Drink a couple of mezcals with a side of crisp pork skin, and see if you care about life then

Shoreditch in east London can be a bit much these days. The city’s gravitational pull moved eastwards many moons ago, but in recent years this particular part of it has hit a nadir of skyscrapers, slick hotel openings and post-bottomless brunch screaming. However, wander down Leonard Street, and you’ll spot what seems to be a large orange acorn marking the Mexican restaurant, Zapote .

It’s not an acorn, though; it’s a soft, fleshy, sweet fruit called a sapote which, very roughly speaking, looks like a peach mated with a beef tomato and tastes like sweet potato. The sapote is hugely popular from southern Mexico all the way to Nicaragua, and in some areas of south-east Asia, too, as well as in this new opening by chef Yahir Gonzalez , who himself hails from Aguascalientes in central Mexico. Zapote is co-founded by Tony Geary, an industry stalwart with long experience of running some of the more hectic of London’s dining establishments, among them Sketch , before overseeing the 20-restaurant roster of the Aqua group , which includes Hutong , Aqua Shard , Aqua Kyoto and so on.

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Convent in Oosterhout has been left with surplus of more than 60,000 bottles after hot and dry year

A Dutch convent is appealing to wine drinkers to support its endeavours as, thanks to an extremely hot and dry year, Sint-Catharinadal in Oosterhout has an excess of 64,000 bottles made from its vineyard.

“We had a lovely summer last year, warm temperatures and it promises to be an excellent harvest of more than 60,000 bottles,” said Sister Maria Magdalena, prioress, in a video appeal .

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Sliced supermarket bread, ham, cheese, crisps, a fruit-flavoured yoghurt and a fizzy drink. If this sounds like a standard lunch, you’re not alone. The average person in the UK gets more than 50% of their calories from ultra-processed foods – otherwise known as ‘industrially produced edible substances’. Madeleine Finlay speaks to Dr Chris van Tulleken about what ultra-processed foods are really made of, how they have become a major part of our diets, and the impact they are having on our health

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Who doesn’t crave a pastry at 3am? But police have said that extending the opening hours of Greggs’ flagship store could lead to serious problems

Name: Sausage rolls.

Age: Like so many things, the sausage roll can be traced back to ancient Greece and Rome.

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A salad, a soup and a cheesy pasta are the satisfying vehicles for these autumnal vegetables

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Broccolini’s naturally bitter notes when raw belie the sweetness within. A char on the barbecue, a blast under the grill or – like this salad – a quick blanch will have the kids (big and small) retracting every broccoli-based retort.

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‘I think of my mum in her happy moments. Tupperware was a permit for blissfulness in our home’

Tupperware parties hold a special kind of nostalgia, but the days of the popular tight-sealing plastic container brand may be about to end.

Shares in the Massachusetts firm, which became famous in the 1950s, crashed by almost 50% last week after it told investors there was “substantial doubt about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern”.

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Ekonoke’s hydroponic cultivation of hop plants attracting interest of brewers including world’s biggest

Though lacking in rustic romance, the disco-lit rows of hops bolting towards the ceiling of an industrial unit just outside Madrid could be the answer to the parched prayers of brewers and beer-drinkers across the planet.

The hop plant, whose bright green flowers have been used for hundreds of years to flavour and stabilise beer, is increasingly falling victim to the climate emergency as hotter summers and unpredictable weather drive down both yields and quality.

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Before there were cupcakes, there was the fairy cake – a smaller, less showy species, and easier to make, too

Cupcakes, with their sculpted swirls of gaudy buttercream, tend to be easier on the eye than the appetite, which is why I prefer their more delicate, fairy-sized cousins. They’re also deliciously simple to make, and even more fun to decorate; an ideal Easter holiday activity, because everyone gets to enjoy the results (plus, you can lick the bowl afterwards).

Prep 15 min
Cook 20 min
Makes 12

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Successive administrations have produced hundreds of policies to solve public health threat since 1990

• Nanny statism fears behind UK’s 30-year failure to tackle obesity, report says

Every government since 1992 has recognised obesity as a serious threat to public health. The various administrations since then have between them produced “at least 14 strategies, 689 policies and 10 targets, and at least 14 key institutions and agencies variously created and abolished”, according to a new report by the Institute for Government thinktank.

Despite all that, obesity has grown relentlessly as a problem for individuals, the NHS and the UK.

Health of the Nation white paper in 1992 was the first to set out a comprehensive role for government in preventing health problems, not just treating them.

Set a target to reduce the obese proportion of the population to 6% of men and 8% of women by 2005 – the first of many such targets that ministers have set since.

Created a 12-strong cabinet committee on public health. Argued for a new “national contract for health between the state, individuals and communities”. Set up the Health Development Agency, public health observatories and the Food Standards Agency. The latter issued advice about nutrition and tasked food producers with making their products healthier.

In 2004 agreed a target to halt the year-on-year rise in obesity in under-11s by 2010.

Banned advertising of unhealthy products on children’s TV, brought in the Healthy Start scheme and free fruit and vegetables for children aged between four and six. Set up the School Food Trust to advise on making school meals healthier.

Set a target of reducing the percentage of overweight and obese children to 2000 levels by 2020. Said that keeping to a healthy weight remained “the responsibility of individuals first”. Introduced the £75m Change4Life healthy eating campaign aimed at parents. Put £1.3bn into improving school food and school sport.

Launched a public health strategy. But austerity led to major cuts to the public health grant received by local councils and also to school sport and healthy eating programmes.

Through its responsibility deal, the coalition urged food manufacturers to do more to ensure their products contained less fat, salt and sugar.

Set up Public Health England to oversee improvement in public health, including obesity.

Announced in April 2016 the creation of the soft drinks industry levy – the “sugar tax” – as a way of prompting manufacturers to cut the amount of sugar in their products. Tax was introduced by Theresa May in 2018.

Published three childhood obesity strategies in three years. Set a “national ambition” to halve childhood obesity but did not specify a date. Michael Gove, May’s environment secretary, commissioned the Leon co-founder Henry Dimbleby to undertake a review of food policy, though few recommendations were acted on.

Prompted by a spell in intensive care with Covid-19 and his recognition of the links between obesity and the disease, Johnson in 2020 promised to introduce a raft of policies. They included restricting advertising of foods high in fat, salt or sugar (HFSS) on television before the 9pm watershed; limiting use of buy-one-get-one-free styled price promotions; and controlling where HFSS foods could be displayed in stores. However, only the last of those three policies has been implemented. The others were delayed.

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