George Weston Foods Ltd plead guilty on Friday on two counts of improper waste disposal at its Don KRC meat processing plant in Castlemaine last year, and was ordered to pay $60,000 in damages, plus court costs. The Castlemaine Magistrate’s Court was told that in February 2009, EPA Victoria received complaints about odour along Barkers Creek, and that investigations discovered a ‘fatty substance’ in the dry creek bed, which was traced back to the plant. The problem was caused by... ...Read more »

Sainsbury’s has reported unexpected success with its new milk bag product, with 110,000 sales per week. The milk bags, which use 75% less packaging than a standard plastic bottle, now account for 10% of semi-skimmed milk sales, twice as many as original predictions.  The bags were first introduced in 2008, and were rolled out across the UK in February this year. The bags are used in conjuction with a reusable JUGIT™ milk jug.  Bags are placed inside the jug, which pierces the bag and forms... ...Read more »

Wesfarmers today announced their retail sales results for 2010′s third quarter, with ‘solid’ sales growth in the Coles division. Coles’ total food and liquor sales cam in at $5.465, up 3.9% on the same time last year, with comparable food and liquor store sales growth of 3.8%.  Sales for the financial year to date were $17.684 billion, up 6.1% from last year, with comparable food and liquor store sales growth of 5.3%. The convenience arm of the business, Coles Express, reported... ...Read more »

New studies have shown that over a third of mercury in the US diet comes from tuna, and that not all tuna are equal in mercury content. A study by Edward Groth in the journal Environmental Research analysed the US consumption of seafood and the mercury levels of each species to reveal that 37.4% of the US’s mercury consumption is from tuna. Another study, by the American Museum of Natural History, revealed that not all tuna species have the same mercury content, and that not all parts of the... ...Read more »

A new study by the US Agricultural Research Service and the University of Georgia has attempted to track sources of Listeria contamination in a commercial chicken cooking plant. The study followed a brand-new commercial cooking facility for 21 months, before and after processing began, in order to find the origin of contamination by the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes, a common food-poisoning pathogen, which is prevalent in various forms in the environment. Results suggest that Listeria entered... ...Read more »

The US House of Representatives was called upon on Tuesday to reform dairy policy and pricing mechanisms to assure a viable future for the country’s dairy industry. Addressing the House, Pennsylvania Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding insisted that US dairy producers are facing “historic challenges” from falling milk prices to depressed land values. “The overall loss of cash-flow, coupled with losses in real estate values, has diminished or nearly eliminated equity on some of our... ...Read more »

CSR has denied that there is interest from a Japanese consortium in its sugar business, Sucrogen, after a report in the Australian Financial Review yesterday suggested that a group including Mitsubishi and Mitsui had made a “soft approach” to the company. CSR stated that it had “not received such an approach” and that it remained in talks with Chinese group Bright Foods for sale of the Sucrogen business.  The company has been approched twice by Bright Foods, but has held... ...Read more »

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has authorised a further five years of collective bargaining between Victorian chicken growers and processors Baiada Poultry, Inghams Enterprises, Hazeldene Chicken Farm and Turi Foods. Chicken growers will be able to form bargaining groups according to which processor they supply in order to negotiate contracts.  The arrangements are voluntary for both processors and growers, and individuals may negotiate directly if they (or their processor) want... ...Read more »

The UK’s Food & Drink Federation (FDF) has launched a “manifesto” to highlight what it claims is “the strategic importance of the food and drink manufacturing sector to the UK economy”. In a speech this evening, Ross Warburton, president of the FDF, will call on Government to make a public commitment that a successful food manufacturing sector will be a “strategic priority”. Warburton will look to challenge politicians to stop taking the food and drink... ...Read more »

A new study utilising the Roy Morgan Health Care Monitor has identified that food allergies are more prevalent then previously thought. There are approximately 836,000 people in Australia who report suffering from food allergies, and women are more likely to be affected than men.In the 12 months to December 2009, 4.7% of Australians aged 14+ (approximately 836,000) reported suffering from food allergies in the previous 12 months. Women (6.5%), and younger people (6.6% of those under 25), report disproportionally... ...Read more »