CATEGORY FOCUS: SEAFOOD, DELI COUNTER

Just dive in

As picnicking season ramps up, it’s time to refresh your deli counter. We kick o this product round-up with a look at seafood, followed by all the latest launches you’ll nd in the serveover.

Compiled by Lynda Searby

an alluring mix of mild smoky, sweet flavours

Having built up a following for its smoked trout pâté, Butler Country Estates is now selling fillets and whole sides of Hampshire trout. The fillets are pin boned and brine cured before being hot smoked using an aromatic mix of apple, oak and hickory. Butler’s whole fish are gilled and gutted, and packed immediately after the smoking process. Retail pricing is £30/kg for whole fish and £40/kg for fillets.

butler-country-estates. co.uk

Working with International Fish Canners, The Orange Buffalo has combined two of its flagship buffalo wing sauces with wild Scottish mackerel fillets to give tinned fish a modern makeover. This represents the latest foray for the London-based restaurant brand, which already has an at-home bottled sauce range. The two tinned fish varieties – K-Town and Woof Woof – have an RRP of £3.

theorangebuffalo. myshopify.com

The BigFish range has been extended with two hotsmoked lines. Hot Smoked Salmon is made with Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status fish from Scotland, certified to the GGN standard for sustainable aquaculture. Hot Smoked Loch Trout uses a strain of rainbow trout that is from the same family as Atlantic salmon and rich in Omega-3. RRP £5.99 for 250g.

bigfishbrand.co.uk

Cornwall-based Seafood & Eat It has treated its collection of ready-to-eat British crab products to bold new pack designs. The range, which takes in Dressed Crab, White Crab, Brown Crab, Fifty Fifty Crab and Potted Crab with Brown Shrimp, features crab that is pot-caught in the traditional way and then hand-picked. RRPs start at £2.99.

seafoodandeatit.co.uk

West Country wholesale seafood supplier Meridian Sea is adding Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified anchovy fillets from the Bay of Biscay Fishery to its portfolio. As well as having a unique flavour, Bay of Biscay fish tend to be larger than their Mediterranean cousins. Initially, Meridian will be offering chilled marinated anchovy fillets in 100g and 150g tray packs.

meridian-sea.com

After picking up a 3-star in the 2020 Great Taste awards, Orkney producer Humes has treated its Oak Smoked Mackerel to new livery. The mackerel, which recently featured on BBC1’s Saturday Kitchen, is available ready to eat in two-fillet packs. Wholesale price £3.50.

humesorkney.co.uk

Sustainable preserved fish brand Fish4Ever has launched its poleand-line tuna in glass packaging. The tuna are fished one by one by local boats in the Azores, then packed locally in volcanic spring water (RRP £2.95 for 150g) or organic olive oil (RRP £3.75 for 150g).

organicorealfoods.blog

Ireland’s Shines Seafood has added mackerel fillets in sunflower oil, brine and tomato sauce to its line-up (RRP €2.50 for 125g). The company is currently on the lookout for a UK distributor for its range, which includes wild Irish albacore tuna, yellowfin tuna and wild Irish ventresca.

shinesseafood.ie

Ness Point Smokehouse in Lowestoft, Suffolk, is showing that there is more to smoked fish than salmon with its latest launches.

Its cold-smoked wild bass, sourced directly from local Suffolk fishermen and with 100% traceability, is a new addition to the producer’s established lines of traditional smoked fish such as kippers, bloaters and smoked haddock. With a more delicate flavour and a softer texture than other white fish, the cold-smoked wild bass can be used in risottos, salads and omelettes or simply poached and enjoyed alone.

Also new from the smokehouse is hot-smoked and roasted Cornish monkfish fillet, again, sourced directly from day boats with 100% traceability. Cold smoked and then roasted, the monkfish has a texture that is akin to halibut. Both lines come ready sliced in vac packs with a five-day shelf life. RRP £40/kg; trade price £35/kg.

Having supplied the restaurant and hotel trade with fresh and smoked rainbow trout from the River Test and River Itchen since 2015, ChalkStream Foods has launched a retail offering.

