Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) has announced the recall of ‘Good Luck Dried Seaweed Stripe’ following concerns over high levels of naturally occurring iodine in a batch of the product. The Chinese seaweed product, imported by Melbourne-based Lay Brothers Pty Ltd, has been on sale at grocery stores in Springvale, Box Hill, Footscray and St Albans, in Victoria. The product in question is sold in a 150g plastic bag and has a ‘Best before’ date of 07/09/2013. In a statement today,... ...Read more »

Research published today by market research organisation, IBISWorld, predicts that Australians will spend A$25.4 Billion on alcoholic beverages in 2011-12. According to the research, Australians are increasingly choosing premium alcoholic drinks over traditional beers. The report predicts that alcohol spending in Australia will increase by 15.3% over the next five years, reaching A$29.3 Billion in 2016/17. IBISWorld General Manager (Australia) Karen Dobie said that while Australia’s alcohol consumption... ...Read more »

Domino’s Pizza Enterprises Limited CEO Don Meij has announced plans to open 30 to 40 new stores in Australia over the next six months. Combined with plans to employ more team members across its 474 existing stores in Australia, the publicly-listed pizza chain expects to create more than 2,500 employment opportunities in the next four months. Mr Meij said the company had kicked off the 2011/12 financial year with solid same store sales growth and its stores are requiring more drivers and pizza makers... ...Read more »

New research from Harvard University, in the U.S., has shown that cooked meat provides more energy than raw meat. The researchers claim their findings suggest cooking played a pivotal role in human evolution by increasing the energy content of some foods. Conducted by Rachel Carmody, a student in Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the research also raises... ...Read more »

The Australian Food and Grocery Council said today that commitments by both of the major political parties to reforming anti-dumping laws in Australia will benefit Australia’s food manufacturers. Dumping occurs when goods are imported into the domestic market at below production cost or through unlawful subsidies from other foreign governments. The AFGC said that smaller Australian food manufacturers are hit hard by these practices. Yesterday, the Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott launched... ...Read more »

The 2011 total winter wheat crop is expected to be Australia’s third-largest on record, according to a new industry report released by specialist agribusiness bank, Rabobank. Rabobank estimates the wheat crop at 25.6 million tones for winter, despite variable crop conditions along the east coast and in South Australia. The expected increase in Western Australian production should compensate for the anticipated fall in the East Coast production. Rabobank senior analyst Dean Smith said that Spring... ...Read more »

The theme of this year’s Australian Food Safety Week, which began today (7 November 2011), is vulnerable populations which, according to the Food Safety Information Council, are growing rapidly in Australia. Australian Food Safety Week is the major activity of the Food Safety Information Council which aims to address the estimated 5.4 million cases of food borne illness in Australia each year. It will run from today  until 13 November 2011. According to data taken from the Australian Bureau of... ...Read more »

Australia’s regulatory authority for therapeutic goods, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) is warning consumers of concerns about some ingredients in a dietary supplement available on the internet. The TGA claims that some such ingredients have previously been banned from being sold in Australia due to safety concerns. In a statement released today, the TGA has named ‘Reduce Weight Fruta Planta’ capsules as the subject of the warning. The TGA claims its analysis of the product has “confirmed... ...Read more »

American beverage company, ArKay Beverages, has launched what it claims is the world’s first alcohol-free whiskey. Launching the new drink, a spokesperson for the Florida-based company said ‘ArKay’ was designed for “anyone with medical conditions or with religious beliefs to drink whiskey without guilt”. The company claims the drink tastes and looks exactly like traditional whisky. According to ArKay Beverages, the whisky drink is the result of five years of beverage industry research,... ...Read more »

Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) Chief Executive Officer Steve McCutcheon today warned consumers against eating raw apricot kernels following the discovery of high levels of a naturally occurring toxin in some products available in Australia. There are different types of apricot kernels, some of which contain high levels of the toxin that can release cyanide into the body when eaten. According to FSANZ, adults eating as few as four of these kernels a day could become very ill – children... ...Read more »