Food Magazine February 2011

Foodmagazine FEBRUARY 11

INGREDIENTS | PROCESSING | SAFETY | PACKAGING | EXPORT

INFORMING FOOD AND BEVERAGE MANUFACTURERS

WWW.FOODMAG.COM.AU

INSIDE

SAFETY

16

Keeping clean The truth and fiction of hand washing

PACKAGING

18

Pierre Pienaar Considering the benefits of packaging design

EXPORT

20

QLD flood report Consequences of the QLD flood

Print Post Approved PP349181/00696

PROCESSING

BLUETONGUE BREWERY

GOES GREEN Australia’s most sustainable brewery pg12

FEATURE

22

Product recall Managing the unexpected of product recall

YOU CARE FOR THE CONTENT. WE CARE FOR THE FILLING AND PACKAGING.

YOU CARE FOR THE CONTENT. WE CARE FOR THE FILLING AND PACKAGING.

It is the packaging that ultimately makes fine vintage wines perfect. As one of the leading manufacturers of machinery in the field of beverage engineering, KHS sets the standard in all vintages now and in the future with its flexible, modular design of labeling and packaging solutions. Talk to us about your individual requirements.

KHS Pacific Pty. Ltd. | PO Box 378 | 1 - 3 Freight Road | Tullamarine Victoria 3043 | Phone: (03) 9335 1211 | Fax: (03) 3 9335 1331 info@khspacific.com.au | www.khs.com

BEVERAGE FOOD NONFOOD

WELCOME

Foodmagazine www.foodmag.com.au EDITOR David Stone P: 02 9422 2862 F: 02 9422 2722 E: david.stone@reedbusiness.com.au

A very warm welcome to you and a Happy New Year!

JOURNALIST Rita Mu P: 02 9422 2572 F: 02 9422 2722 E: rita.mu@reedbusiness.com.au

With 2011 well and truly underway, now is a good time to beginning looking ahead to see what the year holds.

NATIONAL KEY ACCOUNT MANAGER Richard Bunting P: 02 9422 2718 M: 0448 071 896 E: richard.bunting@reedbusiness.com.au

T

QLD SALES MANAGER Sharon Amos P: 07 3261 8857 F: 07 3261 8347 M: 0417 072 625 E: sharon.amos@reedbusiness.com.au SA, WA & NT SALES Alex Evans P: 02 9422 2890 F: 02 9422 2722 E: alex.evans@reedbusiness.com.au PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Jennifer Collinson P: 02 9422 2657 F: 02 9422 2722 E: jennifer.collinson@reedbusiness.com.au GRAPHIC DESIGNER Louis Santos P: 02 9422 2724 F: 02 9422 2722 E: louis.santos@reedbusiness.com.au SUBSCRIPTIONS – CUSTOMER SERVICE Aus NZ O/S 1 year subscription 99 109 119 2 year subscription 189 199 209 P: 1300 360 126 F: 02 9422 2633 E: customerservice@reedbusiness.com.au RBI Manufacturing & Electronics Group Tower 2, Level 3, 475 Victoria Ave Locked Bag 2999 Chatswood DC NSW 2067 P: 02 9422 2999 F: 02 9422 2722

EDITOR: David Stone food@reedbusiness.com.au

he food, beverage and packaging industries will all have extremely busy calendars over the coming 12 months, what with AUSPACK PLUS 2011 arriving in March, then FoodPro, closely followed by our very own Food Challenge Awards in July, just to name a few of the highlights.

But 2011 will also be revealing in showing how well companies are fairing in this post-GFC climate. With the worst of the crisis seemingly over and the recovery in full swing, we can now expect new developments, new trends and a pushing of profit margins.

As we outlined in the Top ten trends for 2011 (Food Magazine, December 2010), a new age of purity is dawning, as consumers increasingly look for less processed food. It seems likely, therefore, that a number of simpler, more wholesome alternatives will begin to appear to meet this demand.

Another issue that will be making waves in 2011 is that of

food and beverage labelling. A mere matter of hours before this magazine went to print, The Panel conducting the Independent Review of Labelling Law and Policy, which was commissioned by the Australian and New Zealand Food Regulation Ministerial Council, submitted its comprehensive examination of Australian food

dairy industry, all of which and more will be appearing in the coming months.

For this, the February edition, Food Magazine takes a revealing look into the troubling business of product recalls. We examine some of the reasons why a product might be recalled from the shelves, some of the consequences of this happening

With the worst of the crisis seemingly over and the recovery in full swing, we can now expect new developments, new trends and a pushing of profit margins. labelling practice, entitled Labelling Logic. The report has also been made publicly available and even after the briefest of glimpses, a new sense of clarity would seem to be the prevailing theme.

Our Food Magazine editorial calendar is also filling up fast, with scheduled features covering topics as broad ranging as manufacturing life cycle analysis, ingredient innovation, to the state of the

and the sort of steps a company can put in place in order to minimise the damage and speed up the recovery time.

Elsewhere among these pages, we consider the Bluetongue Brewery’s new sustainable manufacturing plant; the dos and don’ts of hand hygiene; and, following the devastating floods in Queensland, we predict some of the repercussion for the food and beverage industry.

INSIDE FEBRUARY ISSUE © Copyright Reed Business Information, 2004. www.reedbusiness.com.au

Average Net Distribution Period ending Sep ’10 6,020

NEWS

4

FCA 2011

8

What’s hot online

Food Challenge Awards

Food Magazine’s round up of all the latest news, events and developments from the food industry.

All the latest news from the Food Challenge Awards 2011, plus a word from one of our sponsors.

www.foodmag.com.au | February 11 | Foodmagazine 3

WHAT’S

restructures,” Mr Jensen said.

The AEBC estimates the closure of Snow Confectionary could knock $80,000,000 out of the local economy.

HOT ONLINE

W W W. F O O D M AG . C O M . AU

BY RITA MU

Vitamin enhanced water drinks under the spotlight

Snow Confectionary closes doors Australian company Snows Confectionary has closed its doors after falling into administration last December.

The 85-year old company based in Western Sydney suffered a series of financial shocks in the lead up to its closure, which saw the loss of 90 jobs.

Snows Confectionary is a key supplier of sweets to major supermarkets such as Woolworths and Coles, which sell Snow's products under their home brands. The company also has markets in Asia and the US. Great grandson of the founder, and current Managing Director of Snows, Nathan Hughes, said he had been fighting an uphill battle for the last twelve months to save the company.

“For the great majority of the company’s history we have traded along nicely with cash in the bank,” he said.

“However the last five years saw the company falter. This put enormous pressure on us.

“Sugar prices went through the roof and a major customer failed, owing us a lot of money.

“Coupled with that my father, the managing director, suffered poor health.

We pulled back from this and were back making a profit [in 2010] until we ran out of working capital and could not get it in place in time.”

According to Snow’s CFO, the company was only fulfilling 65 per cent of its orders in the last few weeks due to the shortage of working capital.

In the last few weeks leading up to its closure, the company sought assistance from the Australian Employee Buyout Centre (AEBC), an organisation set up by the Federal Government to offer an alternative to company closure and break up.

AEBC General Manager Anthony Jensen said a solution for Snow could be to find employees with some ownership of the company when it is restructured.

