Product details

The affected products are:

* Country Life Spreadable
* Pack sizes: 250g and 500g
* Batch codes: 8285 and 8286
* Use by: 20 December 2008 and 21 December 2008

Dairy Crest has recalled the affected products. Product recall notices will appear in the national press today, Thursday, 13 November 2008 and point-of-sale notices will be displayed in shops where the products are sold. These notices will explain why the products have been recalled. Anyone who has bought them should not eat them and should contact the customer care team. The contact details for the customer care team are:

telephone: 0800 328 5344
email: clsrecall@dairycrest.co.uk

Write to:
Consumer Care Manager
Freepost Country Life Spreadable
Dairy Crest
SY1108
Telford
TF6 6ZA

No other Country Life products or other products made by Dairy Crest are affected.

Source

Food Standards Agency

Product details

The recalled products are:

Infused Olive Oil (in the following types of flavour):

* Rosemary
* Thyme
* Basil
* Garlic
* Lime
* Lemon
* Chilli

Best before: all date codes up to and including March 2009

Size: 250ml and oil from cask

The company has recalled the affected products. Product recall notices will be displayed in shops that sell the products, explaining why they have been recalled. Anyone who has bought any of the olive oil listed above can return it for a full refund.

Source:

Food Standards Agency

All the tempting Divine products are made using only the finest cocoa beans from smallholder farmers in Ghana.  45,000 farmers supply all Divine’s high quality cocoa and because the entire Divine range is Fairtrade certified, they are guaranteed a fairer deal.  As the farmers also own a 45% stake in the Divine business this means they contribute to the running of the company and share in the profits. Buying Divine for your loved ones will make everyone’s Christmas merrier!

So to enter the competition to win this gorgeous, guilt-free (well almost!) Advent calendar, just answer the question below and send your details to us via our Contact Page. The competition is open only to UK residents and closes on Friday 28th November 2008.

How old is Divine this year?

Good luck!

To buy Divine advent calendars click here.

To buy Divine gifts click here.

Whether you are part of the 47% of parents that say they stick to a variety of their favourite meals because they know their families will love what they make, or the 82% that rotate their signature suppers, updating your recipe repertoire with quick, easy, wholesome meals is never a bad thing.

Uncle Ben’s Sauces, with the help of a celebrity chef and a nutritionist have produced three videos to give you inspiration to ensure each member of the family belongs to the clean plate club.

Click below to watch the videos with celebrity chef Sophie Michell from C4’s Cook Yourself Thin and nutritionist Juliette Kellow:

Recipe 1

Recipe 2

Recipe 3

For more information visit www.unclebens.co.uk

Patrick Holford, founder of the Institute for Optimum Nutrition, has written a new book that claims to provide a fast, safe, and highly effective way to stop cravings and end addictions – whether they’re for chocolate, sugar, caffeine, alcohol, nicotine, illicit or prescription drugs. So How to Quit Without Feeling S**T might be the answer to keeping those New Year pledges.

Patrick’s book explains that whatever the addictive substance, whether it’s sugar, caffeine or cocaine, the brain reacts in much the same way and the answer to beating the addiction and cravings is a combination of diet, specific supplements and lifestyle factors that help ‘reset’ your brain’s chemistry, depending on your addiction.

His 12-week action plan shows how you can help yourself to become addiction free – and finally able to stick to your New Year’s resolutions without constant cravings. Patrick has also set up a how2quit.co.uk website which includes a questionnaire to see if you are addicted, short extracts from the book and case studies.

Patrick will be talking about How to Quit Anything on Monday 12th January from 7pm – 8.30pm at St Jame’s Church, Picadilly, London. See www.patrickholford.com for more details.

How To Quit Without Feeling S**T (Trade Paperback Original, Piatkus, £12.99, Published 1st January 2009)

Patrick’s Ten How To Quit Tips

Quitting sugar

If you’re a sugar addict halve your sugar intake and switch to xylitol. This is a natural sugar found in cherries, berries and plums. Nine teaspoons has the same effect on your blood sugar as 1 teaspoon of sugar. Available in some supermarkets, all health food stores and on-line at www.totallynourish.com.

