New book on 40 years in the ingredients trade

Hugh Darrington, who spent more than 40 years working in the food trade press - including 23 years as editor of Food Manufacture and six years as editor of International Food Ingredients - has spoken candidly about the people, the companies, the products, the public relations in his new autobiography Strawberries to the moon.

Darrington came up with the title of the book from the idea that if you stretch a kilo of strawberries out to the moon, the flavour portion would only be eight kilometres high.

"Editing Food Manufacture was one of the most rewarding periods of my life," he recalls. It was one of the most exciting times in the industry and certainly one of the most turbulent and exciting in publishing technology. These challenging years saw the rise of the supermarket, the growth of convenience food and the BSE disaster.

'I've seen fat substitutes that make you wear nappies, lollipops that glow in the dark, packaging that talks to you, dried beer, powdered water," he says. "The list is almost endless."

Contact: Strawberries to the moon

http://tinyurl.com/cx86ayr