Coles supermarkets have launched a new marketing campaign around Australia promoting low prices for domestic fresh fruit and vegetables. The Coles campaign takes advantage of a current glut in fresh produce around Australia. However the campaign also signals greater competition for the “fresh” descriptor crossing into the marketing cornerstone of its major competitor, Woolworths. Over the past decade, Woolworths has branded itself by the slogan “Woolworths – the Fresh Food people”. Hence,... ...Read more »

Queensland horticulture body Growcom, says it intends to assess opportunities for Australian fruit and vegetable growers to generate credits under the Australian Government’s Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI) scheme. The scheme allows landowners to generate carbon credits, and ultimately income streams, by conducting projects that reduce emissions or sequester carbon in the environment. Growcom’s David Putland said the scheme involved around a set of ‘approved methodologies’ that determined... ...Read more »

While the bad news for tomato-growers on Friday January 6, 2012 was that all Heinz tomato-sauce and ketchup ceased production in Australia, the big picture is that several massive investments in glasshouse tomatoes are creating opportunities for a new world-leading tomato industry in Australia. Many were disappointed by the Heinz closure of its Gigarre operation, which had been foreshadowed by Heinz  seven months earlier (as Australian Food News reported on May 27, 2011). Job loss concerns still... ...Read more »

A University of Sydney survey has found that only 54 per cent of Australians aged between 18 and 24 know the recommended daily amounts of fruit and vegetables to eat each day. The survey of 106 university students aged 18 to 24 was published in the Dietitians Association of Australia’s journal, Nutrition and Dietetics. Many of the survey’s participants also did not know the correct serving sizes for three (grapes, carrots and lettuce) of the four foods tested in the study – although... ...Read more »

McDonald’s Australia has boasted its healthier food credentials by announcing that from tomorrow its customers will be asked if they would like salad as an alternative to fries. McDonald’s announcement coincides with the start of kilojoule labelling on McDonald’s menu boards at point of sale. McDonald’s Australia CEO Catriona Noble said that by making the option of salad part of every ‘Extra Value Meal’, McDonald’s is making it “easier for customers to enjoy a serve of fresh vegetables”. Ms... ...Read more »

New research from the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC) has found that several types of Asian vegetables contain folate levels equal to or greater than spinach, making them one of the richest sources of folate known. The research team, led by scientists at the Queensland Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation (DEEDI) used new technologies to measure the folate levels of ten Asian vegetables including buk choy, choy sum and wombok and compared them... ...Read more »

Scientists at the University of Birmingham, in the UK, have found that certain combinations of fruit and vegetable juice powder concentrates may help combat chronic gum disease when combined with conventional dental therapy. The results of their study, published today in the Journal of Clinical Periodontology, showed that taking a daily dose of capsules containing concentrated phytonutrients improved clinical outcomes for patients with chronic periodontitis (deep-seated gum disease) in the two months... ...Read more »

Almost half of Australian adults are failing to meet the recommended daily intake of vegetables due to ‘lack of convenience’, according to a survey by kitchenware brand Tefal. According to Tefal, the survey of 2,500 Australians revealed that 45 per cent of Australians failed to meet the recommended daily intake of five vegetable portions. Of these people, 39 per cent said that preparing and cooking vegetables wasn’t convenient as part of their busy lifestyle, and this was major impediment to... ...Read more »

A University of Sydney PhD student has discovered that a patient’s diet and cookery styles impacts on the required doses of medicines commonly used to treat illnesses such as depression and psychosis. Vidya Perera, a final year PhD student in the university’s Faculty of Pharmacy, found that people from South Asia could need lower doses of these medicines because they are likely to have lower levels of CYP1A2, an enzyme that metabolises drugs. Vegetables such as cabbages, cauliflower and broccoli... ...Read more »

An international team of scientists, led by researchers at McMaster and McGill universities, in Canada, has found that a diet containing plenty of fruit and raw vegetables could alter a gene that puts people at risk of heart disease. The researchers said the study involved analysing more than 27,000 individuals from five ethnicities – European, South Asian, Chinese, Latin American and Arab – and the affect that their diets had on the effect of the ‘9p21’ gene. The ‘9p21’ gene... ...Read more »