The CSIRO Food Futures Flagship has developed an automated instrument for accurately predicting glycemic index (GI) and resistant starch (RS) in food products. The prototype device is an in vitro (bench top) robotic machine that acts as an ‘artificial gut’ to process large numbers of food samples for a fraction of the time and cost required by the standard in vivo (human) method. The device has been validated as a rapid and reliable predictor of the GI and RS content of foods. Its principal... ...Read more »

Australia’s protracted drought has devastated much agricultural land, and water remains the key to survival for many farmers. So when the going got tough the lamb got tender in the Riverina district of N.S.W. and a value added meat production industry was developed by a gutsy farming family. Bultarra Saltbush Lamb is now winning the praise of chefs and diners alike in restaurants in Australia and overseas. In the 1980’s Robert Meares Snr commenced planting saltbush on his family property... ...Read more »

CSIRO research, underway in Central Queensland’s cattle country, is investigating whether the integration of trees, pasture and livestock into a single agricultural system will produce greater net returns for producers and the environment. The ’silvopastoralism’ system is gaining worldwide attention as a potentially profitable land-use practice, particularly following the emergence of new market opportunities such as carbon trading. CSIRO Livestock Industries’ (CLI) project... ...Read more »

Food manufacturers will soon have access to a new CSIRO-bred barley variety, which reportedly has significant human health benefits. A licence agreement between the CSIRO/Australian Capital Ventures Limited joint venture and Austgrains Pty Ltd is set to enable the production of large scale commercial crops of ‘BARLEYmax’, which has been created by CSIRO using “conventional plant breeding techniques”. Dr Bruce Lee, Director of the CSIRO Food Futures Flagship, indicates that... ...Read more »