Southern England is home to 95% of the world’s supply of pure chalk stream water, produced when rain seeps into the chalk seams hundreds of feet below ground. It is filtered and purified by layers of chalk before emerging again in springs or ‘aquifers’ that flow into streams and finally rivers. The purity of the chalk stream environment is reflected in the clean, mild flavour of the fish reared on farms using this water. ChalkStream products include fresh rainbow trout, fillets, hot- and cold-smoked trout, pâté and potted trout.

chalkstreamfoods.co.uk

Chapman’s Seafoods is launching a dedicated BBQ range of seafood products for summer 2021. Backed by POS materials and A6 recipe cards available to download or order from the company’s stockist support site (chapmans-stockists. co.uk), the range includes lines such as sea bass fillets and raw jumbo king prawns. Chapmans is also inviting retailers to be featured stockists in its social media campaign.

chapmans-seafoods.co.uk

Seafood substitutes are tipped to be the next vegan trend, and Catch, the maker of Fabulous Fishcakes, is ready to ride that wave with its new Seacakes. Evocative of the seaside, the vegan cakes encase samphire, sea spaghetti, kelp, capers and lemon in a crispy gluten-free crumb. They are available in packs of four for retail. RRP £6.50.

fabcatchco.co.uk

Gilltong, described as “a decadent halfway house between jerky and biltong, but made with smoked salmon”, is the latest launch from The Pished Fish. This sweet, salty, slightly spicy hybrid can be eaten with olives, salads, breads, charcuterie platters, cheese or pale ale. RRP £5.49 for 50g.

thepishedfish.com

Elite Imports has introduced a new mushroom-flavoured Brie from German cheesemaker Kaserei Champignon to the UK market. The addition of white mushrooms to Bavarian cows’ milk results in a creamy, soft-ripened cheese with a mild mushroom flavour.

elite-imports-limited.co.uk

Historically only sold over the cheese counter in Britain, Cashel Blue is now available in pre-cut format for the first time via Rowcliffe. The 175g portions of Irish cows’ milk blue are hand cut on the farm and wrapped in the same gold foil as the whole deli wheels.

cashelblue.com

Zeet is on a mission to drive awareness of Tunisia as an olive producer, through its ever-increasing collection of olive-based products. Its latest introduction is organic Caspe olives that have been cracked for easy use. Harvested while still unripe and left to macerate in aromatic herbs, the Caspe olive has a soft bitter taste. RRP £3.65 for 370g.

evoozeet.com The Cheshire Biltong

Company is a new name on the cured meat scene. Husband and wife team Sheryl and Ryan Walker are the faces behind the brand, which has launched with an inaugural line-up of four biltong varieties, ranging from the exotic (kangaroo and ostrich) to the more conservative beef sirloin flavoured with chilli and cracked black pepper.

thecheshirebiltong company.co.uk

Strathearn Cheese Co has relaunched Lady Mary in a smaller, round format. Downsizing the cheese from 200g to 150g has also enabled the Scottish cheesemaker to lower the RRP to £4.50 and the wholesale price to £3.50. Lady Mary is a soft, creamy lactic-style cheese topped with locally foraged wild garlic and oilseed rape truffle oil.

strathearncheese.co.uk

Rod & Ben’s spring & summer range takes in nine seasonal varieties of organic soup, including Pea & Mint, Moroccan Vegetable and Rustic Chicken, available in 290g and 600g pots. These are joined by three organic dips: Chunky Houmous, Red Pepper Spicy Salsa and Butterbean & Chive Dip.

rodandbens.com

Helen Browning Organic is exploring new formats for its flagship Good Beef, and has launched a corned beef made from the sustainably reared meat.

Said to offer a “delicious twist on a classic product”, Helen Browning’s corned beef is worlds apart from the tinned variety. It is produced from beef which has a lower carbon footprint than traditionally reared beef because it is from grass-fed, dairy-bred cows.

This beef is then cured, slowly cooked in its own broth and hand pressed into terrines. RRP is £5.25 for a 150g vac pack.

