NEWS
SNIPS
E tū says the
sudden and
unexpected
announcement
that Cadbury
World is closing
has been made
by Mondelez
because land
is needed for
Dunedin’s new
hospital
New Zealanders
are the first in the
world to try the
new Coca-Cola
Stevia No Sugar,
which is made
using a specific
part of the stevia
leaf
Former Frucor
Suntory head
Kevin Bowler is
the new chief
executive of My
Food Bag and
will take the
company to new
levels in healthy
meal solutions
Kono NZ chief
executive Rachel
Taulelei (Ngāti
Raukawa, Ngāti
Rarua, Ngāti
Koata) has been
awarded Maori
Businesswoman
of the Year by
the University of
Auckland
MediaWorks
will broadcast
New Zealand’s
longest running
agricultural
contest – the
50th Young
Farmer of the
Year – for the
first time, with an
edited version to
be broadcast on
ThreeNow.
6 JUNE 2018
ADVERTISING
COMPLAINTS
Food and beverage complaints have
made up 15% of all Advertising Standards
Authority complaints in 2017, with
one advertisement for an energy drink
topping the list for the year. The organisation’s
annual report says a television
advertisement for V Energy and its
manufacturer Frucor Suntory attracted
18 complaints about the safety of nail
gun use and the dangers of jumping in
wet concrete. ASA says the concrete
complaints were upheld because the
advertisement depicted a “dangerous
practice with the potential to encourage
a disregard for safety, in breach of the
Code of Ethics. The complaints board
agreed the level of exaggeration or
fantasy in the ad was not sufficient to
save it.” More than half the complaints
related to misleading claims in advertisements
and just under 20% of complaints
were about taste and decency
issues. The association reported a 3%
increase in complaint numbers to 603;
most complaints came from television
advertisements; most involved therapeutics
and health; 55% were deemed
misleading by complainants; and 43%
were found to be groundless.
SUPPLY CHAIN STUDY
KIWI
BLOCKCHAIN
ADOPTION
NEWS
New research by Victoria University of
Wellington has the potential to transform
New Zealand’s dairy industry by
improving the traceability of products
moving through the supply chain. PhD
student Melissa Welsh has developed a
model for estimating the value added by
traceability systems and, as well as helping
companies gauge the overall benefit
of improving their products’ traceability,
the model also helps them identify the
stages in the production chain where
these systems have the greatest impact.
Welsh says the need for reliable product
tracking systems was demonstrated by
Fonterra’s botulism scare in 2013, when
the discovery of potentially dangerous
bacteria in some of the company’s products
forced a major product recall. “I
worked with Fonterra on developing this
model, and tested it by analysing the financial
impact on Fonterra of shocks like
product recalls, adverse weather events
and global demand fluctuations,” she
says. Good traceability systems make
selective recalls possible in scenarios
like that faced by Fonterra, and are crucial
to a firm’s ability to limit the size and
spread of a recall. However, Welsh says
adopting a new traceability system is
costly, and it can be difficult to estimate
the benefit of such a system - which
is where her model can help. Although
the model was developed with the dairy
industry in mind, it has broader applications,
she says. “Understanding where
your product has come from, what
components or ingredients it contains,
and where it has ended up in the world
is important regardless of the industry.
Traceability is essential for any supply
chain, not only to help when things go
wrong and a product needs recalling,
but to optimise production planning
and scheduling.” Welsh’s research has
been supported by a GS1 New Zealand
PhD Scholarship. GS1 is a global, not
for profit organisation specialising in the
development and maintenance of standards
for use in supply chains—for the
identification and exchange of information
about goods.
Olivia director Jerry Ho, who also
heads the New Zealand Green Industry
Association, says global depletion of
food source and the rising concerns of
food authenticity are a major reason for
setting up a blockchain system for credibility
and sustainability. “We are helping
feed an over-populated planet and time
is running out unless we start changing
things for the better, as we help to feed
Asia and other parts of the world,” he
says. The five-year-old Auckland oper-
Auckland business Olivia
believes it is the first small to
medium enterprise in Australasia
to adopt blockchain in
food traceability.