The proposal by the Australian Greens Party to make amendments to Australian Country of Origin (COO) labelling laws has been met with mixed reactions by the food industry. The legislation from the Greens would simplify COO labelling to three claims: Product of or Grown in Australia, Manufactured in Australia, and Packaged in Australia. Australian vegetable and potato growers’ representative body AusVeg said it is backing the Bill, which was introduced into the Senate on 16 May 2013 by Greens’... ...Read more »

The Australian Government has launched a new website portal that provides links to best practice information on managing food allergies. The launch coincides with Food Allergy Awareness Week, which runs globally from 12-18 May 2013. The portal is a result of collaboration between Government, industry and consumer representatives and Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ). Shayne Neummann, Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Ageing launched the new website portal, saying that it would provide... ...Read more »

Australian-made products rated highly among Australian consumers, according to new findings from market research organisation Roy Morgan Research. The research found that 87.4 per cent of Australians more likely to buy food produced in Australia, while 88.5 per cent of Australians aged 14 plus said they were more likely to buy Australian-made products across all categories over products manufactured in other countries. The US and the UK also rated highly, with 56.2 per cent of Australians saying... ...Read more »

More than half of US consumers agree that labelling food or other products organic is just an excuse for companies to charge more, according to research from US market research organisation Harris Interactive. A March 2013 ‘Harris Poll’, conducted by the market research organisation, found that more Americans are concerned about the current state and future of the environment in 2013 than in 2012 (38 per cent in 2013, compared with 31 per cent in 2012). But this did not necessarily translate... ...Read more »

A new filter for the FoodSwitch mobile phone app, called GlutenSwitch, has been launched to help Australians with coeliac disease or a gluten intolerance make more informed choices. The new GlutenSwitch function provides instant information about whether a scanned product contains gluten – it also recommends gluten-free alternatives, listed by order of ‘healthiness’. It also shows consumer-friendly traffic lights for fat, saturated fat, sugars, salt and energy. The FoodSwitch app and the new... ...Read more »

People sometimes “see” flavours in foods and beverages before actually tasting them, according to a scientist speaking at a meeting of the American Chemical Society on 11 April 2013. The eyes sometimes beat the tongue, nose and brain in the emotional and biochemical balloting that determines the taste and allure of food, according to Terry E. Acree, Ph.D, a Professor of Food Science at Cornell University in New York. “There have been important new insights into how people perceive food flavours,”... ...Read more »

Global confectionary giant Cadbury has relaunched its Dairy Milk blocks range in Australia with “significant enchancements”. The enhancements include the introduction of new rounder-shaped chocolate pieces, the inclusion of whole nuts in all nut varieties of the product, and a new-look resealable pack. Ben Wicks, Cadbury Dairy Milk’s General Manager for Marketing Chocolate, said Cadbury Australia has made these changes following extensive research and input from Australian consumers. “The... ...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 »

Recently Australian Food News reported the launch by barcode company GS1 of its own mobile phone app, GoScan, designed to let consumers access extra information about products. The GoScan iPhone app allows consumers to rapidly and easily access trustworthy information about a product. Jay Dillon, an independent marketing consultant, has written a guide for food marketers on how best to use the app. Mr Dillon told Australian Food News there are plenty of apps in the market that can read barcodes and... ...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 »