“Snows Confectionary, from what we could glean in a short space of time, is a company with a lot of potential that got caught up in the malfunctioning of the Australian insolvency regime which does not have the ability to protect companies which get into difficulty, from their creditors. This is very different to the Chapter 11 [of the US Bankruptcy Code] where a company is protected while it

Coles stocking more Aussie made products With more customers demanding home-grown produce, Coles have worked to stock their shelves with over 900 products displaying the Australian Made logo.

Coles Brand is celebrating having more Australian Made products than any other brand in the country.

“Buying Australian made and grown products makes sense. Not only are you getting great products that have been made or grown right here, by Australians and to Australia’s high standards; you are also supporting Aussie farmers, fisherman, manufacturers and processors.” Said Ian Harrison, Campaign Chief Executive, AMAG (Australian Made Australian Grown).

“We are proud to support Coles in its latest initiative to promote locally made and grown products. By branding its products with the AMAG logo, Coles is helping the majority of Australian consumers who want to buy Australian, easily locate these products on their shelves, which is just fantastic.”

Unsurprisingly, research consistently shows that Australian consumers want to buy Australian. Most recently a survey (conducted by Roy Morgan Research) of almost 19,000 people found that 90% prefer to buy products Made in Australia.

“Coles is extremely excited by the announcement from AMAG that Coles Brand has more Aussie made products than any other Australian brand” said Simon Brady, Head of Coles Brand Marketing.

Speculation over the health benefits of a growing number of “vitamin-enhanced water drinks” continues following criticism from the Australian watchdog, Choice.

Choice had released a press release warning consumers not to buy into the hype around vitamin-enhanced water drinks, claiming that “they are essentially expensive lolly waters with hyperventilated health claims”.

With names such as “Nutrient Water”, “Smart Water” and “Vitamin Water” and which tend to retail for between $2.50 and $4.00, Choice said some of the drinks “contain enough sugar in one 500ml bottle to provide the average woman with a third of her recommended daily intake”.

The issue Choice has with these products centres around the potentially misleading promotion and labelling claims. The example given by Choice is for Nutrient Water, which “claims that drinking its Cranberry Grapefruit MultiVitamin will give you the same benefits as ‘eight hours sleep, a bowl of steaming greens and pre-dawn power walks’”.

The British Soft Drinks Association has since offered a defence of these products, which was published on the website NutraIngredients.com, stating that “enhanced waters provide additional functionality with the ingredients such as added vitamins, minerals or antioxidants.

Enhanced waters provide people with an easy and convenient way to help get more of the nutrients they need each day – encouraging people to adopt a healthy balanced lifestyle.”

The BSDA added that while enhanced water can be consumed regularly, these products should be treated like all soft drinks and consumed as part of a balanced diet.

Sara Lee launches five-year sustainable coffee plan Sara Lee has announced a five-year initiative to boost its sustainable commodity programme.

The company, most famous for its frozen desserts, has tripled its purchase of UTZ CERTIFIED Good Inside coffee to 350 million kilograms across all its markets and product segments for the next five years.

Sara Lee estimates its sustainability investments can deliver to coffee farmers, their associations and representatives up to $100 million of

4 Foodmagazine | February 11 | www.foodmag.com.au

income over and above what they would have earned by selling uncertified coffee beans in the open market.

Chief Executive Officer Frank van Oers of Sara Lee’s international beverage and bakery businesses said the company was aiming to use only certified coffee and tea in all its products worldwide.

“This new aggressive five-year plan is a very important step in accelerating our progress,” he said.

“By providing coffee growers

visibility five years out and publicly committing to buy very large quantities of certified coffee we can contribute to improve sustainability in the mainstream coffee market worldwide.”

According to the Sara Lee, it will have more than 20 per cent of its entire annual coffee volume certified sustainable by 2015.

Sara Lee ranks third worldwide in coffee volume behind Nestlé and Kraft Foods, and ahead of other leading firms such as The J.M. Smucker Company and Tchibo.

NEWS

Gene technology could offer a brave new world to the consumer A new report from Datamonitor has suggested that, such is the interest in new technology, Australian consumers may soon be buying food and drink based on whether it suits their particular genetic make up.

The research, carried out by independent market analyst, has revealed that more than half (51%) of Australian consumers now find the idea of using information about their genes to provide nutritional and dietrelated advice to be appealing.

Dan Bone, analyst at Datamonitor said: “Consumers have always wanted food and beverages that cater to their individual needs. However, it is only in the past few years that manufacturers have really woken up to this fact and begun to create grocery products that consumers really feel identify with their personal attitudes and requirements.”

The research has revealed that, since functional foods have hit the mainstream, there has been an increase in consumers who want more sophisticated technology to tailor food and drinks to individual needs.

Inevitably, gene-based technology (referred to as nutrigenomics) will come to the fore – determining how a food or beverage can most effectively benefit a consumer using their own unique genetic information. A particularly appealing example of this concept in action would be food and drinks which can more effectively address a particular health condition, such as having a weak immune system. Genetic flavor preferences could also be established, allowing for goods that taste better to the consumer.

Mr Bone added: “As interest amongst consumers increases, we expect to see a

New ‘Grown in’ labels to clarify food sources A new label providing information on the country of origin of some foods has been introduced nationally.

Minister of Innovation, Senator Kim Carr, said the new ‘Grown in’ label, which is similar to existing labels such as ‘Made in’ and ‘Product of,’ will provide clarity for consumers about the source of foods as well as offer new protection for suppliers.

“The new arrangements will protect growers, processors and retailers from legal action if they meet the criteria for ‘Grown in’ claims in the Australian Consumer Law (ACL),” he said.

“The new rules will help consumers to buy Australian produce with confidence. Producers will be more confident about marking goods as ‘Grown in Australia’ and consumers will have more certainty that they are

surge in the number of food and drink companies launching products with DNA/genetic influences over the next few

6 Foodmagazine | February 11 | www.foodmag.com.au

buying Australian-grown produce.

“Consumers will remain protected from false origin claims by the enforcement activities of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the State and Territory authorities, under existing mechanisms.”

Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Senator Joe Ludwig, said the new provision will help inform consumer choice in making purchasing decisions.

“These changes deliver on our commitment to ‘simplify and strengthen food labelling laws including a new Grown in Australia label’.”

The ACL is a cooperative reform of the Australian and state and territory governments aimed at harmonising regulation.

The ACL took effect nationally on 1 January 2011.

years, probably originating from coming smaller niche companies looking to find gaps in the market. The larger brands will

likely wait to see what products are launched and also how these are received by consumers.”

Servicing the Food Industry for 30 years Food grade hoses for all applications - FDA approved Standard grade and Premium grade food hose options available Stainless steel end connectors in BSM, RJT and Tri Clover All food hoses hygienically assembled All food hoses pressure tested, tagged and capped Wash down hoses and guns, pressure wash hoses and accessories Protect lanolin lubricant that is 100% natural and food grade approved 89 convenient locations Nationally, all IS09001:2008 accredited

Food Challenge Awards 2011 Recognising and rewarding best practice and innovation in food and beverage manufacturing

Experience has shown, time and time again, that having gotten over the Christmas/New Year hurdle the year will now progress with alarming rapidity.

From this side of the holidays, July really doesn’t seem so far away and, with that, the Food Challenge Awards will be upon us. So there is no time like the present to get your nominations in!

The 2011 award categories include:

Kerry Asia Pacific SPONSOR: Kerry Asia Pacific CATEGORY: Ready Meals Award Kerry Asia Pacific is the proud sponsors of the Ready Meals Award for the 7th consecutive year. This is an exciting and highly anticipated category, which has developed over the years and seen some extremely innovative product nominations.

