Food & Beverage Industry News - November 2019

NOVEMBER 2019

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abelling of food and beverages can be a nightmare for manufacturers, especially in an age where allergens seem to be increasing and a lot of perishables are being imported. Australia has a pretty good record when it comes to labelling, but it pays to be vigilant. In this issue of Food & Beverage Industry News we talk to the AIFST’s Fiona Fleming who gives some insights on how to make sure manufacturers are keeping up to speed with local labelling requirements.

Imagine producing a 20-year-old malt whiskey overnight. Or, how about if almost every house has a 3D food printer in their kitchen ready to produce that late night snack at the push of a button? These are some of the ideas that are spruiked

by KPMG’s Trent Duvall in our story

that mainly looks at plant-based proteins but also covers some of the latest trends coming to the fore.

As he mentions in the piece, food and beverage manufacturers need to look at who is calling the shots these days, and it may not be who you think it is.

On the back of its story on rules and regulations in our last issue, Total Construction offers up some more, in-depth information on the subject.

Company director, Bill Franks, gives some practical hints and insights when it comes to building a new facility or renovating a brownfield site.

There’s plenty of other great stories in this issue. Have a great month.

Mike Wheeler

INSIDE Copyright Food & Beverage Industry News is owned by Prime Creative Media and published by John Murphy. All material in Food & Beverage Industry News is copyright and no part may be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means (graphic, electronic or mechanical including information and retrieval systems) without written permission of the publisher. The Editor welcomes contributions but reserves the right to accept or reject any material. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of information, Prime Creative Media will not accept responsibility for errors or omissions or for any consequences arising from reliance on information published.

The opinions expressed in Food & Beverage Industry News are not necessarily the opinions of, or endorsed by the publisher unless otherwise stated. © Copyright Prime Creative Media, 2019 Articles All articles submitted for publication become the property of the publisher. The Editor reserves the right to adjust any article to conform with the magazine format.

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www.foodmag.com.au | November 2019 | Food&Beverage Industry News 5

NEWS

Action to protect native fish ahead of hot, dry summer

Murray Cod is just one species that will benefit from the initiative.

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he Federal Government is working with the states to protect the Murray–Darling Basin’s native fish ahead of an expected hot and dry summer.

Minister for Drought, David Littleproud, released the Native Fish Emergency Response Plan. Make no mistake, we are likely to see fish deaths this summer,” Littleproud said.

“We’re facing another hot summer with very little water flowing through our rivers. This plan will give the MDBA and the states vital tools to help protect fish populations. The Federal Government has money put aside for fish-death prevention measures and environmental water holders will replenish areas on red alert, where they can.

“Fish deaths are common during summer but what we saw last year were a major wake-up call about the impact of the drought on our rivers.

After the Vertessy Review, we have put an emergency plan in place.

“The plan will see more activity in high risk areas, with aerators, fish relocated and algae blooms watched closely.

“The last Northern Basin environmental watering program refreshed waterholes and fish refuges although there is little environmental water left.

“NSW emergency measures have seen fish relocated so they survive this summer and re-populate the rivers when conditions improve.

“The Commonwealth is also bringing government officials and experts together this month to

6 Food&Beverage Industry News | November 2019 | www.foodmag.com.au

coordinate plans and identify areas at high risk of fish deaths.

“Communities too have their part to play and we also ask the community to report river conditions and fish deaths to help with fish relocations and recovery.

“We want native river fish such as the Murray cod, silver perch and golden perch to have the best chance of surviving this summer.

“We want healthy and thriving fish populations in our rivers during drought and in the good times.”

Background Under the Native Fish Emergency Response Plan, the Commonwealth Government will: • Provide emergency funds from the Emergency Contingency Fund

to help states manage urgent and extreme fish death events, with $300,000 set aside.

• Provide available Commonwealth environmental water to mitigate fish deaths.

• Support the coordination of emergency response activities and sharing of resources.

• Maintain a database of significant fish deaths events.

• Contribute to water quality monitoring programs to identify areas at risk.

In return, the states will: • Identify and monitor high risk sites for fish deaths.

• Identify priority refuge areas for native fish.

• Prepare on-ground emergency response plans for priority species and areas.

NEWS

Brownes Dairy switches to plant-based renewable packaging B rownes Dairy will replace its existing milk cartons with an Australian first, a carton package made entirely from plantbased, renewable materials in a new sustainable packaging move.

Tetra Rex Bio-based package is the world’s first fully renewable beverage carton, with the protective layers derived from sugar cane.

“There is a lot of emphasis on the importance of recycling, but less of a focus on how we can make products more sustainable from the beginning.

Brownes Dairy wanted to improve the sustainability of our packaging across the entire lifecycle of our products,” said Brownes Dairy CEO, Tony Girgis.

The bio-based packages offer a more sustainable alternative to the standard milk cartons, reducing the reliance on fossil based polyethylene plastic in the lining.

“Brownes Dairy scoured the planet

in search of the best sustainable packaging on the market. Making the switch to a protective layer derived from sugar cane is not only better for the environment, but our consumers can trust the package is made from a renewable source that has a lower carbon impact to climate change,” said Girgis.

Brownes Dairy will switch 25 of its milk carton products to the new sustainable packaging - about 17.8 million milk cartons per year.

“We have done the due diligence on this packaging format to ensure our product quality, freshness and food safety are fully maintained,” said Girgis.

The Brownes Dairy white milk, cream and CHILL range will all be packaged in a Tetra Rex Bio-based pack.

“Across the industry, we have seen almost all flavoured milk products move to bottles, but Brownes Dairy has made the conscious decision for its

Brownes Dairy will switch 25 of its milk carton products to sustainable packaging.

CHILL range to remain the ‘King in Cartons’,” said Girgis Tetra Pak has delivered more than half a billion renewable packs since the bio-based package was first introduced in dairy by Finnish brand Valio in 2015.

Brownes Dairy will be the first company in Australia to integrate the renewable cartons across its entire milk carton range.

“Consumers globally are concerned about protecting the planet, with research showing people of all ages believe businesses should take responsibility for their impact on the environment. At Brownes Dairy, we wanted to support the global movement by looking at packaging across its entire lifecycle, from source to end of life,” said Girgis.

www.foodmag.com.au | November 2019 | Food&Beverage Industry News 7

NEWS

Blockchain whiskey released William Grant & Sons’ existing data sources, cask types, filling dates and bottling dates are all tracked.

Consumers can trace the origins of their whisky via an innovative web experience, which is individually tailored to each bottle. By scanning a QR code, users are presented with a visual history of their whisky, produced using digitally created art generated by blockchain data unique to the drink’s journey.

Blockchain technology also allows Ailsa Bay to gather data from existing and potential customers, using mobile location services to correlate where the whisky is being purchased and consumed to maintain brand protection.

James Macrae, brand ambassador or Ailsa Bay, said, “Innovation is a key part of the William Grant & Sons business. We’re constantly looking to evolve our offering and learn new things in order to push the boundaries within the drinks industry.

Consumers can trace the origins of the whiskey using blockchain.

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illiam Grant & Sons’ premium whisky brand, Ailsa Bay, has launched the world’s first-ever blockchain whisky in partnership with specialist blockchain technology company arc-net.

Ailsa Bay aims to transform whisky through experimentation, technology, precision distilling and data driven methods. Its whisky is unique as it undergoes a micro-maturation process in small Hudson whiskey casks.

Ailsa Bay’s use of blockchain captures the full distilling and manufacturing process, allowing customers to track their whisky from source to store; ensuring authenticity and traceability.

Blockchain is a list of registers, or “blocks” which contain information about the previous block and transaction data between them. It acts as an open ledger, and this ledger is managed publicly rather than controlled by one party, meaning stored information can’t be changed or tampered, to track authenticity.

For Ailsa Bay, blockchain data is collected from parent company

Blockchain is used to capture the whiskey’s distilling process.

8 Food&Beverage Industry News | November 2019 | www.foodmag.com.au

“We’re doing something now that we hope will set the bar for the future experience of spirits, and we look forward to seeing how other brands follow suit as innovation within the industry continues to develop in the next few years.”

The concept of using blockchain for whisky emerged from William Grant & Sons’ inaugural Hackadram event that was held last year, in which start-ups and innovation specialists were invited to use their expertise to shape the future of the company’s spirits.

The adoption of blockchain is the latest innovation for Ailsa Bay. It joins other innovative processes, including ‘micro-maturation’, where the spirit is added in small bourbon casks for six to nine months for rapid and intense maturation, and unique taste measuring labelling, displaying both the Phenol Parts per Million (PPM) and Sweet Parts per Million (SPM); bringing a new way of thinking to a traditional drink.

NEWS

Consumer demand expected to boost cheddar cheese market

Cheddar is said to be being preferred over natural cheese in several snack preparations.

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here has been a shift in consumer preferences towards various types of nutrient and protein-rich foods that also promise healthy substitutes to everyday consumable products. Cheddar cheese is a multipurpose food product that has been used in the food industry in numerous applications.

The availability of cheddar cheese in the bakery sector and food product companies is increasing as it is a basic ingredient in most of the food preparations requiring cheese.

This has boosted the demand for cheddar cheese in the global market.

Increasing consumption of cheese in various types of cuisines is also anticipated to boost the overall production of cheddar cheese in the food industry.

Cheddar cheese is increasingly being preferred over natural cheese in several bakery and snack preparations. This has also led to increased consumption and hence production in the global market. Furthermore, growing consumer demand for cheese-based

breakfast products is also expected to lead to a rise in the utilization of cheddar cheese in different breakfast products. A study on cheddar cheese by Fact.MR found that cheddar cheese fanatics are always experimenting with food and manufacturers are coming up with new varieties of food items.

The trend of fine gourmet, cuisine and luxury culinary items has inspired manufacturers to innovate their products in order to cater to the taste preferences of consumers.

As a result, the development of block cheddar cheese is expected to trigger a mass demand for cheddar cheese especially in hotels, restaurants, and cafes. A growth in the demand for gourmet and artisanal cheese products is a key factor which is likely to boost the cheddar cheese market in the long run. The expansion of online and retail outlets resulting in the easy obtainability of cheddar cheese is anticipated to create lucrative opportunities for manufacturers in the coming years.

European and North American

markets are moving towards a saturation point, so manufacturers of cheddar cheese are looking for regions that will present them with versatile opportunities in the future. The growing cheddar cheese market in Latin America will open a plethora of opportunities for market players to capitalise on.

Europe is the largest consumer of cheese in the world. Several varieties of cheese are available in the region and the application of cheddar cheese is also widespread in the food industry in Europe.

Asia Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ) is the third largest consumer of cheddar cheese and related products in the world. With the growing acceptance of Western culture in the region, the food habits and taste preferences of people are also increasing at an extensive rate. In spite of the growing disposable income of people in the region, consumers still look for inexpensive food options. As a result, the demand for cheddar cheese is increasing in several countries in APEJ. The study also

found that Japan is slowly emerging as one of the lucrative markets for cheddar cheese with the trend of mild snacking increasing in the region.

With the trend of drinking gaining traction in Japan, having light snacks especially cheddar cheese has increased considerably as a home trend. The Middle East and Africa are anticipated to present manufacturers of cheddar cheese with new and lucrative growth prospects. As the governments in these regions are looking to generate revenue from other sources apart from oil reserves, a variety of industries are emerging as highly profitable options. For instance, in September 2019, Arla Foods a Scandinavian dairy products company will scale up its commitment to develop a sustainable dairy sector in Nigeria.

This study underlines key opportunities in the cheddar cheese market and finds that the market would exhibit growth at a value CAGR of – three per cent during the forecast period.

www.foodmag.com.au | November 2019 | Food&Beverage Industry News 9

NEWS

Compostable cucumber wrap from BioBag World A fully compostable shrinkwrap for cucumbers has been developed in South Australia and is set to launch onto international markets.

The compostable wrap is manufactured by BioBag World Australia and took 12 months to develop in partnership with South Australian produce and packaging businesses IG Fresh Produce.

It was launched in September as an environmentally friendly alternative to the traditional polyethylene plastic wrap and has already generated export interest from Qatar and South Africa.

IG Fresh executive director George Antonas said he was approached by South Australian independent grocer Drakes Supermarkets to develop a compostable fruit and vegetable wrap to replace traditional shrink-wrap.

Antonas said the product was being used exclusively on cucumbers sold at Drake’s 38 South Australian supermarkets until October 16, after which it’d be available for a wide range of purposes.

“JP Drake put the challenge to us and so we gave them product exclusivity for the first four weeks,”

Antonas said. IG Fresh produce is a fruit and vegetable wholesaler located in Adelaide.

Antonas said a potential investment partner from Qatar had travelled to Adelaide for the product launch with Drakes. He expected to begin exporting cucumbers dressed in the compostable wrap to Qatar by the end of October, with exports to South Africa and Europe to follow.

The bioplastic film is made from a compostable resin called Mater-Bi that uses substances obtained from plants including non-genetically modified corn starch.

While there are other compostable products on the market, Antonas said creating a 100 per cent industrially compostable cucumber wrap required a unique process.

“That’s where Scott Morton’s expertise came into it – because it’s heat shrunk onto the cucumber.

There’s plenty of compostable products out there but this one is for a specific purpose,” Antonas said.

“There’s a big push to make all single use packaging compostable. So, you buy a cucumber, you peel off the wrapper and you put it in your greens bin and you know it’s not going to

The cucumber’s bioplastic cover is made from compostable resin. add to landfill and that sort of thing.

Plastic has its place but not for single use, it just creates too much waste.”

According to Antonas, the cucumber compostable wrap has the potential to be used on all fruit and vegetables, and BioBag World Australia director Scott Morton agrees.

“The potential is endless. It’s improving all of the time. I see it as a direct replacement for plastic,” Morton said.

Norway-based BioBag has six factories and 20 market or distribution partners around the world, producing over one billion bags a year.

Morton said BioBag was also working on a non-shrink-wrap compostable product that could replace plastic cling films.

He said the cucumber wrap developed in South Australia could also be distributed in major global markets including the United States.

“We’re trying to enhance the current cucumber wrap. It’s not quite suitable yet as a cling wrap alternative,” he said.

“We’re developing a new product that’s more for the international market. That’s a product that will especially keep fruit and vegetables fresh.

SIA happy with state of fisheries S eafood Industry Australia (SIA), the national peak-body representing Australia’s commercial fishing industry, is delighted that for the sixth consecutive year its solely Commonwealth managed fisheries are in great shape and being fished sustainably.

The release of the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) “Fishery status reports 2019” highlights the quality of Australia’s Commonwealth fisheries management.

“This is great news and is unprecedented internationally,” SIA CEO Jane Lovell said.

“The ‘Fishery status reports 2019’ provides an evaluation of 96 Australian commercial fish stocks.

“This positive report card given for the sixth consecutive year to Australia’s solely Commonwealth managed fisheries is the ultimate endorsement that Australia continues to be a leader in world class seafood and sustainability.

“Australians should be proud of their seafood industry which provides fresh, high-quality seafood, year-round. “As fishers, our priority is the ocean. We advocate the health, sustainability, and future of our ocean. It’s our livelihood and the future livelihood of generations to come.”

10 Food&Beverage Industry News | November 2019 | www.foodmag.com.au

The SIA’s CEO Jane Lovell.

NEWS

Developing new processes for new ingredients C rispy roasted crickets were recently served in a sushi restaurant in London, reigniting the discussion about integrating insects into consumer diets. However, less thought has been given to what industry will have to do to handle these new food types.

New ingredients that have been incorporated into diets in recent years include quinoa, avocado and kale.

These new food products, with mass consumer appeal, are even more important when they use ingredients that are nutritious and environmentally sustainable.

However, the sudden increase from low to large volume production can be an issue when a food product emerges to mass popularity.

Scaling up production and processing food that suddenly and rapidly grows in popularity can be a daunting task. Improperly controlled mass production can cause

inefficiencies to spiral out of control, or for unknown issues to come to the forefront.

