Alistair Darling revealed his plans for the UK economy in his first ever budget this week, but how will the baking industry be affected? See 21 March British Baker

...the extra cost consumers pay for healthy foods such as wholemeal bread and brown rice compared with less healthy options; this has gone up from 18% in 1988, according to a survey published in Food Magazine

“We’ll do our damndest to be the lowest priced [grocer]. We will be as aggressive as possible with prices. I’m not going to squeeze suppliers, but I am going to be very assertive.” - Andy Bond, the chief executive of Asda, quoted in The Guardian offering some soothing words to suppliers

Dr Allinson refused to eat meat as a point of principle, and that principle was safeguarding the health of his bowels. If you’re thinking of turning veggie for ethical reasons, then think again.

Out on DVD today is The Baker – a comedy about a hitman who has second thoughts about his career and hides out from his boss by finding work as a baker in a rural Welsh village. In light of Fosters Bakery’s successes in recruiting ex-offenders, have we stumbled across an answer to the skills shortages? Filmed in Cardiff and Abergavenny, it’s described by ex-Band of Brothers lead actor Damian Lewis as “Waking Ned meets Grosse Pointe Blank” and also stars Michael Gambon.

No, this is not a skeleton fashioned as a toast rack. It is in fact an award-winning toaster designed by student George Watson of Northumbria University, made with slip-moulded bone china. The bread glides through heating plates and drops onto the rack. Comments from Watson show him to be nothing less than a toaster philosopher: “This toaster is designed to engage the user, re-invigorating the social context of toasting by questioning everything about what we toast with today.”

Britain has repeated efforts to procure legislation prohibiting night work in bakeries.

Despite being a continually evolving industry, that has survived and adapted to modern technologies and ever-changing consumer tastes, bakery is often considered the poor relation to cooking.

Malcolm Proctor, Ciaran O'Kane

In 2002, Tristan Hogg and Jon Simon teamed up to start their pie business, inspired by quality native Australian pies and disappointed with the quality of the UK equivalent, they say. Chef Tristan used to feed hungry rock stars, while Jon was working in a London bar. The pair combined their talents to launch the first Pieminister in Bristol, branching out to open their Borough Market pie stall in 2004.

More than 30 new exhibitors have signed up for the Baking Industry Exhibition (BIE), joining many big-name regular exhibitors.

There's a certain amount of faith required when following the recipes in Richard Bertinet's new book Crust. The French baker, who runs a bakery and cookery school in Bath, is a firm believer in using a high percentage of water in his bread recipes, which he argues makes for light and airy loaves. Unfortunately, it also makes for a very sticky dough - so sticky in fact that there may be times when you think you have made a mistake in following the recipe.

Take a passion for food, stir in a desire for indulgent treats to fit a vegan lifestyle and top it off with a concern to cater for those affected by food allergies and you have the recipe for the success of London-based Heavenly Cakes.

We are living in an age when consumers want to be associated with outer beauty and inner vitality, and just like the guests on the Channel 4 TV show 10 Years Younger, Waterfields bakery has been undergoing a dramatic facelift.

How and when did you become involved in the baking industry?

There is a fine line between brilliant innovation and the utterly bizarre. This was evident from the Hotelympia 2008 exhibition, which showcased a vast range of products, including aluminium teabags and juice made from flowers.

Having spent a lifetime in the trade - many of those years in training - we seem to have endlessly thrown the skills ball around, with few willing to take on the challenge. So what are these skills: are they craft, process, or apprenticeship and where are they coming from, together with the supporting knowledge and understanding?

In a recent speech to the National Farmers' Union, Iain Ferguson, CEO of Tate & Lyle and president of the UK's Food and Drink Federation, said: "We have to face up to the issue of genetic modification (GM) and rise to the challenge of helping to foster a fair and scientific debate on an issue that has typically been clouded by suspicion and a lack of trust. The current economic climate with rising food prices and concerns over long-term availability of commodities may well give us the opportunity to do this."

Lion Capital, a UK-based private equity firm, has agreed to acquire a 32% stake in Swiss bakery firm The Hiestand Group.

Allied Bakeries, the company behind Kingsmill, Burgen, Allinson and Sunblest, which is part of Associated British Foods (ABF), has shown "substantial improvement" over the past year in provisional figures announced ahead of the interim results to 1 March 2008.

Daylesford Organic will support the Real Food Festival in London from 24-27 April.

The wheat market at the moment can best be described as volatile (pg 4). Prices in North America have shown sudden escalation - a consequence of low global wheat stocks coupled with an increase in speculative fund activity in soft commodity markets.

