The Victorian Coalition Government wrote yesterday, August 8, 2011, to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) asking it to investigate calls for a consumer boycott of the Israeli-owned Max Brenner chocolate shop. On July 1 2011, people from the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Group gathered outside of the shop in the Queen Victoria building, in the Melbourne CBD, preventing potential customers from entering the store. The action was part of a campaign to impose a boycott... ...Read more »

The National Australia Bank (NAB) has released results of the June 2011 post farm gate agribusiness survey. The results show strong confidence in commodities on the back of high global prices and solid production prospects, despite the lingering effect of floods, the high Australian dollar and shaky consumer confidence. High global prices, reduced concern about the impact of floods and a good seasonal outlook has improved confidence in crops, while global prices have also maintained buoyant confidence... ...Read more »

Lion, the Kirin-owned food and drinks company, has experienced challenging conditions and declining revenue across its businesses in Australia and New Zealand over the last six months, ending March 31 2011, according to its latest financial figures reported on August 5, 2011. The report shows declines in Lion’s beer, spirits and wine divisions in Australia and New Zealand, and in its dairy and drinks division: Beer, spirits and wine divisions in Australia and New Zealand delivered earnings before... ...Read more »

Channel Ten’s MasterChef 2011 has ended with contestant Kate Bracks being narrowly crowned the winner over second-placed Michael Weldon last night, August 7. “I’m still pinching myself!” said Bracks. “If in the Top 50 someone had told me I was going to win I’d have laughed at them. I can’t believe it; I’ve done it! “A big milestone too was making the Top 5. I guess quite a few of us in the house had been saying from the beginning, ‘I wonder who’s going to be in the Top 5?’... ...Read more »

The US Food and Drug Administration has proposed standard definitions for manufacturers who want to label their products as being gluten-free. The FDA said yesterday (2 August) that it is proposing that foods bearing the claim cannot contain “20 parts per million or more” gluten. The agency said the limit was based on the available methods for gluten detection, as current methods cannot reliably detect the amount of gluten in a food when the level was less than 20ppm. The threshold is... ...Read more »

Kraft Foods is to split into two companies, a move that will create a global snacks maker that would sell brands including Oreo biscuits and Cadbury chocolate. The US food giant today (4 August) announced plans to create two listed companies – a North American grocery business and an international snacks firm. Kraft plans to spin off the North American company to its shareholders and said it believes the two business will be in place by the end of 2012. Chairman and CEO Irene Rosenfeld said... ...Read more »

The Centre for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a US-based nonprofit consumer group, has urged the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to revise its current serve-size mandatory regulations.  The FDA’s serving size regulations were based on data collected in the 1970s, and the FDA is currently reviewing serving sizes in a broader revision of food labels. In a recent letter to the FDA, the CSPI claimed that US food manufacturers are understating the calories, sodium and saturated fat content... ...Read more »

The Productivity Commission, the Australian federal agency responsible for recommending key Australian government economic reforms, has recommended that the AUD$1,000 threshold exemption from Australian Goods and Services Tax on imports, should be “lowered significantly”. The GST-free threshold for imports predates the concept of online shopping. Conventional retailers have repeatedly expressed concerns over their disadvantage against online competitors with the latter being able to sell products... ...Read more »

Australia’s biggest public float in the past few months, Collins Foods, fell 8 percent on its first day of trading. Collins Foods is a KFC franchisee that operates all 117 KFC outlets in Queensland and 85 Sizzler restaurants worldwide. The company’s owner Pacific Equity Partners, a private equity firm, sold its 52 percent stake, and the company successfully raised $202 million in an initial public offering at $2.50 a share last month. However, the stock opened at $2.48 yesterday before finishing... ...Read more »

New Zealand’s Commerce Commission has decided not to hold an inquiry into milk prices after arguing that there is enough competition at retail and wholesale level in the market. Dairy giant Fonterra, formed in 2001 to help promote New Zealand’s dairy exports, collects over 90 per cent of the country’s milk production and sets national prices. The Commission reviewed the way prices were set in New Zealand’s milk sector after complaints that retail prices were too high and... ...Read more »