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27/9/2018

Street Food Live 2018

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Street Food Live 2018!

This year’s Street Food Live saw the NCASS team, enforcement officers, events experts and traders nationwide come together at ExCel London to network, learn and share their advice on running a successful street food business.

NCASS were primary partners for the 2018 event, meaning we had far more input on the talks and sessions held, and could bring in more food industry experts than ever before!

Here’s a run-through of how it all went.
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​Alan Fox, 'How to Thrive in Street Food'

NCASS managing director, Alan’s talk, ‘How to Thrive in Street Food’, drew a big crowd as he covered the importance of good branding and marketing to make your business a success. “Most successful street food traders have a story and they share it through their branding”, he explained. “A good brand communicates a clear message about what it stands for and how it differs or is better than its competitors.”

Alan also told audiences how best to come up with a great name for a new business. “When thinking of a business name, keep it simple and incorporate your type of food or think of something snappy, clever, memorable. A strong name is a great starting point into making a strong brand.”

As for marketing, Alan went on to talk about the importance of social media. “Social media is a street food trader's best friend. It's free, you can connect with customers, you can find places to trade and you can showcase your brand to the world.” He explained that, to be successful, “You need to use social media to build up the biggest following you can. The more followers you have, the better your company and brand is known.”

Alan concluded his speech by telling the crowd that building a solid brand won’t happen overnight. “It doesn’t matter what your goal is for your business, in order to reach it as quickly and as easily as possible, effective and successful branding and marketing is integral.”
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​Bob Fox, 'Top Tips for Street Food Success'
NCASS Chairman Bob Fox took to the stage next, drawing an even bigger crowd eager to learn from the mobile catering mogul himself on, ‘Top Tips for Street Food Success’. Bob talked of his experiences as a mobile caterer, and his mistakes and successes over the years. 

“You put a product out there and test it with customers, suppliers, your margin, the produce you buy, then you change it,” he explained. “Then you test it and you change it again. And you still might not get it right. Then the market changes, so you need to change again.” His advice? “You need to think, what do I do to make mine that bit different, that bit special to make people come back time and time and time again?” 

Bob’s final piece of advice was for business owners to get a mentor. “That’s what NCASS is about. We help with documents, finance, equipment and marketing. We work hard to ensure you succeed because your success is ours too.”

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​Mark Laurie, 'The Future of Street Food'
NCASS director, founder of the Street Food Alliance and co-founder of Digbeth Dining Club, Mark Laurie had a great deal of advice for business owners looking to keep trading long into the future. “Two billion people eat street food daily around the world,” Mark explained. “It’s only in the West that it’s a new phenomenon.”

He went on to explain how street food had grown from dirty pink burgers to tacos, then bao, then a full-blown revolution. His advice, “If you follow a trend, you’re putting a time limit on your business,” was met with agreement from audience members in-the-know. Mark acknowledged Sarah and Thomas from The Mussel Pod, who farm their own mussels and cook and sell them on their street food unit, explaining that though it was hard work, the originality and authenticity was what made their business so appealing.

Mark then told the audience that, “One of the biggest threats in the industry is the appropriation of street food - fast food disguised as street food.” Mark talked of the new trend for supermarkets to sell packaged food with ‘street food’ printed on the label, and how big restaurants are beginning to open street food stalls using kitchen equipment which they’d brought outside, something a visiting EHO would not be pleased to see. “The Street Food Alliance is supporting more professional traders who follow the rules with the right attitude,” Mark explained. “Those who threaten the integrity of industry are not welcome.”

Mark’s biggest piece of advice to start ups was, “If you're looking to give up your job to spend £20,000 starting a street food business, go to a street food trader and ask to work for them for free. You might hate it. This will save you £20,000!”
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13/6/2018

Food Safety in the summer

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Keeping your food safe through the warmer months.

Food safety expert Jenny Morris gives her two cents on how you can keep food safe in warmer climates this summer.

1,000,000 cases of food poisoning every year

Summer time and the living is easy. Or at least that’s what the Gershwin song said (if you are interested in old style musicals). But for many food businesses it means even more hard work. Hopefully it’s because good weather has brought more customers out. But when things start to heat up it’s important to think about what this means for food safety, particularly if you work outdoors in mobile or temporary outlets. 

According to the Food Standards Agency there are around 1 million cases of food poisoning every year. And the number increases in the summer, particularly for cases of E. coli, Listeria and Salmonella. When I was working as an EHO, there was a large food poisoning outbreak one summer. It happened at a community event and was linked to barbecued chicken. The person in charge was not a professional caterer and knew a little about food safety. So, to make sure that the chicken was thoroughly cooked she par cooked the portions at home and brought them to the site in the back of her car (where they warmed up nicely in their black bags in the sun.) Then, the portions were quickly “flash cooked” on the barbecue – and later those who ate the chicken became ill.

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Training matters
For me the learning from that incident is that “a little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing”. So proper training in food hygiene is essential. And if you take on new staff in anticipation of increased summer trade, training should be an urgent priority. To a professional caterer the mistakes made in cooking the chicken will be well understood but sometimes there are some less obvious hazards that pop up when the sun shines. The food safety basics – “the 4 C’s” – remain the focus of the safety controls but some adjustments may be needed. So, let’s look at them in turn.

