App launch sets the house on fire

Meat producer Vion attracted more attention than it intended when it launched its new “Farm to Fork” App in London’s West End on Tuesday, causing the building it was hosted in to be evacuated.

The launch, at The National Magazine Company‘s main office, near Carnaby Street, saw chefs and butchers preparing meaty meals for journalists to promote the shopping and cooking app.

But when extractor fans didn’t work, smoke from cooking caused fire alarms to trigger, leading to staff from dozens of magazines, including Country Living, Runners World and Good Housekeeping, being evacuated.

During the evacuation, Vion handed out leaflets promoting the app to staff gathering outside, ending up with a line out of the Good Housekeeping Research Institute kitchen upon their return.

The app is one of the ways the company intends on raising its profile in the coming months while also promoting British produce and increasing meat consumption.

“We are farmers and it is about connecting from the farm to the consumer,” said Robert Smith, group communications controller at Vion.

The app has an easily browsable interface and photographs alongside each dish, as well as a shopping list of the ingredients needed for the recipes chosen.

The app is available now on iTunes as a free download with versions for Blackberry and Android operating systems, as well as new content and seasonal recipe information to come later this year.

“By providing the tools to get people more creative in the kitchen, we hope they will be encouraged to try something new, back British farmers and help the move towards a more sustainable future for our food supply system,” said Ton Christiannse, VION Food UK CEO.