Gundula Azeez, policy manager, The Soil AssociationGundula Azeez, policy manager, The Soil Association

Bakery oven supplier Rational has set up an academy for bakers to learn how to use its Self-Cooking Center.

Sandwich chain Pret A Manger has been taken over by private equity firm Bridgepoint in a deal valued at £345m, which will accelerate Pret's expansion plans in the UK and internationally.

Consumers are growing increasingly sceptical of health claims on food and drink packaging, according to a report from Datamonitor.

Bakers have a last chance to enter California Raisins' live competition, which will be held at William Reed's Baking Industry Exhibition (BIE) at the Birmingham NEC from 6-9 April 2008.

Canadian-owned Maple Leaf Foods has announced fourth-quarter results for 2007, which revealed an 11% increase in Bakery Product Group sales to $393m (£200m) up from $355m (£180m) in the last quarter of 2006.

Research conducted by Café- direct found that almost nine out of 10 consumers said they would pay a few pence more for quality Fairtrade products.

The future of a pie and pasty plant in the Midlands is in doubt following a downturn in trade.

As part of a national expansion programme, Leeds-based Bagel Nash hopes to open an extra 43 shops, up from the current total of seven, over the next three years.

The price of wheat for bread-making flour in the US has "exploded" over the past two weeks shooting up 66%, according to Alex Waugh, director general of the National Association of British and Irish Millers (nabim).

n Consumer concern about food miles has doubled in the last five years, according to the latest research from international food and grocery expert IGD. One in six Britons (16%) now say the distance food travels is one of their top five concerns about food production, up from 9% in 2003.

• By personal experience I have discovered that

Hung(a)ry for a way out of the day-to-day bakery grind? Got a mouthful of dodgy molars? Then follow Bill Farnworth, a 58-year-old former bakery engineer from Hindley, who is upping sticks to an idyllic Hungarian village “complete with a deer forest and lake... part paid for by money he saved on his teeth,” reported the Wigan Observer. Desperate to cut his whopping £12,000 quote for dental work, he travelled to Hungary where he managed to halve the bill. He said: “I gave it a go and they said that while I was out there, why didn’t I have a look at the property market?” The £6,000-plus saved helped purchase a run-down property, which he converted into a plush home – worth the equivalent of £400,000 in the UK. But we can’t help thinking that if he’d taken Dr Allinson’s dental advice last week, he’d now be living in a castle.

Smartly dressed, neatly bearded and with a digestive system to die for, Dr Allinson fired off pearls of wisdom as regularly as his bowels. Our nation of work dodgers – a rising percentage of which cannot even drag themselves out of bed in the mornings – should heed the following advice: go skinny dipping.

There were bemusing bakery goings-on at the Royal Courts of Justice last week, when embattled ex-Beatle Paul McCartney bizarrely turned up for his divorce hearing with Heather Mills, clutching a Village Bakery oven glove. So why the mitt? Apparently he uses it to keep his papers safe. When BB got hold of Village Bakery MD Michael Bell on Friday afternoon, the Currant Bun (The Sun) had already been in touch. Clearly already having got his tabloid patois down pat, the tickled bakery owner commented: “I’m not sure whether it was just because she [Mills] was too hot to handle. Or was it just because the gloves were off?”

The recently-laun-ched Back to Basics Egg n’ Muffin Toaster is a bog-standard toaster with an egg cooker unceremoniously bolted onto the side. This can cook a full English, sausages, hash browns or tomatoes and the pan detaches for easy cleaning. But why stop there? Where’s yer ketchup dispenser, builder’s tea maker and indigestion tablets?

Apple strudel is thought to have derived from Bavaria or Austria. Made with a very thin elastic and springy pastry and filled with apple, this classic pastry makes a heart-warming winter dessert.

Honeyrose Bakery, the organic cake baker based in Park Royal, London, is significantly stepping up its operations to meet the growing market for organic hand-baked cakes. The firm, founded in 2000, has outgrown its current bakery, having "knocked through into neighbours until we've run out of neighbours", as Adrian Apodaca, Honeyrose's marketing director, puts it.

Momentum is gathering around the National Skills Academy Training Centre for Bakery. Whether this ends up based at Campden and Chorleywood Food Research Association (CCFRA), as mooted, or emerges as a handful of satellite colleges, scattered across a wider geographic reach, is still up for debate. Fosters Bakery, for one, would like to see a national skills centre set up in Barnsley. This is not surprising - Fosters is based in Barnsley.