For example, the massive global increase in demand for avocados forced the Kenyan government to ban the export of the fruit as there was not enough to supply local needs.

The increase in demand for new ingredients or products also raises the need to implement proper applications for handling new ingredients.

In the case of the crickets, most food manufacturing processes are built to deter insects and prevent them from contaminating the food. As such, if insect-based foods were to grow in popularity, new processes would have to be developed to ensure proper cleanliness and hygiene levels.

When a product is in high demand and supplies run low there is also the potential for food fraud to come into play.

This is dangerous, with potentially

fatal consequences for the end consumer, because the product may have been tampered with, contaminated, and may not be fit for human consumption at all.

To combat these potential issues, producers that are handling new exotic products should ensure that they have measures in place so that operations managers have full control and oversight over their facility.

Systems such as ABB’s Manufacturing Operation Management (MOM) can help keep track of products as they move around the production line and beyond.

The MOM software can give products digital passports allowing producers to accurately tell when the product was produced and exactly what it has come into contact with during production.

MOM’s can also help speed up the implementation period of new products because operation managers

will have more in-depth information regarding their system, allowing them to effectively prepare for using a new or unique ingredient.

Being able to effectively prepare production lines for the introduction of a new ingredient is immensely helpful for producers, especially with the mass adoption of plant-based diets, meaning that more producers will begin introducing animal-free alternatives into production lines. Having the level of control brought by a MOM system will cut down on the time required to begin production.

While insects may not have soared in mass consumption just yet, as people become more interested in what is in their food it is likely that new ingredients will come to the forefront. Preparing for these changes by increasing control will help businesses remain ahead of trends and increase their product security, one crispy cricket at a time.

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www.foodmag.com.au | November 2019 | Food&Beverage Industry News 11

NEWS

New director appointed to Jenkins Group Board

Lachie Johnstone has been appointed to Jenkins Group board.

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enkins Group has announced the appointment of Lachie Johnstone to its Board of Directors to further strengthen its position as a key industry player throughout Australasia’s horticulture post-harvest industry.

Jenkins Group provides an extensive range of labelling, packaging and handling systems to the horticulture industry across

New Zealand and Australia via its two subsidiaries – Tauranga-based Jenkins Freshpac Systems and NSW-based J-Tech Systems.

Johnstone has extensive links within New Zealand’s primary sector and will now join five other board members to guide Jenkins Group through the current innovation and expansion phase.

Johnstone is well positioned to help guide Jenkins Group through these changes. He holds a B.Com from the University of Auckland and is the current chair of Farmlands (New Zealand’s largest farmer-owned rural supplies co-operative), as well as Wellington’s Centreport and Centreport Properties. He is a director of the C. Alma Baker Trust NZ and is the deputy chair of the Board of Governors at Auckland’s King’s College.

In addition to these governance roles, Johnstone has private investments and commercial involvement in New Zealand’s agricultural and logistics sectors. He

has been at the helm of Farmlands for the past 16 years but will step down at the end of 2019, Johnstone is looking forward to sharing his experience and observations from other industries with Jenkins Group.

“I enjoy primary sector and am particularly interested that the Jenkins Group is in the innovation space. It’s an exciting time in the horticultural sector, notwithstanding the likes of environmental challenges and shortages of labour.

Our aim should be to bring together solutions that help our customers to solve complex problems,” said Johnstone.

Having been exposed to many different industries has helped Johnstone shape his governance expertise over the past two decades, he said.

Jenkins Group chair Harry Cranefield says the board is delighted to have someone of Johnstone’s calibre and breadth of knowledge join the team.

“His overall farming experience, and his experience at governance

How to better manage animal disease threats A ustralia will be better prepared to manage significant animal biosecurity threats, such as African swine fever (ASF), through a new comprehensive online field guide for emergency animal diseases.

Head of biosecurity, Lyn O’Connell, said the guide will help vets with early detection, diagnosis and control of exotic and emerging infectious diseases in livestock.

“Early identification and reporting is critical to minimise the devastating impact that these diseases can pose for our animals,

industries, jobs and environment,” O’Connell said.

ASF and foot and mouth disease (FMD) could wipe out industries, jobs, impact on trade and availability of the Australian produce we all enjoy, so we need to be as prepared as possible because the threat is real, said O’Connell.

“Australia’s vets are vital for biosecurity. If the unthinkable happened and a significant animal disease was to hit our shores, our vets would play a key role in managing and minimising the risks.

“This guide will help vets identify emergency animal diseases

12 Food&Beverage Industry News | November 2019 | www.foodmag.com.au

in the field, ensure they consider priority diseases when conducting diagnosis and take appropriate action when they suspect signs of a biosecurity threat.

The disease list included in the guide will be reviewed and updated to address emerging threats so the country is best placed to manage them as they arise.

“We have some of the best vets in the world and this gives them another tool to improve the work they do in protecting Australia from deadly animal diseases.”

The guide is in addition to a range of measures in place to

level, means he has a lot to add to Jenkins Group board. He brings that primary sector involvement and insight which is what we were looking for,” said Cranefield.

“We specialise in the handling, labelling and packaging of horticultural products post-harvest and that includes everything from the orchard gate right through to the end consumer at the supermarket.

Lachie is uniquely placed with a lot of skills and experience in different parts of that supply chain and will help us look towards the future.”

Recent times have seen strong growth for Jenkins, in July the Group invested in Hawke’s Bay based CR Automation, which specialises in mechatronics and automation control systems for a wide range of industries including horticulture. Jenkins has also commenced a new joint venture with US company Van Doren Sales, Global Pac Technologies, to market and support the Robotics Plus apple packing systems across the globe.

better manage animal biosecurity threats. This includes increased intervention measures at our borders, testing of intercepted meat produce for ASF and FMD, as well as stronger enforcement approaches for biosecurity breaches relating to meat products.

A roundtable was recently held between leaders, scientists and governments to discuss the actions needed to keep African swine fever out of Australia. A simulation exercise will also be held later this year to test our disease response capabilities to make sure we’re as prepared as we can be.

NEWS

DuPont launches dairy-free protective cultures for plantbased fermented products YM Vege is designed to prevent spoilage in plant-based beverages.

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uPont Nutrition & Biosciences has announced a new ingredient – Holdbac YM Vege – as the latest addition to DuPont’s Danisco Holdbac line of protective cultures, known for their ability to extend shelflife and secure the quality of products by holding off yeast and mold spoilage – all without use of synthetic preservatives.

Now, Holdbac YM Vege brings this effective and label-friendly spoilage prevention to plant-based, fermented foods and beverages, at a time when customer demand in this space has never been higher.

“The industry has seen enormous growth for fermented plant-based products in recent years, driven by higher numbers of flexitarian, vegetarian or vegan consumers around the world. These shifts in diets are driven by a number

of factors, including the search for improved health that comes with a plant-based diet, ethical choices toward foods with lower environmental impact and which are deemed better for animal welfare, and switching to dairy alternatives for lactose-intolerant consumers,” said Eve Martinet-Bareau, global product manager, cultures for plant-based fermented food and beverages.

“DuPont Nutrition & Biosciences has been working with customers for decades as consumer demands for plant-based options have increased, and we are constantly looking for ways to innovate in this space,” added Martinet-Bareau.

“For example, in May 2018, we launched a new cultures line – Danisco Vege Cultures – especially designed for fermented plant-based

products, helping customers attain desired taste and texture profiles in a wide variety of plant-based dairy alternatives and beverages.”

However, with that demand came certain challenges for producers of fermented goods, including the need to: • gain market share in the fastgrowing plant-based food sector; • consistently ensure high-quality products with the desired taste and texture, particularly across regions with differing consumer preferences; • secure that quality throughout a product’s shelf-life; • address the fast-growing demand for friendly labelled consumer products; • make a substantial contribution to the sustainability of the food and beverage sector; and • provide consumers with

products that improve their health and wellbeing.

“As more consumers look for fermented food and drinks, our Holdbac YM Vege cultures will help our customers meet that demand.”

This innovative new ingredient also offers customers the ability to make a significant difference in terms of environmental and social impact through reduced food waste and plant-based alternatives.

The potential impact is massive: DuPont has estimated that if just five per cent of the global yogurt market is replaced with plantbased alternatives made with Danisco Vege and Holdbac YM Vege cultures, the carbon dioxide emission saving would theoretically be as high as 3,000,000 tons annually.

This would be roughly equivalent to 1,700,000 EU-based cars off the roads.

“We are thrilled to add Holdbac YM Vege to our range of plant-based and sustainable offerings,” said Mikkel Thrane, global sustainability lead for DuPont Nutrition & Biosciences.

“We look at our environmental footprint through the lens of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and we are proud to say that this culture supports at least three – SDG 3 (good health and well-being), SDG 12 (responsible production and Consumption) and SDG 13 (climate action). Holdbac YM Vege is helping us facilitate the transition to a healthier and more environmental-friendly diet.”

This transition to a healthier diet for people and the planet has been lead by DuPont’s expertise in microbiology, food protection and fermentation, as well its commitment to developing and offering more sustainable ingredients for customers.

www.foodmag.com.au | November 2019 | Food&Beverage Industry News 13

NEWS

Toby’s Estate partners with Califia Farms with oat milk Q In the US, oat milk is the number two dairy alternative after almond milk.

uite a few Australians are choosing plant milk over dairy including a new player in the market – oat milk.

Toby’s Estate has teamed up with Califia Farms to offer oat milk to its café customers nationwide.

“With compelling health, ethical and environmental benefits, it’s no wonder more people are turning to plant-based diets. When it comes to coffee, they’re now looking for more options than just soy and almond and so we knew

we had to listen to our customers,” said Jody Leslie, Toby’s Estate general manager.

After a launch in the US, Califia Farms recently launched its new Oat Barista Blend in Australia and now Toby’s Estate is the first specialty coffee roaster who will soon be distributing it to its café network across Australia, starting with NSW. According to Dan Kaplan, national business manager for Califia Farms Australia, in the US, oat milk is the number two dairy alternative

in coffee shops after almond milk and it looks like Australia is headed in the same direction.

“Oat milk is not only dairy free and not a nut milk, but it’s free from soy and made from a sustainable grain, which makes it an appealing option for consumers,” said Kaplan.

Califia’s Oat Barista Blend is made from whole rolled oats and is unsweetened with no added sugar, gums, dairy or soy. It also has half the amount of natural sugar than other oat milk brands.

Carlsberg moves to create paper beer bottle C arlsberg Group is trying to create the world’s first “paper” beer bottle made from sustainably sourced wood fibres that is both 100 per cent bio-based and fully recyclable. Carlsberg has unveiled two new research prototypes of its Green Fibre Bottle, which are the first “paper bottles” to contain beer.

Carlsberg also announced it has been joined by other global companies that are united in their vision of developing sustainable packaging through the advancement of paper bottle technology.

These developments are a continuation of Carlsberg’s sustainable packaging innovation journey and a key part of its sustainability programme, Together Towards Zero, including its commitment to zero carbon emissions at its breweries and a 30 per cent reduction in its full value chain carbon footprint by 2030.

(PEF) polymer film barrier. These prototypes will be used to test the barrier technology as Carlsberg seeks a solution to achieve their ultimate ambition of a 100 per cent bio-based bottle without polymers.

Myriam Shingleton, vice president group development at Carlsberg Group, said: “We continue to innovate across all our packaging formats, and we are pleased with the progress we’ve made on the Green Fibre Bottle so far.

While we are not completely there yet, the two prototypes are an important step towards realising our ultimate ambition of bringing this breakthrough to market. Innovation takes time and we will continue to collaborate with leading experts in order to overcome remaining technical challenges, just as we did with our plastic-reducing Snap Pack.”

Two new prototypes

Carlsberg kicked off the project to develop a bottle made from sustainably sourced wood fibres, the “Green Fibre Bottle,” in 2015 alongside innovation experts ecoXpac, packaging company BillerudKorsnäs, and post-doctoral researchers from the Danish Technical University, supported by Innovation Fund Denmark. These combined efforts

The two new research prototypes are made from sustainably-sourced wood fibre, are fully recyclable and have an inner barrier to allow the bottles to contain beer. One prototype uses a thin recycled PET polymer film barrier, and the other a 100 per cent bio-based polyethylene furandicarbonxylate

New partners onboard

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Carlsberg’s “paper” beer bottle is made from wood fibres. have resulted in the emergence of Paboco, the Paper Bottle Company – a joint venture between BillerudKorsnäs and bottle manufacturing specialist Alpla.

Carlsberg will now be joined by The Coca-Cola Company, The Absolut Company and L’Oréal in a paper bottle community – launched by Paboco. The community unites global companies and experts with the vision of advancing sustainable packaging, offering highquality products while reducing their environmental impact.

Shingleton said, “The work with our partners since 2015 on the Green Fibre Bottle illustrates that this kind of innovation can happen when we work together. We’re delighted that other like-minded companies have now joined us as part of Paboco’s paper bottle community. Partnerships such as these, ones that are united by a desire to create sustainable innovations, are the best

way to bring about real change.”

“We’re driven by our constant pursuit of better, to create more sustainable packaging solutions that help people to live more sustainable lives. Sometimes that means completely rethinking how things are done – pushing the boundaries of existing technologies and overcoming technical challenges as they present themselves.”

Gittan Schiöld, interim CEO of Paboco said, “It is all about the team!

We are collaborating across the value chain, sharing the risks and are united in our vision that the paper bottle will become a reality and fundamentally change this industry for good.”

A constant pursuit of better Carlsberg’s focus on sustainable packaging innovations is not new. In 2018, the Danish brewer launched a number of packaging innovations including recycled shrink film, greener label ink and the innovative “Snap Pack,” which replaces the plastic wrapping around its six-packs with a solution that instead glues cans together.

Carlsberg’s packaging improvements are part of its long-standing progress of betterment and innovation, including developing scientific breakthroughs such as pure yeast and the pH scale.

NEWS

Matilda founder returns to brewery

Phil Sexton will help develop a new Matilda range of beer.

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ustralia’s original craft brewer Phil Sexton is returning to the label he founded more than 35 years ago to reinvigorate the country’s original craft beer.

This will see Sexton partner with Carlton & United Breweries, which fully acquired Matilda Bay in 1990, to build a new small-batch brewery in country Victoria that Sexton and his team will run.

The brewery will be in Healesville in the Yarra Valley, an hour east of Melbourne, and will have a pub attached. It will exclusively develop and brew a new Matilda Bay range and some Matilda Bay classics such as Redback and Dogbolter.

Sexton said the timing was perfect to re-launch Matilda Bay and

help craft beer reach its potential in Australia.

“Restoring Matilda Bay to its rightful place as Australia’s leading craft beer is unfinished business for me,” he said. “I want to grow craft beer by showing people how special good small batch beer can be.

“I founded Matilda Bay in 1983 to give drinkers beautiful craft beer. And as the original craft brewery, it still has a special spot in the consciousness of Aussie beer lovers. It’s the right label to finish what I started and reaffirm what artisanal brewing should stand for: sessionable, flavourful beers that stand the test of time.”

Sexton is one of Australia’s leading brewers and winemakers. In addition to Matilda Bay, he founded Little Creatures and launched Giant

Steps and Innocent Bystander wineries. He said sustainability is a critical part of the new project, with solar panels supplying power and all waste to be recycled. The brewery will use pristine Healesville water.

“This is also about creating a beautiful new attraction in the town I love and live in,” he said. “There is something special about drinking great small-batch beer where it’s brewed.”

CUB CEO, Peter Filipovic, said, “Phil will oversee everything from brewery construction to brewing and marketing. He is a craft beer visionary who revolutionised Australia’s beer landscape. There is no one in the world more suited to delivering this venture than him.

“We’re meeting the changing needs of consumers by creating

beautiful new beers in pristine surroundings that live up to Matilda Bay and Sexton’s original vision.

We couldn’t be more excited about this opportunity and we know beer drinkers will love it.”

The Matilda Bay brewery and pub will be built on the site currently occupied by Giant Steps winery and restaurant, which, in addition, is owned by Sexton.

