Helen Gilbert

London

Journalist and Editor at Freelance

Freelance journalist | Medical & healthcare copywriter I Often found on a tennis court, atop a paddleboard or wandering around a wood. | Wonky #mastcell owner

Articles

Shoppers failing on 5 a day while half won’t experiment with new fruit and veg: Riverford

Jan 22, 2025 | thegrocer.co.uk | Helen Gilbert

Almost half (47%) of British consumers rarely experiment with new fruits and vegetables, the latest research commissioned by organic veg box company Riverford has revealed. Of the 2,015 adults recently polled by the business, 45% said they tried to mix up their selection but reverted to staples.
Seasonal workers to protest outside Home Office over conditions

Jan 22, 2025 | thegrocer.co.uk | Helen Gilbert

A group of migrant farm workers are preparing to hold a protest in front of the Home Office this Friday, 24 January, demanding an end to the exploitation of overseas workers on UK farms. The rally will take place at midday and is the first of its kind to be held by migrant farm workers in central London. It will be staged by farmhands who came to the UK in 2023 as part of the government’s Seasonal Worker scheme, which began in 2019 as a response to labour shortages on UK farms after Brexit.
MSPs call for urgent action to improve Scottish salmon standards

Jan 21, 2025 | thegrocer.co.uk | Helen Gilbert

Animal welfare campaigners have welcomed a report calling for an “immediate timetable” to address concerns around salmon farming practices in Scotland. An inquiry by the Scottish parliament’s Rural Affairs & Islands Committee found “slow progress” had been made on the recommendations put forward by its predecessor committee in 2018, which had flagged significant environmental, fish mortality and welfare concerns within the sector.
Noble Foods spends £2.3m on ‘most ambitious’ ad push

Jan 21, 2025 | thegrocer.co.uk | Helen Gilbert

Noble Foods has splashed £2.3m on what it describes as its “most ambitious” advertising campaign to date for flagship brand The Happy Egg Co. The ‘happy hens lay tasty eggs’ multichannel marketing push, which is running for 24 weeks, aims to “set the bar for welfare in the free-range egg category”, build awareness of the brand and “reinforce the connection between high welfare and great taste”, Noble said.
Berry sector hangs in the balance amid soaring costs and falling returns

Jan 20, 2025 | thegrocer.co.uk | Helen Gilbert

The future of the British berry industry is hanging in the balance despite the UK sector hitting record milestones, British Berry Growers has warned. Rising energy costs, wage increases, and a lack of fair retailer returns continued to create challenging circumstances for fruit farmers in 2025, the latest data from the industry body revealed.
Shoppers don’t trust unlabelled international food ingredients such as eggs, research reveals

Jan 20, 2025 | thegrocer.co.uk | Helen Gilbert

Half of UK shoppers do not trust the ingredients in foods when there is no country of origin labelling on the packaging, research from the British Egg Industry Council has shown. As many as 69% of shoppers felt it was misleading to not highlight the origin of major ingredients such as eggs in items such as egg sandwiches, salad or quiche, the poll of 2,055 UK adults in November revealed.
Crediton boosts protein content of Pro Mlk shake range

Jan 17, 2025 | thegrocer.co.uk | Helen Gilbert

Crediton Dairy is boosting the protein content of its Pro Mlk range and introducing a new vanilla flavour. The protein-enriched milkshake brand will see each serving deliver 25g of protein from March, up from 20g. It is also introducing a new, fat and sugar-free vanilla flavour. The shakes will remain priced at £1.15 for a 330ml carton and will be available in Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Co-op and Morrisons. The new vanilla variant will join the brand’s existing chocolate and strawberry flavours.
Yoplait reformulations see further lowering in sugar content for Frubes and Petits Filous

Jan 16, 2025 | thegrocer.co.uk | Helen Gilbert

Yoplait has reduced the sugar content in two of its kids’ yoghurt brands. After fresh reformulations of their recipes, Petits Filous now contains 8.9g per 100g, down from 9.3g, while Frubes has dropped from 10.8g of sugar per 100g to 9.9g. The revised contents of the two products include naturally occurring sugars from lactose and fruit, Yoplait confirmed.
Gourmet charcuterie brand The Mad Butcher secures Sainsbury’s listing

Jan 16, 2025 | thegrocer.co.uk | Helen Gilbert

Charcuterie producer Sigma Alimentos has secured a Sainsbury’s listing for two new lines under its gourmet meat snacking brand, The Mad Butcher. The traditionally produced charcuterie sticks, which are said to be smoked over beech wood before being dried and cured to give a rich, smoky flavour, will be sold through 173 of the retailer’s stores and online from 22 January – marking its biggest UK supermarket listing to date.
This founder Andy Shovel launches new animal welfare charity ‘A Bit Weird’

Jan 15, 2025 | thegrocer.co.uk | Helen Gilbert

Plant-based brand This founder and vegan campaigner Andy Shovel has launched a new charity that seeks to disrupt the way stories about animal suffering are told. Called A Bit Weird, Shovel’s not-for-profit aims to turn the traditional approach of sharing “grave and grisly messaging” around factory farming and alleged “animal anguish” on its head by making people laugh.