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 25 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Nick Hughes hosts The Small Print, a business show with 25 episodes published.

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  Episode #26

  26. Secrets for successful food waste reduction

  Sep 29, 202634 min

  Sodexo bucked the wider hospitality sector trend in 2025 by hitting its target to cut food waste by 50%, five years ahead of the SDG 12.3 and UK Food & Drink Pact targets. To mark International Day for Food Loss and Waste on September 29th, Claire Atkins-Morris, sustainability director for Sodexo UK & Ireland, talks Nick through the strategy that has underpinned the caterer’s food waste reduction success and the landmark moments that have helped unlock £3.6m in food cost savings since 2015. Claire highlights the transformational impact of technology that gave Sodexo visibility over food waste data at a granular level, and details the activities, including chef engagement and employee-facing campaigns, that drove operational improvements. She also stresses how food waste reduction has not been a sustainability-led programme of work, but a top-down approach driven through core functions like finance and owned by senior leadership.

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  Episode #25

  25. What we'll take away from Footprint Festival 2026

  Sep 23, 202630 min

  The stage was set at Barnsgrove, near Basingstoke in Hampshire last week for the inaugural Footprint Festival. Professionals from across the worlds of business, policy, civil society and academia came together to explore the Future of Sustainable Innovation in Foodservice & Hospitality. And what a memorable two days it was, with a programme packed full of speaker sessions, presentations, workshops, culinary demonstrations, entertainment and so much more. In this week’s episode, Nick is joined by Footprint’s director of insights and special projects Amy Fetzer – who masterminded the festival’s programme – to mull over some of the key takeaways from the event and hear the reflections of those who took part.

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  Episode #24

  24. What do farmers think about climate policy?

  Sep 15, 202638 min

  How can government and businesses help farms reduce their climate impact, while balancing priorities like profitability, resilience, food production and nature? This question was at the heart of a series of conversations held with farmers across England over the summer by the Food, Farming & Countryside Commission – a piece of work commissioned by Defra to help inform the government’s forthcoming Food and Farming Decarbonisation Plan. The discussions highlighted a loss of trust in government around climate policy and the emissions data that informs it, and a demand from farmers for policy to look beyond emissions and take a whole systems approach to farm sustainability. In this week’s episode, the FFCC’s Charlie Taverner joins Nick to share key insights from conversations with the farmers tasked with decarbonising agriculture, whose opinions are often marginalised in policy discourse around food and climate.

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  Episode #23

  23. Is Defra really ready for food supply shocks?

  Sep 8, 202636 min

  In the week when the secretary of state, Angela Eagle, advised households to keep buffer stocks of several days’ worth of food and water, the independent watchdog said Defra should do more to strengthen food supply chain resilience to major disruptions. In a new report, the National Audit Office said the department has taken some steps to improve its preparedness in recent years, but has not done enough to engage critical stakeholders, including businesses. In this week’s episode, one of the report’s authors, Rich Sullivan-Jones, joins Nick to talk through the key findings of a report which lands at a time when extreme weather is already putting significant pressure on food supply chains. Rich also provides an update on government work to build a more resilient food system via the national food strategy for England, and considers whether the vital role of the foodservice sector in responding to food shocks is fully understood within government.

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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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