Confectionary manufacturer Wrigley has taken its new caffeine-added chewing gum, launched in the US in April 2013, off the market after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began an investigation into the safety of caffeine-added foods. Wrigley, which is a subsidiary of Mars Inc, said that it will temporarily stop sales and marketing of its ‘Alert’ caffeine-added gum after discussions with the FDA. Casey Keller, Wrigley President, said in a statement to US media that the Company made the... ...Read more »

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced that it will investigate the safety of caffeine in food products, particularly its effects on children and adolescents. The investigation is a response by the food safety authority to a growing trend in the US for caffeine-added food products, and the announcement came just weeks after confectionary company Wrigley’s began promoting a new chewing gum that contains caffeine. Launching the new caffeine-added gum, Alert Energy Caffeine Gum, in... ...Read more »

Australian pie producer, Garlo’s Pies, is preparing to move into a new production facility in St Peters, in Sydney’s inner west, as the Company expands its distribution channels into major supermarket retailers in New South Wales (NSW). Garlo’s Pies, which was founded by former National Rugby League (NRL) captain Sean Garlick, his brother Nathan and father Terry in 2001, will now be stocked in Coles and IGA across NSW, and in Woolworths in Sydney. Garlo’s Pies said the new production facility... ...Read more »

There are still places available for an upcoming series of intensive workshops from leading food compliance consultants FoodLegal. The workshops will be run in both Sydney and Melbourne. 1. ‘Swim between the flags’ workshop  This workshop covers the best practices to identify when and how a non-compliance risk exists in any food marketing. This includes illustrations of non-compliance under Australian Consumer Law and what options can be considered. Choose your session: Friday 24th... ...Read more »

US-based international manufacturing giant Mocon has partnered with Australian company Inspection Systems to establish a certified lab for permeation, seal strength and leak detection testing for food and pharmaceutical packaging products. Inspection Systems, a supplier of inspection and testing instruments and services, with locations in Australia and New Zealand, has created a separate entity, IS Laboratories, to support the partnership. It aims to provide food and pharmaceutical companies with... ...Read more »

Swiss global manufacturer and marketer of precision instruments, Mettler Toledo, has created a guidebook for salt determination in food, in a bid to help food manufacturers rise to the challenge of controlling salt levels simply, quickly and accurately. Mettler Toledo produces precision instruments for use in industry, laboratory and retail settings. It has manufacturing facilities in the US, Germany, the UK, Switzerland and China, as well as sales and service departments in other countries, including... ...Read more »

Data analysis is changing the way we manufacture food, track our diets and serve our dishes, having an impact on everything from food safety to trends in restaurants, according to US-based business analysis organisation Good Data. Writing on the Business2Community website, Good Data’s Ana Andreescu said the saying “you are what you eat” might have to be updated to “you analyse what you eat”. In the area of food safety, Andreescu said ‘big data’ is already being used by farmers to analyse... ...Read more »

German scientists have developed a novel screening procedure that accurately determines the amount of animal, plant and microbial substances in foods. Almost all foodstuffs contain the genetic material of those animal and plant species that were used in their preparation. Researchers have adapted the latest techniques of DNA sequencing to determine precisely the levels of different substances in foods. In pilot studies, the researchers from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) were able to use... ...Read more »

The world’s biggest ever study of food allergies, which is spearheaded by the University of Manchester and supported by industry players such as Unilever and Eurofins, began on Friday 22 March 2013. The €9million project builds on an earlier €14.3 million research study and will involve the world’s leading experts in the UK, Europe, Australia and US. Together they mark the biggest study of food allergy in the world. The European Commission-sponsored research, known as the Integrated Approaches... ...Read more »

Organisations in the probiotic and fermented milk sector are hopeful that the word probiotic will be accepted as a ‘generic descriptor’ after a meeting about nourishment and health claims being held by the European Commission today. The main agenda item at the meeting will discuss the rules around generic descriptors on food labels. For the term probiotic, discussion is likely to centre around whether the term probiotic ‘could indicate an outcome on health’. The terms ‘prebiotic’ and... ...Read more »