New £10 Note

The new £10 note featuring novelist Jane Austen has entered circulation - marking a return of a woman in addition to the Queen on Bank of England notes. The launch comes after a four-month period when women, apart from the Queen, have not been represented on the Bank's notes.One billion polymer Jane Austen £10 notes have been printed and will be fed into general circulation over the coming weeks and months. There is also less than a month to spend or bank the old £1 coins which will be withdrawn from circulation on 15th October. 

Ten Pound

Hot Crisps

Claimed to to be the UK's first 'hot crisps', Essex's very own 'artisan' snack purveyor Fairfields Farm is bringing out a new product called Heat & Eat. The range of potato crisps comes in 'patented triple-layered packaging', which allows the snack stay crunchy despite 30 seconds in the microwave. The idea is that the crisps taste as if they've come straight out of the fryer – warm, crispy potato, glistening with oil and dusted with seasoning. Fairfields Farm said: "Ever wondered what hot handcooked crisps taste like fresh from the fryer? With Heat & Eat, you can experience the most delicious hot crisps ever, straight from the microwave in just 30 seconds". Heat & Eat has been created to "revitalise the snacking market and give consumers a whole new eating experience". Fairfields Farm believes that manufacturers have been focusing their innovation on flavours, rather than new, bolder concepts. 

Hot Crisps

Smile to Pay

Diners at a KFC store in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou will have a new way to pay for their meal. Just smile. Customers will be able to use a “Smile to Pay” facial recognition system at the tech-heavy, health-focused concept store, part of a drive by Yum China to lure a younger generation of consumers. Diners can pay by scanning their faces at an ordering kiosk and entering a phone number - which is meant to guard against people cheating the system.The store’s menu offers seasonal produce, made-to-order salads and paninis. The chicken on the menu is “roasted”, while drinks include freshly squeezed juices, gourmet coffees and craft beer. KFC have also launched a limited edition smartphone to celebrate 30 years since it first opened in China.

Smile to Pay

McStrike

McDonald's workers are staging their first UK strike after walking out at two stores in a dispute over zero-hours contracts and conditions. Some workers at Cambridge and Crayford, south-east London, began the 24-hour action at midnight. A union called it a "brave" move by low-paid staff. The Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union said staff wanted a wage of at least £10 an hour and more secure jobs. McDonald's said only 14 of the 33 union members balloted had joined in. McDonald's, which employs about 85,000 people in the UK, announced in April that workers would be offered a choice of flexible or fixed contracts with minimum guaranteed hours, saying that 86% had chosen to stay on flexible contracts. And it pointed to a series of pay rises as evidence that it treated its staff well.

McStrike

The Better Burger

Burgers used to be fast and cheap - the epitome of fast food. But now a different type of patty exported from the US is rapidly expanding across the globe. US burger chain Five Guys International, is "the complete fundamental change" that has taken place with people prepared to pay more and wait longer for a more upmarket burger.So called millennials, the generation that came of age after the 2008 financial crisis, are their core customers. The trend of diners wanting to know where their food comes from, how it was prepared, and the "story" behind it has also helped drive the better burger's rapid expansion. Nonetheless, it's a profitable market, worth some £3.3bn in the UK last year, according to market research firm Mintel.Making sure its overseas burgers taste the same as those in the US is important, he says. "Unless you have consistency there is no brand... you've got to have some confidence that the burger you have in Dubai and Paris is the same as the one you have in California and Miami," he says.

Better Burger

Rosemary Water

If you can bottle it, it might make you a fortune. That is according to market research carried out by the world’s drinks industry. Beverage Marketing Corporation (BMC) says sales of bottled water outstripped sugary soft drinks in the US for the first time last year, while Zenith Global, a consulting firm, estimates that the global market has grown by 9 per cent annually in recent years and is now worth $147bn. It’s an increasingly crowded market, but an eye-poppingly lucrative one if you can get it right. Traditional beverages are losing ground to niche, healthier brands that communicate a story about purpose and function. After carrying out formal experimentation with various botanical scientists, he raised £2m worth of investment, which included £1m of his own money, and secured an exclusive deal with Harvey Nichols to sell his product - Rosemary Water. Retailing at £3.95 for a 750ml bottle, the water is made with rosemary extract and contains no sugar or preservatives.

Rosemary Water

Museum of Failure

Don't let the name fool you — Samuel West's "Museum of Failure" is an act of celebration. On June 7, West, a collector and self-described innovation researcher, debuted 51 failed products in a museum exhibition in the Swedish city of Helsingborg, all in the name of honoring the creative process. Visitors will get reacquainted with familiar names like Betamax and Blockbuster, and perhaps meet lesser-known flops — Twitter Peek, anyone? — all of which West has been collecting for the past year. "Even the biggest baddest most competent companies fail," West tells Business Insider. "The trick is to create an organizational culture that accepts failure so that you can fail small ... rather than failing big."
Museum of Failure