The Small Print

The Small Print is Footprint Media Group's weekly podcast hosted by Nick Hughes. Every Wednesday we delve beneath the headlines of stories impacting the hospitality and foodservice sector through our unique lens of environmental and social affairs, in company with expert guests.

The Small Print is a business podcast hosted by Nick Hughes, with 22 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Nick Hughes hosts The Small Print, a business show with 22 episodes published.

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  Episode #22

  22. The kitchen staple facing a horror harvest

  Sep 1, 202622 min

  There can be few ingredients more essential to the hospitality and foodservice sector than the humble onion. From its role as the basis for soups and sauces, to its use as a standalone ingredient in burgers, stir fries and all manner of other dishes, the onion is one ingredient chefs cannot do without. Yet onion growers have just experienced their most challenging season ever following a summer of extreme heat and drought, with the British Onion Producers’ Association (BOPA) warning of major challenges with yields and quality. In this week’s episode, Nick is joined by BOPA’s chairman Ben Collins to highlight the difficulties extreme weather is causing onion growers, and set out the support British growers will need from buyers and policy makers to ensure a sustainable supply of onions long into the future.

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  Episode #21

  21. Foodservice leads the charge on reuse

  Jul 21, 202632 min

  Serving food and drink in reusable cups and containers is one of the most impactful ways businesses can reduce packaging waste, improve resource efficiency and embed the principles of a circular economy. Yet adoption of reuse systems at scale remains low, with logistical and cost barriers often seen as insurmountable. Compass Group is showing what’s possible in the UK & Ireland by rolling out Cauli's technology-enabled reusable food and drink packaging system across a range of sectors including healthcare and business and industry, eliminating almost 400,000 single-use items to date. In this week’s episode, Cauli co-founder Ming Zhao and Compass Group UK & Ireland’s head of environment Ashleigh Taylor join Nick to discuss the journey they’ve been on in scaling a reusable packaging system and why foodservice, with its closed-loop settings, is well placed to lead a long-awaited, industry-wide charge on reuse.

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  Episode #20

  20. An expert's guide to making plant-rich dishes work

  Jul 14, 202635 min

  It's well-evidenced that serving more plant-rich dishes is an effective way for foodservice operators to reduce the climate impact of their food offer. The World Resources Institute works with organisations via its Coolfood initiative to deploy tools and techniques that empower consumers to choose more sustainable meal options. It recently published new guidance that looks beyond the behavioural science and explores the operational challenges operators can face in successfully scaling plant-rich dishes and how these can be overcome. In this week's episode, WRI's Edwina Hughes joins Nick to share her key insights for how businesses can make plant-rich dishes the go-to choice for customers.

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  Episode #19

  19. Inside the tent: what did we learn from Groundswell 2026?

  Jul 8, 202616 min

  The annual Groundswell Festival of regenerative agriculture took place at Lannock Farm in Hertfordshire last week. In this week's bite-sized episode, Nick shares his key takeaways from the 10th staging of the event which speak to the trajectory of the regenerative movement, the tensions that still exist within it, and what it all means for farmers and businesses. In particular, Nick highlights growing scrutiny over the relationship between more sustainable food production and healthy consumption amid passionate debate over whether it matters how ingredients produced in regenerative systems end up being deployed within the food chain. As one speaker asked provocatively: 'Is a regeneratively farmed KitKat too good to be true?'

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  Episode #18

  18. Lessons in food security from Canada

  Jun 24, 202638 min

  As experts continue to question the resilience of the UK’s food system amid geopolitical turmoil and weather extremes, Canada has forged ahead with developing a new national food security strategy. The document explicitly positions food security as national security and sets out how Canada plans to assert greater control over its food supply through investment in domestic production and infrastructure. In this week’s episode, Nick is joined by Sid Mehta, an expert in Canada’s food system with experience working across the foodservice, policy and consultancy spheres. Sid provides the background to Canada’s food system and explains the context behind the new food security strategy, the political economy that has shaped it, and what it tells us about the risk of relying on others to feed us in an increasingly volatile world.

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