T he Competition Commission's (CC's) two-year-long investigation into the grocery market inched towards a final conclusion last week, with the publication of its long-awaited final remedies statement. On the surface, bakery suppliers should be happier with the recommendations than high street bakers, who face the daunting prospect of even more supermarkets springing up around them.

I have always shared with you my latest ideas to make our fortune. But now I know they have not worked as well as I had hoped. If they had, I would not be writing this and you would not be reading it; we would all be in the south of France in our villas.

New research from business analyst Mintel claims that 84% of British adults look at packaging to see its recycling credentials.

Bakery chain Dunkin' Donuts is to launch a new Oven-Toasted menu in the US, in a bid to claim a share of the toasted sandwich market.

Sugar refiner Tate & Lyle has announced that for the four months to 31 January, profit before tax was "marginally ahead of expectations", despite issuing three profit warnings last year.

The Great Yorkshire Sandwich, Snack and Mobile Show will take place on 21 and 22 May at Elsecar Heritage Centre, Barnsley. Aimed specifically at the 'grab and go' sector, the show has over 40 stands.

Would you welcome an ombudsman to police the relationship between supermarkets and suppliers (pgs 5 and 14-15)?

Bakers are facing high raw material, ingredients and energy costs, and could do without the government's plans to increase fuel duty by a further 2p per litre from 1 April.

Greencore Group, the Irish maker of sandwiches and malt, has had a tough year due to unseasonal summer weather, consumer slowdown, strong raw material inflation and a weak exchange rate, said chairman Ned Sullivan.

Philip Gittens, a wholesale baker in Hull, who runs the Crusty Cob, has recently launched his latest invention after receiving a £25,000 European grant.

Bakery businesses are being urged to sign an online petition against the new family business tax.

Carl and Lorraine Edney, the owners of Splits bakeries, have taken over the former West Sussex Bakery in East Wittering. The couple are working hard to turn it into a thriving business again after former owner, Carl Boothby, was found guilty at Chichester Magistrates Court of seven hygiene offences, including moth infestation in an open bag of flour.

North-west bakery chain Sayers unveiled its new look on Wed-nesday after revamping its image and menu.

Lightbody Cakes, part of the Finsbury Food Group, is playing host to a BBC children's show called Beat the Boss.

Midlands bakery firm Firkins has adopted youth homelessness charity St Basils as a focus for 2008. St Basils has 23 residential projects in the Birmingham area for 16- to 25-year-olds.

This spring's British Society of Baking (BSB) Conference is at the Baking Industry Exhibition at the NEC, Birmingham. There is a gourmet dinner from 6.30pm on Monday, 7 April. Rooms can be booked at the Holiday Inn by the BSB.

After spending almost two years investigating the grocery sector, the Competition Commission published its latest report on February 15. This is an interim report, ahead of its final report which is due before May. Supermarkets and other interested parties will be lobbying hard between now and then.

The average sales increase for the top 105 bakery companies was 18.9%, for the three years to December 7, 2006, according to a recently published report from Key Note.

n Ingredients supplier Mayfair Foods has acquired Hall Farm Merchants, a dried fruit business, with immediate effect. "We feel the acquisition of Hall Farm Merchants' business fits the dynamics of Mayfair Foods," said a spokesperson for the company, who added that it was looking to make further acquisitions.

…the increase in value recorded by the vegetarian food market last year, partly due to clever marketers using the term “meat-free” on packaging rather than the stigmatised “vegetarian”, claims The Grocer. Sneaky.

This latest bread browning breakthrough eschews the traditional pop-up approach which, let’s face it, has become a bit passé. Its makers were literally thinking outside the box to come up with this nifty roller mechanism. You could probably laminate false passports with it too, or even straighten your hair, if you were so inclined.

Here’s some more medical wisdom from back in the days when a certain Colombian marching powder was still considered a not unreasonable remedy for toothache. If only the kids of today would stop shoving it up their noses, the nation’s oral health would not be in such a parlous state.

Continuing the Swiss theme this week, a Swiss man was reportedly detained by airport authorities in Dubai after poppy seeds were discovered on his clothing. Officials, following a hardline on drug smuggling in the United Arab Emirates, took issue with the seeds, which apparently came from a sandwich he bought in Heathrow. In light of this crackdown, travellers are advised not to follow Dr Allinson’s toothache remedy (see above right).

In the 1940s film The Third Man, Orson Welles’ Harry Lime uttered this famous line: “In Italy under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had 500 years of peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.” Now we can add the world’s first cheeseburger in a tin from Swiss-based company Katadyn. The nation must be proud.