Construction is expected to start in coming weeks and the brewery is expected to be operational by the end of the year. More than 20 new jobs will be created.

The current Giant Steps site will close Sunday. Tasting will re-open immediately at a new site in Healesville and the winery will re-open soon, with more details to be announced in coming months.

www.foodmag.com.au | November 2019 | Food&Beverage Industry News 15

NEWS

Australian and Chinese meat sectors sign MoU

A MoU signed between China and Australia is the result of 18 months of discussion.

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new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Australian and Chinese meat sectors highlights the importance of China to Australian industry and underlines a commitment to collaboration on both sides, according to Australian Meat Industry Council CEO, Patrick Hutchinson.

The MoU is the result of 18 months of preparations and discussions that were initially kicked off at the China International Meat Industry Week that was held in 2018.

Hutchinson signed The China Australia Red Meat Agreement (CARMA) MoU with the China Meat Association in Chengdu,

China today on behalf of the Australian Meat Industry Council, Meat & Livestock Australia and the Australian Meat Processor Corporation.

“China is the biggest export market for Australian meat, and maintaining and enhancing our relationship with this critical partner is essential for the future of our industry. This MoU serves to reinforce the strong value our sector places on the relationship and our great respect for China as a very important trading partner,” he said.

In the year to August, Australia has sent more than 172,000 tonnes of beef, 45,000 tonnes of lamb and 39,000 tonnes of mutton to China,

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with a total market value of close to $2 billion.

“The aim of this MoU is to establish long-term and formal cooperative relations, strengthen effective and practical food safety processes and enable bilateral exchanges around technical knowhow, marketing, and research and development investment. Ultimately, the MoU will help secure trade outcomes that are beneficial to all parties.”

The longer-term aims of the CARMA include development of both sides’ red meat industries, an enhanced supply chain for Australian meat into China, and working to streamline product specifications and

labelling requirements.

“Demand for Australian meat products continues to grow in China and this MoU is another step towards securing and growing this important relationship. I extend my gratitude to the China Meat Association, Meat & Livestock Australia, the Australian Meat Processing Corporation and my own team at AMIC for all their hard work in creating this agreement, and I look forward to continuing to work towards the best outcomes for our industry.”

Under the terms of the MoU, a working group to help implement the goals of the CARMA will be formed to initiate the cooperative program.

NEWS

Unilever announces new commitments for packaging waste U nilever has announced that by 2025 it will eliminate more than 100,000 tonnes of plastic packaging and collect and process more plastic packaging than it sells. The company, which owns brands like Lipton, Ben & Jerry’s and Walls Ice Cream, has announced new commitments to reduce its plastic waste and help create a circular economy for plastics Unilever has confirmed that by 2025 it will: • Halve its use of virgin plastic, by reducing its absolute use of plastic packaging by more than 100,000 tonnes and accelerating its use of recycled plastic.

• Help collect and process more plastic packaging than it sells.

This commitment makes Unilever the first major global consumer goods company to commit to an absolute plastics reduction across its portfolio.

Unilever is already on track to achieve its existing commitments to

ensure all of its plastic packaging is reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025, and to use at least 25 per cent recycled plastic in its packaging, also by 2025.

“Plastic has its place, but that place is not in the environment. We can only eliminate plastic waste by acting fast and taking radical action at all points in the plastic cycle,” said company CEO, Alan Jope.

“Our starting point has to be design, reducing the amount of plastic we use, and then making sure that what we do use increasingly comes from recycled sources. We are also committed to ensuring all our plastic packaging is reusable, recyclable or compostable.

“This demands a fundamental rethink in our approach to our packaging and products. It requires us to introduce new and innovative packaging materials and scale up new business models, like re-use and re-fill formats, at an unprecedented speed and intensity.”

Unilever’s commitment will require the business to help collect and process around 600,000 tonnes of plastic annually by 2025. This will be delivered through investment and partnerships which improve waste management infrastructure in many of the countries in which Unilever operates.

“Our vision is a world in which everyone works together to ensure that plastic stays in the economy and out of the environment. Our plastic is our responsibility and so we are committed to collecting back more than we sell, as part of our drive towards a circular economy. This is a daunting but exciting task which will help drive global demand for recycled plastic,” said Jope.

Since 2017, Unilever has been transforming its approach to plastic packaging through its “Less, Better, No” plastic framework.

Through the initiative, Unilever has explored new ways of packaging and delivering products – including concentrates, such as its new Cif

Eco-refill which eliminates 75 per cent of plastic, and new refill stations for shampoo and laundry detergent rolled out across shops, universities and mobile vending in Southeast Asia.

Better plastic has led to pioneering innovations such as the new detectable pigment being used by Axe (Lynx) and TRESemmé, which makes black plastic recyclable, as it can now be seen and sorted by recycling plant scanners, and the Lipton “festival bottle”, which is made of 100 per cent recycled plastic and is collected using a deposit scheme.

As part of the initiative, Unilever has brought to the market innovations including shampoo bars, refillable toothpaste tablets, cardboard deodorant sticks and bamboo toothbrushes. It has also signed up to the Loop platform, which is exploring new ways of delivering and collecting reusable products from consumers’ homes.

Unilever is committed to cutting its plastics footprint.

www.foodmag.com.au | November 2019 | Food&Beverage Industry News 17

SAFETY

The importance of food and beverage labelling The AIFST’s Fiona Fleming talks about some of the problem areas when labelling food and beverage products.

Consumption of food allergens can have life-threatening consequences.

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ood labelling – it can be a minefield. In an era of food allergens, many imported products, as well as a bevy of health and safety regulations, food and beverage manufacturers have their work cut out for them to make sure they create products that meet a wide range of food regulations.

It’s something not lost on Fiona Fleming who is the managing director of the Australian Institute of Food Science and Technology (AIFST), which is the body for food industry professionals who work in many different fields within the food and beverage industry.

Fleming knows that food labelling can be a difficult subject to navigate, especially for those just starting out in the industry.

What are the main issues surrounding food labelling? Correct labelling of imported foods and declaration of food allergens provide significant challenges, according to Fleming. Australia does appear to be the food allergy capital of the world, with Melbourne leading the way.

There is no single reason for this, more a myriad of causes – peoples’ diets have changed, more sufferers are reporting their allergies and,

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in the case of Melbourne, some researchers believe low levels of vitamin D contribute due to the city’s cooler climate and children spending less time outdoors in the sun.

Whatever the reason, consumption of a food allergen can have fatal consequences for those who are allergic to that food or foods. For someone with a severe allergy, exposure to the allergen can cause a life-threatening reaction called anaphylaxis which affects the whole body, often within minutes of exposure.

“They key allergens of concern in Australia and New Zealand are

egg, milk, peanut, fish, crustacea, peanuts, soybeans, sesame seed, tree nuts, wheat and other gluten containing cereals, and lupin,” Fleming said.

“These are required to be labelled when present in a food under the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code. And just to add to the confusion, both for those on the ground in Australia and those wanting to import food products, allergens required to be labelled in one country might not always be required to be labelled in another.”

For example, in Europe, mustard

SAFETY

MANDATORY REQUIREMENTS - THE BIG 11 1. Name of food 2. Name and address 3. Lot identification 4. Allergen declaration 5. Ingredient list 6. Date marking 7. Storage and usage instructions 8. Nutrition information 9. Characterising ingredients 10. Country of origin 11. Quantity marking

and celery are allergens that must be labelled, whereas in Australia they are not on the list of food allergens required to be labelled.

“Any ingredient that is in a food product has to be labelled, and it is up to the importer to ensure that foods they bring into Australia and New Zealand have the correct allergen declarations to comply with ANZ requirements,” Fleming said.

“Australian and NZ manufacturers have gone further with labelling following best practice guidance developed by the food industry. For example, allergen names are highlighted in bold text in the ingredient list which helps consumers when purchasing products.”

Food allergens are not the only important piece of information that needs to be put on food labels. There are 11 key points food and beverage manufacturers have to include (see box story).

For imported foods, all of this information is required to be provided in English, meaning labels must be translated accurately and completely. Failure to include all of the information can potentially result in a costly product recall and injury to consumers.

Importers of foods into Australia have to be responsible and realise that ignorance of local labelling laws is no excuse if the correct information is not available to the buying public. There is an overriding premise in law that ignorance of law is no defence.

“All food companies have an obligation to know the regulations under which they must operate, and they have an overriding obligation to provide food that is safe and suitable,” Fleming said.

“Accurate food labelling is important for ensuring food safety, and ignorance of the labelling requirements is no defence.”

First and foremost, manufacturers tend to initially concentrate on the product itself. Is it tasty? How much will it cost to produce? Where can we source the ingredients? Can we outsource the manufacturing of our product, or can we set up our own manufacturing facility?

Once a manufacturer gets their head around what is involved in crossing the t’s and dotting the i’s, correct labelling can sometimes be intimidating and time consuming.

But there is help available.

Fleming is the first to acknowledge that there no easy route to labelling food and beverage products.

“Food labelling is quite complex,” said Fleming. “I do recognise that it is very hard to start up a food manufacturing enterprise because sometimes companies don’t know where to go to find the information they need.

“There are certainly organisations that provide training in food labelling. If you are in NSW, for example, you can go to the NSW Food Authority’s website where there is a lot of good information

for starting a business, and they have some basic information around requirements for food labelling.”

The final piece of advice Fleming would give is with regard to preservatives and additives in food products. They, too, have to be approved for use, and labelled as part of the ingredient listing on products.

“Australia is a small country, population wise, and we import a lot of our products,” Fleming said.

“It is important to remember that just because something is approved to be used in a food product overseas, it doesn’t mean it’s been approved to be used here.

It can be challenging negotiating the regulations, but it is very important for companies to be aware of the requirements and put steps and processes in place to ensure they have the information and knowledge they need to ensure their products are fully compliant.

“I know that sometimes information is not easy to find, but there are also food consultants out there who can assist. The AIFST website has a page that lists members who are consultants and provide this sort of assistance to food companies.”

There are also tools available to food manufacturers developed by the

food industry to assist with collection of information and labelling. For example, the Product Information Form, or PIF, is an industry-agreed questionnaire developed by the food industry, for the food industry, in Australia and New Zealand.

The PIF allows companies to include a variety of information about food products and ingredients in a single document that meets information needs for legal and regulatory compliance in Australia and New Zealand, in a standardised manner.

The PIF is an industry tool that can improve company efficiency and reliability in managing product specification and other related data when applied across the sector.

With respect to allergen management and labelling, the Allergen Bureau has a comprehensive website and tools available to assist with allergen risk assessment and labelling (http:// allergenbureau.net).

“At the end of the day, as a food manufacturer, whether big or small, Australian or not, you have an important role in ensuring that consumers continue to enjoy a variety of safe and nutritious food that will contribute to their wellbeing,” Fleming said. F

Consumers need to know they can trust the information on food labels.

www.foodmag.com.au | November 2019 | Food&Beverage Industry News 19

SUSTAINABILITY

Plant-based proteins are starting to make huge inroads into what has traditionally been the purview of meat.

The rise and rise of plant-based proteins Today, the consumer owns the narrative of what food and beverage manufacturers are producing.

Food & Beverage Industry News explains why.

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ccording to Trent Duvall, 20 years ago the food and beverage processors and manufacturers controlled the narrative in relation to what foods and drinks were consumed by customers. Then, it shifted to the retailers. Today, it is consumers that are running the show.

And if you are a manufacturer of food and beverage goods, it’s advisable that you sit up and take notice of your customers like never before.

Duvall is the national sector leader, consumer and retail for KPMG, and was speaking to group of food and beverage primary producers at the FoodTech event held mid-year in Brisbane.

Consumers are becoming more discerning with regards to the healthiness of food, how it is packaged, and its effect on the environment, he said. Not only that, but his main

point was that plant-based proteins are going to have a big impact on the food panorama over the next decade.

And Duvall is no vegetarian/vegan evangelist – he is a proud omnivore and likes nothing better than to tuck into a nice, juicy steak. However, he said the landscape is changing, with an anecdote from a recent trip to the US reinforcing the shift.

“We went to Disneyland’s Adventure World, which was also home to the California Food and Wine Market Spring Fair,” he said. “There were stalls everywhere – different foods and produce. We walked past a stall that had this beautiful-looking burger patty with guacamole on top.

I had to have one. For five minutes, myself and my wife and kids lined up to pay for one of these sliders – and they were to die for. Imagine the best burger you’ve had, the oil coming

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down the side of your hands. I looked across at my 10-year-old son – his was gone in a flash – nothing but a little bit of avocado left on the side of his face. Perhaps the best slider I’ve had. It turned to be a plant-based slider. First time I’ve had one. And it was fantastic.”

Part of Duvall’s brief is to spot coming trends. He counsels those in the food and beverage processing and manufacturing space who are putting their company’s value chain together to respond to these trends and create opportunities for their companies.

While plant-based proteins are gaining popularity, there is still an issue getting the average punter to buy into the trend. Duvall gives the example of New Zealand’s Hell Pizza franchise, which released to market a burger-flavoured pizza. For the first four days it flew off the shelves – the

market couldn’t get enough of them.

They were selling out. Hell Pizza then announced that the meat wasn’t beef, it was made from plant-based protein.

“Social media went into meltdown, because people were saying to the company, ‘how could you lie to us?’” said Duvall. “There was no lying per se, it was just a burger-flavoured protein. We are going to see the same things coming through in the Australian market and they are going to be marketed as being better for you and less processed. And they are better for you in terms of less fats and higher protein content per gram.”

Not to be outdone, Domino’s in Australia has announced an exclusive partnership with a Queensland manufacturer to create plant based “meat” for its pizza toppings and plan to be the first pizza chain in Australia to launch alternate meat pizzas.

SUSTAINABILITY

Importantly they will be lower in saturated fat and higher protein than the comparable meat pizzas.

Long-term consumers of existing products need not fear that their favourite food or beverage will be disappearing any time soon. The market for meats and processed foods is still strong. What Duvall is pointing out is that the younger generation of consumers is causing a change in the market and it behoves processors and manufacturers to be aware of these changes if they don’t want to get left behind. He cites the example of Shreddies, a popular cereal from Canada and the UK that was first produced in 1939, and was available in Australia.

“The packaging has now been changed – not only does it say ‘wholegrain’ in the top corner of the packet, it’s also now says ‘vegan’,” said Duvall. “So why is vegan important to our kids? It’s not. They don’t know that. But it is important to the mum that is buying it. Shreddies is repositioning itself in the market.”

And to reiterate the point, Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) also know that customers – again primarily the younger generation – will be the ones making choices about what they will be consuming. MLA’s marketing campaign is concentrating on animal health and welfare, environmental sustainability and nutrition. The three questions mentioned in the MLA’s current marketing campaign are: • W hat’s the consumer talking about?

• W hat does the consumer want?

• How do we market to that?

The consumer is now the centre of attention. They are now digitally and data enabled and they’re the ones that are influencing trends, said Duvall.

“The consumer is influencing the government by what they say on social media,” said Duvall. “They are influencing the manufacturers by what they want and it is influencing the retailers and how they are going to get it. And it is about what is good for them. However, what is good for one consumer might be different from the other.”

One of the more interesting trends that Duvall talked about was the introduction of molecular alcohol – not one for the purists. Rather than distilling, makers of alcoholic beverages are using this technique to create a beverage quickly, compared to traditional methods.

“A 20-year-old malt whiskey can

Trent Duvall said the younger generation of consumers are starting to call the shots in the food space. be reproduced almost overnight,” said Duvall. “Same with vodkas, same with gins. That is where technology’s going. Will the consumer buy it?

Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe a consumer likes that fact their whiskey has been distilled or aged for 20 years. Others might be interested in the newer version because of the price point, or because it is a different style of product they see as being good for them.”

“Big and small companies are doing different things to drive innovation to meet what the consumer demands and needs,” said Duvall.