Kerry’s Innovation Centre at Newington, NSW is designed specifically with the customer in mind. The close knit team - Sales & Marketing, Chef and Technologists - pride themselves in

understanding the customer’s needs. With the understanding that ingredients are central to the taste, texture, appearance and performance of food and beverage products, Kerry’s technological expertise cover a broad range of segments, including: poultry, meat, coatings, crumbs, seasonings, marinades, sauces, dressings, beverage bases, stuffing cores, dry stuffing mixes, premixes, as well as speciality ingredients.

Kerry’s technologies are extremely broad and diverse, providing solutions for almost any area of food and beverage development, across a wide range of enduse-markets. Kerry are heavily involved with and have a specialist interest in, ready meal development and

8 Foodmagazine | February 11 | www.foodmag.com.au

componentry, particularly in the development of high quality sauces and ingredient components for application in ready meals, whether frozen, chilled or shelf stable.

Ready meals are traditionally packaged and processed complete meals, which require few or no extra ingredients to be added by consumer, and little or no preparation prior to consumption.

Kerry Asia Pacific is proud to sponsor the FOOD Challenge Award’s Ready Meal Category again in 2011.

Kerry Asia Pacific 02 9741 4422 sales.anz@kerry.com www.kerry.com

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Alcoholic Beverages Baked Goods Confectionery Dairy Food Safety and Innovation in Non-Food Health and Nutrition Meat & Small Goods Non-Alcoholic Beverages Organics & All Natural Packaging Design Pet Food Ready Meals Snack Foods Soups & Prepared Foods Sustainable Manufacturing

HACCP AUSTRALIA

eliminate the hazard - reduce the risk

INGREDIENTS

Danisco’s new culture D anisco has developed a new type of yoghurt culture, called Yo-Mix, which produces only a mild acidification during storage.

The acidification of yoghurt during storage can result in different sensory profiles at the beginning and end of the yoghurt’s shelf life. According to Danisco, this is a major problem with yoghurt producers across the world, particularly in Asia, North Africa, the Middle East and South America where cold storage and cold chains are less controlled and very often broken.

Danisco’s Yo-Mix yogurt cultures produce yogurt with low post-acidification in different processing and storage conditions.

“Yo-Mix can now produce yogurt with a very

pleasing flavour, a high level of viscosity and short texture, with limited post acidification under a wide range of temperature conditions, which has definitely contributed to its customer success since launch,” said Sonia Huppert, Yo-Mix Global Business Director.

The Yo-Mix culture, developed last year for Chinese yoghurt producers, has since expanded to various markets across the world.

“The plans for expansion into different countries are progressing very well and we are very pleased with this brilliant example of sharing knowledge between regions, demonstrating Danisco is leveraging its truly global presence as an ingredient solutions provider,” Huppert said.

Fibre boost for cereal grains Four of Australia’s leading research institutions will collaborate closely over the next three years to fast-track development of new healthier varieties of three of the world’s most widely cultivated cereal grains.

The new ‘High Fibre Grains Cluster’ will focus on wheat, barley and rice. One of the primary research goals is to boost

the amount of compounds, such as beta glucans and arabinoxylans, which are key contributors to the soluble component of dietary fibre in the various grains.

The collaboration between CSIRO’s Food Futures Flagship, The University of Adelaide, The University of Melbourne and The University of Queensland will bring together

Australia’s foremost plant and human nutrition researchers with the aim of boosting the healthy fibre content of common grains.

The cluster will invest more than $7 million over three years, with the university partners receiving more than $3.4 million from the Flagship Collaboration Fund. The Fund was

established to enable the skills of the wider Australian and global research community to be applied to the major national challenges targeted by CSIRO's Flagship research programmes.

The Director of CSIRO’s Food Futures Flagship, Dr Bruce Lee, said the key to success was collaboration across Australia’s national innovation system.

Yoghurt flavour in full measure Here at last is the fresh, true-to-taste yoghurt powder you’ve been waiting for. Ballantyne yoghurt powder has been cultured to maximise full flavour. It adds a sophisticated, distinctive tang to your products.

Not only in beverages, but also in confectionery coatings, dressings, dips, snack food seasonings, bakery and bakery fillings – simply delicious!

To find out more call (03) 9690 1766, e-mail sales @ ballantyne.com.au

10 Foodmagazine | February 11 | www.foodmag.com.au

INGREDIENTS

Better daily bread

T

he prevalence of folate deficiency in Australia has significantly reduced since the mandatory fortification of folic acid in bread came into effect two years ago, according to a study by Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.

The study, published in the Medical Journal of Australia, showed that between April 2007 to April 2010, the most significant decrease in low red blood cell (RBC) and serum folate levels in more than 20,000 patients, was after 2009 – the year in which the fortification of folic acid in bread flour was made mandatory.

Between 2009 and 2010, the prevalence of low serum folate levels decreased by 77 per cent – from 9.3 per cent to 2.1 per cent. The prevalence of low RBC folate levels decreased by 85 per cent - from 3.4 per cent to 0.5 per cent.

Folate, a B vitamin found naturally in some foods including leafy vegetables and legumes, is essential for cell development and growth, and is particularly important to women in the lead up to pregnancy.

Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Ageing Catherine King praised Industry for their efforts in helping to reduce folate deficiency.

“I congratulate industry for the work they’ve done in implementing this important initiative which aimed to reduce the number of neural tube defects (severe birth defects such as spina bifida) in the Australian population by increasing folic acid intakes in women who may become pregnant,” King said.

“Mandatory fortification of folic acid in bread is only one important step in reducing the number of neural tube defects. For example, anyone considering getting pregnant should also consider taking folic acid supplements.”

The mandatory fortification of folic acid in bread was introduced in September 2009.

Coca-Cola and Chromocell’s new sweetening technologies The Coca-Cola Company and manufacturer of novel flavour ingredients, Chromocell Corporation, have announced a partnership to develop new sweetening options for zero and reduced calorie beverages.

The partnership will involve the development of sweetness enhancers, natural sweeteners and other flavour ingredients.

Senior Vice President of Global Research and Innovation, Bilal Kaafarani, of Coca-Cola said: “This collaboration with Chromocell will help us build a robust pipeline of innovation across categories and sweetness options so we can deliver to our consumers a

variety of great-tasting beverages.”

As part of the partnership, Cargill’s proprietary technology will be used to test extracts and ingredients from fruits, herbs and vegetables.

“Chromocell is excited to collaborate with Coca-Cola on the development of great-tasting zero and reduced calorie beverages,” Chromocell CEO Christian Kopfli said.

Coca-Cola developed and launched its Stevia extract, a natural, zero-calorie sweetener, in collaboration with Cargill earlier this year. According to the company, Stevia is currently being used in more than 20 of Coca-Cola’s products globally.

PROCESSING

Stop products with visible defects from reaching your customers.

Inline product inspection system for conveyorised production lines. Intergrated conveyor, camera and lighting tunnel with built in reject mechanism.

Programmable inspection functions including: - Date code, presence, quality & verification.

- Label presence & application quality.

- Front & back label matching.

- Barcode validation.

- Cap, lid & foil seal quality checking.

Brewery boosts beer benefits A local brewery has gone international with the launch of a new, state-of-the-art, $120 million premises to provide boutique beer to the masses.

Sarah Falson writes.

