Patties Foods has released a new product under their Creative Gourmet frozen fruit and dessert brand, Creative Gourmet Smoothie Cubes. The frozen fruit cubes are designed to be added to milk and blended to create an instant cold fruit smoothie, with flavours and attributes designed to appeal to the health-conscious, on-the-go consumer. The new Smoothie Cubes range features a specially-designed Breakfast flavour – banana, rolled oats, apple juice, honey, wheat fibre and cinnamon – designed... ...Read more »

Edible oils giant Cargill has announced a new product innovation: cocoa powder with a greatly improved ability to mix into cold drinks. The new cocoa powder, launching next year as part of the Gerkens cocoa powders range, has double the wettability – the speed with which cocoa disappears below the surface of th cold liquid – and will disperse through the liquid evenly. The company said that, crucial to the discovery, the performance would be maintained throughout the product’s shelf... ...Read more »

Peak horticulture organisation Growcom has released a new report warning of the increasing magnitude of Australia’s net fresh fruit and vegetable importation, and called for an end to complacency regarding domestic food security. The organisation’s Chief Executive Officer, Alex Livingstone, said that the general public was largely unaware that up to 34% of fruit and 19% of vegetables consumed in Australia are imported. “In dollar terms, Australia imports a greater value of processed... ...Read more »

Nestlé Australia has announced that production of Aero has returned to Australia, with up to 1000 tonnes of the bubble-filled chocolate to be produced annually at the company’s factory in Campbellfield, Victoria, as part of a $12 million site upgrade. The Aero bars and blocks, now available on supermarket shelves, feature a new recipe especially designed to appeal to Australian and New Zealand consumers, and are free of artificial colours. Aero was originally launched in the UK in 1935, and... ...Read more »

National Foods has announced the results of its six-month review of cheesemaking operations across Australia, revealing plans to consolidate Tasmanian operations at its Burnie site, close its Victorian locations and sell its South Australian sites. In Tasmania, the Kirin-Lion-Nathan owned dairy giant will invest $120 in its Burnie facility to produce all its specialty cheeses, transferring operations from its Heidi Farm site, and closing Kings Meadow over three years at a loss of 40 jobs. Only King... ...Read more »

The Queensland Dairyfarmer’s Organisation says that dairy farmers have been hit with the first impacts of the major supermarkets’ milk price war. After receiving their February milk cheques in the last week, the QDO says many Queensland farmers are facing a large drop in income for the month. They say that this drop in income can be directly linked to the $1/litre supermarket brand milk marketing campaign, initiated by Coles on Australia Day. Southern Queensland dairy farmers Peter Brown,... ...Read more »

Swiss chocolate maker Lindt & Sprungli yesterday posted a jump in 2010 profits as sales grew, boosted by its operations in the US and the UK. The company booked net profit of CHF241.9 million (A$265 million), up 25.3% on 2009. EBIT, meanwhile, rose 22.8% to CHF325.3 million. Lindt said its sales were up 7.3% on an organic basis at CHF2.6 billion. That figure, however, was measured in local currencies. The strength of the Swiss franc dampened growth, with sales in Lindt’s domestic currency... ...Read more »

Packaging company Chronos BTH and Australian Prime Fibre (APF) will be exhibiting a new state-of-the-art packaging system at this year’s AUSPACK PLUS 2011 expo,  the new Chronos BTH Bottom-Up Bag Filling System. Chronos BTH has recently developed and introduced a hygienic bottom-up filling system for powders (especially dairy products) into open-mouth bags. The innovative dust-poor, patented bottom-up filling technology guarantees high accuracies in the filling process of powders. The machine... ...Read more »

Australian pizza maker Domino’s Pizza Enterprises Limited (DMP) has been riding high, after announcing a $10.2 million half-year Net Profit After Tax – up 16.9% on the corresponding period last year – at its half-yearly results. The company attributed the robust profit to strong core operations which saw the company achieve same store sales (SSS) growth of 9.1% above the same corresponding period last year. The ANZ market experienced double digit SSS growth of 10.9% for the first half... ...Read more »

A new meta-analysis of 50 studies, including half a million subjects, has confirmed that eating a Mediterranean diet has a wide variety of health benefits for lifestyle diseases The Mediterranean diet includes lots of olives and olive oil (a great source of monounsaturated fatty acids), fruits, vegetables and wholegrain cereals, low-fat dairy, fish, nuts, and legumes, and moderate alcohol consumption with meals, but relatively little red meat. The Mediterranean diet, according to Dr. Panagiotakos... ...Read more »