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DELI OF THE MONTH

DELI OF THE MONTH

IF I’D KNOWN THEN WHAT I KNOW NOW...

SANDRA MCDOWELL, The Dairy, Gleno, Co Antrim, Northern Ireland

Our new industrial dishwasher broke last week. It will cost over £1,000 to repair and I can’t get the part because of COVID, so at the moment we are having to wash every dish by hand. Some days we have over 300 sittings.

Running the farm shop, butchery and café has given me an appreciation for how hard people in hospitality work. I am very fortunate to have 26 excellent staff who all pitch in. This is partly because they know I would never ask them to do anything I wouldn’t do myself.

When I opened The Dairy in April 2019 with my late husband Robert, we had no experience in this game. I had planned to learn all the jobs, from serving ice cream to making a good latte, but because we were so busy it never happened. I can still stack shelves and clear tables, though.

I tell staff that if something is not good enough to give to their mother or gran, it’s not good enough for a customer.

I think the way we treat our staff and customers and the fact we own our building have been key to surviving the last couple of years. We also own a hardware shop, which has kept us afloat.

That shop, Dairyside Stores, was established more than 60 years ago by Alex and Agnes McDowell. When Robert and I took it over in 1987, our house was in the same building. I would be cooking dinner in the kitchen and people would think it was a coffee shop and walk straight in. The idea for a farm shop came from there.

When we bought the nearby site that would become The Dairy, which dated back to 1914, we wanted to retain the spirit of the original business. We knocked the old building down and salvaged as much as we could. Old windows were used for dividers, corrugated tin lines the walls, and we even made a seat out of the old conveyor belt.

During our first year, business boomed. Thankfully, with hindsight, we put everything we made back into the business.

The problem, when COVID hit, was that overheads, such as utility bills, still had to be paid but the café was closed. At one point, we had 20 staff on furlough. Financially, we might as well not have had a second year.

It’s not just COVID we’ve had to contend with. The price of everything has shot up with Brexit – from napkins to cooking oil. We’ve also had issues recently with short-dated products – presumably because suppliers have a backlog of stock.

We’re still optimistic, though, and plan to start staging themed nights and hosting functions soon. We haven’t invested all this money into a business for it not to survive.

CONFESSIONS OF A DELI OWNER

ANONYMOUS TALES FROM BEHIND THE COUNTER

SUMMER HALF TERM has come and gone, and it was like being caught in a riptide. Admittedly, we did wash up with plenty of (contactless) cash in the till but we weren’t ready, we were out of practice and we were short-staffed.

We’re not close to the sea here, although it is solid gold countryside around our little market town. With the UK population trapped and desperate, we have been rammed. I was under-prepared on cheese. The espresso machine was groaning by the second day. And every cake we made was reduced to crumbs within minutes.

Others in the town felt it too. Just up the road, there is a new ice cream shop – sorry, gelato – that for 10 days had queues out the door from 10am to 5.30pm. The service left a lot to be desired – it reminded me of my mother searching for that box of cones she was sure she had some in a cupboard somewhere and reappearing with a box dated 2012 – but they certainly made some money.

So what does it tell us about the coming summer? I think it is going to be awesome. For some reason, I am absurdly optimistic (sorry,

So what does it tell us about the coming summer? I think it is going to be awesome.

global warming) that this is going to be the hottest summer on record, and I am looking forward to the patronage of the sunburnt masses.

I have a theory that the PM is deliberately holding back on letting people out of the UK to force domestic tourists into every nook and cranny of the country while he can. He wants to reinflate Britain’s hospitality sector, and this is one way to do it.

Perhaps he’s not that clever. I’m pretty certain he’s that devious. Either way, bring it on!

It won’t just be the money, as life-giving as that is. It’s also the hope that honest, profitable toil will put the drudgery of COVID in the rearview mirror. Like a modern-day Hercules diverting rivers to clean the Augean Stables (classical reference, I’m channelling my inner Boris Johnson), let’s aim to wash away 2020 with a tide of Brits missing out on Majorca.

That said, I’m currently short of staff and am struggling but hoping in the next few weeks to ship in some students. The lovely thing about a small town is that word travels fast, and we have a couple of good kids doing A-levels. They can recruit their brothers, sisters, friends and cousins. Experience tells me a good work ethic is often common across a whole group of friends.

Having lost some of my regular cohort of staff to redundancy, it’s going to create quite a new buzz. My shop culture is going to be destabilised, but I think I am looking forward to it.

So let’s get upbeat, top up the shelves and put bodies in those aprons. Brace yourself for the next wave. It’s going to be the Summer of British Tourist Love.

MODEL RETAILING SOLVING EVERYDAY SHOPKEEPING DILEMMAS. IN MINIATURE.

I’ve got a job going. Fancy swapping the hard hat for an apron?

Sorry, mate. I don’t think you could provide the same level of job security, health care or pension contributions as my current employer. Interested in Saturday work?

Even though I’m only 10, I just can’t see any long-term career prospects working in your deli. I’ll stick with coding classes. I’ll pay you double just to stack shelves!

No thanks. My ethical principles don’t align with the food industry. Also, I’m an alpaca.

FFD says: Hiring and retaining staff – regardless of how good they are – is one of the biggest challenges facing the independent food retail sector. Most potential employees see working at a deli or farm shop as a stop-gap, so retailers have to do more to encourage them to view roles as a longer term opportunity. You may not be able to mitigate for their feelings about food but you can at least put together an employment package that offers some benefits, a degree of stability and some job satisfaction.

editorial@gff.co.uk

THE DELI DOCTOR

Paul Thomas

Technical and regulatory advice from the Guild’s deli helpline

Q:Does The Deli Retailing Code of Practice supersede the Display Life for Cheese & Meat

guidance previously published by the Guild of Fine Food, with regard to reducing shelf life upon opening of a food?