W

hen the Bluetongue beer brand was established in the 1990s, it was a boutique, hand-crafted brew, with the stamp of the creators’ local region.

The brain child of four Hunter-based entrepreneurs, the beverage combined their passion for their local region and quality Australian beer.

In 2003, the foursome’s first brewery was built at Cameron Park, Newcastle on New South Wales’ central coast. Now, eight years later, the team has garnered the backing of SABMiller and Coca-Cola Amatil’s joint-venture, Pacific Beverages’, which has just re-located the Cameron Park facility to a new, purpose-built, state-of-theart facility costing $120 million in the Hunter Valley region of Wyong.

High-tech brewing This new premises is being hailed as the most high-tech and significant brewery of its size in Australia.At five acres in size, with the potential to double this over the next year, the new brewery will create almost 150 jobs in the plant alone and is estimated to grow to a $150 million investment in under a decade.

The Bluetongue Brewery is reportedly one of the most sustainable breweries in Australia and has water-saving and

recycling measures in place at every stage of the brewing process.

The brewery manufactures the Peroni, Grolsch, Miller and Bluetongue brands for distribution around Australia. Though the business already supplies up to 20% of the country’s premium beer needs, Pacific Beverages technical director, Kevin Hardman, says this could grow to 40% in the near future.

“We are brewing 250,000 hectalitres this year and the plant’s whole capacity is 520,000 hectalitres. One expansion could take us to 850,000 and then we could potentially go as high as 1.5 million hectalitres,” Hardman told Food Magazine.

These planned expansions could pave the way for new opportunities for technology suppliers in the area.

Though the brewing side of the business uses process control and instrumentation technology from Germany and Italy, which is designed specifically for breweries, local companies could have the chance to bid for tenders for construction, building supplies, automation and materials handling technologies over the next six years, Hardman says.

Wyong’s new Bluetongue Brewery is differentiated in the market for two reasons: it is one of the most environmentally-friendly of its size; and it

The Bluetongue brewery is brewing 250,000 hectalitres this year, and the plant’s whole capacity is 520,000 hectalitres.

12 Foodmagazine | February 11 | www.foodmag.com.au

The Labelling Machine Company Where reliability comes as standard

uses a brand new packaging technology called ‘autofill’ that doesn’t require the beer to be heat-treated.

Keeping cool “Where we’re significantly different is that we sterile-fill all our products. We achieve that through a filter that is completely enclosed in a sterile enclosure that allows us to get a lot more freshness in the beer because you don’t use heat to treat it,” Hardman said.

The brewery will reportedly use this state-of-the-art packaging technology to enable the production of a variety of beer styles, ranging from traditional European lagers to modern American and Australian beer styles, with a particular focus on the draught beer market. The company has just launched two new beers: Bluetongue Premium Lager and Premium Light.

On the sustainability side, the brewery includes a large water processing plant to allow the business to re-use water from the brewing process.

“We’re very water sensitive. We save water at every part of the process. We’re the only company that does it to this degree. We don’t use the water back in the product, but we use it for secondary duties including cleaning and maintenance,” Hardman said.

For a plant that includes a separate brewing room for season brews and test beers, the premises requires a high amount of water to wash-down the vats – each of which holds up to 450,000 serves of beer and stands 18 metres high – so the business saves both money and the environment by recycling its water.

The brewing technology itself – including the entirely-sealed bottling room – was provided as a turnkey project from German company, Ziemann. Ziemann also provided a special centrifuge which is required in the production of the Miller draft beer.

In terms of energy management, the brewery captures 50% of the methane it

exudes during the production process to reuse as energy to fire the building.

director, Terry Davis, at the official launch in November 2010.

Packing it up

Keeping it local

The packaging process and conveyors at the Wyong plant are also very high-tech, delivering 60 kegs or 48,000 bottles per hour. The bottles are manufactured using gear from Sidel, and the conveyors are water-free, meaning the process is completely dry. The labeller is from KHS, which can label 14 bottles every second.

According to Pacific Beverages chief executive officer, Peter McLoughlin, the plant is trialling some unusual packaging options to cater for fussy clientele.

“We can do lots of different types of beers in different packages including 2-, 4-, 6-, 10- and 12-packs. It’s all around consumer and customer preference,” he told Manufacturers’ Monthly.

The business is also looking for new markets in which to launch: “We will be going to New Zealand and we are also beginning to look at Singapore more and more as an opportunity for export,” McLoughlin said.

“It’s all about locally-produced product.

I’m passionate about local production. This country has to innovate more otherwise we’ll end up a nation of importers.”

According to Davis, the beverage industry in Australia is a quarter of the size of the automotive industry and has “fantastic support and assistance” from locals and government.

The locals in the Hunter Valley area reportedly approve of the brewery due to the management team’s whole-hearted commitment to sustainability. In fact, nearly 10% of the cost of the brewery went into the water-saving technology alone.

“Our sustainable initiatives have focused on six key areas namely water and energy consumption, product packaging usage, waste generation, atmospheric emissions and considered land use,” said Pacific Beverage’s McLoughlin.

“We will be utilising approximately 2.2 litres of water to produce one litre of

The Bluetongue Brewery is reportedly one of the most sustainable breweries in Australia, and has water-saving and recycling measures in place at every stage of the brewing process.

The plant itself is expected to be a boon to the Hunter Valley region, with a new 100-seater restaurant to be built on the premises within two years, which will be designed to feed hungry punters that start or finish their winery tours at the Bluetongue Brewery.

The brewery is an important milestone for the coastal area due to its size and stature, along with its focus on local production and manpower.

“This is the largest brewery built in NSW for 40 years and the second-largest in Australia. It is the most high-tech and significant brewery of its size in the country,” said Coca-Cola Amatil managing

finished beer, which is significantly below the international average of between four and five litres. Our customers can be assured that not only are they getting brewery fresh tasting beer, but that it is also brewed in an environmentally friendly facility.”

The Bluetongue Brewery has taken 18 months to build to its current capacity and will continue to develop its beer and its brand over the coming years. The Bluetongue brand has become an important part of the Hunter Valley culture and the developers are reportedly committed to supporting their community in the future.

3 Year Warranty on all new Aztro manufactured labelling machines Finance packages available Australian made labelling machines by an Australia owned company Modular labelling capabilities Good Old Fashioned Service Labeller Hire available Whether it’s a straight forward labelling project or a custom design solution the team at Aztro has the experience and ability to successfully provide labelling solutions to meet all your needs

The Labelling Machine Company Ph 1300 553 378 www.aztro.com.au

www.foodmag.com.au | February 11 | Foodmagazine 13

SAFETY

Clean hands – old dirt, new dirt Hand hygiene is an area that has received a lot of attention lately, both in the heath care industry and in the food industry. As a result, there is plenty of new research and new technologies around the topic of hand hygiene. Here, Karen Constable takes a look at some old ideas and some new ideas.

Old idea: Washing hands is all about killing bacteria.

New idea: Removing viruses from hands – particularly noroviruses – is an equally important, if not more important reason to strive for clean hands.

In recent years, norovirus has become the most frequently confirmed food-borne agent in outbreaks of food poisoning, in Australia and also in the USA. The effectiveness of norovirus as a food poisoning agent is partly due to the fact that the infective dose is very low.

