Scientific researchers have formulated a new type of sugar that might help prevent heart disease, according to latest research from The University of Melbourne, in Australia. Dr Corin Storkey and Professor Carl Schiesser from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Free Radical Chemistry and Biotechnology at The University of Melbourne, together with Professor Michael Davies from the Heart Research Institute, in Sydney, have formulated promising heart disease preventatives based on sugar and selenium. Their... ...Read more »

A UK-based independent research organisation, has predicted the food and drink trends set to make an impact in 2012. The top 10 food and drink trends identified by Leatherhead Food Research are: Health and wellness  Leatherhead say that health and wellness is a trend which has had an over-arching influence on the developments of the food and beverage industry in recent years and this influence is set to continue into 2012. Key priorities for companies will include the continued efforts to meet guidelines... ...Read more »

Australia’s only ASX-listed sugar miller, MSF Sugar (formerly Maryborough Sugar Factory Limited), is the latest Australian company to be targeted by a foreign investor, with Thai sugar company Mitr Phol proposing a A$4.45 per share takeover offer. Mitr Phol, which currently owns 22 per cent of shares in MSF Sugar, is one of the largest sugar producers in Asia, with an estimated market share of 19% in Thailand and 9% in China. The takeover agreement is subject to the satisfactory completion of limited... ...Read more »

In a world first, Australian sugar cane is being made into a new gluten-free, low-sugar, high-fibre flour substitute, with a production line swinging into action this week. The breakthrough technology was developed by KFSU Pty Ltd, an Australian company at Ayr, near Townsville in Queensland, after five years of research and millions of dollars of investment. The first commercial production of the flour began at the KFSU factory in Ayr this week, using sugar cane harvested from the surrounding Burdekin... ...Read more »

Potatoes and other foods reportedly high on the Glycemic Index (GI) might not be the dietary villains that many dieticians claim them to be, according to a new study by the University of Otago, in New Zealand. The findings, published today in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, were from Dr Bernard Venn and colleagues from Otago’s Department of Human Nutrition, who studied 30 healthy adults aged between 18 and 50. They found that despite potato being a high-GI value food, a meal containing... ...Read more »

The National Australian Bank (NAB) today predicted Australian sugar production levels for 2011-12 will be between 3.8 and 3.9 million tonnes. According to the NAB, this amount is not as high as Australian sugar producers will have hoped. The news coincides with a current surge in Chinese investor interest targeting Australia’s lucrative sugar industry, recently reported by Australian Food News. NAB Agribusiness Economist Michael Creed said, “In Australia it has been a very difficult season... ...Read more »

Foreign investors continue to target Australia’s lucrative sugar industry, as Chinese-owned Tully Sugar Limited vies with Singapore-based conglomerate Sucrogen to purchase Queensland’s Proserpine Co-operative Sugar Milling Association Limited (PCSMA). The PCSMA, a co-operative sugar mill that is wholly-owned by 214 sugarcane suppliers, is Australia’s fifth-largest raw sugar mill. Tully Sugar Limited, which is owned by the China Oil and Food Company (COFC), already produces raw sugar for export... ...Read more »

A new smartphone application with the controversial traffic light system has been launched by the Obesity Policy Coalition, which aims to reduce obesity levels in Australia. The Obesity Policy Coalition’s new smartphone app gives a Traffic Light rating based on the amount of total fat, saturated fat, sugars and sodium per 100 grams – green for ‘low’, amber for ‘medium’ and red for ‘high’. Because it is merely a smartphone app, its usage remains voluntary. To use the app, consumers... ...Read more »

The Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC) and consumer advocacy group CHOICE continue to disagree over the choice of different front-of-pack methods for food product labels to display nutritional information about the food. A Newspoll online survey published this week, commissioned by the AFGC, has found 78 per cent of Australian consumers are familiar with the AFGC-promoted scheme of Daily Intake Guide food labels. Daily Intake Guide labels use thumbnail symbols that outline the amount of energy,... ...Read more »

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) sugar price index rose by 14% from May to June as the market reacted to a predicted shortage in Brazil.The index reached 359 points, albeit 15% below its thirty-year high earlier in the year, the FAO said today (7 July). The recent price rise reflects short-term demand against tight exportable availabilities, notably in Brazil, it said. “The sugar prices have been very volatile over the past month,” FAO analyst Elmamoun Amrouk told just-food... ...Read more »