The Medical Journal of Australia has published a report which has found that non-government volunteer organisations in Australia and New Zealand have had a positive impact in encouraging bread manufacturers to voluntarily reduce sodium levels in bread products in Australia and New Zealand. Working together, the University of Auckland, in New Zealand, and the George Institute for Global Health, in Sydney, studied the effectiveness of collaborations between the Australian Division of World Action on... ...Read more »

A survey conducted by market research company Ipsos Australia suggests that most Australian consumers prefer glass packaging for food and beverages over other packaging types. More than 600 people including 565 main grocery buyers were surveyed as part of the research which was commissioned by glass packaging supplier O-I Australia. Of the survey’s participants, 88 per cent said they believed glass packaging best demonstrated high quality food products and 76 per cent of participants said they... ...Read more »

Australia’s leading consumer advocacy group CHOICE has renewed calls for a national standard on free range products through Standards Australia and involving industry, government and consumers. CHOICE challenges the Australian Egg Corporation Limited’s (AECL) proposed draft standard which would permit densities of 20,000 chickens per hectare to be certified as free range. CHOICE describes the proposal as “fanciful” and “self-serving”. CHOICE spokesperson Ingrid Just said, “There are... ...Read more »

At a meeting held in Canberra today, federal environment ministers failed to reach agreement on a national recycling deposit scheme for packaged beverage containers. Under the proposed scheme, a 10-cent fee would be levied and refunded when containers are recycled. A similar scheme was introduced to South Australia in 1977 and is still in place today, allowing South Australians to collect a deposit for each beverage container they return to a recycling depot. The Northern Territory is also planning... ...Read more »

Queensland’s Opposition party, the Liberal National Party (LNP), has demanded that the State of Queensland double its food production by 2040. LNP Leader Campbell Newman today launched a long term agricultural strategy which positions Queensland as part of the solution to a predicted global world food crisis. Mr Newman said, “There isn’t a long term plan for agriculture in Queensland and our extensive consultation with the sector found that producers and industry groups want government... ...Read more »

Scientists in the UK, Spain, and Brazil are collaborating to find a way of producing valuable biomass-derived chemicals, materials and fuels from orange peel. Christened the Orange Peel Exploitation Company (OPEC), the project is a partnership between researchers from York, the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil and the University of Cordoba, Spain. Professor James Clark, of the Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence in the University’s Department of Chemistry said, “The by-product of the juicing... ...Read more »

Does your special Functional food or beverage meet all food law standards? Does your product need to be TGA registered? Will your healthy claims really stand up to government scrutiny? Some of Australia’s leading experts in the areas of food law, health and therapeutic regulations, and marketing law will be providing answers to these questions at a half-day symposium being held in Sydney on Monday 10 October 2011. The symposium, titled ‘Healthy Bodies of Law: Food or Therapeutic? Finding... ...Read more »

After 10 years of negotiations, U.S. cherries can now be exported to Western Australia, making cherries the first U.S. fresh fruit to gain access to that market. U.S. cherries from California have been common in the eastern states of Australia since the late 1990s as the states of Washington and Oregon have been permitted to export to the eastern Australian states since 2001. Since that time, negotiations have been ongoing between Biosecurity Australia and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to... ...Read more »

New ‘free range’ egg production standards for Australia, drafted by the egg industry body, Australian Egg Corporation Limited (AECL), have caused outrage amongst free range egg farmers. The AECL’s proposed new standards for “free range” eggs is seeking to extend the maximum number of birds per hectare from 1,500 to 20,000, but a spokesperson for the AECL told Australian Food News, “Stocking densities of up to two birds per metre square provide hens with the ability to display all their... ...Read more »

Three glass bottled beer products brewed by Little Creatures have been recalled over fears of possible presence of glass in the product due to faulty packaging. Little Creatures is a subsidiary of a company in which the Lion Nathan Group has a 40% interest. Its operations are based in Fremantle, Western Australia. A number of the Little Creatures Pale Ale, Bright Ale and Dreadnought Single Batch bottled beers, which are distributed to bottle shops and liquor stores across Australia, are potentially... ...Read more »