The method of making savoury snacks by folding the corners of a square of puff pastry over towards the centre of the filling is well-liked by the smaller baker. Two bakers have reported that the filling for a tomato tart sells well with this, is cheap and easy to make and produces good profits.

Mirroring developments in the US, cupcakes are attaining a cult status in the UK with an explosion of flavours, colours and frostings. Consumers, particularly baby boomers and generation X-ers, tend to be sentimental about foods that evoke childhood memories. For the younger generation, the concept of retro eating brings a sense of fun.

Established: 1989

A bit of a baking industry legend to say the least, Ernst Bachmann has been nominated as a finalist at the Baking Industry Awards no fewer than 15 times, and last year was the fifth time he walked away with a gong. Readers of BB will also know him for his series of recipe Masterclasses in these pages - not that this would have biased the independent judges, who praised his exceptional products in the face of tough competition.

Most of us would like to make a small difference to the planet or leave the world a little bit better off than we found it.

Previously the preserve of teas and coffees, more and more Fairtrade badges have been popping up on bakery products in recent months. Fairtrade is an organisation that helps to improve trading terms and conditions for producers of, among other products, coffee and chocolate from developing countries. But why should a baker use Fairtrade ingredients, how hard is it to get accredited and what are the hurdles involved?

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) revealed on Wednesday, 16 January, its new voluntary guidelines to warn consumers about possible allergens in food from food retail outlets, such as bakeries, cafés and restaurants, as well as food that is not prepacked. Two weeks later, on Wednesday, 30 January, the EU Commission went even further and announced an intention to introduce new legislation to make this mandatory.

T here has never been a better time for the cereals industry to cement partnerships across the supply chain, which will strengthen it going forward and increase profitability for all.

What is the Sector Skills Agreement (SSA)?

What will be the biggest issue your business faces in 2008?

Danish ingredients firm Danisco has signed an agreement for the acquisition of shares in UK-based emulsifiers producer Abitec. The acquisition is conditional upon the approval of the appropriate competition authorities. A spokesman for Abitec said this could take anywhere from eight weeks to several months.

Fairtrade hot drinks company Cafédirect has announced pre-tax profits of £705,000, up from £48,000 in 2006.

Lightbody, the celebration cake manufacturer, is planning to build a bakery in China.

Fareham-based Rich Products recently hosted a visit from members of the British Confectioners' Association (BCA).

Investor confidence is a fickle thing. When a company such as Premier Foods makes bold acquisitions, it is lauded by the media. But when trading turns tricky, it's like the cult of celebrity: you are fêted at the top, but detractors are quick to gather when you slide off your perch (pg 4).

Terry Sharp, head of baking & cereals processing, CCFRATerry Sharp, head of baking & cereals processing, CCFRA

Allied Bakeries is set to relaunch its Kingsmill Gold range this month in a bid to claim a larger cut of the premium bread category.

The Cornish Pasty Association (CPA) is waiting to hear whether Defra will support its application to gain Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status for the Cornish pasty under EU law.

Despite consumers making active attempts to eat more healthily, the threat of obesity shows no sign of slowing down, according to a new report.

Following its purchase from Northern Foods a year ago, savoury pastry brand Pork Farms is re-establishing its brand with a new look.

The American Bakers Association (ABA) is calling on all US bakers to descend on Washington in protest against critically low wheat reserves.

A branch of Cooks the Bakery in Rustington, near Littlehampton, Sussex, has been fined £5,000 in a food hygiene prosecution brought by Arun District Council after a customer complained.

A new report has revealed that 32% of consumers in Ireland thought organic food, including bread, was healthier for them, while only 15% said that it was full of flavour.

Coughlan's of Croydon has received many compliments since it started selling solely Fairtrade coffee across its 22 Munch café outlets.

Alan Marr, MD of Aulds (Food) of Greenock, Scotland, was scathing about press reports that profits at the company were down when he spoke to British Baker.

Investment bank and stockbroker group Shore Capital announced early this week that since its initial assessment of Premier Foods, the situation for the Hovis manufacturer had become "more dire".

n FAS Productions, a manufacturer of savoury pastry products, has recently been purchased by Scottish entrepreneur David Orr.

We appear to have stumbled across a whole subculture dedicating their time to toasters. At www.toaster.org you’ll find toaster art, toaster merchandise and toaster-themed e-cards. The Toaster Museum Foundation proclaims: “We are a non-profit organisation dedicated to toasters – yes, that’s correct, the kitchen appliance. Since our origin in the Pacific Northwest in the 1990s, our organisation has dedicated itself to educating, entertaining, and enlightening people about the history and cultural importance of the bread toaster.” It puts paid to the notion that we’re all ‘time poor’ these days.