And another technology that has been mentioned recently in Food & Beverage Industry News (September issue) is 3D printed food. Duvall

compared 3D printing technology to where Nespresso coffee machines were 10 years ago.

“In the space of a couple of years, with the product positioned at the right point, Nespresso has made its way into many homes,” he said. “You go back 10 years, nobody would have thought to put a Nespresso machine in their house. There has been a rapid change in how we consume coffee. Printing your food using a pod and having a machine that can do that in every house is probably not that far away.”

The last point Duvall wanted to make on coming trends was to do with the state of

consumers themselves. There are those who are more carnivore than vegetarian, while most people lie somewhere in the middle. However, he said that there is a growing number of flexitarians, those who generally engage with eating plant-based foods, but still include meat in their diet.

“They are people like me who like meat but will try a lot of alternatives,” he said. “And it might be part of my diet because generally it might be good for you. There has been an acceleration of change in terms of the products that are coming to our supermarkets in the last year. In the last six months alone it has rapid. Those different alternative proteins and foods are rapidly changing. In 12 months’ time, there will be a proliferation of those types of products in the market.” F

The Incredible Burger is just one example of vegetarian proteins that are becoming popular. www.foodmag.com.au | November 2019 | Food&Beverage Industry News 21

BUILDING PLANT

Getting the specifications right for an F&B build Total Construction’s Bill Franks gives the low-down on pitfalls food and beverage processors and manufacturers can fall into when building or renovating a plant.

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or food and beverage facility owners, navigating compliance requirements when building or renovating a new building can be tough at the best of times, especially in a constantly changing regulatory environment. Bill Franks is a founding shareholder of food and beverage construction specialist Total Construction and is also member of the Australian Institute of Building. He has been involved in the industry for more than 30 years, and has some interesting insights on how some of these pitfalls can be avoided, especially for some of the smaller, up-and-coming food and beverage enterprises.

“Whereas a big multinational company has a team of people checking compliance, if you’re a mum-and-dad business, or own an industrial unit where you want to produce food for sale, you don’t have access to that kind of resource,” he said. “For starters, it’s important to understand which regulations you need to comply with. A commercial building comes under the Building Act and National Construction Code (NCC); what was known as the Building Code of Australia.”

A couple of regulations in particular, can cause issues because people don’t know some of the minute details – the fine print – that can be hidden in the regulations.

“For example, Section J (energy efficiency) of the NCC, along with essential fire services, have been catching people out for a number of years now,” said Franks. “Plus, with the ‘Access to Premises’ standard, a minor addition or alteration to a commercial building can now involve some serious upgrades to services like water, electricity and insulation just to mention a few.”

Franks adds that, while a lot of people know that buildings require fire sprinklers, there are other accessories that need to be added, too. “For example, water pressures

Safety and the dissipation of food odours need to be considered when building or renovating a food and beverage plant. have changed, and sprinklers now require water storage tanks and a set of pumps, which can sometimes cost around a half a million dollars.”

Then there is disability that needs to be added to the mix of potential changes some sites that are being renovated. In some cases, councils will require a lift to be installed, doorways and corridors widened and disability amenities added to satisfy current building codes.

Other considerations that need to be considered when planning to convert a brownfield site into a food and beverage facility include the noise and odour impacts. Many councils insist on obtaining noise and odour statements as part of the any submission. Although the consultant fees to produce these statements can be relatively low, the resulting adaptions to the building

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can be significant. In one instance a client was required to install 6.2m high exhaust flues to ensure that odours from their cooking processes were dispersed effectively and not impinge on neighbouring residential properties.

“You may say that is fair enough,” said Franks, “however, the residential properties were almost a kilometre away, yet the odour report indicated that with the right conditions the cooking odours could travel that far.”

Any new facility in the industry will need to comply with a Council’s Health Department requirements, so this means effective drainage, washing and waste disposal areas need to be well-defined to comply.

Generally, to accommodate new drainage runs and wash areas in brownfield sites, a company needs to cut into the slab. Also, depending on

the amount of drainage required, the existing slab could end up looking like “swiss cheese”. These drainage runs will then need to be reinstated and pinned back into the existing slab.

In some instances, combining this with set down areas for any freezers, it can be cheaper to lay an entire new slab.

Apart from Council and NCC requirements, brownfield sites can also have issues with the roof weight capacity, as the majority of industrial units available are only designed to support roofing sheets and not much else. To enable the roof to support numerous services and insulated panel ceilings etcetera, the roof structure generally needs to be strengthened – sometimes dramatically.

Then there is another set of key criteria in deciding on premises to convert – power and gas availability.

BUILDING PLANT

Again, the majority of industrial units only have access to approximately 100amps supply and no gas feed.

Food and beverage facilities can require in excess of 500amps and a reliable gas supply to effectively run their operations. The time and cost associated with upgrading and installing these feeds can be exorbitant, and have caught out many proponents, causing delays in establishing operations.

So, what can you do to make sure your building ticks all the boxes?

“The first thing is to establish the scope of the development, then work out where it might be non-compliant and if your budget stretches to bringing it up to standard,” said Franks. “You can find a copy of NCC online, but it can be difficult to make sense of it if you’re not a lawyer or building professional. My advice would be to get a report from a building certifier and engage an appropriate food and beverage builder to advise. By enlisting the services of professionals, you can avoid a host of problems in the future.

“The key to ensuring you mitigate risks in your project is to involve your builder early in the process commonly known in the construction game as

early contractor involvement or ECI.” According to Franks, having a builder involved during the scoping and design stage can allow critical cost items in any build/fit out be identified and alternatives discussed.

“For instance, you may have a plan to construct a mezzanine level in your operations, this although perfect for the intended process flows can be extremely costly to construct,” he said. “Sometimes, a client cannot see the forest for the trees so to speak – they are so intrenched in their business that they only see one aspect of the project – being to increase efficiencies in their production.”

Involving a builder with process engineering capability in the food and beverage industry, such as Total Construction, can allow a different set of eyes to see the requirements and suggest alternatives to the building layout that just don’t reduce the need for costly building works, but can improve the process flow overall.

How ECI works to develop an achievable budget.

First, a site investigation is carried out by the builder on the existing and proposed facilities to detail and identify all services required and what

is available at the new site (power, gas capacities). It is important to note that to increase power or gas supply to a site can be very costly to the project and create delays. Another area that needs consideration in the case of an existing building to be fitted out is the structure’s integrity.

Having to strengthen this to cope with the additional weight of fit out and services can often blow out project costs.

Then a workshop is carried out with all stakeholders to identify required efficiencies, confirm proposed outputs and flag any potential limitations. As part of this workshop, all production processes are mapped and detailed for both the existing and proposed operations.

A list is made of the capacities and dimensions of all equipment both existing and new is developed.

This helps to identify all utilities and services that are required. It also sets the benchmark for power and gas requirements at the proposed site.

This process helps identify potential bottle necks in current processes and helps highlight any potential hygiene requirements in the new fit out. Getting all this data captured is critical in maximising

efficiencies of the new facility.

A review of the buildability of the facility is done and sketch design layouts are completed to optimise process flows to best fit the client’s objectives. A building/fit out SWAT analysis is carried out and build/ fit-out costs are derived. Through close consultation between the builder and client, this process allows savings to be identified early on in the design and layout of the facility.

A detailed design including all services and requirements is then developed and put to the market for live market costing. This will give the client a firm understanding of what they can get for their dollar.

Finally, this is where working to a budget comes in – once the ideal building and fit out costs are established it is possible to derive further reductions in the overall project spend through rationalising the design. This includes, but is not limited to, reducing the number and sizes of rooms, freezer/cool room capacities and locations, and finishes in the design. This can be done while keeping future expansion capability intact in the design and maintain the client’s required production output for the new facility. F Planning needs to start at the beginning otherwise unnecessary cost overruns can occur.

www.foodmag.com.au | November 2019 | Food&Beverage Industry News 23

CONSUMER

Show me the honey – Nature Nate’s arrives in Australia Nathan Sheets has spent almost two decades building his brand with a philosophy that it isn’t just about the bottom line. Food & Beverage Industry News explains.

Making honey started out as a hobby for Nathan Sheets. Now it is his full-time job.

T

urning your hobby into a full time job would be a dream for many people. And turning that dream into a multi-million dollar business would be like winning the lottery. You could argue that is what happened to Nathan Sheets, the CEO of Nature Nate’s Honey Co., a US-based company that produces raw and unfiltered honey. Now, Sheets is making a foray into the Australian market.

“When I got married in 1996, my wife Patty said we needed a hobby,” said Sheets. “She was thinking gardening or antiques, but I was thinking bees. We started keeping one hive in my parents’ backyard because we lived in an apartment.

I would also go and help the guy who I got the hive from with his 100 beehives on the weekends. He had started a honey company in 1972 – the North Dallas Honey Company – which would eventually become

Nature Nate’s. I then started getting up at 4am to help distribute his honey because he had cancer and needed help delivering to the 20 stores that stocked his product.

“Then I started going down to his house and helped bottle the honey. In 1997, I took over the business.”

However, Sheets wasn’t ready to go full time just yet. He decided to take up an offer to become a missionary and spent the next 12 years visiting 88 countries doing this work. He sees this time as formative in terms of how he wanted to run the company he now owns. In 2010, he went full time so that now, nine years later, he has more than 85 full-time staff at the company’s headquarters based just north of Dallas, Texas.

Like any business, in order to grow, the company needed to expand.

Australia was always going to be on Sheets’ radar.

“I chose Australia because we had

24 Food&Beverage Industry News | November 2019 | www.foodmag.com.au

some relationships with people down here,” he said. “That opened up the door for us. Personally, I’ve always loved Australia. I’ve always been fascinated with Australia and I love to fish, and you guys have great fishing.”

Australian standards Nature Nate’s has teamed up with Woolworths to launch the product in Australia. How did he find the local market compared to the US? “Australian standards and regulations are pretty similar to what we have in the US,” he said. “I have found that the actual honey in Australia to be cleaner than what we have in the US, which is awesome.”

As with any foray into a new market, there are teething issues however, the overall experience has been good. Sheets noticed there is an issue with traceability. In order to deal with any suspicions or any negative impact that might occur with regard

to his products, he has been proactive in letting consumers know the provenance of Nature Nate’s honey.

“There was an issue about 12 years ago in the US. I’m talking about food fraud and honey adulteration.

People bringing in honey saying it is from one country but might be from another and things like that. Food fraud is so prevalent everywhere.

It is in olive oil and seafood. It has been pretty significant in the honey industry,” he said.

“When I started doing the honey company full time, we created a robust and uncommon food testing programme where we test 100 per cent of the honey,” he said. “We test for pollen, antibiotics, pesticides – and we do that with gold standard testing via a German lab called Intertek. We created that testing protocol, which we have brought to Australia. I think the beekeepers that we partner with in Australia have clean operations and

CONSUMER

our testing has not found the same pesticide issues that we have found in some American honeys. Again, it’s not that the beekeepers are doing anything on purpose, you just don’t know if the bees are flying three to five miles away from the hive – beekeepers don’t know what the bees are going to encounter.”

Sheets isn’t satisfied with manufacturing honey on its own, he also wants to work on other products that, naturally, will have honey in them. He said the company is developing an array of products that usually rely on processed sugars and Nature Nate’s is trying to engineer honey into them. For example, it has developed energy shots that it’s bringing to market in the US. It is also looking at barbecue sauces, ketchups, condiments, syrups, nut butters and range of other products.

“We are just trying to figure out now what is a viable product,” he said. “The hardest thing is that the properties of honey themselves are different than other sweeteners. Corn syrup is dirt cheap and available.

Honey is expensive, but it is hydroscopic, so it absorbs moisture – you have to think through that and how honey is going to interact with other parts of food products.”

Getting the team onboard And how do you brand a product when you enter a new market? There are plenty of established, well-known,

Nathan Sheets said he would like to make more products with honey, but honey can be an expensive sweetener compared to corn syryp. popular honey brands on the market in Australia. Sheets’ background before beekeeping was marketing, and that, tied with his time as a missionary, gave him some insights into how peoples’ minds tick and he believes his strategy will be a winner.

“The way I approach the business is this; people spend most of their waking hours at work,” he said. “My dad gave me this principle growing up – if you ever borrow something

Nature Nate’s knows that traceability is important so tests every batch of honey for pesticides and antibiotics.

from someone, give it back to them in a better condition than you got it.

If I borrowed your car, I’d bring it back to you washed and full of gas. I view people like that. I am a steward of their time and abilities so at the end of their time with Nature Nate’s, whether that’s a month or 15 years, I want them to be better people – emotionally, spiritually, financially, intellectually and vocationally. We invest a lot into our people and try to make their work experience to be something they are passionate about.

We have a bunch of people that are passionate about what they do.”

Along with his staff, it’s not just the amount of time and money he puts into the manufacturing process, but making sure the product is as perfect as can be that is its bestselling point, plus he is a big believer in philanthropy.

“We didn’t see it as a marketing strategy, we see it as an extension of what we are passionate about,” he said. “That’s one of the branding strengths of Nature Nate’s. There is a commitment to the quality and the tasting perspective and also a food safety perspective. I tell our staff all the time that we shouldn’t put honey on someone’s table if we are not willing to put it on our own table.

And it’s not just about money. I spend hundreds of thousands of dollars a year testing honey to make sure it is a high-quality product.”

And the philanthropy? Sheets launched the product in September, and already the company is laying out plans with Woolworths and its Foodbank initiatives, as well as helping out farmers.

“When it comes to the Foodbank, we wanted to find a way we could invest immediately that involved the community,” said Sheets. “This is to do with Woolworths, which is a cause near and dear to their heart. Next, we’re going to ask communities, ‘hey, where can we best help?’

“We’ve already talked to some people who help with the plight of farmers, especially in relation to the drought. We’ll see where that is. I’m already on board with investing into kids and their development, which is important. We have a program we developed for kids. It’s called ‘The Adventures of Nature Nate’ and it is a cartoon about me when I was a little kid. It educates kids on the impact of beekeeping and the environment.”

His overall philosophy is why he believes Nature Nate’s is not only successful now, but will continue to be so into the future, especially as it expands into other regions.

“If you maintain people, service them and try and make them successful, ultimately we are going to be successful at what we do,” he said.

“I live out the brand of Nature Nate’s.

It’s not a marketing strategy, it’s an extension of who we are.” F

www.foodmag.com.au | November 2019 | Food&Beverage Industry News 25

AUTOMATION

Patented technology supplies Australian pet food ingredients to the world Rockwell Automation’s Integrated Architecture has helped an Australian pet food manufacturer streamline its processing operations. Food & Beverage Industry News explains how.

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et owners are constantly assessing the many food choices available to feed their furry friends. Prepared pet foods are becoming an increasingly popular choice, offering a variety of food types and flavours while meeting nutritional requirements.

With a growing reputation for providing safe, consistent and nutritious pet food, the Australian pet food industry is valued at approximately $1.6 billion with opportunities growing within both Australian and export markets.

Cool Off is the pet food raw material manufacturing division of Staughton Group, which is an Australian, family-owned company with manufacturing facilities in

Walget, New South Wales, St George in Queensland and its head office and main manufacturing plant located in Howlong in southern NSW. Staughton Group oversees the manufacture of bulk raw materials for the pet food industry, as well as retail pet foods and supplements for domestic and export sales.

Staughton Group also sources and processes wild game proteins through its recently acquired Wild Game Resources Australia.

Offering unique access to Australian raw materials for pet food manufacture, Cool Off delivers high-quality products including: lamb Mechanically De-boned Meat (MDM), plate-frozen offals, boutique meat meals and natural

Once the offal is processed, it is pumped into large plate freezers. dried treats – sourcing its red meat offal raw material from more than 30 abattoirs across Australia, processing more than 150 tonnes of raw material per day.

As market opportunities continued to grow, Cool Off designed innovative new technology to help meet this increasing consumer demand.

Automated plate freezing

The Allen Bradley GuardLogix was selected as part of Rockwell Automation’s Integrated Architecture system.

