Vitafoods is known as the most important event in the nutraceutical, functional foods and functional drinks event calendar.  After 15 record breaking years in Europe, this renowned event comes to Asia to bring together the world’s leading suppliers, new products, industry experts and buyers. Vitafoods Asia offers a unique opportunity to discover the products and meet the suppliers who will give you the competitive advantage in the future  Read More →

McDonald’s UK is the latest multinational chain to display the calorific content of items on its UK menus. Australian Food News can reveal that McDonald’s Australia plans to follow suit by displaying the kilojoule content of items on its restaurant menus across Australia later this year. McDonald’s UK is supporting a UK government initiative to tackle obesity by introducing calorific content information to its UK restaurant menus. Others supporting the UK initiative include KFC, Pizza Hut and... ...Read more »

New Zealand-based milk producer Fonterra and UK-based First Milk today announced a joint venture to produce “premium” whey proteins for Fonterra’s growing food ingredients business in Europe. The two dairy farmer co-operatives will combine their intellectual property to develop dairy protein streams at First Milk’s Lake District creamery in Cumbria, England. Fonterra Europe’s Managing Director, Koert Liekelema said the venture is the first step in realising its goal of local European... ...Read more »

The non-profit Alcohol Education & Rehabilitation Foundation (AER Foundation) today presented a report to the Australian Government calling for urgent reform of taxes on wine in Australia. The report “Alcohol Taxation Reform – Starting with the Wine Equalisation Tax”, was produced by leading economic consultants the Allen Consulting Group, commissioned by the AER Foundation. The AER Foundation report claims that Federal Government would earn an extra $1.5 billion by applying similar tax... ...Read more »

Queensland dairy farmers claim the national retail milk value chain has been devalued by A$77 million in 2010/2011 compared to the previous year due to supermarkets’ house brand milk being sold at low prices. The Queensland Dairyfarmers’ Organisation (QDO) has lodged its findings to the current Senate Inquiry into milk prices. It claims that dairy farmers are being “directly impacted by the Coles-led A$1 per litre milk discounting”. QDO President Brian Tessmann described the impact... ...Read more »

Queensland’s largest flour mill and only durum semolina mill, owned by Weston Milling, has recommenced production after an extensive rebuild that followed the devastating Brisbane floods in January 2011. The mill, located at Moorooka in Brisbane since 1954, is of strategic importance to Weston Milling’s supply of flour for domestic and international markets. Weston Milling produces a range of flours to make bread, cakes, biscuits, pastry, noodles. The company’s customers range from large Australian... ...Read more »

Cadbury has created Cadbury Screme Egg Minis in time for Australia’s own Halloween (‘ANZAC Beersheba Day’, 31 October in Australia). The new eggs are a miniature version of the Cadbury Creme Eggs and are filled with “green gooey goodness” encased in Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate. Cadbury Screme Egg Minis will be putting all the spooky touches on the Werribee Mansion for the Screme Egg Spook Party at Werribee Park, Victoria, in preparation for the freaky, scary and ghostly Halloween festivities... ...Read more »

Multinational brewer SABMiller has accused Australian brewing giant Foster’s Group Limited of making “misleading” and “deceptive” statements in its recently published end-of-year results. It is the latest clash between the two breweries, with SABMiller continuing its drive to purchase Foster’s Group Limited. In a submission to Federal Government’s Takeovers Panel, SABMiller accuses Foster’s of having “no reasonable basis for several forward-looking statements” in the results presentation... ...Read more »

A drop in the price of fruit and vegetables in August 2011 has contributed to the lowest inflation rates for almost two years in Australia, according to a report published today by leading financial services provider TD-Securities. According to TD-Securities’ Melbourne Institute, the price of fruit and vegetables in Australia fell by 1.6 per cent in August 2011, compared with a rise of 1.8 per cent in July 2011. The TD-Securities Melbourne-Institute monthly inflation gauge dropped 0.1 per cent... ...Read more »

A new smartphone application with the controversial traffic light system has been launched by the Obesity Policy Coalition, which aims to reduce obesity levels in Australia. The Obesity Policy Coalition’s new smartphone app gives a Traffic Light rating based on the amount of total fat, saturated fat, sugars and sodium per 100 grams – green for ‘low’, amber for ‘medium’ and red for ‘high’. Because it is merely a smartphone app, its usage remains voluntary. To use the app, consumers... ...Read more »