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13/6/2018

Tesco launches anti-waste project

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Tesco launches plan to reduce waste

The need for change
In a remarkable bid to tackle the UK’s food waste problem, Tesco will remove ‘best before’ labels from approximately 70 pre-packaged produce lines to prevent edible food from being wrongly deemed unsafe and thus, discarded. 

The Food Standards Agency, the government body charged with protecting public health in relation to food in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, pleaded with the public and food suppliers last year to make more prudent decisions about what constitutes waste.
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13/6/2018

KERB Workshop

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KERB Workshop

The Street Food takeover
There’s no denying it, street food is big business; not just in London but throughout the whole of the UK, with regular street food events popping up everywhere from Cornwall to Aberdeen. Here at NCASS, we’re committed to helping independent caterers establish new and exciting businesses, street food or otherwise - and we’re not the only ones.

KERB: bringing Londoners together since 2012
Since its first market back in 2012, KERB has grown to 70 of the best traders serving over a million lunches in London’s most iconic locations including the Gherkin, Kings Cross and Camden Market. KERB founder and independent caterer/event organiser/bonified super woman Petra Barran established KERB in an endeavour to weave street food in to the fabric of London, giving Londoners a sacred space whereby they could eat communally; indeed the magic of street food lies in its ability to bring traders and customers together; an ‘agglomeration’ (poignantly, Petra’s favourite word) of people passionate about food and community.

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13/6/2018

Labour councillor pleads with parliament to enforce mandatory ‘scores on doors.’

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Labour councillor pleads with parliament to enforce mandatory ‘scores on doors.’

MP makes plea in response to poor food hygiene ratings​
​Labour health spokeswoman and Burnley MP Julie Cooper will make a case in parliament for the mandatory display of food hygiene ratings at the entrance of all food premises. The request for a change in legislation comes as the result of increasingly poor food hygiene scores in Chorley where the number of food outlets scoring just one or zero in assessments by enforcement officers, has increased by almost 50% since September 2017.
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13/6/2018

New guide for plastic reduction at festivals released

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New guide for plastic reduction at festivals released

This week the RAW Foundation released its free festival guide – The Making Waves Guide to Plastic-Free Festivals and Events.
Launched at the Green Events and Innovations Conference by A Greener Festival on March 6th, the guide focuses on educating industry stakeholders on how to move towards sustainable consumption.

The RAW Foundation state that “our personal and collective choices have been altering the planet for thousands of years and now our expanding population and the global spread of consumerism mean that our ecological impact has never been more critical than it is today.” This phenomenon has historically been just as prevalent on the festival scene as it is in everyday life, and that’s why the RAW Foundation – along with Kambe Events and other partners – are trying to do something about it.

The free guide is aimed at anyone who’s involved in the organisation side of festivals, no matter what size or type their event is. It runs through the consequences that have come from the use of plastics at UK events and offers practical advice for change. The guide includes:

• Clear facts about plastics 
• Information on plastics at festivals 
• An action plan checklist 
• Inspirational case studies and tips 
• Links to useful resources

Click on the image on the right to download the guide.

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13/6/2018

British Street Food Awards 2018

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British Street Food Awards 2018

​British Street Food are now looking for traders to nominate themselves to compete for a British Street Food Award this year.
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Founded in 2009 by Richard Johnson, the annual awards were set up to enable young street food traders to showcase their talent, to make street food accessible to all, and to celebrate the street food movement. 

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13/6/2018

Brexit causes one in 10 hospitality workers to consider leaving the UK

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Brexit causes one in 10 hospitality workers to consider leaving the UK

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A survey concludes that one in 10 (11%) of hospitality employees are thinking of leaving the UK as a result of Brexit. The survey, conducted by YouGov on behalf of software company Planday, found that the figure, equivalent to around 300,000 UK employees, was a long way off the 4% staff loss predicted by employers in the industry.
3% of hospitality managers precited that they would be forced to close their businesses due to Brexit, and almost one in five have found staff recruitment harder now than this time last year. 

John Coldicutt, chief commercial officer at Planday, said: “These findings show to us the depth of the potential impact of Brexit on the UK economy, with the hospitality industry being hit especially hard. 

“There’s clearly false confidence within the hospitality sector with almost three times as many workers considering leaving as managers expect. Now more than ever it’s crucial that managers make sure they have the right infrastructure in place to engage their employees and build genuine loyalty.” ​
Specific Concerns
In terms of specific worker concerns, 24% of staff polled who were born outside the UK expressed concern about being forced to leave the country, while 11% of all staff polled expected to see a pay decrease and 6% expected to have to work longer hours as a result of Brexit. 

45% of hospitality managers want the government to offer more support to the sector after Brexit and 30% want specific work permits to protect staff born outside of the UK. 

Overall, the survey found that 53% of hospitality workers felt the UK had become a less welcoming place to live and work as a result of the Brexit vote. 

However, of the businesses surveyed, 76% said they were ‘Brexit-ready’, with 10% training or upskilling (8%) staff, 15% recruiting from different markets such as older employees or working parents, 8% increasing salaries, 4% increasing staff benefits and 9% aiming to increase flexibility for workers. 



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    These articles are written by the NCASS copywriters, Rachel, Sophie & Andy.

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    • What Is Street Food?
    • Start Up Cost
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    • Where Can I Trade?
    • What does the law say?
    • Street Trading Licences
    • THE Checklist for street food inspections
    • Gas Safe
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  • Book a Trader
  • Is Street Food For You?
    • Caterer Motivators
  • Contact Us
  • Hygiene & Safety Training