Human challenge studies show noroviruses to be the most infectious agents ever described. The most common cause of norovirus contamination of food is from infected food handlers not properly washing their hands after using the toilet. While Australian food legislation prohibits food handlers from working when suffering from a food-borne illness, norovirus can be present in workers who have no symptoms. Even those who have recovered from the symptoms can excrete infectious particles for several weeks afterwards. Because virus concentrations in faeces can be very high, it is possible for a single food service worker with dirty hands to infect hundreds of other people. Compared to norovirus, bacteria in low numbers on a food worker’s hands have much less potential to cause a large outbreak of food poisoning.

Old idea: Hand-washing compliance is achieved with training, training, and more training.

New idea: Studies in the health care industry have shown that awareness of the importance of hand washing by personnel, such as doctors, does not necessarily lead to more frequent hand washing. Observational studies of behaviour in public toilets and in food preparation

1.5 is a free app for iphones which can be used by medical professionals to enter data on hand hygiene compliance. Slightly more Big-Brother-ish is the concept behind a pilot study in a medical centre in Alabama, which uses RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) devices to record individual health care workers’ interactions with soap dispensers.

Old idea: Hot water washing is better.

New idea: Recent research has found no difference in results for hot water and warm water. For a thermal inactivation of microorganisms, the water would need to be so hot that it would burn skin.

Old idea: Washing and drying hands effectively requires adequate time spent, proper use of soaps and attention paid to areas between fingers, under finger nails and in wrist creases. In addition, proper facilities; a good sized sink that is conveniently placed and supplied with warm running water are mandatory.

New ideas: Stick with the old ideas on this topic. As more research is done on hand cleanliness, results consistently show that the most important aspect of hand washing is the mechanical removal of oil and dirt aided by the surfactant activity of the soap and the action of the rinsing water. New technologies such as no-touch taps and dispensers reduce the chance of post-washing contamination. They are even thought to improve compliance, as they reduce the need to touch wet hardware after washing, allowing users to walk away with that ‘still clean’ feeling.\

The most common cause of norovirus contamination of food is from infected food handlers not properly washing their hands after using the toilet environments consistently find low levels of compliance – ranging from 0% to 85% of people washing their hands when they should. The motivation for a person to wash their hands extends far beyond work-place training. Recent research has examined some of the psychological aspects of hand washing behaviour, with interesting results. In fact, having participants in psychological experiments wash their hands causes the subject to feel free from psychological traces of past immoral behavior and also provides a change in their attitude to previously made decisions, reducing the need to justify those decisions.

Old idea: Monitoring hand washing means questionnaires and surveys.

New ideas: Comparing survey results to observations has shown that people consistently say they wash their hands more frequently than they actually do. The iScrub Lite 16 Foodmagazine | February 11 | www.foodmag.com.au

Old idea: Antimicrobial soaps are a must.

New ideas: Antimicrobial soaps contain compounds that inactive microorganisms. In the food industry, quaternary ammonium compounds and Triclosan are commonly used. Novel antimicrobials include silver-ion compounds and antimicrobial extracts from honey and eucalyptus. Recent studies have found antimicrobial soaps are marginally more effective at reducing microbial loads on hands than ordinary soaps. There’s no doubt that the use of antimicrobial soaps provides confidence in high risk food processing applications, however, they don’t increase compliance and they won’t compensate for poor hand-washing techniques. New generation barrier creams can overcome some of the concerns about skin-drying with antimicrobial soaps.

Barrier creams which offer a residual anti-microbial effect are also available.

Old idea: Alcohol-based no-rinse sanitisers provide effective anti-bacterial and anti-viral activity.

New idea: During the H1N1 pandemic, the use of alcohol-based sanitisers in medical settings was found to have little effect against the spread of that particular virus. However, other studies have shown that this type of product is very effective against cold viruses. When it comes to noroviruses, however, the virus particles lack ‘envelopes’ which some researchers believe causes them to be relatively insensitive to alcohol compared to viruses which have envelopes. While more work is needed on this topic, there is evidence that alcohol-based hand sanitisers aren’t effective against noroviruses.

Old idea: Wash first, then sanitise.

New idea: Because of low compliance rates with hand washing it has been suggested that providing ‘squirt’ bottles of waterless sanitiser would increase overall hand cleanliness in food preparation and food service operations.

This new idea isn’t so good. Hands which are soiled cannot be effectively sanitised, even by a thirty second alcohol rub.

In this case, the old idea is definitely the best.

Old idea: Well-washed hands mean clean hands.

New idea: Hands must also be dried properly. The drying step is just as important as washing; damp hands transfer bacteria readily to surfaces and hands that have been dried using an unhygienic method can become re-contaminated.

In addition, slow drying methods result in poor compliance. Up until recently single-use towels were the only hygienic option, however, the new generation ‘blade’ or ‘jet’ style electric dryers have proved to be an effective means of delivering dry, clean hands.

Hand hygiene has always been important to the food industry. The emerging awareness of the risk of norovirus outbreaks means that hand hygiene is becoming more important than ever. There are plenty of new ideas out there when it comes to hand cleanliness, although in some areas the old ideas are still the best.

PACKAGING

Importance of a packaging department and the value they bring to an organisation We all need to understand the definition that Packaging is the art, science and technology of enclosing or protecting products for distribution, storage, sale and use.

P

ackaging also refers to the process of design, evaluation, and production of packages.

Packaging can be described as a coordinated system of preparing goods for transport, warehousing, logistics, sale and end use.

Packaging contains, protects, preserves, transports, informs, and sells. In many countries it is fully integrated into government, business, institutional, industrial and personal use.

All things considered Packaging is often an agglomeration of conflicting and competitive groups, all business related and comprising of large numbers of individual enterprises, all motivated by the need to provide goods and services for customers and at the same time generating profit.

The responsibility of ensuring all this works well lies often in the hands of the packaging engineer or technologist. He or she steers all those involved in a particular packaging project towards a common goal, usually the launch or relaunch of a product. The packaging technologist at an early stage in the project (and timing is often

critical) needs to involve the converting equipment producers, who provide the machinery to transform the basic elements of the earth into raw materials; to transform those into packaging materials; and to help marry packaging materials to the product.

Then to the packaging equipment suppliers who provide the machinery required for packaging operation step. Success often depends how well the packaging technologist combines the afore mentioned with the concepts and understanding of the raw materials, packaging material supply, convertors, equipment suppliers and suppliers of ancillary materials and services. He or she needs to comprehend the totality of packaging.

The user is not the consumer.

The user of packaging materials is the food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, hardware, furniture or appliance manufacturer who intends to protect their product.

The stuff it’s made of So the packaging technologist needs to have a sound understanding of packaging related raw materials, what can be used for what type of products, always considering the

Pierre Pienaar, FAIP, National President of the Australian Institute of Packaging commercial, economical and environmental aspects of each material and at the same time seriously considering the marketing desires and needs to ultimately make the sale. Very broadly the potential materials that can be considered would be: • Steel • Aluminium • Paper • Paperboard and folding cartons • Corrugated fibreboard • Plastics • Glass • Composite cans • Tubes • Cups, tubs and trays • Labels • Flexible packaging

For each of the materials listed above, one needs to consider the possible compatibility issues, shelf life requirements, equipment requirements, machine packaging/filling speeds, cost, availability of the material supply ongoing, and suitability.

Then the need to consider ancillary materials, e.g. decoration, coatings, pigments, solvents, lacquers, primers, binders, adhesives, plasticizers, inks, dyes, resins, starch, tapes, closures, sealing devices, dis-

The attention to the details required and the need for a packaging department focusing on these areas will improve an organisation packaging tenfold pensers, bar-coding and the list goes on. Bearing in mind that each of the above is a science of its own.