A: Due to its ability to grow under refrigerated conditions, the principal food safety hazard relevant to the shelf life of ready-to-eat foods is Listeria monocytogenes. Other microbiological hazards may be more relevant to manufacturing or the selection of raw materials. Shelf life may also be based upon quality issues including growth of spoilage organisms.

Regulation (EC) 2073/2015 requires that food manufacturers evaluate and assign shelf life based upon the reasonably expected conditions of use and storage. For whole cheeses and cured meats, this would be taken to include portioning of the food. The code states that it is not necessary to automatically reduce shelf life upon cutting into a food as this should reasonably have been foreseen by the manufacturer. Retailers should however ensure

Retailer’s view

FLEUR LEWIS, HEAD OF , HEAD OF FOOD AT ACCOUNTANCY FOOD AT ACCOUNTANCY FIRM BISHOP FLEMING, FIRM BISHOP FLEMING, EXPLAINS HOW THE NEW EXPLAINS HOW THE NEW PLASTIC TAX WILL WORK PLASTIC TAX WILL WORK

Even though it’s unlikely that many independent retailers reading this will be directly liable to pay the incoming Plastic Packaging Tax, plenty of businesses in their supply chains will.

So, it’s important for everyone to understand how this tax will work, especially if it results in costs being passed along the chain.

As proposed in the Finance Bill 2021 and set to take effect from 1st April 2022, the tax will apply to businesses in the UK that manufacture or import more than 10 tonnes of plastic packaging made with less than 30% recycled plastic. This includes importers of packaging which already contains goods, such as plastic bottles filled with drinks. It

The code states that it is not necessary to automatically reduce shelf life upon cutting into a food

they have effective prerequisite controls such as cleaning and disinfection and staff hygiene.

While this might appear to contradict the earlier guidance on display life, the two documents are not incompatible. This part of the code relates principally to food safety. The retailer may still voluntarily reduce shelf life upon opening for quality reasons and in this case the guidance document is a useful reference. The retailer is not obliged to do so however to limit growth of Listeria.

If the food manufacturer states that shelf life must be reduced upon opening then – as a stated “condition of use” upon which the shelf life is based – it must be followed. Where applicable, this would normally appear on a product label or specification if such a condition applies. Otherwise, the stated expiry date provides the relevant information.

Dairy and food safety specialist Paul Thomas runs the Guild’s e-helpline for retailers with technical or regulatory queries. Send your questions to myguild@gff.co.uk

also applies to mixed material packaging where plastic is the dominant material.

The rate of tax will be £200 per metric tonne of packaging and is designed to encourage greater use of recycled, rather than new, plastic within packaging to direct waste away from landfill or incineration.

HMRC has issued guidance on getting ready for the tax for those who may be affected so that action can be taken well in advance of this measure coming into force.

Although details are still to be finalised, the main thing to note at this stage is that even businesses that manufacture or import fewer than 10 tonnes will need to register for the tax –regardless of whether you will have to pay any tax.

With this in mind, it’s a good idea for businesses of all sizes to keep records to show that they are below the tax threshold and to check that anything they are buying in has had the tax paid on it already.

To learn more about the tax visit gov.co.uk or

bishopfleming.co.uk

The tax is designed to encourage greater use of recycled plastic in packaging WHAT’S TRENDINGWHAT’S

NICK BAINES KEEPS YOU UP TO DATE WITH THE NEWEST DISHES, FLAVOURS AND INNOVATIONS IN FOOD & DRINK

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1 Sorghum There’s been a push towards ancient grains in the foodie landscape for some time, with bakers like Chad Robertson carving the way forward with research. However, it’s sorghum that’s recently come to the fore. It’s actually one of the most widely used grains on the planet, despite receiving little love in the UK. The Guardian recently explored sorghum, highlighting its practicalities for gluten-free baking, as well as its uses as a couscous or porridge substitute. Recently published Mother Grains by Roxanna Jullapat also reveals sorghum’s uses in regional Indian flatbreads and a host of African staples.

2 Pet nat While orange wine continues to intrigue consumers, it’s pet nat that’s the current darling of the wine world. Short for pétillant naturel, pet nat is a frothy sparkling wine that’s bottled before the first fermentation has finished – rather than undergoing a dose of sugar and yeast for a second ferment as per Champagne and Prosecco. It’s essentially sparkling natural wine, but typically with a lower alcohol percentage than your usual bottle of fizz. Expect soft, fruity wines with varying degrees of carbonation. As well as appearing on menus in restaurants like Brat, Brawn and P Franco, you can also find British pet nat from winemakers like Tillingham, which produces a Rosé pet nat offering flavours of “strawberry and peach cobbler”.

3 Hot honey The spicy-sweet combo is nothing new, but the partnership of honey and chillies is garnering a lot of attention right now. Waitrose earmarked hot honey as a major trend for 2021, citing American producer Mike’s Hot Honey as an instigator. After discovering the combo in Brazil, Mike Kurtz introduced it to the table of the New York pizzeria he was working in. Today, the brand is huge and the flavour combination has been trialled by the UK’s own Pizza Express with great success. Several British honey brands are in on the action while Fortnums has employed it in its Chef’s Honey collection.

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