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To help maintain a high quality product, Cool Off developed a unique offal collection process that involved installation of a customised collection and chilling unit onsite at the abattoir. This enabled Cool Off to control all aspects of quality from the onset, providing a dedicated focus on quality of the pet food products, with minimal abattoir labour input. This system has been installed at over 30 Australian abattoirs.

Once the offal was processed, it was pumped into large plate freezers, with the capacity to hold 2000 kg of product, and frozen at -20˚C. The product is then unloaded and

palletised for delivery to pet food manufacturers. In the past, this was a labour-intensive process that required manual handling by operators. To increase throughput and limit manual handling requirements, Cool Off, together with VK Logic, designed a new automated plate freezing system. VK Logic has a longstanding relationship with Cool Off, resulting in a detailed understanding of the plate-freezing process. Justin Van Klaveren, managing director at VK Logic, explained that in order to meet increasing customer supply contracts, Cool Off undertook some expansion work at the plant that included building works and new freezer panel rooms.

“There wasn’t a simple, automated unload process for the large plate freezers so together with Cool Off, we placed an arrangement of pneumatically actuated panels and built plate freezer apparatus to utilise the existing infrastructure to release each block one by one down the plate onto a common conveyor

AUTOMATION

Automation became very important for the Staughton Group. belt, eliminating the requirement for manual handling,” said Van Klaveren.

“Given that margins for pet food are not near margins for human consumption, the opportunity for automation becomes more important,” Van Klaveren added.

High-performance architecture Combining integrated control and safety, the Allen-Bradley GuardLogix was selected as the most appropriate choice for this application. The Rockwell Automation Integrated Architecture system, including PowerFlex 527 drives with safety over Ethernet, offered an innovative, modular design to support fast and easy installation and configuration. These compact drives also offered embedded EtherNet/IP communications and standard safety features.

The Allen-Bradley Kinetix servo drives provided advanced motion control for the system and the capability to standardise on a single communications network for easier commissioning, configuration and start up. A FactoryTalk View SE human machine interface (HMI) was used to monitor and control the plant.

To help with remote assistance and maintenance, VK Logic had VPN access to the site.

“We saw an opportunity in terms of that single platform with safety over Ethernet. The PowerFlex drives provided an integrated solution with motion, drives and safety all on the one common platform. This helped reduce engineering time and ongoing maintenance requirements,” explained Van Klaveren.

Rockwell Automation authorised distributor, NHP Electrical Engineering, supported this project by identifying the most appropriate equipment to meet the application requirements. According to Jason Campbell, business development – automation at NHP, “There’s no technology that rivals this new patented system. The solution allowed Cool Off to increase throughput, reduce downtime and redeploy operators that were doing manual labour.”

The new automated plate freezing system improved throughput and reduced manual handling requirements.

Patented innovation to meet consumer demand Cool Off’s patented plate freezing technology was the product of intelligent engineering and problem solving – resulting in an increase in plate freezing capacity by 120 per

cent. The technology and innovation around the plate-freezer design was developed together with VK Logic, a business with a growing reputation for “out of box” thinking for large and small projects alike.

The plant is in operation 24 hours a day, seven days a week as there is significant demand for the product.

With consumer demand continually increasing, Cool Off was recently awarded a government grant to double capacity of the plant.

Edward Staughton, managing director of Cool Off and Staughton Group, highlights the significant advantages the company enjoys over international and domestic competitors via its technology: “The quality and freshness of red meat offal products collected from supplying abattoirs and delivered daily to Cool Off at Howlong is guaranteed via the unique chilling system installed at supplying abattoirs. This patented system was developed by Cool Off and VK Logic, using experience gained over 20 years of collecting offals from abattoirs located throughout Eastern Australia. The system ensures all product from abattoirs in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia can be delivered in any season over long distances and

maintain its freshness.”

Staughton has inspected many plate freezing systems throughout Europe and America.

“The development of our patented automated plate freezing system, in combination with the abattoir chilling system, has given the Cool Off production team a massive international competitive advantage in quality and processing efficiency,” said Staughton. “Three staff are able to fill, freeze, palletise and warehouse 50 tonnes (pallets) of product in an eight hour shift, which, combined with freeze time of two and a half hours, ensures maximum freshness of all products.

With the plate freezers being fully Cleaning in Place (CIP), cleaning time is minimal. I have seen nothing internationally that compares with this system.”

“Cool Off is highly appreciative of the combined efforts of VK Logic and Rockwell Automation in enabling the development, and now the ‘bedded down’ operation, of technologies which are unmatched by international competitors. Cool Off looks forward to working with both these innovative and progressive companies to roll out further R&D projects that currently sit in the company’s pipe-line,” said Staughton. F

www.foodmag.com.au | November 2019 | Food&Beverage Industry News 27

ROBOTICS

Even though robots are at the forefront of the Niska store, there is still room for the human element in retail outlets.

Easy to program cobot complements novelty ice-cream outlet When digital and robotics solutions specialist Niska wanted to open a retail ice-cream outlet, it needed something different, so it contacted ABB. Food & Beverage Industry News explains why.

I

t can be hard to make a dollar in the retail world. Overheads can be high, margins small, good staff not easy to find, and with the online presence of Amazon, Alibaba and a myriad of other smaller players, competition is fierce.

But people will always need food.

And while a recent report from Brick Meets Click has found that online grocery shopping makes up 5.5 per cent of total spend in the category in the US (closely mirrored here in Australia) and is growing, people

Not everything in the Niska store can be dispensed by a cobot.

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still like to eat out. And there is still compulsion buying at your favourite fast food outlet, or ice cream store.

Again, competition is fierce so as well as varying the products that are on offer, but also vary the shopping experience, too. This is something digital and robotics solutions company Niska thought when it mooted the idea of opening an ice-cream store in Melbourne’s CBD. Its solutions are aimed at the retail industry, which is why it decided on a novel approach – robots serving customers. The idea of robots serving people has been the purview of science fiction since the genre was invented, however now it is coming to fruition. Although the concept is all Niska’s, the company needed help to bring its idea alive.

Enter ABB, who among other things, specialises in robotics.

John Rieusset leads ABB’s business

activities in the food and beverage industry. He is also the marketing manager for ABB’s Robotics and Motion businesses. The YuMi robot is known as Tony and adds the toppings to the ice cream, and serves them to customers. A key aspect of Niska’s operation is ABB’s YuMi robot – or cobot as they prefer to call it – which is a popular model that is being used in factories throughout the world.

While the aesthetic side of what the robot looks like in store are a novelty – and Niska are first to admit that is part of the reason for opening the outlet – Rieusset said that the practical aspects of YuMi were the main selling point.

“In terms of deploying YuMi, one of the key aspects as to why Niska was interested was the fact it could be redeployed to do different tasks and it’s very easy to program,” he said. “The robot has what is called a lead-through

ROBOTICS

programming functionality whereby you don’t need a traditional robotics programmer. You basically lead the robot through the motions; you take its arms and you manoeuvre it to do the tasks you want. It records those motions and then it effectively plays it back. It is something that even a child could grasp.”

When new technologies start emerging – even ones that have been mooted for decades – there is usually a backlash from those most affected.

In the case of cobots, it is those who work in some aspects of the retail environment. However, Rieusset believes that any thoughts of the demise of the retail worker are premature.

“For this particular concept it is effectively a novelty. In terms of a commercial concept, it’s not something that is necessarily something that is going to work in every retail environment,” he said. “Where we would see robots being introduced in a retail environment would be more in the back room activities. For example, some of the large fast food chains. They are very systematic in their processes.

If you go behind of the big burger chains they have everything set up in modules and it like a production line and that’s where we would see robots becoming more involved in that food services industry. It is likely that robots will be introduced at the point of sale, but it’s not going to replace every point of sale job in every aspect of the food industry. That is unlikely.”

The ROI for a YuMi robot can be as little as six months.

YuMi cobots dispense ice cream and the Niska store.

Labour savings A key ingredient as to why some companies – especially in the supply chain – have adopted robotics is the cost savings on labour. What is the return on investment for putting something like a YuMi robot to work?

“The ROI for a YuMi robot can be as little as six months for some picking and packing applications,” he said. “It is a no brainer to introduce a robot, for example, in

the picking and packing of sweets.

We have a YuMi robot installed at a company in Finland. It is integrated into the production line and it is involved in the picking and packing process.”

Which begs the question; is there a perception that robotics as a solution are seen as expensive?

“I would say that was true,” said Rieusset. “It’s really a case of educating end users that robots can

be introduced into their processes.

It’s a case of increasing the maturity and understanding generally out in industry as to where that can occur. It’s not only about increasing throughput on production lines – some of the processes are highly repetitive, which creates issues of OH&S risk in businesses. Being able to introduce those robots into the environment is also about de-risking the business in other areas.”

Rieusset also points out that ABB and its ABB Authorised Value Providers have a nationwide network of service engineers that are available if the robots need servicing. He also said that even though robots do have a function in the Niska store, humans do still have a role to play.

“The three robots at the store are involved in the ordering and serving process of the ice cream,” he said. “Niska also has a human staff member within the store that guide people through the ordering process. It’s not as if you walk in and are greeted by robots and you’re left alone to place your order. There is a human element. The robots were introduced to that ice cream store concept just as much as a novelty as anything else.”

YuMi collaborative robots can be deployed into a lot of industries besides the food and beverage sector, including electronics, medical and pharmaceutical. F

www.foodmag.com.au | November 2019 | Food&Beverage Industry News 29

DRIVE TECHNOLOGY

The AMP8000 servo drive system can directly integrate into a servo motor.

Distributed servo drive system for modular machines Integrated drive technology minimises control cabinet space and optimises machine design.

Food & Beverage Industry News explains.

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he AMP8000 distributed servo drive system provides suitable support for the implementation of modular machine designs. For this purpose, a servo drive can directly integrate into a servo motor, all in a highly compact design. In this way, the power electronics are relocated to the machine, reducing space requirements in control cabinets to just a single coupling module. In addition, decentralised distribution modules and the universal EtherCAT P solution further optimise the modular machine design approach.

The AMP8000 system consists of three main components. It has a single-channel, or alternately dual-channel, coupling module that forms the starting point, and the only component that still needs to be installed in the control cabinet.

The coupling module establishes a

"With the AMP8000, the two dissipated heat sources – motor and power electronics – are clearly separated from each other and ensure much better heat dissipation by design, without the need for additional installation space or heat sinks. As a result, the distributed servo drives easily attain the same excellent properties as the corresponding standard AM8000 servo motors." connection between the DC link, 24 V DC supply and EtherCAT communication. For use with the high-performance AX8000 multiaxis servo system from Beckhoff, the AX883x coupling module is connected to the AX8000 supply module in order to provide a link to the IP 65-rated devices with one or two outputs.

30 Food&Beverage Industry News | November 2019 | www.foodmag.com.au

In combination with the AX5000 digital compact servo drive, the AX503x coupling module can also be used in stand-alone mode due to an integrated power supply unit.

In this way, 20A (per output in the case of the AX883x and as sum current in the case of the AX503x), 600V DC link voltage, 24V power supply and EtherCAT networking

are available via the EtherCAT P outputs (B23 sockets).

This power is initially supplied to an AMP8805 distribution module as a second system component. As an IP 65-rated component that is integrated into the machine layout, it supplies up to five AMP80xx distributed servo drives. It can be mounted either directly (brick style) or using a bracket available as an accessory (book style) and adapted ideally into individual machine designs. The distribution module has an internal capacitance of 1120 µF to support the DC link. Additional EtherCAT P Box modules, such as for I/Os or for a second feedback system, can be connected simply and quickly via an additional EtherCAT P M8 output.

The third system component is the AMP80xx distributed servo drive. It is identical to the standard

DRIVE TECHNOLOGY

Connectivity is key to the system. servomotors in the AM8000 series with regard to its mounting dimensions and performance data. Only the overall length has increased in comparison with the standard motors due to the integrated power electronics. Since this added length is not usually critical for the installation, most existing machine designs can be upgraded without the need for modification.

The AMP80xx distributed servo drives are initially available in the flange sizes F4 and F5. Various versions are available with rated outputs of 0.61 to 1.18kW and standstill torques of 2.0 to 4.8Nm (F4) or rated outputs of 1.02 to 1.78kW and standstill torques of 4.1 to 9.7Nm (F5). The STO and SS1 safety functions are integrated as standard and a range of extended safe motion functions are currently being prepared. In addition, the new flange sizes F3 and F6 are in development and will complement the AMP8000 distributed drive system in the lower and higher power ranges.

The components in the AMP8000 system are universally connected with the uniform One Cable Automation (OCA) cabling technology, which connects via identical cross-sections and connectors. This is a dynamic, drag-chain compatible EtherCAT P cable with ECP-B23 connectors, which means the one cable solution features a hybrid cable that combines EtherCAT P (communication plus 24 V system and peripheral voltage) with additional power cores. Also,

preassembled cables and connectors facilitate easy installation and minimised errors during cabling.

The AMP8000 system is also cascadable via the distribution module, meaning even highly complex machines and plants can have a simple and clear-cut topology layout. For this purpose, one or several additional distribution modules are connected to one of the module outputs in place of a distributed servo drive. For example,

one main distribution module can supply five sub-modules, to which a maximum of 25 distributed servo drives can be connected, assuming an adequate supply of power to the individual motors is provided.

Compact drive integration in optimised design With the AMP80xx, the integration of drive technology has been implemented in an exceptionally compact design, made possible

through the use of the latest output stage technologies. The power module is attached at the rear end of the servomotor shaft, ensuring that the attachment dimensions are identical to those of the corresponding standard servomotors in the AM8000 series. Only the overall length is about seven centimetres larger.

For machine builders, this means only a small amount of additional space is required, making it possible to change their drive concepts without any fundamental design modifications.

Apart from the small overall volume, the elegant and slim design of the AMP80xx offers further advantages over certain servo motors commonly encountered on the market, where the power electronics are mounted on top. With the AMP8000, the two dissipated heat sources – motor and power electronics – are clearly separated from each other and ensure much better heat dissipation by design, without the need for additional installation space or heat sinks. As a result, the distributed servo drives easily attain the same excellent properties as the corresponding standard AM8000 servo motors. F

The AMP8000 servo drive system is cascadable.

www.foodmag.com.au | November 2019 | Food&Beverage Industry News 31

PACKAGING

Why send 750 million soiled absorbent pads to landfill if there is a better way?

There are no pad-related issues with the new plastic trays.

Food & Beverage Industry News speaks to Sealed Air’s Kevin Taylor about its latest developments with packaging technology within the meat industry.

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educing the use of packaging materials is one of the aspects that will help lead to a sustainable future. When redesigning plastic trays for ANZ’s fresh red meat sector, Sealed Air Australia ventured beyond “reduce” and found a way to “eliminate” the need for absorbent pads. Sealed Air’s Kevin Taylor is the APAC portfolio leader for the company’s trays, films and absorbents business.

Here, Taylor spoke to Food & Beverage Industry News about some of the new technologies behind the latest meat-packing developments from the company.

"When re-designing plastic trays for ANZ’s fresh red meat sector, Sealed Air, Australia ventured beyond ‘reduce’ and found a way to ‘eliminate’ the need for absorbent pads."

Why was HydroLoQ developed?

While absorbent pads solve the problem of retaining product purge, they can also be problematic for food processors and our planet.

HydroLoQ was developed to eliminate lost time associated with pad related issues for moist protein Modified Atmosphere Packing (MAP) applications that are estimated to contribute to

32 Food&Beverage Industry News | November 2019 | www.foodmag.com.au

three per cent of overall down time. Furthermore, pads comprise ‘end of life’ challenges. In fact, each year, more than 750 million absorbent pads used across ANZ’s fresh red meat sector end up in landfill.

Meat discolouration is also a challenge for retailers. Meat in direct contact with an absorbent pad is not experiencing the

Sealed Air’s Kevin Taylor. full colour preserving benefits of the surrounding modified atmosphere and thus can undergo product discolouration causing subsequent product mark downs.