Coming and going The aspects of supply chain and distribution is an important consideration in terms of the end shape and size of the packaging, as it directly relates to how well it fits on a pallet or a container in this country or overseas (its important to remember that pallet sizes vary from country to country).

An interest in packaging Pierre Pienaar’s interest in packaging started in 1984 after having studied pharmacy. Shortly after joining a large pharmaceutical company, Pierre became concerned about a number of packagingrelated issues in the pharmaceutical world.

Hence Pierre began his studies in packaging and his move within the same company to Packaging Research and Development. This combined field has taken him to the far corners of the world, always involving one or other aspects of research in packaging.

Pierre has attended international congresses and conferences where he has delivered papers and been a judge of national and 18 Foodmagazine | February 11 | www.foodmag.com.au

international packaging competitions.

Pierre has a Master of Science Degree (Packaging Engineering/Technology) from Brunel University, UK. Pierre has a Master of Manufacturing and Production Degree from University of Hertfordshire, UK. He has been National President of the South African Institute of Packaging, a director of the Packaging Council of Southern Africa and a representative on the board of the World Packaging Organisation. He has lectured in the technology and science of packaging at various universities and institutions for the past 23 years and is currently a tutor for the correspondence

A good knowledge is required by the packaging technologist in relation to who supplies or distributes what machinery, what equipment is suitable for which type of packaging. Also one must have an understanding of converting equipment, packaging machinery in relation to what area of packaging that packaging technologist is concerned with, for example, canning, bottling, pouching, filling or wrapping or for that matter a combination of any of the aforementioned disciplines of packaging.

course being offered through the Australian Institute of Packaging, namely the Diploma in Packaging IoP UK. Pierre is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Packaging, Professional member of the Australian Food, Industry and Science Technology and an honorary life member of the South African Institute of Packaging, Southern Africa. He has his own packaging consulting business, PackTech Solutions Pty Ltd and has extensive experience in the pharmaceutical and food packaging industries. Pierre is the current National President of the Australian Institute of Packaging.

The packaging requirements will also be affected by whether it is food, confectionery, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, agriculture, or simply non-food.

The packaging technologist must have a sound knowledge of the various requirements as stipulated by the country’s governing packaging related laws and rules, trade association requirements, while also not forgetting the consumers’ specific requirements relating to packaging.

In Australia the two leading grocery companies have very detailed and specific packaging requirements that need to be strictly adhered to, should you want to be one of their suppliers.

Attention to detail It is clear, therefore, that packaging shares a common forum with many other professions, that a good understanding of the science and technology of packaging, the attention to the details required and the need for a packaging department focusing on these areas will improve an organisation packaging tenfold.

EXPORT

Queensland floods:

The economic impact

N

o longer the poor cousin of the more prosperous southern states, Queensland accounts for approximately 20% of the Australian economy, 60% of global coking coal exports and 28% of Australia’s fruit and vegetable production. As a result of the floods, IBISWorld has downgraded its GDP forecast for 2010-11 from 2.9% to 2.6%.

The floods are expected to have a negative short-term effect on economic growth.

IBISWorld estimates that the floods will subtract 0.6 percentage points from our previous GDP forecast for the third quarter of 2010-11 (which ends March 31).

Agriculture will be hit hard, with an estimated $1.6 billion worth of crops having been destroyed. Sugarcane, cotton, some vegetables and grains have also suffered major losses. This is expected to flow on to a short-term price spike for food, with prices expected to rise by up to 200%.

The lost wheat production is expected to exacerbate existing global wheat shortages, caused by poor production worldwide, particularly in the US and Russia. This is likely to cause a further increase in global wheat prices.

Agriculture, however, is expected to benefit in the long run from increased soil moisture.

All levels of government have pledged support for the recovery. The Federal Government has begun distributing emergency assistance grants of up to $1,000 per person, which should begin to have an immediate stimulatory effect. The Federal Government is responsible for funding 75% of repairs and rebuilding.

However, the Federal Government has maintained its pledge to return the budget to surplus by 2012-13, which means that other budget savings must be found.

Queensland Government will be responsible for 25% of rebuilding. This will place pressure on the state’s budget, as revenue decreases through March, due to lost production.

The floods are also likely to result in upward pressure on inflation and interest rates. Rising food prices are forecast to add up to 0.8 percentage points to the Consumer Price Index, which would fuel inflation higher than the 2% to 3% target range in the short term. However, the Reserve Bank of Australia is unlikely to increase interest rates on this basis unless higher food prices are sustained.

20 Foodmagazine | February 11 | www.foodmag.com.au

Agriculture The flood has caused widespread damage across many agriculture industries including food, crops and livestock, causing losses of up to $1.6 billion.

Flooded fields, roads and damaged infrastructure has caused crop loss, rain damage, waterlogging, quality downgrades, delays or disruptions to harvests, and transport problems due to.

Fruit and vegetables Queensland supplies 28% of Australia’s fruit and vegetables, making it the leading producer of fresh produce in the country.

With damage and disrupted harvests for many fruits and vegetables, it has been suggested that industry revenue for Australia’s growers is likely to decline by 10% overall for 2010-11, representing a combined loss of approximately $561 million.

Sugar Queensland sugarcane growers produce 95% of the country’s annual sugar crop. This is one of the worst affected agriculture industries, and IBISWorld expects a 27% decline in revenue for sugarcane farmers.

Looking ahead, it is likely that rain damage to many fields will also destroy a considerable portion of Australia’s crop in 2011-12.

Grains Early predictions suggest the flood damage could have a $400 million impact on the grain industry. This will have a limited effect on industry revenue as a whole, given that the Queensland grain crop accounts for only 10% of national grain production in Australia.

Livestock IBISWorld expects a mixed impact on the meat and livestock sector, with some farmers managing to move livestock from floodaffected areas before flooding. However, the true extent of the effect is yet to be felt, with farmers likely to return to farms over the next week. Moreover, news reports do confirm some livestock being washed away and some being isolated as a result of the floods.

Finally, transporting livestock to slaughter houses seems to be the most imminent problem for farmers, given flooded roads and damage to transport infrastructure.

IBISWorld expects that this will put further strain on the supply

FEATURE

Thinking the unthinkable: Product contamination – risk and response Malicious contamination and product extortion are perhaps the most financially damaging incidents a company can face. Few crimes are so easy to commit, yet so seriously endanger public safety and threaten such commercial damage. By Keith Davis The Risk Probably the best known case of product contamination involved the deliberate lacing in the US of Johnson & Johnson’s best selling headache remedy Tylenol with cyanide in 1982. Seven people died as a result of taking the contaminated capsules. Despite the introduction of tamper-evident packaging, several more deaths occurred in 1986 due to the consumption of cyanide-laden analgesic products.

Notwithstanding being hailed as a classic example of successful crisis management, the Tylenol incident, for example, cost the company US$150 million post tax at the bottom line. It is generally accepted that the 1982 Tylenol crisis propelled this crime into the international arena, motives of the perpetrators being as varied as the acts themselves.

Australian companies have also experienced several high-profile product extortion and contamination incidents. In 1985, Masterfoods recalled tens of thousands of Mars and Snickers bars following extortion threats.

The contamination of Garibaldi meat products with E.coli bacteria in 1995 resulted in the death of a fouryear old girl and more than twenty people being hospitalised. The company is no longer in business.

