The annual St Vincent De Paul Society’s CEO Sleepout saw the heads of a number of Australia’s biggest food companies sleeping on cardboard with a mug of soup and a bread roll for dinner last night. The food industry turnout included McDonald’s boss Catriona Noble, Managing Director Andrew Benefield of Mrs. Fields, James Ajaka of Nudie Foods, manager of Renix Tomek Lichtanski, David Carruthers of SlowDown! Restaurants, Dean Merlo of Merlo Coffee, all of whom joined politicians, managing... ...Read more »

Sainsbury’s has signed a marketing deal with Microsoft’s MSN UK brand to create a food and drinks channel on the portal. Sainsbury’s Food and Drink, which will publish food ideas and recipes, launched yesterday. The online channel, targeted at mothers and household food shoppers, is designed to encourage readers to experiment with recipes and new ingredients, take advantage of in-season fresh produce, and will draw upon Sainsbury’s existing Taste campaign. The channel will... ...Read more »

A press release sent out by news service PR Newswire, claiming that food company General Mills was under investigation by the US Government, has turned out to be a hoax. The release, which went out on Tuesday, claimed that the Obama administration had ordered an “investigation into the General Mills supply chain in most major global markets due to a recent number of reported voluntary recalls on its food products across the world, most notably its cereal and fast food items in the US, UK, Europe... ...Read more »

A US researcher has linked a preference for salty foods to a heightened sense of taste, in a study at the Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences. The study asked 87 participants to rate the taste intensity of a variety of salty foods over several weeks. The subjects with a heightened sense of taste – known as ‘supertasters’ – were found to consume more salt than most people, and to experience salty tastes more strongly. Lead researcher John Hayes said that salt is an... ...Read more »

Dimmi, a new online service, allows restaurants to take bookings online 24 hours a day. The service provides restaurants with online electronic reservation diary software, which can be used for phone bookings as usual, or remotely for online bookings. Real-time information on table availability is stored in the system, and diners confirm their bookings on the spot. The service also reminds customers via email of their reservation. Dimmi has also partnered with many of Australia’s online restaurant... ...Read more »

According to AUSVEG, the price of vegetables in Australia has fallen by more than 5% in the last week AUSVEG CEO Richard Mulcahy said that wholesale vegetable prices had retreated in recent weeks, after a strong run from January until mid-March. “If you look at the figures in recent weeks, prices at the wholesale level have pulled back sharply and the wholesale vegetable market is a key indicator for the retail sector,” Mr Mulcahy said. “This is actually a great time for consumers to be buying... ...Read more »

New Zealand meat processor Silver Fern Farms has announced plans to close its Canterbury lamb-cutting plant and restructure operations at its Belfast facility. The moves, which could affect up to 174 jobs, come as Silver Fern looks to streamline its operations and improve efficiency at its sites on New Zealand’s South Island. As well as the Canterbury closure, the company is also looking to close the rendering and casings departments and restructure the coldstore department at its Belfast plant. Silver... ...Read more »

The Feed Sydney campaign, created by OzHarvest’s Ronni Kahn and John Dee of action group Do Something, has brought diners to Sydney’s restaurants in the name of charity. The campaign, which was launched on Tuesday 1 June by OzHarvest’s patron Thérèse Rein, aims to provide 250,000 meals over winter to those in need. Some of Sydney’s top dining establishments, including Matt Moran’s ARIA, Kumar Mahadevan’s Aki’s and Robert Marchetti’s Icebergs, offered... ...Read more »

Compulsory country-of-origin food labelling could become mandatory for all meat, poultry, dairy products and other single-ingredient products sold in the EU after it was accepted by the European Parliament yesterday. In a first vote on new EU regulation on food labels, the Parliament rejected proposals from left-wing groups to impose a traffic-light system on labels to indicate high, medium or low levels of salt, sugar and fat. The Parliament did, however, support a proposal that fat, saturates,... ...Read more »

Nestlé has announced plans to sue Sara Lee over alleged patent infringements of the Nespresso design by the new L’OR Espresso product. The Nespresso individual-pod coffee system, where a single pod of coffee makes an individual cup of espresso in a touch-button appliance, requires consumers to purchase both the machine, and a supply of the proprietary pods to continue using it. “We welcome fair competition, we even thrive under it. But we will always take appropriate steps to defend our... ...Read more »