I firmly believe Britain must Bremain not Brexit.

No country in the modern world can decide everything for itself in isolation.  We all depend on each other.  Connections bring influence and mutual benefit.

The European Union is by no means perfect, but it is an amazing achievement, supporting unparalleled peace and prosperity after two world wars.

Britain would soon start counting the cost of turning its back on its nearest neighbours.  It might even not be Britain anymore.

The instability of uncertainty is already depressing economic growth, the jobs market and investment.

I too would prefer greater control over immigration, but much of Britain’s recent immigration has valuably filled lower paid jobs and misplaced controls are already restricting education opportunities as well as hindering some recruitment.

I fear Brexit. Not only would the economic cost be high.  The country would also lose some of its status on the world stage.  The rest of my life would be taken up trying to recover the lost ground.

Yes Britain is a strong nation and eventually a new balance would be found.  But Brexit would make it weaker in every way, despite apparently greater sovereignty.

I urge everyone that can vote, to do so in favour of remaining.

The first was from Kantar Worldpanel’s continuous analysis of 30,000 households in Britain:

• When people drink water, 18.3% also eat fruit, 3.6% eat crisps and 2.3% eat chocolate.

• Among cola drinkers, 8.8% eat fruit, 5.2% eat crisps and 3.8% eat chocolate.

Whatever conclusion you reach, reducing the availability of bottled water isn’t one that makes any sense to me.

The second was from Tropicana, drawing from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. It discovered that fruit juice consumers also eat more fruit and vegetable portions than people who don’t drink fruit juice.

• Adult juice drinkers also eat 5.1 portions of fruit and vegetables a day, compared with 3.7 for non-drinkers.

• Children consuming juice eat 3.5 portions in contrast to 2.5 for non-consumers.

Fruit juice consumers appear to be healthier in Britain too, with “a lower body weight, body mass index and waist circumference than non-consumers”.

• It uses less than 0.004% of water in the US, compared with 31% for irrigation and 49% for electricity.

• The amount used in production to make 1 litre of product is 1.46 litres for bottled water, compared with 2.02 litres for soft drinks, 3.68 litres for wine and 3.8 litres for beer.

• Bottled water “helps people choose fewer soft drinks”, accounting for 40% of all water servings.

• “By switching from soft drinks to bottled water, Americans have saved 300 billion calories each year and 6.4 billion gallons of water …”

For more, go to www.bottledwater.org

Figures were published recently as part of a National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, with 5,627 respondents reporting on all they drank over 2 days in 2009-10, a surprisingly long time ago.

• 1st came tap water.
• 2nd was plain bottled water.
• After a big gap, 2% fat milk ranked 3rd.
• Ground coffee was 4th.
• Whole milk was 5th.
• Cola came 6th.

Average consumption of all water was 0.55 litres a day.

Coffee consumption was 6 times higher at 8.00 in the morning than at lunchtime and still lower after dinner.

Soda consumption peaked at midday and again in the early evening.

We’re also eating more often during the day.  The recent Nielsen Global Survey of Snacking, which collated online responses from 30,000 consumers in 60 countries, found that:

• 91% snacked at least once a day
• 21% snacked 3 to 4 times a day.

Snacks have increasingly become meal replacements, with:

• 52% sometimes snacking instead of breakfast
• 43% in place of lunch and
• 40% instead of dinner.

The study apparently discerned a “shift in a consumer mindset to one focused on health”, but the biggest category in key regions was:

• confectionery in Europe and Middle East/Africa
• salty snacks in North America
• cookies and snack cakes in Latin America.

There were, however, some encouraging signs on health, with:

• fresh fruit being top of the wish list
• vegetables scoring strongly
• yogurt and cheese coming high in the preference rankings.

If only intent translated into action.

$1,300 million for Brazil’s Cutrale and Safra families to buy US based Chiquita, instead of the previously agreed Chiquita merger with Fyffes

$565 million for France’s Danone to purchase 25% of China’s Yashili

$500 million for US based Coca-Cola to purchase 29.4% of Australia based Coca-Cola Amatil’s Indonesia subsidiary.

Of the 38 total, 7 were in dairy, 4 in packaging, 4 in soft drinks, 3 in alcohol and 3 in confectionery.

22 were within national borders and 16 international, involving 22 countries.  As always, the United States was most active, with 10 national and 8 international.  The United Kingdom featured in 6, then Germany on 4, Italy on 4 and the Netherlands on 3.  All 4 Italy deals were sales to foreign companies.

Two national industry coalitions have made announcements since the summer.  That means discussions have been going on for months.  It also means the companies involved have taken policy decisions which allow for similar initiatives elsewhere.

It’s notable, though, that the two announcements so far are quite different in targets and timescales.

On 23rd September in the United States, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Dr Pepper Snapple pledged to “reduce beverage calories consumed per person nationally by 20 per cent by 2025.”  This might involve selling more water and lowering pack sizes as well as promoting lighter variants such as Coca-Cola Life and Trop50.  It does not necessarily imply cutting the calorie content of regular cola.

On 9th October in France, Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Enterprises, Orangina Schweppes, PepsiCo and Refresco Gerber committed that “by 2015 they will decrease the average rate of sugars in soft drinks by 5%, with the exception of sugar naturally found in fruits.”  The target for 2020 is a 12% reduction.  The baseline is 2010.

These proposals won’t satisfy everyone, but they are significant steps.

It’s been reported that healthy foods are three times more expensive than unhealthy foods in Britain and the price gap is widening.

I find this hard to believe, even though the research was undertaken by the University of Cambridge.

To me, the methodology was flawed, because the comparison was in calories not in nutrients.  Also, the basket was confined to 94 items.

Good food and good nutrition seem as affordable as they have ever been and possibly more so.

I don’t accept that obesity is a function of cost.

There are so many other key factors from better education about nutrition and food preparation to time management and personal responsibility.  What do you think ?

Niagara has achieved extraordinary momentum through intensive cost management and packaging innovation.  Andy Peykoff gave some fascinating examples.

• In 1998 its typical 0.5 litre PET bottle weight was 25g. Today it is 8-11g.  A saving of up to 68%.

• Bottle caps now weigh just 0.8-1.0g.

• Today packaging accounts for only 2% of the weight of a bottled water product, compared with 40% for glass and even 13% for an egg.

• Another pioneering move was introducing nested cases, where bottles are packed diagonally rather than in rectangular lines. These are 50% stronger and allow 17% more cases per pallet. This is because the bottles have 6 contact points between each other instead of 4.

He asked: “Can we in bottled water make a difference in public health?” And he answered: “I believe we can. People are not drinking enough water and are consuming too many calories from sugar-sweetened beverages, the usefulness of which is questioned by science”.

He showed a video illustrating the behaviour of 13,000 students in the United States when faced with a choice between two vending machines next to each other.  One contained sugar-sweetened beverages, the other bottled water.  An out of order sign was put on the bottled water machine.  What happened? Did everyone walk away to find tap water?  In fact, 63% chose a sugar-sweetened beverage instead.

He underlined that bottled water and tap water complement each other in increasing water consumption and urged the bottled water industry to promote the pleasure of drinking water.