In 1997 a number of poisoned Arnott’s biscuits were sent to the company in an extortion bid. The total cost of the product recall has been estimated at $22 million.

Extortionists have admitted responsibility for contaminating such things as oranges and milk with nontoxic dyes. Animal liberation groups have a preference for salt that produces an unpleasant taste without any illeffect to consumers. One animal rights group claimed to have adulterated several Mars bars with rat poison, by inserting notes to that effect beneath the packaging. This

22 Foodmagazine | February 11 | www.foodmag.com.au

incident cost Mars nearly £3 million in lost sales.

More recently a person stood trial for sprinkling peanuts around a bakery with the intention of contaminating goods. The bakery was closed for three days to remove all traces of peanuts. The closure and cleanup is believed to have cost the firm £1 million.

In 1996, extortionists threatened to poison food sold in stores throughout Europe with deadly snake venom, against a huge demand payable in diamonds. Another departure from the introduction of the usual contaminants has recently included the use of the AIDS virus in threats against companies. In the mid 1990s, the first cases of E.coli being used as a weapon in extortion were apparently reported. Other bacteria and emerging infectious diseases will constitute numerous other food contamination problems.

Sabotage It is important to understand the difference between the two forms of criminal product contamination. In a case of deliberate tampering, a product will have been contaminated or made to appear so, by the perpetrator, without any demand for money. No contact with the threatened company is required and success depends upon adverse media exposure.

The incident may be a sinister and potentially devastating extension of an employee’s disgruntlement or the activity of a saboteur outside the workplace wishing to violate the integrity of a target’s product between manufacture and retail purchase.

Extortion Product extortion is a form of blackmail, whereby a criminal deploys threats or deeds in order to compel his victim to comply with a financial demand or other

imposition. The threat or deed is the deliberate contamination of a company’s products. In this case, the extortionist does not seek publicity, in fact far from it.

Motives and Methods Police describe the typical offender as being male, Caucasian, aged 35-45, operating alone or with one accomplice, without previous convictions or criminal connections, non-violent, intelligent and well-educated.

Statistics indicate that 25% of criminal tampering incidents are perpetrated by disgruntled employees.

Sadistic amusement, political or financial gain, challenge, pursuit of grievance, disreputable competition, excitement – many and varied are the motives for product contamination.

The methods used are as equally diverse. In the

Solve. Simplify. Save.

Intralox’s new, breakthrough technologies can grow profits on your conveyor belts.

Patented Intralox ThermoDrive® Technology —Sprocket-driven, low-tension system with an easy-to-clean surface

Patented Intralox ARB™ Technology —Activated belt rollers intelligently automate process flow

Food processors need simple ways to solve problems and save money. Intralox ThermoDrive and Activated Roller Belt technologies are both easy and cost-effective to implement and have proven immediate impact on plant operating costs.

Call us today! Speak to a customer service representative who specializes in your industry: Toll Free (Australia): 1800 128742, Toll Free (New Zealand): 0800 449173, Emails: anz@intralox.com, or visit us at www.intralox.com.

Recipient of the 2010 NSF Food Safety Leadership Award for Innovation in Equipment Design

FEATURE

Under the Trade Practices Act, heavy penalties can majority of cases, products are bought or stolen from apply to any business that fails to perform a mandatory retail outlets and contaminated before being returned to food recall when needed. the shelves. Other incidents suggest tampering could Failure to notify the Minister responsible for Consumer occur at the point of production or Affairs of a mandatory product recall situation and/or during distribution. continuing to supply goods subject to a compulsory It is a crime that feeds It is a crime that product recall can result in heavy fines. on itself and one incident can trigger a rush of feeds on itself and copycat cases.

The Impact one incident can The extent of the damage caused by an actual or trigger a rush of threatened contamination depends as much on Recall Action the company’s response to the incident, as on the It is not only malicious copycat cases severity of the threat. Business disruption to some contamination or extortion extent is inevitable, but if the immediate response is threats that can damage a incorrect or inadequate, the problem will widen and company, and necessitate a product lead to: recall. A food recall is essentially an action taken to • Product recall and production costs remove from distribution, sale and consumption, food • Adverse publicity which may pose an unacceptable safety risk to • Intense outside interest consumers. A recall emanating from accidental or • Loss of consumer confidence environmental contamination during the manufacturing • Litigation costs process or whilst the finished product is in transit, may • Redundancies and cessation of trading equally excite media interest and erode public confidence. Accidental contamination may include the existence of harmful microorganisms, harmful The Response chemicals, physical matter, such as wood, glass and Experience and case studies have shown that the metal and undeclared allergens such as peanuts, wheat management of events and the resolution of a crisis are products and colours. eased if certain information has been gathered, and FSANZ has been collecting recall data since 1990, decisions made, prior to, rather than during an incident. when during that year, 18 recalls were recorded. From This allows all attention in the event of a crisis to be approximately 1998 the number of food recalls per year concentrated on the immediate issues. There is no has increased to an average of 60. substitute for advance preparation.

The FSANZ Food Safety Standard 3.2.2, Food Safety Action taken in the first 24 hours will influence the Practices and General Requirements requires all food ultimate impact of an incident. An effective response to businesses to have a food recall procedure in place. an incident relies on a number of elements both

24 Foodmagazine | February 11 | www.foodmag.com.au

proactive and reactive, including risk assessment, crisis management planning and training. Risk assessment is the cornerstone of any security system, and the correct balance of physical and procedural security measures against the perceived threat should be achieved.

Precautionary systems that guard against product contamination, for example, must initially be considered at the manufacturing site itself, and should include: • Physical perimeter controls • External and internal access control • Personnel management procedures • Intruder detection and surveillance systems Advance preparations for handling product contamination incidents should include: • Establish incident management team • Individual responsibilities of team members, deputies and contact details • Recall plan • Incident control centre and support facilities • Recall insurance • Independent scientific product analysis support • Specialist advice, crisis PR and legal support Training should include table-top simulations based on appropriate scenarios; media handling training for press conferences and interviews; instruction for staff who open mail or receive telephone calls; and employee security awareness training.

Keith Davis is the Operations Manager Australasia for Security Exchange Ltd, an independent security management company providing specialist consultancy on a worldwide basis. www.securityexchange24.info

PRODUCT SHOWCASE

Balance for food moisture testing THE PMB moisture balance from Arrow Scientific sets a new standard for food moisture analysers. The automatic test system allows users to run multiple moisture content tests without additional user input.

The USB interface can be used to download results as they are taken and store them for future analysis. There is no need for additional software to take readings from the balance giving the user total freedom to collect data on a production floor or in the field.

A keypad allows for easy navigation of built-in moisture applications. A lock out feature allows supervisors to set up access

Identification & inspection system

to all or certain functions so users do not inadvertently change the settings.

Features: • USB host for memory card and USB I/O interface RS-232 interface.

• Built-in memories for storing products and settings - three settings for heating sample, ramp up, step & standard.

• Automatic test start setting for when the lid is closed.

• Pan lifter to easily remove samples.

• Large backlit display with dual text prompts.

tack RE80 self cleaning magnets to a major grain port in South Australia with more than 500 TPH of through put capability. Other recent installations of the new self cleaning magnet system include a major brewery in Tasmania and rice manufacturing facilities in the Riverina area.

VISY Technology Systems has launched its customisable VS-270 machine for end of line packaging.

