The Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC) has blasted South Australia Health Minister John Hill over a claim that voluntary limits on junk food advertising aimed at children are not working. Speaking at the Don Dunstan Foundation yesterday, Health and Ageing Minister John Hill said tighter regulation is needed on junk food advertising aimed at children. He referred to new research by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia’s most respected scientific... ...Read more »

Progressive Enterprises, a subsidiary of the Australian retail group Woolworths Limited, has bid farewell to the Woolworths brand in New Zealand, marking the final stage of transition to the new ‘Countdown’ brand. Woolworths Meadowlands was the last store in New Zealand to carry the Woolworths brand. The store reopened this week as a Countdown supermarket. In 2009 Progressive Enterprises announced plans to transition all its supermarkets to the Countdown brand. Over 60% of its 159 stores nationwide... ...Read more »

Australian parents’ activist group the Parent’s Jury has slammed two major food companies, Kelloggs and McDonalds, claiming that their marketing campaigns in Australia are misleading. Both companies featured in the Parents’ Jury’s ‘Fame and Shame Awards 2011’. McDonald’s use of Australian cricket hero Shane Warne to endorse its Chicken McBites came under fire for “using sport to promote unhealthy food which influences children”. Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain cereal, which the... ...Read more »

This weekend is huge for Australian football with the NRL grand final on Sunday 2 October, the last pool game in the Rugby World Cup and the AFL grand final on Saturday 1 October. And while footy fever sweeps the nation, Eagle Boys Pizza, Australia’s second largest pizza company is preparing for a spike in sales. Eagle Boys CEO Todd Clayton said the franchise is expecting to make more than 100,000 pizzas over the weekend, increasing sales by over 20 per cent.  Read More →

One in three Chief Executives in the Australian food and beverage industry, surveyed by accountancy organisation Grant Thornton has identified product innovation as the main driver of improvements in profitability. Grant Thornton, in conjunction with Monash University and the Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC), has just released the results of its survey of the views of Australian food and beverage industry CEOs. However, according to the Grant Thornton findings, smaller companies are struggling... ...Read more »

Research conducted by the research-house Innova Database group has revealed a shift over the past few years in the way dairy products are marketed. According to the research, dairy product development and marketing in Australia and elsewhere has become more sophisticated. There are more ingredient blends, not only with calcium, but also vitamin D, vitamin K2, lysine, prebiotic fibres and isoflavones in dairy (or dairy substitutes). These are claimed to help boost calcium absorption and bone formation. While... ...Read more »

Major fast food chain KFC has removed claims that it sources chickens that are ‘free to roam’ from its Australian website. The move comes days after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) accused Baiada Poultry Pty Ltd and Bartter Enterprises Pty Ltd, both of which supply chickens to KFC in Australia, of making misleading promotional claims to sell their chicken products. The ACCC has instituted proceedings in the Federal Court against Baiada Poultry Pty Ltd and Bartter Enterprises... ...Read more »

The effectiveness of popular diet shakes for weight-management programs continues to divide opinion. Whilst celebrity testimonials and marketers claim the effectiveness of these products, health professionals contrive to challenge their efficacy in losing weight. The diet shake debate was reignited last week when Australian cricketer Shane Warne, speaking to Melbourne radio station 3AW, credited diet shakes for his own weight loss. According to recent figures from market researcher IBISWorld, more... ...Read more »

The Cancer Council of New South Wales has renewed calls for tighter regulations on using promotional characters on food packaging. It claims that nearly 75 per cent of promotional characters on Australian food packets spruik products that are high in fat, salt, and sugar. Research conducted by Cancer Council NSW with the University of Sydney’s Prevention Research Collaboration found that the market was “saturated” with licensed merchandise characters, such as cartoon characters, promoting less... ...Read more »

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has accused some of Australia’s best-known chicken brands of making misleading promotional claims for sell their chicken products. The ACCC has instituted proceedings in the Federal Court against Baiada Poultry Pty Ltd and Bartter Enterprises Pty Ltd which supply chickens nationally under the Steggles brand, as well as Turi Foods, which supplies La Ionica brand meat chickens in New South Wales and Victoria, and the Australian Chicken Meat... ...Read more »