Australia’s largest hunger relief organisation, Foodbank, is to launch a campaign called Bridge the Hunger Divide on Sunday 16 October 2011, to coincide with World Food Day. World Food Day is a United Nations initiative to raise awareness of global food insecurity issues such as hunger and poverty. Foodbank said it will be building a sculpture of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, made almost entirely out of donated food. The Foodbank initiative has been supported by: Aldi, Cerebos, SPC Ardmona, Coles,... ...Read more »

A report by Sydney based The George Institute for Global Health, released yesterday, says that despite the government’s Food and Health Dialogue, salt levels in Australian bread products have not changed since 2007. Bread has recently become a target for sodium reduction, with one fifth of daily salt intake for Australians coming through bread, and daily salt intake between five and 10 times that required for good health. The report comes just two days after the Australian Food and Grocery... ...Read more »

Associated British Foods said yesterday (13 September) that it had seen a “substantial increase” in adjusted operating profit in the second half of its fiscal year after a “strong” trading period. The UK-based commodities and grocery group, which owns Australian companies George Weston Foods and Don KR Castlemaine, as well as international brands Twinings, Ryvita, Ovaltine and Pataks, said it expects earnings for the full year to show “very good progress”. ABF,... ...Read more »

UK company Associated British Foods has today announced an expected strong increase in revenue for the period to 27 February 2010, on the back of strong sugar performance and Australian grocery profits. ABF, Australia’s second-largest food business, owns George Weston, including brands such as Tip Top, Burgen, Don smallgoods and KR Castlemaine.  Their companies also include Twinings, Patak’s, Maille and Tabasco. According to ABF, in addition to the Australian dollar, infrastructure improvements... ...Read more »

Major Australian based food and beverage manufacturers have, for the first time, publicly made available company action plans which spell out in black and white how and when they will market a range of their products. Australian Food and Grocery Council CEO Kate Carnell said that the commitment is in-line with the Council’s recently announced Responsible Children’s Marketing Initiative. “Companies participating in this initiative have publicly committed to advertise to children... ...Read more »