The Food and Drink Federation members are companies of all sizes as well as trade associations and groups dealing with specific sectors of the industry. The UK food and drink industry is the largest manufacturing sector in the country. It accounts for 19% of the total manufacturing sector by turnover and employ over 400,000 people in the UK across 7,000 businesses.
Functions
The Food and Drink Federation is responsible for communicating to and from a range of audiences including the UK government, regulators, consumers and the media. The Food and Drink Federation tackles a range of issues on behalf of its members under the three core areas of health and wellbeing; food safety and science; and sustainability and competitiveness; readiness and calorific contribution; it also aims to highlight the work industry conducts under these areas. For example, its sets out where manufacturers are looking to make a difference to the environment through reducing CO2 emissions; sending zero food and packaging waste to landfill from 2015; reducing the level of packaging reaching households; improving water efficiency to reduce water use; and embedding environmental standards in their transport practices to achieve fewer and friendlier food miles. Product reformulation has also been another major focus for the Federation, highlighting the industry’s ongoing work to reduce salt, trans fats, fat and sugar in food products. The industry’s efforts have been supported by the UK's Food Standards Agency, the UK Government and others.
Full list of FDF members can be found here: A list of FDF Professional Affiliate members can be found here: http://www.fdf.org.uk/members-professional-affiliates.aspx
Structure
Food sector groups
• Biscuit, Cake, Chocolate and Confectionery Group - is a member of the European association • Frozen Food • Ice Cream • Meat eWG • Organic eWG • Yogurt & Chilled Dessert eWG
The organisation has a Scottish division that runs autonomously and is based in Edinburgh. It deals directly with the Scottish Executive and is wholly responsible for the Scottish food and drinkmanufacturing industry, having its own Executive Committee. The drinks industry in Scotland is an important part of its economy, and its exports.