Quitting caffeine

Caffeine promotes adrenalin. When you quit you feel like your get up and go has got up and gone. Adrenalin is made from the amino acid tyrosine. Supplement 2,000mg of tyrosine in the morning, on an empty stomach, plus adaptogenic herbs such as ginseng and reishi. Some supplements contain these in combination. Have two cups of green tea instead. This has much less caffeine and contains theanine, a relaxing amino acid.

Quitting booze

Alcohol promotes GABA, a brain neurotransmitter that helps you relax. GABA is made from two amino acids, glutamine and taurine. Hops, passion flower and valerian also promote GABA. Find a supplement that contains these ingredients for a natural chill-out in the evening. The mineral magnesium, rich in pumpkin seeds, is also calming.

Quitting cigarettes

Don’t just quit cigarettes.  You need to get ready by balancing your blood sugar. The reason why so many people crave cigarettes on quitting and overeat instead is that nicotine upsets your blood sugar balance. You need to follow a low GL diet (explained in How to Quit Without Feeling S**t), which means eating slow-releasing carbohydrates together with protein. Oat flakes and seeds for breakfast, an apple with some almonds as a snack, or fish with brown rice for dinner, are all low GL.

Make a list of all your smoking triggers

For example, with a hot drink, when stressed, before a meal, after sex, with alcohol. Now pick one and, for a week, break this habit. For example, don’t smoke with a hot drink. Each week break another trigger.

Quitting chocolate

If you’re a chocoholic, eating chocolate every day, you need to give it a break. The addictive substance in chocolate is both caffeine and theobromine. Firstly, follow a low GL diet since blood sugar dips are what makes you crave. Secondly, take a supplement providing the amino acid tyrosine plus adaptogenic herbs such as ginseng and reishi or rhodiola. Some supplements contain these in combination. Having three squares of dark chocolate a day is OK. After all, it’s high in antioxidants. But not three bars a day!

Quitting diet cola

If you’re a diet cola addict follow the same advice as for coffee, substituting apple juice diluted with fizzy water, or something completely different.

If you crave something sweet or a caffeinated drink

First drink a glass of water, then eat a piece of fruit with some seeds or nuts. When you’ve satisfied your thirst and your hunger you may find your craving has gone.

If you’re feeling uptight, anxious or blue and feel like a drink

Go for a walk, a run or a bike ride. Get out in fresh air and do something physical that gets you out of your head and into your body. Or talk to someone.

Eating oily fish and supplementing omega 3 fish oils daily reduces craving and anxious and aggressive feelings associated with use and withdrawal from addictive substances.

Still, I can’t help but feel a little suspicious about the reasoning behind the MP’s argument for increasing alcohol prices. One of the results of this credit crunch is that people are staying at home rather than eating out and partying, and the hospitality industry is suffering as a result. I can’t help thinking that these calls by the MP’s are in reality a way to force people out to spend money again.

Do you think I’m being too cynical? Do you think the MP’s really have best intentions at heart? I really don’t know and I’d love to know what you think.

Source

Newsbeat

Mira has worked in the food industry for 8 years and through this, developed an extraordinary passion for food. Her background is a well rounded mix of manufacturing, process development, new product development and food consulting including a sizeable project with Jamie Oliver, which gave her a really good footing to start up her own food company.

It was a combination of her background, her pronounced passion for food and her creativity in the kitchen that made her decide to run her own food business. Luckily, she already had a name for it “The Mango Jam Company” which she came across 5 years earlier during her travels and bought the web domain!

She gave up a consulting career with a prestigious city firm to pursue her passion, and started the Mango Jam Company late 2007 as a catering firm, cooking up quirky homemade meals and canapés for private parties. She was quickly inundated with questions about the “mango jam”, as clients would naturally expect a company called the Mango Jam Company to make and sell Mango Jam! So after a quick dabble in the kitchen, she developed the recipe and Mango Jam was born!

Making the jam in your mum’s kitchen must be a messy affair – how much do you make in one go?

