www.foodtechnology.co.nz 5 NEWS SNIPS Food Workers Union E Tu is pushing for a pay rise and more worker representation of health and safety in its biggest and oldest cross-employer manufacturing agreement spanning 600 workers at more than 80 places of employment Lewis Road Creamery has teamed up with celebrity cook Chelsea Winter to develop its latest flavoured milk, Lewis Road Creamery Fresh Double Caramel Milk Customers in the UK who order takeaway food using Just Eat could soon find their food being delivered by robots, following the launch of a groundbreaking trial on the streets of London Less than a year after launching Diet Pepsi without aspartame, PepsiCo has announced plans to bring back the original formula in the next few months, following sales falls of nearly 11 per cent N E W S You are what you eat - and where you eat…according to the New Zealand Food and Grocery Council, what you put in your supermarket trolley can indicate where you live in the country, and Auckland is a prime example. Chief executive Katherine Rich says in Mangere (South Auckland) you can buy pigs’ heads, taro or a 5kg bag of rice; in central-city Ponsonby, you can snaffle fresh guacamole and smoked pepper mackerel; in swish Devonport or swanky Remuera, you can find different types of bread than those in South Auckland; and out east in Botany, Asian-influenced food is more plentiful. On a national level, those in the Deep South enjoy the ‘soup season’ for longer, and university cities’ CBDs cater for apartment dwellers and students. Tinned meat products, especially corned beef, are sold almost exclusively in Auckland. Shopper demand is increasingly dictating what’s on the shelf, and Rich says store location, affluence, ethnic diversity and the age of customers are influencing supermarket operators’ decisions. New blood-sucking transparent trays able to be recycled to reduce landfill waste have been introduced into the meat aisles of Hamilton’s New World Hillcrest. Gone are the black polystyrene foam trays, in favour of clear trays for red meat and blue trays for chicken…and owner-operator Warren Eddington couldn’t be happier. “Food grade concerns are absolutely being looked after, but we are also not filling up the landfills.” The equivalent of 14 Olympic-sized swimming pools in foam trays are dumped each year, with the Hamilton store alone contributing more than 200,000 per year. The new polyethylene terephthalate trays also do away with the blood soaker pads, and trap liquid that is unable to leak. “(Customers) can see what is on top, they can see what is underneath so they get a really good view of the product, especially in the clear ones,” Eddington says. Packaging Forum’s John Webber says he considers the trays as a positive Continued on page 6 >> FOOD MANUFACTURERS WARNED OVER SAFETY AND INFORMATION Food Safety Minister Jo Goodhew says the 20th anniversary of the Food Treaty between Australia and New Zealand has simplified two-way trade and is a success story that has enhanced the relationship the two countries enjoy. Last year trade of food and beverage between Australia and New Zealand hit $4.27 billion, and Goodhew says exporters on both side of the Tasman now view each other’s markets as extensions of their domestic markets. The Treaty has also developed joint food standards codes. “It’s a success story for both Australia and New Zealand, and is widely recognised as delivering extremely high standards of food safety while reducing unnecessary barriers to trade between our countries,” Goodhew says. Food manufacturers have an obligation not only to make sure their products are safe but also to give consumers as much information about them as possible, SunRice country manager Len Croudis has warned. Speaking about food safety leadership, Croudis says manufacturers have an obligation to make sure that what they put out into the marketplace is safe and right for the consumer. “Ideally, the company too should have things on their packaging around websites so they can engage and give the consumer more information,” Croudis says. “Saying nothing is not an option. “Consumers, when they look at a product, really need to read the back of the packaging a lot closer. They need to understand that if the product, particularly if it’s agricultural, doesn’t tell you where it’s coming from, then why would you buy it. You need to have that visibility and that assurance.” Supermarkets demand a very high standard from food products, hold manufacturers to strict criteria and audit systems every year. “When you submit a new product, you have to submit a whole series of other information around that product,” Croudis says. “It can’t be just, hey, I’ve got a product…I want to sell it. It has to be driven by making sure that, one, it meets the consumer need – there’s insight behind it – but, two, that it also does perform like it should.” TWO-WAY TRADE SIMPLIFIED Len Croudis
FT-Jul16
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