In Alba – the heart of Italy’s Piedmont region in the mountains near Turin – the foods of Cascina San Cassiano are created using exclusive, deliciously fresh local ingredients with NO preservatives and NO colourings. A number of the products are preserved using grape seed oil – making them not only delicious but light and healthy too!

During the holidays, family and friends often make surprise visits, landing on your doorstep with arms full of presents. You might have all the ingredients for your big holiday meals ready, but what do you serve those unexpected guests? Loseley Natural foods has some suggestions for keeping your refrigerator stocked with a few supplies that will make it easier to get snacks ready in a hurry.

After-Christmas-return queues often fill up with people sheepishly returning their gifts, but one gift certain to never to land in the return basket is a food hamper. This year, Luigi’s is jumping onto the global market bandwagon by opening their new mail order website. The popular Fulham Rd shop has created a range of hampers for every shopper’s budget.

Eversfield Estate has gotten together with local Devon farms to put together Christmas hampers filled with local meat products and all the trimmings for Christmas meals. The Eversfield Deluxe Christmas hamper has enough home-produced organic meat to feed six-eight people for the entire holiday season.

Nothing pleases a foodie more than opening their door to a delivery person carrying a food hamper full of everything they love. Caviar House will design a gift box exactly to your specifications, pulling fresh from their shelves just what your loved one was dreaming about as they were writing their Christmas wish list.

Emmi is Europe’s leading provider of premium Swiss dairy products, and has a long history of producing first-class speciality cheeses that are ideal for melting in fondue and Raclette. Both traditional dishes are experiencing a resurgence as we turn to comfort food in the colder weather. Fondue and Raclette are both made using Swiss cheeses, which have a good level of maturity and distinctive taste, and contain no additives or preservatives.

Love muesli, but can’t find the perfect mix? Not anymore! Muddy Cook recently launched a website so Muesli-lovers can make their perfect mix from over one-hundred organic, preservative-free ingredients. Customers can even decide on the name of their mix and have it printed on the pack.”Muddy Cook came about because of my love of muesli and my dislike of raisins,” said owner Claire Lettice. Among the items visitors to her site can choose from are ‘superfoods’, such as quinoa, oats, walnuts, and almonds.

No it’s the not the cry that goes up when we search the Financial Director’s desk on a Friday afternoon, but the name of a range of ready to eat meals that show that fast food needn’t be either tasteless or unethical.

These are dishes that feature the finest ingredients from ‘best in show’ small producers with full traceability right back to the individual farmer. They’re made from 100% natural ingredients and are ready to eat in minutes, yet due to innovative packaging can be stored in the cupboard for months.

A brand new free guide published by the Guild of Fine Food lists every one of the five-hundred and ninety-six top tasting food and drink products awarded gold in this year’s Great Taste Awards along with their star rating.