Also new from the Wiltshire producer is an organic cooking chorizo produced from free-range, organic British pork sourced from several farms in the southwest of England, including its own organic pork from Eastbrook Farm. It is a matured, semi-dry chorizo, with the gentle heat of chilli and paprika. RRP is £5.99 for 250g.

helenbrowningsorganic.co.uk

Paxton & Whitfield is bringing new and unusual cheeses from across Europe to UK cheese counters. With consumer buying habits changing, the cheesemonger says it is important to have a range that offers a point of difference, including cheeses that people have not tried before.

These two cheeses from Belgium, not readily available in the UK market, are matured by master affineurs. Herve (RRP £9/200g) is a washed-rind, raw-milk traditional cheese that will appeal to anyone who loves an Epoisses; and Old Groendal (RRP £49/kg) is a gouda-stye cheese with bold flavours and a crystalline texture that has a huge following in the USA.

paxtonandwhitfield.co.uk

Berkshire’s Dublicious Food has created vegetarian versions of its scotch eggs and sausage rolls. For the scotch eggs, soft centre free-range eggs are wrapped with oyster mushrooms, cheddar, oats and beluga black lentils. The sausage rolls encase a vegetarian filling with red onion chutney in homemade puff pastry. Wholesale price £1.73 for the eggs and £2.46 for the sausage rolls (£2.20 uncooked).

dubliciousfood.co.uk

Most notably sold in Fortnum & Mason and Fenwick’s, Jarvis Pickle’s beef & ale pie has relaunched without mushrooms as a result of consumer feedback. The handcrafted pie is now solely filled with Tweed-Valley Scotch Beef and gravy made with Blackstorm Brewery’s Porter. The pies can be delivered UK-wide, loose or individually wrapped. They wholesale at £2.90 and retail at £4.50 cold.

jarvispickle.com

The Fine Cheese Co has seen a surge in consumer demand for pre-sliced, pre-packed charcuterie, prompting it to expand its range to include British cured meats from Duchy Charcuterie, Trealy Farm and Tempus Fine Foods. Retail customers can choose from lines such as Speck, Napoli and Spianata from Duchy Charcuterie, Beef Carpaccio from Trealy Farm and Truffle Salami from Tempus.

finecheese.co.uk

Cheesemakers Penny Nagle and Marcus Fergusson of Feltham’s Farm have taken inspiration from their travels in Spain and Latin America to develop a Somerset version of a queso fresco. La Fresca Margarita is a fresh, organic cheese characterised by a lemony taste that is as good with figs and honey as it is folded into a taco. Wholesale price £4 per unit.

felthamsfarm.com

Plant-based pies that encourage tree planting

To meet growing demand for plant-based foods, Pieminister has added three more vegan pies to its collection. Evergreen is packed with kale, spinach and edamame, Mooless Moo is Pieminister’s vegan answer to steak & ale; and Mock-adoodle features Tofurky’s plant-based ‘chicken’. RRP £4.50 for 270g. The entire Pieminister range is now packaged in fully recyclable windowless boxes and for every plantbased pie sold, Pieminister will donate 10p towards forest planting.

pieminister.co.uk

Greek charcutier Kassakis is seeking to reinstate a traditional Cretan product with the launch of its smoked pancetta. Made using fresh pork, salt and local spices, the pancetta is available sliced and cubed in a variety of sizes, from 200g up to 1kg.

afoikassaki.gr

OliveOlive is relaunching its Cyprus Village Halloumi, following the EU’s decision to grant PDO status to Cypriot-made cheese. Cyprus Village Halloumi is made from 100% goat’s milk, which gives it more flavour than cheaper imitations that tend to be made in the UK from cows’ milk.

oliveolive.co.uk

The current boom in home pizza making has prompted Somerset Charcuterie to develop a pepperoni. Made from free-range rare-breed pork (75%), supplemented with grass-fed beef (25%), the pepperoni is available in 60g sliced retail packs as well as whole for deli counters.

somersetcharcuterie.com