Aldi has won its Federal Court case against ePAL, which has been found liable for misleading and deceptive conduct under the Competition and Consumer Act. The case related to the fact that the ePAL payment system is changing for Eftpos from 1 October 2011. From that date, a bigger share of the Eftpos payment will flow to owners of ePAL itself. Under the new ePAL system, the retailer’s bank will have to pay an “interchange fee” of up to 15c to the shopper’s bank. The ePAL... ...Read more »

In a world-first Australian experiment, Coca-Cola is replacing the “Coke” branding with one of 150 of Australia’s most popular personal first names for its next summer marketing campaign. The company has allocated 268 million bottles and cans for personalisation. The campaign will include the use of Youtube and Facebook, encouraging people to promote the personalised bottles and broadcast their own names via SMS for display on a major advertising sign in Sydney’s King’s... ...Read more »

The chief scientist of the British Food Standards Agency (FSA) Mr Andrew Wadge today lent his support to the ‘Ask for Evidence’ campaign launched by UK non-profit organization Sense About Science. Australian Food News yesterday reported the launch of the campaign. Mr Wadge blogged “I support this [campaign] wholeheartedly: openness to challenge isn’t just good policy, it’s good science. Scientific understanding only moves forward by scrutiny, discussion, testing and disproof.” He added,... ...Read more »

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission yesterday announced that it will not oppose the acquisition of the iconic Australian Foster’s Group by SABMiller. According to ACCC chairman Rod Sims “the proposed acquisition is not likely to result in a substantial lessening of competition for the supply of beer”.  Before reaching this conclusion, the ACCC carried out a comprehensive review, involving market inquiries with a range of interested parties in the beer industry. UK company SABMiller... ...Read more »

The Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Ageing, Catherine King, today launched the new version of a popular Nutrition Panel Calculator (NPC) used by industry to provide important nutrition information on food labels. Ms King said “the NPC has been available since 2001 and is the most popular feature on the Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) website, attracting about 10,000 unique visitors per month”. However, feedback received by FSANZ and the availability of new data meant it was... ...Read more »

Entries are now open for the 2012 Fonterra Foodservice “Proud to be a Chef” competition. The “Proud to be a Chef” competition gives thirty apprentices from across Australia and New Zealand the opportunity to participate in a series of master classes conducted by world leading chefs. This year, finalists will have the opportunity to learn from: Philippe Mouchel, executive chef and co-owner of PM 24, Adam D’Sylva, executive chef and co-owner of Coda Bar and Restaurant, Pierrick Boyer, executive... ...Read more »

This weekend is huge for Australian football with the NRL grand final on Sunday 2 October, the last pool game in the Rugby World Cup and the AFL grand final on Saturday 1 October. And while footy fever sweeps the nation, Eagle Boys Pizza, Australia’s second largest pizza company is preparing for a spike in sales. Eagle Boys CEO Todd Clayton said the franchise is expecting to make more than 100,000 pizzas over the weekend, increasing sales by over 20 per cent.  Read More →

In an interesting development today, fast food chain Hungry Jack’s announced that it would be offering broccoli alongside its burgers. Aaron McKie, CEO of Hungry Jack’s said the broccoli would be served as part of a vegetable medley comprising carrot, celery and capsicum sticks, hand-cut and served fresh in a cup supplying a full serve of vegetables. It will be accompanied by an optional hommus dip in a mini tub. “Salad Stix can only be described as a nutritional goldmine,” Mr McKie said.... ...Read more »

The ‘Farm Gate to Plate’ Bill proposed by Federal Independents Bob Katter MHR and Senator Nick Xenophon has been slammed by the Produce Marketing Association (PMA) which says that the costs of compliance would defeat its purpose.    The Bill (formally referred to as the Constitutional Corporations (Farm Gate to Plate) Bill 2011), as previously reported by Australian Food News, would require grocery retailers to display the farm gate price of fresh fruit and vegetables next to the retail... ...Read more »

The UK non-profit organization Sense About Science has launched an ‘Ask for Evidence’ campaign in response to growing concerns about the number of unsubstantiated, distorted and misleading claims being made in the public domain, particularly the internet. The campaign aims to encourage people to insist on evidence when concerned about the risks or benefits being claimed on a website, product, advert, advice, publication or policy announcement. The campaign says consumers do not need a... ...Read more »