Monday 11 March 2013 is Labour Day in the State of Victoria. Australian Food News, like most other businesses based in Melbourne, Australia, will be shut for this public holiday. Labour Day historically celebrates a well-organised strike and public march on the Victorian Parliament by Melbourne workers on 21 April 1856. The government responded by awarding the workers their objective to reduce the working day from 12 hours to 8 hours with no loss of pay. Now some 157 years later, the Victorian government... ...Read more »

The Victorian Liberal Coalition Government is contributing $2 million towards Mars Australia’s new expansion of its large manufacturing facility in Ballarat. The Mars expansion, which will cost AU$52 million overall, and involves energy and water upgrades, such as pipe and plant insulation, stormwater capture and storage, wastewater treatment upgrades, refrigeration systems upgrades and installation of solar panels. The investment will ensure Mars Australia continues to manufacture Mars Bars, Snickers,... ...Read more »

Yesterday, Australian Food News reported consumer advocacy group CHOICE’s concerns that trade marks were being used to convey ‘healthy’ food messages for foods that did not have FSANZ pre-approval for these health claims. CHOICE has expressed concerns that trade marks may be used to circumvent the Health Claims Standard under the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code. The Health Claims Standard, designed by FSANZ, requires foods to meet various eligibility criteria before a health claim... ...Read more »

SPC Ardmona has upset Australian peach growers with its decision to cut the amount of fruit purchased this year. SPC has said that SPC will cut its peach quota by 17 per cent due to a “significant fall” in consumer demand. Peach growers have reported that they were only informed of the cut after they began preparing for the season, with some individual businesses expected to lose tens of thousands of dollars. In spite of this, SPC Ardmona has said the company genuinely believed that the cut was... ...Read more »

SPC Ardmona, which runs one of  Australia’s few remaining   fruit-processing plants and cannery, has received a significant boost from two Victorian Government grants. Victoria’s Deputy Premier Peter Ryan and Minister for Manufacturing, Exports and Trade, Richard Dalla-Riva recently announced the approval to SPC Ardmona of grants of $3.9 million from the Victorian Government’s “Sustainable Process Development Project” as well as $500,000 for “New Product Development... ...Read more »

A parliamentary inquiry will investigate the performance of Victorian food safety regulators Dairy Food Safety Victoria (DFSV) and PrimeSafe. The Victorian Government’s Rural and Regional Parliamentary Committee will assess the competitiveness and regulatory burden of national primary production and processing standards on businesses regulated by PrimeSafe and Dairy Food Safety Victoria. Dairy Food Safety Victoria administers the Dairy Act 2000. Its role is to ensure national food safety standards... ...Read more »

The Government of Victoria has issued a statement warning people to avoid gathering wild mushrooms around Melbourne, in rural Victoria and from their own gardens. Autumn conditions have created ideal growing conditions for poisonous mushrooms, acting Chief Health Officer, Dr Michael Ackland, warned today. “There is a risk of collecting poisonous varieties which may appear very similar to edible varieties,” Dr Ackland said. He identified the dangers of two of the State’s most dangerous varieties,... ...Read more »

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver was joined yesterday by Minister for Health David Davis to announce the launch of Jamie’s Ministry of Food as part of the Victorian Government’s new campaign to tackle obesity – the ‘Victorian Healthy Eating Enterprise’ (VHEE). The Baillieu Coalition Government is partnering with The Good Foundation to set up Jamie’s Ministry of Food, a cooking and nutrition education program, in Victoria. The Government has committed AU$2.87 million to establish Jamie’s... ...Read more »

The Victorian Government has claimed to be involved in a project by Bega Cheese in which its cream cheese facility at Tatura, in Australia’s troubled Goulburn Valley ‘food bowl’, will be expanded. Victorian Minister for Innovation, Services and Small Business, Ms. Louise Asher, has claimed that the Victorian Government is to be ‘joining’ Bega in the AU$7.8 million expansion of Tatura’s production supply of cream cheese. The expansion will increase production from 15, 000 tonnes to... ...Read more »

The Victorian State Government has been heavily criticised for offering a grant to Singapore-based Olam International Limited for helping build its proposed “state-of-the-art” almond processing plant in Victoria. The criticisms come at the same time as the Australian Government is being criticised for inadequate support for Australian-owned companies, when foreign investment in the country’s food industry is at a record high. The Singapore based international Olam group bought 8,000 hectares... ...Read more »