Ever wanted to learn more about the history of Spam? Would you like it told to you via the medium of animated scraped toast? You’re a bit weird. But here you go: www.tinyurl.com/yvalfv

Toaster graffiti has been, ahem, popping up more of late. Sightings date back to 2002, from New York to Birmingham, and this recent daub was spotted in London. It could be a reference to an early Jamaican precursor to rap music, known as ‘toasting’, or it could be about elevating an everyday device to cult status. As long as it gets people eating more toast, we’re not complaining

Always at the forefront of toaster technology, Japan has once again come up trumps with Sega Toys’ Pa toaster. If you squint, it looks a bit like a cartoon panda. This marvel hits the market in June. Can you wait?

He may be long gone, but his wisdom lives on. If only he’d been born a century later to guide us through the tough times, we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in right now...

With consumers increasingly opting for ethical products, Costa Coffee has set up its own charity, the Costa Foundation. The company says its aim is to put something back into coffee-growing communities from which it sources its coffee beans. It is currently working in Colombia, Ethiopia and Uganda.

The Big Apple didn't know what had hit it last year, when 50 of Britain's best craft bakers piled off a plane and pounded the sidewalks in a mission to visit the city's finest bakers and retailers.

On visiting Tesco's inconspicuous HQ in Cheshunt, surrounded as it is by Hertfordshire suburban semis, the initial impression is that it's a pretty understated setting for the brain-room of the retailer that accounts for one in every eight pounds that leaves our wallets.

Much is made of 'greenwashing' - the slightly sneery term levelled at businesses accused of hooking on to environmental schemes and painting themselves as tree- huggers. But for once, companies are being asked to take the term more literally and greenwash more. To do this, they need to be washing less.

With constant media attention fixated on spreading the message of a looming recession and crashing stock markets, both in the US and UK, many bakers may be wondering, "How does this affect my business?"

Have you ever wondered why we pay taxes for an Army, Navy and Air Force? No one is going to invade us. If they did, they could never afford to live here and buy a house. Plus, what would be the point in invading us, as most of their friends and family already live here?

A surgeon friend once said to me: "Being an anaesthetist is hours of boredom, with the odd moment of dread panic!" As you well know, dear baker, our job is the very opposite: "hours of dread panic, with the odd moment of boredom!"

Frozen food and bakery supplier Central Foods has announced that it is undergoing a management buyout.

After record almond ship-ments over the first three months of the new season (September-November), December shipments were also slightly up on the 2006 figure. Overall domestic sales were down by 18.4% while exports were up by 8.8%, said Mark Setterfield MD of RM Curtis.

Carluccio's, the Italian restaurant and delicatessen chain, has announced that, for the 16 weeks to 13 January, turnover growth was up 18%.

Usman Zafar, the former owner of a Winsford, Cheshire bakery has been fined £2,000 and ordered to pay costs of £700 for "appalling standards" of food hygiene.

The authoritative research commissioned by Rich Products, using TNS Worldpanel (pg 4), will do little to allay the government's fears on obesity. It shows a 14% rise in indulgence products over last year! And growth in indulgence has overtaken health for the first time. But it's good news for the baking industry that families are trading up to quality goods, as they attract a premium price.

Matthew Goodman, policy representative, Forum of Private Business (FPB)

A new 'Better Organic Bread' project has been launched to boost the country's organic bread market.

United Biscuits (UB) has sought to enhance its green credentials by setting out targets for redu-cing greenhouse gas emissions and energy use, waste sent to landfill, water use and packa-ging waste.

The latest British Baker poll, on http://www.bakeryinfo.co.uk, has revealed that bakers thought that skills shortages were the biggest issue facing their business in 2008.

The Freight Transport Association (FTA) has warned that many bakery distributors may not be prepared for the new Transport for London Low Emission Zone scheme, which came into force on Monday, 4 February.

Irish baker McCambridge Group has appointed Gavin Cox to the newly created role of chief executive officer, with effect from 5 February.

Camilla Parker Bowles opened Marshfield Bakery in Wiltshire on Tuesday. Local press reports said the business had recently moved from a small cottage to a barn, due to increasing demand for its locally sourced products.

A newly launched seaweed and black pepper oatcake is going down well in the Highlands - and beyond.

Northern Ireland's Allied Bake-ries are waiting to hear from the Guinness World Records to see if they have beaten the world record for the largest number of people tossing pancakes.

Families are "trading up" and returning to the dinner table when it comes to indulgent occasions, accor