PACKAGING "HydroLoQ was developed to eliminate lost time associated with pad related issues for moist protein MAP (Modified Atmosphere Packing) applications that is estimated to contribute to three per cent of overall down time. Furthermore, pads comprise ‘end of life’ challenges. In fact, each year, more than 750 million absorbent pads used across ANZ’s fresh red meat sector end up in landfill."

Furthermore, the removal of the pad eliminates any risk of ingesting the contents of the pad if it leaks.

What were some of the issues when developing the products?

MAP technology has been used for more than 20 years. Forgetting what we already knew and addressing supply chain challenges with a fresh view was one of the biggest challenges. Understanding surface tension science and redefining absorbency requirements for MAP applications was critical to success.

The shape of the base design was important. Not only was it required to hold a specific volume of purge, but it could not leave any imprint or indentation on the protein which would lead to consumer rejection and product mark downs. This problem was overcome with some adjustments to tooling.

HydroLoQ is a recyclable pack.

How hard was that to incorporate into the design?

All Cryovac polypropylene trays are recyclable in accordance with the APCO PREP tool. It was important in the redesign that the tray components did not compromise this. Also important was ensuring that the new design did not require the use of additional resin to perform suitably across the supply chain.

Sealed Air’s Cryovac brand food packaging is renowned for maintaining freshness and The shape of the base design was very important.

HydroLOQ is fuly recyclable and has no separable components.

reducing food waste. Does HydroLoQ still enable this?

Yes. Cryovac HydroLoQ continues to deliver high oxygen barrier performance to keep proteins fresh across the supply chain.

We all know extended shelf life means a less wasteful food supply chain. With HydroLoQ, the processor benefits by eliminating pad related downtime and product contamination due to pads breaking open during packing. Estimates suggest 500kg of meat is removed from the supply chain and down-graded to pet food every time pad related contamination occurs.

Is HydroLoQ 2025 ready?

Absolutely. HydroLoQ is fully recyclable and has no separable components that consumers need to work with. Each tray contains up to 8g of recycled resin that is recovered from Sealed Air’s “Zero Waste” tray making facility based in Tullamarine, Victoria.

How is the introduction of HydroLoQ impacting the Tullamarine plant, which also produces absorbent pads?

Sealed Air’s sustainability vision is ‘to protect, to solve critical packaging challenges, and to leave our world better than we found it’. In this case, developments such as Cryovac HydroLoQ changes the way we do things and allows our processors and supply chains to evolve. The sustainable

advantages for our processors and planet are significant.

After all, HydroLoQ allows us to leave our planet better than we found it.

What has the feedback from clients been like?

Soiled absorbent pads dampen the consumer experience. Because consumers dislike touching a soiled absorbent pad, they avoid separating the pad from the tray and dispose of fully recyclable trays to landfill.

This tray is the first of its kind into Australia’s retail environment.

Customer acceptance has been positive and Cryovac HydroLoQ can be found at retailers including Aldi and Coles. At this stage, retail acceptance has been limited to fresh red meats, but proteins including poultry and seafood are also on the radar.

Brand owners can also leverage a strong sustainability story by making the switch to HydroLoQ and meet consumers’ growing demands for sustainable packaging.

What makes these products different from similar offerings in the marketplace?

This tray design is new for ANZ, and padless tray formats have been used in Europe.

This is the first padless barrier tray used for ANZ’s modified atmosphere packaging market. The base design not only retains purge, but offers additional rigidity which is an important design parameter for our distribution chain. Rigidity is also important for packs using retail lidding film – get them both wrong and lid film energy can distort the shape of the tray.

Is there a limit to the size of the produce that can be used with these products?

We have matched the retention capacity of the base of the tray to the current retailer specifications for the products the trays are used for. Water purge for poultry is higher because it uses water chilling technology and subsequent tray designs will take this into account. F

www.foodmag.com.au | November 2019 | Food&Beverage Industry News 33

Packaging industry needs to sell itself better With many years’ experience in the food and packaging industry, Keith Chessell has plenty of insights into food packaging and waste. Food & Beverage Industry News explains.

K

eith Chessell is a packaging evangelist. Being in the industry for the best part of 50 years, he was there at the beginning when consumers and manufacturers alike knew that packaging sustainability was going to be an issue going forward for many industries, including food and beverage. He was there when the Keep Australia Beautiful campaign was launched and knows that the image of the packaging industry isn’t what it could be.

As well as being a consultant at Sustainable Packaging Design, Chessell is also heavily involved with the Australian Institute of Packaging (AIP) and the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO) – you could say that packaging and all its issues are in his blood.

Generically, packaging doesn’t have the greatest of reputations among consumers these days. At best, it’s seen as a necessity to transport products from the factory to the retail outlet, while others at the other end of the spectrum see it as an unnecessary pollutant that chokes our waterways, oceans, parks and other recreation areas.

Being in an industry for five decades gives Chessell a unique insight into the issues, not just on what they are now, but how far the industry has come. And while he’s not about to sell packaging as a brilliant accessory to human endeavours, he said that the industry itself needs to do a better job of informing the public of its true role in the wider scheme of things.

At a recent SAI Global Food Safety conference held in Sydney, Chessell outlined some of the issues facing the packaging industry. One of the key discussions at the moment is in the area of reducing packaging.

For example, Chessell compares opening up some toys to that of unpacking a piece of IKEA kit.

While some may nod in agreement,

The AIP’s’ Keith Chessell.

a large number of companies have spent years reducing the amount of packaging in a product – not that the public would know.

“The focus from many in industry over the past 20 years has been on removing and reducing packaging where possible,” said Chessell. “ Some companies are now at the stage where they have reduced everything they can. I can remember eight years ago saying, ‘I can’t take any more out of my packaging with my products’. If the boss wants me to save another $2 million, I’ll start having other issues, such as maintaining the integrity of the packaging.”

Chessell also pointed out that most companies now do not want

34 Food&Beverage Industry News | November 2019 | www.foodmag.com.au

Packaging has got to the stage where it is almost impossible to reduce it any more without compromising its integrity.

“Packaging is a difficult topic these days and the important question we need to ask is, ‘What is the consumer’s view on packaging and how can we help change the perception so that they start to understand that intuitive packaging can actually help minimise and prevent food waste?’”

Packaging can give some foods a longer shelf life and therefore less food wastage. to overpack a product because it is becoming economically unviable to do so. This is where it is necessary to start educating people on the why. He cites the examples of cucumbers and bananas that have plastic packaging.

“Why are some cucumber wrapped in plastic? I know the answer, but most people don’t.

Why not put a sign above that cucumber saying, ‘We’re doing this because it extends the shelf life of this cucumber’. It’s the same with wrapped small bananas. People ask ‘why?’ Well, it protects the fruit, stops it from bruising and is designed to reduce food wastage and spoilage.”

However, lauding the innovations that packaging can sometimes have unintended, negative consequences.

He talks about a recent entrant into the AIP’s Packaging Innovation and Design (PIDA) awards.

“One of the companies that entered this year’s awards was a fish company with a fabulous innovative pack that extended the shelf life by 15 days,” he said.

“But the company chose to not communicate this significant benefit to the consumers on-pack as they did not want a perception that their fish wasn’t fresh. For this company by promoting the extension of shelf life to the customer potentially offered a negative connotation.”

And it’s when Chessell starts throwing out stats on food waste that you begin to appreciate his

frustration at how packaging is undersold. Globally, 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted at an estimated cost of $1.3 trillion.

According to the National Food Waste Baseline Executive Summary, Australia generates about 7.3 million tonnes of food waste annually. Of that, 1.2 million tonnes is recycled, 2.9 million tonnes is recovered, while the remaining 3.2 million tonnes is disposed of at landfills.

Households contribution is 34.3 per cent and primary production 31.3 per cent, while manufacturing comes in at third with 24 per cent.

With figures like that, it is no wonder Chessell is passionate about reducing food waste.

“Unfortunately, many consumers see all packaging as a negative. They don’t see any useful purpose for it and don’t understand the true role of packaging. I believe we can change that if we start to communicate better to customers about why we use certain types of packaging.

They might then understand there are other benefits of packaging if we start to put more information on our packaging.”

Are there other answers? How can food and beverage companies sell the role of packaging in the food chain to the public? How do we better communicate that packaging plays a huge role long before the pack needs throwing away once the food has been extracted? There are several things, according to Chessell, and it’s all about education,

education and education.

Packaging’s main role is to contain and protect goods and keep them in perfect condition until they are consumed. It also carries important information on the label that gives insights into the ingredients. Adding the Australasian Recycling Label on-pack to communicate the true recyclability of the pack is also important.

The final part of the jigsaw is the on-pack communication, that allows the manufacturer to expound the virtues and benefits their food or beverage encompasses. These criteria need to be explained loudly and often, said Chessell. Getting the public educated is one way of reducing stigmas surrounding packaging, and Chessell points out the AIP itself is taking the initiative by developing a set of Save Food packaging design criteria for reducing food waste for the industry. This criteria includes

improved barrier packaging and processing; retaining nutrition; active and intelligent packaging; utilising skin (vacuum), MAP and EMAP packaging formats; portion control packaging; easy opening/ resealable packaging; and controlled dispensing, which will mean all the product will be consumed as opposed to leftover product being thrown out (i.e. sauce bottles etc).

Chessell believes that the AIP has started the conversation and he wants it to continue.

“Packaging is a difficult topic these days and the important question we need to ask is, ‘What is the consumer’s view on packaging and how can we help change the perception so that they start to understand that intuitive packaging can actually help minimise and prevent food waste?”

This is something the AIP and Chessell are well on the way to doing. F

Public education is one way to get people to look at packaging in a different light. www.foodmag.com.au | November 2019 | Food&Beverage Industry News 35

LEAN MANUFACTURING

Don’t forget about Lean manufacturing With the IoT and Industry 4.0 making waves over the past 18 months, the relevance of Lean manufacturing is being questioned. It shouldn’t, according to Lean advocate Tim McLean.

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ean manufacturing in the food industry has traditionally been about reducing waste – it has been about reducing down time, material waste, and making sure plant and machinery are running as efficiently as possible. However, with the advent of Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Things (IoT), some companies who deal with the food and beverage industry think that Lean manufacturing principles are getting left behind, which could be a mistake.

Tim McLean is the managing director of TXM Lean Solutions, a company that specialises in helping manufacturers implement transformative lean methodologies into their workspace. He believes

"Lean for us is a set of principles and techniques that eliminates waste and maximises value by delivering to customers exactly what they need, when they need it, in the quantity they need, in the right sequence, without defects and at the lowest possible cost." that the new technologies of Industry 4.0 and Lean thinking can work together. The first question is, what exactly is Lean?

“Lean for us is a set of principles and techniques that eliminates waste and maximises value by delivering to customers exactly what they need, when they need it, in the quantity they need, in the right sequence,

without defects and at the lowest possible cost,” he said.

So, why does he think there is an issue between Lean manufacturing and the principles that are outlined with Industry 4.0/IoT? “Lean is primarily about people and process and some Industry 4.0 aficionados see this as ‘old school’ thinking. These Industry

4.0 enthusiasts argue that we won’t need Lean because we’ll have selfoptimising machines which optimise themselves through machine learning and artificial intelligence.

This is a very narrow interpretation of Lean – thinking of it as just reducing waste in the production process,” he said. “But it resonates in the food industry, because we have a lot of machine-driven processes, where the output is determined by the output rate of a machines.

Big Food and FMCG companies tend to have a functional silo structure where they have got operations, procurement, supply chain, logistics – all as separate functions reporting through to different areas. The role of manufacturing in this structure A key to lean manufacturing is reducing set ups between jobs.

36 Food&Beverage Industry News | November 2019 | www.foodmag.com.au

LEAN MANUFACTURING

Lean manufacturing advocate Tim McLean. has traditionally then been focused on delivering the products to the supply chain at the lowest possible cost. This has led to the belief that Lean is just about production and a version of Lean in many big food companies called Total Productive Manufacturing (TPM).

This means sweating the assets.

The improvement focus is on maximising run speeds, minimising downtime, reducing set ups between jobs (to further reduce downtime), increasing yield and keeping tight control of output with short-interval controls. In other words, tracking performance hour by hour and squeezing as much out of that hour as you can.” In this context, better process data from IoT sensors that integrate with software platforms such as ERP systems will help provide better visibility of every aspect of machine performance in real time.

Beyond that, artificial intelligence tools will take this data and help processes to optimise themselves in real time. All this adds up to machines driving machines to produce more, more efficiently and at lower cost.

However, reducing waste and increasing efficiency is only part of the story according to McLean, “Investing in more equipment, more automation and better factories and running them harder all sounds good and the right thing to do, but where is that approach leading us?” he said. “What that is driving is long production runs high inventory and big warehouses. The exclusive focus on waste and cost reduction also drives huge investment in often quite inflexible equipment.”

“However, there is another goal of lean thinking that tends to get

forgotten in this drive for lowest cost, that is maximising customer value,” said McLean. The relentless focus on cost reduction in food and beverage production has taken focus away from customer value.

“There seems to have been a disconnect, particularly at the big end of the food industry, with what customers really value. People take it for granted in the food industry,” he said. “The big brands don’t really seem to have an answer to competition from generics except to drive down costs and prices.

But people don’t go and choose to drive a home brand car. They don’t wear a home brand suit. They don’t use a home brand mobile phone.

Why is it the food industry – in particular the FMCG – is having such an incredible loss of market share and margin due to generics?

Why do customers buy generics? My argument is that customer no longer see the value of buying a branded food product.”

“At the end of day your brand is a promise to the customer that the customer will get something different or special,” he said. “And if they don’t get something different or special, then they’re just going to buy a generic, which is just the same thing.”

However, McLean said that new entrants are carving out market share with higher margins and prices by providing customers the value they have been missing. Beer is a great example. Big brand owners with the big automated production lines have to discount to sell their mass-produced products for around $50 for a case of 30 cans. However, craft brewers are struggling to keep up with demand for their boutique brands that sell for $5 and $6 per can.

The big brand owners have caught on to this and are increasingly developing premium brands or simply buying out the newcomers. However, when you take these premium products and just stick them in your big volume automated brewery or bakery or bottling plant and within your siloed management structure, compromises are inevitably made. Inevitably, the new “premium” brands eventually end up being versions of the old volume brands with a different label – and we know that customers are smart enough now that they won’t

buy this. If they buy a premium brand, they want a premium differentiated product.”

“We can actually reduce waste and costs until we go out of existence by offering the customer the same old same old while other people – who are probably nowhere near as efficient as we are – are offering a greater value to the customer and the customer is prepared to pay for that value,” McLean said.

This is where lean comes in.

However Lean applied with a completely different mindset to what has traditionally applied in the food industry. McLean has definite opinions on how to get ahead of the game. One of the most important pieces of advice he gives, is that a company needs to map its value stream – and he’s talking not just the factory, but the whole end-toend process, which includes the supply chain.

“And also consider the information flow, like replenishment and product flows,” he said. “One of the problems with a lot of food

Lifecyle’s, more change and be more flexible.”

He said another barrier to change is company culture, which is often driven by frontline leaders, but can often go right through to manufacturing operations.

“I hear food operations managers pushing back all the time about the number of SKUs they have to do, and the complexity they have to deal with, and they ask, ‘why can’t sales sell more of the standard offerings?’” said McLean.

“Ultimately, we have to change that culture because if we can’t sell the diverse range of products someone else will, and those innovative products will take our market share.

We have to design our operations to meet the needs of the market, rather than try and engineer the market to meet our operations.”

The implications of this for technology are quite different to the current assumptions, said McLean. Technology will allow manufacturers to get closer to their customers, obtain more granular real time data on what is selling to

More flexible processes will be important so as to respond to customers’ needs. companies is they separate – including geographically separate – the supply chain team from the operations people. The supply chain team sits at head office planning the operation, and the operations people are out in the branches, and running the factories according to this plan that has been developed in head office.

