StreetSmart Australia and its restaurant partners are calling for Australians to ‘Dine Out to Help Out’ once again this Christmas. In its eighth year, the campaign’s winning formula makes it easy for anyone to get involved and raise vital money for grassroots charities supporting homelessness. To be held from 8th November to 24 December, ‘Dine Out to Help Out” is run through restaurants by asking people to add a small donation to their bill. The money collected is then donated... ...Read more »

McCain Foods Australia has announced that unforeseeable demand for its recently launched Crinkle Cut Sweet Potato SuperFries will result in the product being temporarily out of stock. Based on anticipated sales, the supply of McCain Crinkle Cut Sweet Potato SuperFries will run out in late October, and will be back on the market by mid December 2010, once the new crop is harvested. McCain was able to secure an additional amount of Thin Cut stock to meet demand and achieve continuity of supply. Nicki... ...Read more »

SecondBite was awarded the prestigious Banksia Community Grant award at the 2010 Banksia Environmental Awards presentation in Sydney on Friday night. The Banksia Community Grant recipient is chosen from all community entrants and is awarded to the community group that shows the most potential to create a lasting and positive impact. As the winner SecondBite received a $10,000 grant. Katy Barfield, Executive Director of SecondBite said in her acceptance speech that in the short five years since SecondBite... ...Read more »

Fair Work inspectors will this week conduct face-to-face visits to about 80 fast food outlets located in various Brisbane food courts. They will also visit shops on the Gold Coast and doorknock in Rockhampton, Cairns, Toowoomba and Townsville. Inspectors will call on a number of take-away shops which have previously been the subject of complaints, while others will be selected at random. Businesses will be asked to supply employment records to ensure staff are being paid correctly and employers are... ...Read more »

Sales of Fair Trade Certified products to US grocery stores has risen 30% in the last year, according to newly-published data. During the 52 weeks to 4 September, sales to food, drug, mass-merchandise and natural-food stores reached US$140m, figures from industry consultants SPIN show. The data excludes sales at Wal-Mart Stores, Whole Food Market and of own-label products. Sales of packaged coffee certified as Fair Trade grew 44%, while ready-to-drink tea and coffee sales were up 51%. Fair Trade... ...Read more »

Alpro, the soy-foods business owned by US dairy giant Dean Foods, is to launch two soy-milk products next year targeting health-conscious consumers. The Belgium-based group plans to unveil two Alpro Plus lines – one with added calcium that the company claims will help fortify bones and a product including plant sterols that the business says will lower cholesterol. Speaking at the SIAL food-industry exhibition in Paris today (17 October), Alpro’s Catherine Arnou said the products would... ...Read more »

This Saturday, 16th October marks the 30th annual World Food Day, an initiative of the United Nations. This year’s theme, ‘United against Hunger,’ recognises global efforts in the fight against hunger on an international, national and regional level.John Webster, CEO of Foodbank Australia, the country’s largest hunger relief organisation, is campaigning this World Food Day to raise awareness about hunger in Australia. Foodbank acts as a ‘pantry’ for the welfare sector,... ...Read more »

This Saturday and Sunday is food exploring time and there’s plenty on the Crave Sydney International Food Festival program to do just that.Experience fun and adventure with Sydney Harbour Island Hopping. Try a taste of 1830s colonial life on Goat Island, let the kids give life ago as a national park ‘Future Ranger’ on Shark Island, and sample traditional bush tucker as part of the Aboriginal cultural experience on Clark Island. See www.harbourislandhopping.com. There are heaps of... ...Read more »

The United Nations World Food Day will be recognised globally this Saturday 16 October and is an important day to remind world leaders that heavy investment in the planet’s food security is urgently needed, World Vision Australia said today.”One billion people suffer from hunger today and there are now danger signs that food prices are starting to rise again, threatening to push millions more people to the brink of starvation,” World Vision’s head of advocacy Martin Thomas... ...Read more »

According to Australian-first research commissioned by word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing company Soup, on average each person in Australia has 67.8 branded conversations each week. The research – conducted by US-based, leading WOM research firm Keller Fay – found that the most talked-about categories are Food/Dining and Media/Entertainment and in terms of the kinds of brands that are most talked about telecom, food, tech, and auto brands dominate. Food brands with the highest positive WOM... ...Read more »