which will take you to the BBC's website.

Brexit trade talks: Could the UK and the EU keep negotiating?

Thu, 17 Dec 2020 11:05:50 GMT

Brexit trade talks: Could the UK and the EU keep negotiating?

The post-Brexit trade talks may be inching towards an agreement - but it is still possible the two sides will run out of time.

The current transition period, during which the UK continues to follow EU rules, began when the UK left the EU, on 31 January, and it ends on New Year's Eve.

If there is no agreement by then, the UK would have no deal with the EU on trade, or on other issues such as security co-operation and fishing.

But could there be a legal fix to allow both sides to keep talking if necessary?

And what would happen if a deal was agreed only at the very last minute?

Could the transition period be extended?

The transition period was designed to preserve current arrangements temporarily and avoid disruption, to allow for negotiations.

But there is no legal basis for extending it.

It's part of an international treaty, the Brexit withdrawal agreement , that said any extension would have to be agreed before 1 July 2020.

And the UK decided not to ask for an extension.

Could there be another sort of extension?

If they wanted to, EU governments and the UK could, in theory, come up with an international agreement outside EU law to give them a temporary extension.

Some international lawyers have also suggested it might be possible to reuse Article 50 , the legal basis for the UK's exit from the EU.

But EU lawyers have rejected that.

Any plan for a further brief extension would probably be challenged in the courts.

But it could buy a few extra weeks before that challenge was heard.

Again in theory, that could allow the two sides to complete negotiations not quite finished or give more time for parliaments on both sides to examine a deal properly.

The UK has said in the past it will not consider any kind of extension.

But it wouldn't be the first time the impossible suddenly becomes possible in negotiations involving the EU, once creative lawyers sit down at the table.

"It's legally tricky," Catherine Barnard, professor of EU law, at the University of Cambridge, says.

"But you should never underestimate the ingenuity of lawyers, particularly when their backs are up against the wall."

Is a last-minute deal possible?

Any agreement would need to be vetted by lawyers on both sides - they call it "legal scrubbing" - and translated.

Most of that has probably already been done - there are only a few areas of disagreement left.

What are the sticking points in Brexit trade talks?

But the deal would still have to be scrutinised and approved - or ratified - by parliamentarians.

And the time to go through hundreds of pages of dense legal text with any degree of thoroughness is fast running out.

The inform ation for this blog post was taken directly from the BBC's website, to see the source and full article please click here.

New Curfew Law for Pubs and Restaurants

Wed, 30 Sep 2020 12:18:22 GMT

New Covid restrictions for the hospitality industry.

10pm curfew UK, the new rules are expected to be in place for the next 6 months.

A summary of the new pub, restaurant and takeaway rules curfew announced. Please note that the curfew times vary slightly across the 4 different nations of the UK.

The below information has been taken directly from the the UK Governments own website. If you would like further details or which to go directly to the website please click here.

Businesses selling food or drink (including cafes, bars, pubs and restaurants), social clubs, casinos, bowling alleys, amusement arcades (and other indoor leisure centres or facilities), funfairs, theme parks, adventure parks and activities, and bingo halls, must be closed between 10pm and 5am. This will include takeaways but delivery services can continue after 10pm (from 24 September).

In licensed premises, food and drink must be ordered from, and served at, a table.

Customers must eat and drink at a table in any premises selling food and drink to consume on site (from 24 September).

Businesses will need to display the official NHS QR code posters so that customers can ‘check-in’ at different premises using this option as an alternative to providing their contact details once the app is rolled out nationally (from 24 September).

Businesses and organisations will face stricter rules to make their premises COVID Secure (from 28 September):

A wider range of leisure and entertainment venues, services provided in community centres, and close contact services will be subject to the COVID-19 Secure requirements in law and fines of up to £10,000 for repeated breaches.
Employers must not knowingly require or encourage someone who is being required to self-isolate to come to work.
Businesses must remind people to wear face coverings where mandated.

Lockdown period and ongoing Covid-19 situation has boasted Takeaway sales in the UK.

Mon, 07 Sep 2020 07:55:17 GMT

Takeaway sales in the UK have been boosted by the current Covid-19 situation.

Businesses such as Just Eat Takeaway have seem a massive boost to brands such as Just Eat, Deliveroo and Uber Eats from the Covid lockdown's stay-at-home rules as sales for the group shot up by nearly a third in the first half of the year.

The takeover-hungry group whose brands include Just Eat in the UK, said it processed some 257 million orders from members of the public in the period - up 32% on the same months a year earlier. The second quarter's Covid restrictions on people drove them to order their favourite restaurants' foods to be delivered to their doors.

To read the full article please click on the link which will take you to the

Evening Standards website.

UK Fish and Chip Facts

Thu, 27 Aug 2020 16:47:05 GMT

What is the UK's favourite takeaway?

Fish and chips is still the nation's favourite takeaway, a new poll has found. At least one in four named the classic British dish as the best, according to the poll which had 2,000 responses. The classic dish even beat Chinese and Indian takeaways for the top spot.

How much do British people spend on fish and chips?

British people spend £1.2 billion on fish and chips.

A staggering 22% of people visit fish and chip shops every week.

This equates to six servings for every man, woman and child.

Eat Out To Help Out Ends This Bank Holiday Monday

Thu, 27 Aug 2020 15:15:56 GMT

The UK Government's "Eat Out to Help Out"

scheme comes to an end this Bank Holiday Monday!

According to the HM Treasury over 84,000 restaurants registered to take part in the Governments "Eat Out To Help Out' scheme. The scheme allowed members of the public to go to all participating restaurants and use a discount of upto £10 per person per meal for food and non alcoholic drinks.

How long is the scheme running for?

The scheme runs during the month of August 2020, every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. It comes to and end on Monday 31st August.

How does it work?

You simply go to a participating restaurant, and a 50% discount will be applied to your bill. Upto the value of £10 per person. If the pub or restaurant you are visiting requires you to use an App to order your food, the server should give you a discount code to apply at the checkout section of their App.

What is Acrylamide? How can you reduce it or get rid of it in your cooking process?

Fri, 21 Aug 2020 12:35:32 GMT

Reducing the risk of Acrylamide in cooking oil.

Acrylamide is not naturally found in cooking oil, but if starchy food like potatoes are fried in oil, and that oil is reused, then acrylamide can build up to dangerous levels. One of the best ways to ensure that your cooking oil is safe to use, is to invest in a food oil monitor. The Testo meter is extremely simple to use, this handheld and portable instrument that quickly measures TPC levels in oil to a high standard of accuracy. This monitor not only makes businesses more efficient, by preventing oil wastage, it also makes them safer and prevents acrylamide build up.

Several councils in the UK are starting to recommend it use

This is now being recommended by Environmental Health Officers for certain councils.

Find out more

You can learn more about acrylamide by visiting the

Food Standards Agency Website.

We now sell Food Oil Monitors.

The new and improved testo 270 is latest generation of our proven range cooking oil testers. Testo's 270 allows you to determine the quality of cooking oil faster and more reliably than ever before. To do so, it measures the 'Total Polar Material' (TPM) content in the oil, which is a sure indicator of its quality. It then gives a percentage and if the oil aged and increased TPM value will show.