Being from the food industry, and armed with a MSc in Food Science and lots of experience in ‘scaling up’, it was a relatively easy feat to scale up from a tiny pan to 30kg pots….the key is to be organised with everything batched up beforehand….the rest is a doddle!

What’s the twist?

There’s a cheeky ginger kick which complements the mangoes wonderfully and adds a warmth and depth to all the fruitiness.

Your mango jam is really packed full of flavour, what’s your secret?

The jam has 135g of fresh mangoes per 100g of jam, which equates to 75% cooked fruit once we’ve peeled and stoned the mangoes… this is almost twice as much as leading high street jams (40%). Our jam also has half the total sugar as standard jams at 32g / 100g vs. 65g / 100g… so not only does it taste fantastic, it’s also a healthier alternative to other sugar-packed, fruit-deprived jams.

Where can we get some?

There are about 15 stockists around the country at the moment…and growing…you can find your local stockist details on www.mango-jam.com where you can also buy it on line for just £5.00 including postage and packaging…a bargain!

Here are Mira’s tried and tested uses for this wonderful Mango Jam…

• Toast / Cheese on toast /  Panini / crostini with some soft blue cheese
• Porridge
• Yogurt with granola
• Cheese board
• With foie gras
• Desserts - either a cheesecake topping (use coconut biscuits as the base - yum!), or at the bottom of a creme brulee
• As a marinade for chicken or salmon - mix with a tiny bit of oil and soy sauce
• As a dressing - mix with a tiny bit of sesame oil & lemon / lime juice or olive oil & balsamic vinegar
• A jam tart topping (I’m not convinced, but my friend tried it for her kid’s party and loved it!)
• Mango champagne Bellini

“I think it’s definitely worth trying with turkey as the new Cranberry for 2008!”

I’ve recently become addicted to eating crackers with Philadelphia, topped with Mira’s Mango Jam – it’s delicious and I can’t wait to try the Bellini, what a fabulous idea! Let me know if you think of any other ways of using Mango jam.

And you don’t just have to stick to traditional beef lasagne. We can show you, thanks to Dolmio, some new recipe suggestions to tempt your taste buds.

Why not be a little bit more adventurous and include seafood in your filling? Prawns and smoked haddock go beautifully with a white sauce.   And if that doesn’t tickle your fancy, why not try a vegetarian option - mushrooms, carrots, aubergine or broccoli combine to make a delicious roasted winter vegetable variation.

Hungry? Click here to learn from chef Marco’s three easy steps to a perfect lasagne

For more information and recipe inspiration visit www.dolmio.co.uk

You can choose which week you want your order delivered and raise money for your group’s funds too.

See the fantastic Christmas Selection for some great treats and gift ideas.

Helen will be at the BBC Good Food Show London this year, so if you’re going, make sure you pop by Stand D60, say hello and stock up on your special diet goodies!

BBC Good Food Show: Olympia, London - Friday 14th - Sunday 16th November - Stand D60 with Aunty Jee’s (Beautiful Mind Foods Ltd).

Heston, Baby James, Nigella AND Helen all at the same venue? Definitely one for the diary!

Increasingly people are turning away from faceless corporate chains and returning to their local markets - where good value and a human touch can be found in the heart of the community.

Vibrant and colourful, a local market cuts out the middleman, resulting in variety, choice and good value that can be passed on to the consumer.

A recent basket comparison survey showed that markets proved to be cheaper [£28.67] than like-for-like supermarket products [£30.36]. Fruit and vegetables have been shown as the commodity where you can capture the biggest bargain. In the price comparison a shopping basket including apples, potatoes, carrots, plums and cauliflower bought at your local market trader on average totaled £4.69 where as the same products purchased in a supermarket would cost you on average £6.79!

Locally-sourced produce means your food can make it from field to the plate in a matter of hours - resulting not only in guaranteed freshness but fewer food miles and less pollution.

Joe Harrison, CEO of the National Market Traders Federation will be available online to take your questions on the virtue of market forces on November 12th at 14.45 pm.

Click here to submit questions before the chat.