This is a very inflexible approach. Instead, we need to also focus on lead times and agility.

In other words, we might need to sacrifice some cost to be able to be more responsive to the market. To be able to offer more of a product range and have more SKUs, shorter

who and where. In the factory, the aim will be to have more flexible processes that can then respond much quicker to these changing customer needs. Equipment will need to be smaller and more configurable to make a greater range of product variants in smaller volumes. Customisation at the point of production such as in-line digital printing of packaging will ultimately offer the opportunity to create a unique product for every customer.

Organisationally, functional silos need to be challenged. The Lean organisation is built around the value stream or product family, which means all the functions required to

www.foodmag.com.au | November 2019 | Food&Beverage Industry News 37

LEAN MANUFACTURING

The lean organisation is built around the value stream or product family. deliver value for a particular product family from purchasing through to marketing work closely together to deliver customer value for that product family. This emulates the structure of start-ups and smalland medium-sized enterprises in the food and FMCG industry.

Combined with efficient data flow, this structure allows for fast decision

making and close alignment of every part of the process with the needs of the customer.

McLean’s final thoughts on Lean and its place in the value chain of food processing is that it will become an even more powerful tool to drive customer value. However, it will need a completely different approach and mindset to that

taken by manufacturers over the past 20 years.

“The traditional cost reduction model that has built on the assumption that we will optimise what we do now, and take costs out of what we do now, is essentially flawed,” he said. “Because what we do now is likely not to be what we will do in the future. The whole

Lean can still be a powerful tool to drive customer value, said McLean.

38 Food&Beverage Industry News | November 2019 | www.foodmag.com.au

traditional approach, in my view, is increasingly breaking down and not working. Customers are not seeing value in branded products.

I would think that if that was the case in any other industry, which would be a crisis. But it is seen as situation normal in the food and beverage industry.

“Simply doubling down on the current approach by using Industry 4.0 technology to drive out more cost and ‘make the big machines go faster’ will not work.

A completely fresh approach is needed, and a new approach to Lean combined with technology and data can aid that transition.

Critically, it is important to be clear on what a customer wants and focus on customer value rather than just waste reduction.

“Technology becomes a tool to give you greater insights into what constitutes value for different customers as well as changing your capabilities enabling you do to more, more efficiently to deliver customer value. Or do more at the same level of efficiency to meet your customer value.” F

BELTS

Increased efficiency is one of the key features of Marbett conveyor components.

Conveyor components designed to increase productivity Rexnord has a range of conveyor belt products that are designed reduce maintenance and downtime.

M

arbett is one of several Rexnord global brands with production facilities in Italy offering a range of complementary conveyor components to meet a factory’s application requirements. Whether it is a chain guide, product handling, frame support, or balancing and supporting components, Rexnord has the parts to optimise a conveyor system.

When it comes to providing highly engineered products that improve productivity and efficiency for product-handling applications, Rexnord offers a portfolio of MatTop and TableTop conveyor chain and Marbett conveyor components. These solutions are designed to continuously improve productivity for customers in a variety of industries including automotive, food, beverage, warehouse/ distribution and container handling.

For instance, Rexnord’s FlatTop chain performance is maximised when used with low-friction, low-wear Rexnord Marbett chain guide-return solutions.

The Marbett product line can be split into application segments;

Chain guide components • l ow wear for extended chain and wear strip life;

• l ow friction for low chain pull and energy savings; • high-speed capability for increased productivity and optimised performance; • bi-material return rollers for reduced noise and high-speed capabilities; and • low total cost of ownership through reduced downtime, maintenance and replacement costs.

Product handling components • low friction roller side guides increase efficiency by preventing costly container damage and discards due to product tippage; • specific profile design to ensure product stability and throughput; and • ideal for container, package and beverage handling applications.

Frame support components • modular design eliminates need for welding, minimises assembly time and reduces conveyor construction costs; • strong and rigid design with declared mechanical values; • high-performance materials designed to meet the most

demanding and unique applications; • e asy-to-clean design meets sanitation requirements; and • h igh corrosion and chemical resistance.

Supporting and levelling elements Different materials in plastic or steel, fixed or articulated, with or without gripper base and vibration absorbing feet.

Self-aligning bearings Square, oval, pillow-block, side flange and multiple other variations, with open or closed options, waterproof housing, capable of compensating misalignment up to two degrees.

Miscellaneous A range of fixtures and fittings, from hinges to locks to roller transfer plates.

Avoid unplanned downtime Nothing costs a business like unplanned downtime. When a conveyor belt goes down, the entire operation grinds to a halt. Rexnord’s

Marbett components have many applications. specialised components are built to withstand common issues like belt degradation, abrasive wear, and belt damage caused by high heat and sanitising procedures. Its conveyer products are designed to help users avoid unplanned downtime, improve energy and water consumption, maximise productivity, reduce waste, and increase safety.

They are easy to install and operate, with the company’s highly engineered conveying solutions designed to extend the life of components, while offering smooth running conveying conditions. F

www.foodmag.com.au | November 2019 | Food&Beverage Industry News 39

FOOD & BEVERAGE INDUSTRY AWARDS Davidson plums are bitter but in concentrated form complement other ingredients like dark chocolate.

Future bright for native Australian ingredients Dietitian Hayley Blieden saw a gap in the ingredient market when she was working for the North Melbourne football club. This gap turned into a fully fledged business. Mike Wheeler explains how.

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erries, fish, leafy greens, legumes, whole grains, and acai all have the moniker of being superfoods and claim to have a range of health benefits. They are said to be nutrient-rich and have the ability to enhance peoples’ diets.

The Australian Superfood Co was set up by dietitian Hayley Blieden in 2015. Blieden came up with the idea when she was working for the North Melbourne Football Club and had a few conversations with the indigenous players about their diets when they went home after the end of the season.

“They would come back and tell me about these foods and I was blown away. As a dietitian, I consider myself a food expert, yet I had never heard of these native foods,” said Blieden. “These foods have sustained Indigenous Australians for over 60,000 years in some of the harshest, unpredictable climates. We were importing ancient ‘superfoods’ from all over the world, yet we were unaware of the bounty in

our own backyard.”

Blieden started looking into the health benefits and construction of the foods and found that they had a lot of nutritional properties. And it’s wasn’t just a case of Blieden taking the word of the Indigenous consumers, or trusting her own research. The federal government also carried out research onto a lot of the products. They have analysed the anti-oxidant properties, the vitamin C content and nutritional profiles.

Also, how bio available they are and how they compare to other foods on the market, said Blieden.

“The native foods are some of the most nutritionally dense food on the planet,” she said. “For instance, the Kakadu plum has the world’s highest natural vitamin C content. As well as government data, we have done our own testing that is batch specific. For instance, on our packaging we state the vitamin C conent of our Kakadu plum so we get our products tested externally to verify this.”

The Australian Superfood Co was

40 Food&Beverage Industry News | November 2019 | www.foodmag.com.au

Aniseed myrtle is just one of a number of superfoods native to Australia.

FOOD & BEVERAGE INDUSTRY AWARDS

a finalist in the Ingredients category in the 2019 Food & Beverage Industry Awards. Flora that the company works with includes the aforementioned Kakadu plum, as well as the Davidson plum, quandong, riberry, finger lime, aniseed myrtle and wattleseed to name a few.

Blieden realised from the outset that it was important to work with Indigenous Australians, due to the rich cultural significance and their intrinsic link to the land and plants.

The company also works with non-Indigenous hobby farmers, as well as larger enterprises, too.

“We work collaboratively with Indigenous Australians in remote communities. The geographical location and the fragmented nature of the industry makes the native food industry particularly difficult to navigate. We see ourselves as the intermediary between these communities and growers and multi-national food and beverage manufacturers who require stringent quality control, ongoing supply and a consistent product,” she said.

“However, we have the relationships with the communities as well as farmers, which means we are able to bring the produce together, and process it in a way that will keep supply stable. The fruits are only grown in Australia.

The seasonality is really important because you can only source them at certain times of the year. It’s not like you can go to America and buy them when they are out of season in Australia.”

An important facet of the business is being able to supply produce all year around. The consistency has been an issue in the past, but Blieden and her team have been tenacious in making sure all-year round supply is possible. And while there are certain times of the year products are available, they are working on trying to make sure there is an annual supply not just seasonal.

In order to manage the limited supply issue, The Australian Superfood Co preserve large quantities of fruit when they are in season. The company offers natives in a freeze-dried powder format, or liquid extract of dehydrated fruit.

By preserving natives the company is able to hold large inventory stores and work with its customers to forecast requirements.

Hayley Brieden works collaboratively with indigenous Australians with locally grown superfoods.

"These foods have sustained indigenous Australians for over 60,000 years in some of the harshest, unpredictable climates. We were importing ancient ‘superfoods’ from all over the world, yet we were unaware of the bounty in our own backyard.”

In order to increase supply, Blieden recognises that, “it is about planting more trees and changing the current agricultural landscape in Australia.” The Australian Superfood Co is currently working with Indigenous communities and current suppliers to increase their harvest as well as getting farmers of traditional crops to diversify and repurpose land to native crops.

“We know that, the limited supply will be an issue. If we do not increase supply as demand increases, then the industry will experience the challenges it has in the past and may not have the confidence to

continue in this direction.”

New Zealand’s kiwifruit started out as the Chinese Gooseberry before it was adopted by Kiwis in the 1940s and 50s. Supply issues aside, is Blieden worried that some of these plants genus’s might make their way overseas and end up being produced outside of Australia, similar to the kiwifruit?

“It is a concern and it would be so sad if it ever happened. It is a big worry that somebody might take saplings out of the country and try and grow them overseas,” she said.

“That is exactly what happened to the macadamia nut. If you ask people

where the macadamia nut originated from they will tell you Hawaii. There are laws being put in place to stop this. When we purchase our Kakadu plums from certain communities, we sign a document stating we won’t sell the seeds.

“We know the way the world works and what drives business.

We just hope we are able to secure our seeds and make sure that doesn’t happen, but it could be very difficult.”

Already these ingredients are proving popular among chefs around Australia as well as some of the big food manufacturers. And while some of the products may be costly, the way they are processed means consumers can get a big bang for their buck in terms of value for money.

“Quite a few well known chefs are using the products like Matt Stone, Ben Shewry from Attica – almost all high-end restaurants in Australia are incorporating Australian natives, which is exciting,” said Blieden.

Large multi-nationals are also adopting native ingredients with Peters Ice Cream launching a range of native-infused ice creams as part of the Connoisseur range.

“These ingredients offer unique nutritional properties and flavour profiles. Incorporating them makes them more expensive but in the freeze dried format they are all highly concentrated so you only need a small amount. It is almost a 10-1 ratio. You use 10 kilos of Davidson plums to get 1kg of powder. You only need a teeny amount to really get an intense flavour and colour.”

Overall, Blieden sees a rosy future for Australia’s natural ingredients place in the food chain.

Her only issue is whether demand will eventually outrun supply.

“The demand is high at the moment,” she said. “We are forecasting several multiples of inventory for the next year. Supply meeting the current demand isn’t an issue either, but if demand increases at the current rate, then it will become one.

“It will take 12 months to five years to harvest new crops – depending on the crop – so we need to get onto it now. For the gums and the myrtles it’ll be 12 months, but for some of the fruits it will a number of years before we can start cultivating them.” F

www.foodmag.com.au | November 2019 | Food&Beverage Industry News 41

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Deal activity picks up Following a slow start to the year, deal activity in the food and beverage industry has picked up with eight transactions announced recently.

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aggie Beer and her husband Colin sold the remaining 52 per cent of Maggie Beer Products to Longtable Group in a deal worth $10 million. As a result, ASXlisted Longtable Group will become the sole shareholder of Maggie Beer Products. Graincorp sold its liquid terminals business to ANZ Terminals for $350 million. Graincorp has entered into a long-term storage agreement with ANZ Terminals for Graincorp’s oilseeds business. First Pacific sold its 50 per cent shareholding in Goodman Fielder to Wilmar International for US$180 million and First Pacific’s shareholders loan for US$120 million.

Wilmar will pay an additional US$25 million if Goodman Fielder’s EBITDA reaches US$235 million in the year to December 2020.

Hongkong Jiang Trade Holdings acquired New Zealand dairy company Westland Milk Products, for NZ$588 million. Under the transaction, the farmer shareholders of Westland will be able to sell their product to Westland and receive a payment not less than the Fonterra farm gate milk price. The

pricing floor will be in place for ten seasons. Kirin Australia’s beer business, Lion, acquired a 50 per cent interest in Four Pillars Gin. Vitality Brands sold its Well Naturally and Power Super Foods brands to Darrell Lea. Well Naturally is a sugar-free chocolate brand with distribution through the corporate and independent retail channels.

ASX-listed Bubs Australia announced the acquisition of Australia Deloraine Dairy for a consideration of $35 million, settled $25 million in cash and $10 million in shares. Deloraine is an infant formula producer and one of just 15 licenced canning facilities in Australia that meet regulatory import conditions into China. As part of the transaction, C2 Capital Partners (15 per cent) and Chemist Warehouse (9 per cent) became shareholders of Bubs Australia.

Deal activity in the first four months of 2019 started strongly. The food and beverage industry remains attractive with strong interest in the industry from both trade investors and financial investors. F

Ben van der Westhuizen and David Baveystock are directors of Comet Line Consulting, an advisory business that specialises in acquisitions and divestments within the Australian food and beverage industry. For more information, visit www.cometlineconsulting.com.au.

Date

Target Name

Acquirer

Sector

1 March 19

Maggie Beer Products (52%)

Longtable Group

Packaged Foods

4 March 19

Graincorp Bulk Liquid Terminals

ANZ Terminals

Liquid storage

11 March 19

Goodman Fielder (50%)

Wilmar International

Baked goods

14 March 19

Sushi Sushi

Odyssey Capital

Hospitality

19 March 19

Westland Milk Products

Hongkong Jiang Trade Holdings

Dairy

22 March 19

Four Pillars Gin (50%)

Kirin Australia (Lion)

Alcoholic beverages

29 March 19

Well Naturally and Power Super Foods

Darrell Lea Confectionery

Healthy snacking

1 April 19

Australia Deloraine Dairy

Bubs Australia

Dairy

15 May 19

Chefgood (capital raise)

Family office investor

Meal delivery

31 May 19

Marlin Fine Foods

Satisfine Foods

Foodservice wholesaler

4 June 19

SPC Ardmona

Shepparton Partners

Processed fruit and vegetables

8 June 19

Marley Spoon

Woolworths

Meal kits

13 June 19

180 Nutrition

Bega Cheese

Healthy and Natural

17 June 19

Omniblend

Keytone Dairy

Dairy

Commodity Outlook WHEAT – World wheat prices to recover slightly from low levels due to lower tradeable supplies.

COARSE GRAINS – World barley prices to rise due to low stocks and strong demand for feed and industrial-use coarse grains.

BEEF AND VEAL – Australian cattle prices to fall due to higher production and strong competition in export markets.

SHEEP MEAT – Strong competition from processors and restockers to drive lamb prices higher.

OILSEEDS – World canola prices to fall due to abundant oilseed supplies.

DAIRY – Milk prices to rise due to a falling Australian dollar and increased competition for milk.

SUGAR – World sugar prices to fall due to world sugar supply growing faster than demand.

Source: Department of Agriculture and Water Resources (ABARES), Agricultural commodities March quarter, 2018.

44 Food&Beverage Industry News | November 2019 | www.foodmag.com.au

DAIRY REPORT

Global dairy commodity update The availability of milk will have varying impacts on each dairy commodity group.

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lobal milk supply is gradually growing, but this comes as total trade slows. Adjusting for growth in domestic consumption, the market remains close to balanced.

The impact of steadily improving milk availability will have varying impact on each commodity group. The global economy faces headwinds with the ongoing risks of economic and dairy trade disruptions from a no-deal Brexit; slowing Chinese and Southeast Asian economies; rising tension in the Middle East, and expectations of a US recession in 2020.

