Food and Drink Federation

The Food and Drink Federation is a lobby group in the UK for the food and drink industries. It 'promotes the industry's views and works to build consumer confidence in the food chain as a whole.' http://www.fdf.org.uk/.

Overview

Industry Areas: The Food and Drink Federation (FDF), through its 50 members, directly and indirectly represents approximately 95% of the UK food and drink manufacturing sector^[1]. Member organisations include the Rice Association, the Food Association, the Potato Processors Association, the British Soft Drinks Association and the Federation of Bakers^[2].

Overview: The FDF represents big business in the food and drink sector. Its current president is Peter Blackburn, former chair of Nestle UK, and now also chair of Northern Foods. Food and drink industries use the FDF to promote their own interests to both government and the public. Such interests typically include:

the production of a globally competitive food production system which involves the intensification and genetic modification of agriculture, thereby minimising input costs for the food manufacturing industry;

the promotion and support of high profit-margin, high value-added food and drink products - in practice this tends to mean highly processed products, often unhealthy and containing many additives.

Ensuring that the research agenda in the universities and research institutions match the ever-increasing need for new products in the processed foods sector.

The FDF relays these interests throught variosu campaigns and lobbying strategies to government and the public. Within government, FDF and/or industry representatives sit on numerous government committees responsible for dealing with food issues.

Market share / Importance: The FDF is the principal trade federation representing UK food and drink producers. Through its 50 members, it represents a gross output of £65 billion, or 14% of total UK manufacturing. 500,000 people are employed within this sector: 12.7% of the UK manufacturing workforce^[3].

The FDF therefore calls itself the:

Largest packaging client

2nd largest advertising client

3rd largest energy client

Furthermore, the FDF indirectly (through its members) buys 2/3 of all UK agricultural produce.

Resources

• Food and Drink Federation: Projects
• Food and Drink Federation: Who, Where and How Much
• Food and Drink Federation: Influence and lobbying
• Food and Drink Federation: Corporate Crimes

Officers

President: John Sunderland - Cadbury's

Deputy President: Gavin Neath - Unilever

Treasurer, Deputy President: Ross Warburton - Warburtons

Vice President: Iain Ferguson - Tate and Lyle

Vice President: Kirit Pathak - Patak Foods

Staff

Director General: Sylvia Jay

Communications Director: Martin Paterson

Campaigns Manager: Karen Barber

Media and Parliamentary Relations Manager: Christine Fisk

Links

• The Food and Drink Federation, A Corporate Profile, By Corporate Watch UK Completed November 2002 [4]

• Felicity Lawrence and Rob Evans 'Food firms go all the way to No 10 in fight over what we eat: Letters, lunches, dinners, briefings.' The Guardian Wednesday May 26, 2004. Also here: [5]

Notes

1. ^ http://www.bsb.org.uk/members/library/conferences/2001autumn/paper_460.htm
2. ^ http://www.fdf.org.uk/fdfmembership.html#1
3. ^ UK Food and Drink Industry Statistics 2000