The VS-270 can be designed to suit specific package shapes and sizes, and can be programmed to inspect and reject a fully customised set of criteria.

The stainless steel machine has a built-in split belt conveyor, vision sensor, lighting tunnel and a reject mechanism to automatically reject defective products.

It runs at full production speeds of 360 parts per minute (ppm) and can go as high as 2000 ppm.

The VS-270 is an integrated part of Visy's Nexus Package Code Management Software, which connects all packing line print devices together for job change synchronisation, data integrity, tracking and reporting.

Visy’s VS-270 machine will benefit customers in the food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries looking for productivity and cost improvements

WJB Engineering 1800 835 858 www.wjbengineering.com.au

Visy 03 9247 4247 www.visy.com.au

• Security locking slot for Kensington type lock and cable.

Arrow Scientific 02 9427 7455 www.arrowscientific.com.au

Self cleaning grate magnet for dry foods WJB Engineering has developed a high intensity self cleaning grate magnet system designed for use in dry food applications.

Self cleaning magnets such as the Magnattack RE80 from WJB Engineering reduce the risk of metal contamination in foods caused by operators failing to clean systems efficiently.

The self cleaning grate magnet system is available as

a self cleaning single or twin bar magnet.

According to WJB Engineering, its self cleaning housings will generally fit in place of existing manually cleaned grate magnets.

The Australian built Magnattack RE80 self cleaning magnet has been in production for nearly a year after successful testing in harsh grain environments. WJB Engineering recently supplied its Magnat-

Rheon Encrusting machines imagination your only limitation

Rheon products abound in meat & poultry, snack & health, bakery products such as cookies & bread dough’s, cheese, seafood, confectionary, pet food & even ice cream treats.

Continuous co-extrusioneg: sausage rolls, fruit bars and apple strudel.

Short or long log extrusioneg: croquettes & hot dogs.

Round deposits up to 300grams-eg: bread pockets, lled meat & poultry meals, lled doughnuts.

Ease of operation with a simple control panel from which machine operation is controlled at the press of a button. The panel also has 99 memories for calling up your products running speci cations.

Low pressure feeding to handle materials gently & avoid fragile particulate breakdown in the casing and/or lling - baked beans or vegetables into meat or potato casing, strawberries & cherries travel through the machine with minimal damage.

Options allow solid centres or a second lling, open topped products, mosaic & shaped extrusions.

Stainless steel construction and fully hose-able for easy & sanitary cleaning.

Single, double and multi-head versions available. Test kitchen facilities available with development assistance.

FROM -

Phone: (61 2) 9939-4900 Fax: (61 2) 9939-4911 E-mail: ssyme@symetec.com PO Box 426, Brookvale NSW 2100 C22/148 Old Pittwater Rd, Brookvale NSW 2100

Visit our web site at

www.symetec.com www.foodmag.com.au | February 11 | Foodmagazine 25

ON THE

A regal slice

SHELF

Product name: Regal Salmon Pastrami Manufacturer: Regal Salmon Ingredients: The Regal Salmon Pastrami undergoes curing in a dry brine of salt and sugar.

The salmon fillets are then smoked at a low temperature in natural wood smoke and crusted with a traditional Pastrami pepper mix Packaging/graphics company: n/a Shelf life: 30 days Product manager: Markus Gerlich Product website: www.regalsalmon.com.au

Chicken sizzlers Product name: Traditional Chicken Sausage Manufacturer: Lilydale Ingredients: Chicken (87%), water, rice flour, potato starch, salt, dehydrated vegetables, mineral salt (451), sugar, spices, herbs, yeast extract, preservative (223), natural edible casings.

Packaging/graphics company: Cryovac Shelf life: 12 days Product manager: Laurel Brown Product website: www.freerangechicken.com.au

A burst of life Product name: Twist ‘N’ Go Manufacturer: BEROCCA Ingredients: Thiamine monophosphoric acid ester chloride (Vitamin B1), riboflavine sodium phosphate (Vitamin B2 ), nicotinamide (Vitamin B3 ), Calcium pantothenate (Vitamin B5 ), Pyridoxine hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Folic acid (Vitamin B9), Ascorbic acid (Vitamin C), Calcium, Magnesium, Zinc Packaging/graphics company: Invetech Pty Ltd; Mobius; Design mouldings; HP Packaging Shelf life: 12 months Product manager: Nick Lynch Product website: www.beroccatwist.com

Traditional cheese Product name: Old Telegraph Road Fire Engine Red Manufacturer: Jindi Cheese Ingredients: Milk, salt, cultures, non animal rennet Packaging/graphics company: n/a Shelf life: 45 days from dispatch Product manager: Franck Beaurain Product website: www.otrbyjindi.com.au

26 Foodmagazine | February 11 | www.foodmag.com.au

EVENTS Please consider the environment before printing

Liner Less Print and Apply labelling system

An introduction to Life Cycle Inventory and Carbon Footprinting February, 24, 2011 Auckland, New Zealand

Perth Fine Food & Hospitality Exhibition March, 20-22, 2011

Fresh Connection 2011

Perth Convention & Exhibition Centre

June, 8-10, 2011

AUSPACK 2011 March, 22-23, 2011

Queensland Safety & Materials Handling Show 2011

Melbourne Convention Centre

June, 21-23, 2011

Safety in Action

Exhibition Centre, Brisbane

Exhibition Centre, Brisbane

April, 5-7, 2011

Foodpro 2011

Melbourne Convention Centre

July, 10-13, 2011

18th Annual Beverage Forum

Traditional Die Cut labels are supplied on rolls with backing liner. The backing liner is typically not recycled and ends life in landfill. Tonnes and Tonnes of landfill!

The ARCA Bi Fuel Linerless Label system uses a self adhesive label film with specialised printer applicator.

Backing liner is eliminated.

The result - Less material volume, lower cost per label.

- Zero label waste.

- Reduced shipping and storage costs.

- Longer roll length, less downtime.

Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre

May, 24-25, 2011

The Safety Show Sydney 2011

Grand Hyatt, New York, USA

October, 25-27, 2011 Olympic Park, Sydney

National Manufacturing Week (NMW) 2011

Materials Handling Week 2011

May, 24-27, 2011

October, 26-28, 2011

Melbourne Convention Centre

Olympic Park, Sydney www.foodmag.com.au | February 11 | Foodmagazine 27

NOT MANY THINGS ARE AS FAST AS THE LINX SL301 LASER CODER. SWITCH NOW AND INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY BY ~15%*

The Linx SL301 30W scribing laser coder delivers high throughput, low running costs and low maintenance with no compromise on quality. Switch to the Linx SL301 from your current coder and your bottle production line will benefit from improved productivity and profitability.

• The fastest 30W coder on the market by far • The lowest running costs (longest tube life, service intervals are doubled and no external cooling system is required**) • Versatile for your specific application – Optional QuickSwitch™ software provides swift and easy code changes, Unique VisiCode™ technology delivers clear code on cold glass and Label Enable ensures that the laser is triggered at the right time * Exact increase depends on which alternative laser coder is used. ** IP54 model

Make a move – fast.

Call for a free demo on 02 9979 7646, email sales@raymax.com.au or visit www.raymax.com.au

For more information, contact Raymax Lasers®, 1/303 Barrenjoey Rd, Newport Beach, NSW 2106, Australia. Linx is a registered trademark of Linx Printing Technologies Ltd.