Skim milk powder Firmer SMP prices are expected as surplus EU stocks fall, which will coincide with gradually firming butterfat values as demand improves

in Europe and developing markets.

Growth in global demand has slowed but key Southeast Asian markets may have further capacity given past buying trends and landed costs.

Chinese demand has been impressive and should remain positive in coming months.

Whole milk powder WMP availability in the next year will be virtually unchanged from the past year, taking account of a small growth in New Zealand output, improved production in Latin America, and similar output in the EU. Global WMP trade declined 16 per cent YOY in July, the largest decline since June 2018. This fall brought growth in the last quarter 4.5 per cent below the comparable.

Butter Fat prices may have bottomed in Europe, although product remains in good supply, ensuring price gains may be gradual. Trade with the developing world continued to be poor at rising prices, with declines in China and Hong Kong. New Zealand trade, which has exposure to developing markets, has consistently declined since the end of Q1-19. A recovery in demand from developing regions is critical to any recovery.

Cheese World cheese prices have diverged, with the EU cheapest by far in Q3-2019. While improving fat and protein values should eventually support higher EU cheese prices, cheaper EU prices offered to export

markets in the short-term may further weaken Oceania prices. US prices surged with short-term shortages in cheddar supplies but are expected to weaken in coming months.

Whey Following YOY declines in every single month since December 2018, whey products trade lifted 2.5 per cent YOY to 137,670 t. The decline in global trade in whey products since December 2018 was 6.8 per cent, mostly the result of weaker shipments into China, which was due to the culling of their pig herd to address swine fever and the imposition of punitive tariffs. F

By Dustin Boughton, Procurement, Maxum Foods

Butterfat values are beginning to firm. www.foodmag.com.au November 2019 | Food&Beverage Industry News 45

NOVEMBER 2019

PLUS: Construction rules and regulations | The rise of plant proteins | Lean manufacturing

FOOD & BEVERAGE INDUSTRY NEWS

EXPORTS

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Food and beverage exports are one of the big money earners for the Australian economy.

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Whether you’re a consultant, food and beverage export specialist, or can assist companies taking their business to the next level in the competitive worldwide market, our readers want to hear what you have to offer.

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NEW PRODUCTS

Krypton One designed for harsh environments Dewesoft invented multi-channel Krypton data acquisition modules, which offer up to 16 channels each. Designed with IP67 degree of protection these modules are very robust, operate in extreme temperatures anywhere from -40¡C to 85¡C and 100 per cent humidity.

Krypton modules communicate with each other using EtherCAT protocol over a single thin cable that provides data, synchronisation and power, which can be daisy-chained and spread out over 100m from node to node.

Engineers have quickly adopted the Krypton series, mounting them right up against running car and aircraft engines, or anywhere where extreme temperatures are found. Humidity is obviously no issue for a product that can be completely submerged underwater.

Despite the small size of these multi-channel modules, customers have asked for even more modularity, but without compromising the incredible environmental specifications. After development and testing, Dewesoft announced a new series of Krypton modules called the Krypton One with all of the same environmental robustness as the multi-channel series but allows the placement of the conditioner as close to the sensor as possible, even in extremely hostile environments such as an engine compartment. This results in the shortest possible sensor cables, improving the signal quality.

These tiny single-channel modules measure just 62mm x 56mm x 29mm and are machined from an aluminium brick. After the industrial-grade electronics are installed, the units are then sealed with thermally conductive and electrically isolating rubber. Units are waterproof, shockproof, and can withstand shocks up to 100G. Krypton modules provide IP67 degree of protection against water,

dust, and other elements are assured.

The fast EtherCAT interface runs at 100Mbps full-duplex bus speed, providing for 6MB/s to 10MB/s data throughput per chain. Modules intended for dynamic measurements can sample up to 40 kS/s. All modules on the chain, which can be spread out as far as 100m (328 ft) between nodes, are precisely synchronised. With the use of EtherCAT to interconnect and control the Krypton series, the entire Krypton product line can be used with any third-party EtherCAT master for real-time applications.

Metromatics (07) 3868-4255 www.metromatics.com.au

iBase’s CSB200-818 slim fanless system iBase's CSB200-818 slim fanless system is fully operable under harsh conditions, with a wide-range operating temperature. Suitable for 24/7 deployments such as in industrial automation and intelligent transportation applications, this compact system comes with a 12V-24V DC terminal block power input and an optional 60W power adaptor.

The embedded CSB200-818, houses a 3.5-inch single-board computer powered by an Intel Atom processor E3930, N4200 or N3350 and is equipped with 4GB (default) of DDR3L-1866 system memory that is upgradeable to 8GB. It offers versatile wired and wireless connectivity with the two onboard RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet ports and dual mini PCIe Slots for optional WiFi, Bluetooth and LTE interface cards.

Onboard rear I/O interface includes four high-speed USB 3.0, HDMI, four COM ports and two RJ45 connectors. Other features provided are wall-mounting and two wireless antennas.

With an operating temperature range of -30¡C to 65¡C, the CSB200818 is configured with an Intel Atom processor E3930 and 64GB industrial-grade SSD. With an N-Series (N4200/N3350) CPU and 500GB of SATA HDD, it operates between -10¡C to 45¡C. Both temperature conditions require sufficient airflow.

Key features: l fanless system with IBASE IB818 3.5-inch disk-size SBC; l supports Intel Atom processors E3930 & Pentium N4200/ Celeron N3350 series; l wide-range operating temperature from -30¡C to 65¡C (airflow) w/ Intel Atom CPU; l 12V-24V DC wide-range power input; and l wall-mounted kit included.

Backplane Systems Technology (02) 9457 6400 www.backplane.com.au

www.foodmag.com.au | November 2019 | Food&Beverage Industry News 47

NEW PRODUCTS

Keysight N9917B 18 GHz FieldFox RF analyser Measurement Rentals has added the new Keysight (Agilent) N9917B 18 GHz Vector Network, Spectrum, Cable & Antenna Analyser.

The Keysight N9917B 18GHz FieldFox RF and microwave analyser is a combined cable and antenna tester, full 2-port vector network analyser (S11, S21, S12, S22), and spectrum analyser.

Includes Real Time Spectrum Analysis (RTSA) with 100MHz capture bandwidth and spectrum recording, perfect for RF interference logging and measurements.

The LTE OTA (over the air) capability measures all the LTE/4G key performance indicators over the air, and even includes a record function for LTE drive test. GPS position and all the KPIs are recorded for one or multiple CC's on any LTE FDD system.

Users can capture intermittent signals with 100 MHz gap-free realtime bandwidth and simultaneously measure all four S-parameters with 115 dB system dynamic range. It is also possible to make accurate spectrum analyser measurements (+/- 0.3 dB) without warm-up. The N9917B supports over-the-air measurements for 5GTF and LTE and has GPS/GNSS receiver for geolocation and time stamping. This all-in-one FieldFox analyser is light weight, which makes it easy to carry out in the field.

The N9917B FieldFox brings bench-level accuracy into the field by delivering precise handheld microwave measurements that agree with benchtop analysers. FieldFox VNAs provide full two-port S-parameter measurements with the most accurate calibration technique (full 2-port unknown thru), best trace noise (over -10ยกC to +55ยกC) and 100 dB dynamic range. The VNAs also offer an industryfirst QuickCal function, which enables hassle-free calibration without

external accessories.

The FieldFox eliminates dead time is necessary to detect the most challenging signals; introducing real-time spectrum analysis (RTSA). With Keysight FieldFox handheld analysers with real-time spectrum analysis (RTSA) up to 18 GHz, you can now confidently capture every interfering signal in real time with one integrated, lightweight unit. FieldFox with RTSA empowers you to detect, locate and mitigate interference issues. Keysight FieldFox handheld microwave analysers are designed for engineers and technicians performing interference hunting and signal monitoring specifically in surveillance and secure communications, radar, electronic warfare (EW) and commercial wireless markets.

Measurement Innovation (08) 9414 7800 www.measurement.net.au

New FLEX 5000 I/O modules from Rockwell Automation Allen-Bradley FLEX 5000 safety I/O modules can meet the needs of producers in process and heavy industries that require fixed fieldwiring terminations or both vertical and horizontal I/O mounting in their distributed safety applications.

The three new FLEX 5000 safety I/O modules provide distributed safety I/O for the Allen-Bradley Compact GuardLogix 5380 and GuardLogix 5580 controllers. The safety modules can be combined with FLEX 5000 standard I/O modules to achieve integrated safety and control in one distributed I/O platform.

The modules offer safety reaction times as fast as 4.5 milliseconds to help designers create smaller, simpler and less expensive smart machines and equipment.

They also offer extensive diagnostics to help users easily identify faults based on real-time data.

The safety I/O modules are TUV-certified for use in fail-safe applications up to SIL 3 and PLe, Cat. 4. They can operate in extreme environments and be directly connected to copper and fibre networks. They are also available with conformal coating options for added protection against environmental stresses.

In addition to the new safety I/O modules release, the FLEX 5000 EtherNet/IP adapters now support the Parallel Redundancy Protocol (PRP) network standard.

This Ethernet topology is a way for designers to create a redundant network infrastructure that has high availability and helps minimise downtime risks.

Rockwell Automation (02) 9757 1111 www.rockwellautomation.com 48 Food&Beverage Industry News | November 2019 | www.foodmag.com.au

NEW PRODUCTS

Schenck Process introduces ProFlex C100 Storage, filling and feeding - three processes for which Schenck Process can provide extensive process knowledge. From a product portfolio perspective, Schenck Process is now completing their offering to best meet market requirements.

They are introducing the newest addition to the ProFlex C family, the ProFlex C100.

With ProFlex C 500, 3000 and 6000, Schenck Process already offers three feeder sizes with a total of five extension hoppers. Now Schenck Process adds to their offering: l Fit for small extruders - the new ProFlex C100 is the smallest of the ProFlex C family and as such also fits on small extrudes. It comes in low weight. Up to five feeders can be grouped around an inlet of a lab or small size extruder. l Makes the customer flexible - a quick change hopper option in the ProFlex line for fast and clean change over without disassembling of the feed screw. By keeping several hoppers including screw in stock, a wide range of additives and colour pigments can be provided for in a highly flexible manner. l Ready for sticky powders - the asymmetric design prevents bridging and plugging of sticky material. l As quick as the customer - the new ProFlex C100 is equipped with an integrated gearbox for turndown ratios of up to 1:120. l Accuracy ensured - flexible wall liner massaged at eight points, which allows a constant and accurate filling of the screw feed element.

The ProFlex C feeding system is used for the continuous feeding of bulk materials such as powder, granulates, pellets or fibres.

Optimised design, flexible hopper walls and flexible installation options make the ProFlex C a tailored solution for the compound and masterbatch industries.

All of the Schenck Process ProFlexÂŽ C loss-in-weight feeder family for the compound and masterbatch industry is characterised by: l asymmetric design; l easy change of discharge/drive side; l eight-point massage system; l easy dismantling and cleaning; l steep hopper walls; and l LIW-critical cabling encapsulated All of these features are of course carried on in the new ProFlex

C100.

Our abilities to design, size, sell, fabricate, and integrate other OEM processes as well as installing and providing ongoing support delivers full control.

As the primary equipment manufacturer, we manage production schedules for faster lead times on highly-engineered, custom-built systems.

The end result is a predictable, efficient, and effective material handling process solutions.

Schenck +49 (6151) 1531-0 www.schenckprocess.com

LuxX compact CW laser diode modules The LuxX Diode Laser Series by Omicron Laserage offers high performance in a small, compact design. Thirty-six different wavelengths between 375nm and 1550 nm and single-mode optical output powers up to 300mW ensuring applications include machine vision, test and measurement and microlithography are easily met.

Other notable features include High-Stability CW operation (ACC and APC mode), fast analogue modulation, electronic shutter function (laser inhibit) with >150 kHz full On/Off capability, Automatic Aging Compensation (AAC) function and 0.7mm beam diameter option.

Easy integration into existing or future designs is assured by its industry standard footprint. The USB 2.0 and the RS-232 interface allows for deep integration of the lasers into the application process.

Drivers for Metamorph, LabVIEW and Micromanager are available.

Scitech (03) 9480 4999 www.scitech.com.au

www.foodmag.com.au | November 2019 | Food&Beverage Industry News 49

NEW PRODUCTS

Winmate’s M900P 8-inch rugged tablet crafted for lightweight mobility Backplane Systems Technology has released Winmate's M900P 8-inch rugged tablet crafted for lightweight mobility. This compact, yet powerful rugged tablet has been designed for tough industrial operations and environments.

Winmate's M900P is a compact 8-inch rugged tablet designed for mobile rugged use. It helps fulfil the needs of those that want maximum portability and ease of carry with no compromises to their application use.

This Windows 10-based device comes equipped with an Intel Pentium N4200 Apollo Lake processor and genuine Intel graphics for high processing performance, low power consumption and extended battery life. Its 1280 x 800 display features a projected capacitive touch screen with optical bonding and allows for outdoor viewability.

Built for operations in harsh industrial environments, the device is MIL-STD-810G certified, and its lightweight (900g) yet rugged design features an operating temperature range (-20¡C to 60¡C), IP65 rated water and dust proof enclosure, and five feet drop tolerance.

Communication options such as GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth 5.0 and optional 4G LTE enable records to be updated in real time, ensuring the most up-to-date information is always available. With user configurable data capturing options such as built-in barcode or RFID Readers, and an optional smart card reader module, the M900P rugged tablet is crafted to suit any user specific requirements in field service, warehousing, or Transportation applications.

For a transportation and in-vehicle based solution, the M900P comes with a built-in DB15 interface connector that will enable the device to be connected to Winmate's Vehicle Gateway, which is able to read vehicle data for more powerful information integration.

Key features: l Intel Pentium N4200 Apollo Lake processor l 8-inch 1280 x 800 IPS LED Panel with direct optical bonding

Projected Capacitive (P-Cap) multitouch; default D-sub for vehicle gateway connection; USB 3.0 Type A, USB 3.0 Type C Connectors; 8MP rear camera with autofocus and LED Light, 2MP webcam IP65 waterproof and dustproof; o ptional built-In 1D/2D barcode reader and HF RFID reader for data collection; and l Optional MSR and contact EMV card reader l l l l l l

Backplane Systems Technology (02) 9457 6400 www.backplane.com.au

No Drip Internal Mix Atomizing Nozzles conserve liquid EXAIR's new 1/2 inch No Drip Internal Mix Atomizing Spray Nozzles work in the same way our standard atomising nozzles do, but have the added benefit of positively stopping liquid flow when compressed air is shut off. Internal Mix Atomizing Spray Nozzles mix liquid and air inside the nozzle and produce the finest atomisation of liquids up to 300 centipoise. The patented No Drip design requires no additional air line to control the No Drip feature.

When spraying any type of liquid, post-spray liquid flow can cause big problems. Unwanted drips can ruin product function on sealing or mating surfaces and ruin the appearance of painted or coated finishes. In addition, excess liquid flow wastes precious resources such as expensive coatings, chemicals or water. No Drip Atomizing Nozzles are ideal where no post-spray drip is permissible. When the compressed air supply is shut off, the no drip nozzle positively seals off the flow of liquid eliminating the possibility of drips.

EXAIR's 1/2 inch No Drip Internal Mix Atomizing Nozzles are available in four patterns: narrow angle round, wide angle round, flat fan and 360-degree hollow circular pattern. They are for pressure fed applications that don't require independent air and liquid control.

Available from Compressed Air Australia, the No Drip Atomizing Nozzles are fully adjustable to minimise air and liquid consumption and have interchangeable liquid and air caps. Flow ranges from 0.5 Lph to 1147 Lph (0.14 Gph to 303 Gph). They are also available in 1/8 inch and 1/4 inch, and are CE compliant and conflict mineral free.

50 Food&Beverage Industry News | November 2019 | www.foodmag.com.au

Compressed Air Australia 1300 787 688/ 1300 787 637 www.caasafety.com.au

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