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Food-e-News, April 2010

  1. New SA Grains Market Overview highlights global trends
  2. Kangaroo Island canola goes global
  3. Michael O’Brien new Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries
  4. Innovative insight to international food trends and news
  5. New SA Food Centre website
  6. Food businesses committing to environmental management
  7. When did you last develop a new food product?
  8. Adelaide Food Summit
  9. Feedback on Food Labelling Review
  10. New SARDI sensory services offered

New SA Grains Market Overview highlights global trends

The SA Grains Market Overview, together with the Kangaroo Island Pure Grain case study (see next article), were launched to 80 guests recently at the Agribusiness Association breakfast. The overview produced by PIRSA’s Market Intelligence Unit shows that the SA grains industry has huge potential for growth if it responds to global consumer trends. It details domestic and international trends for a range of markets including food products, animal feed and industrial uses. The overview also highlights that with the deregulation of single desk and through the growing emergence of small batch marketing, there are great opportunities for grain growers to control more of the marketing effort, and understand what consumers are looking for in their products.

SA Grains Market Overview (pdf, 3.42mb)

Want to know more?

Matthew Palmer
PIRSA Market Intelligence
p +61 8 8226 1919
e matthew.palmer@sa.gov.au

Kangaroo Island canola goes global

To demonstrate a grains business epitomising the opportunities presented in the SA Grains Market Overview a case study has been developed on Kangaroo Island Pure Grain. The business produces naturally farmed pure grain, traceable to individual farms, machine-cleaned and guaranteed true to specification. The case study highlights how KI Pure Grain is now marketing its grain directly to one of the biggest markets in the world – Japan, through understanding their consumers and developing key relationships in the market place. KI Pure Grain is currently handling about 30,000 tonnes of grain, and is budgeted to build to 90,000 tonnes by 2015.

Case Study - Kangaroo Island Pure Grain (pdf, 155kb)

Want to know more?

Duncan MacGillivray
Kangaroo Island Pure Grain
p +61 418 802 673
e duncan@kipuregrain.com

Michael O’Brien new Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries

Michael O'Brien has been announced as the new Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries. Minister O'Brien has worked with PIRSA and the food industry in the past as the convener of the Premier's Food Council and the Chair of the Food and Wine Issues Group. Most recently Minister O'Brien was Minister for Employment, Training and Further Education, Minister for Road Safety and Minister for Science and Information Economy. Prior to entering Parliament, Minister O'Brien was a small/medium business operator. He has also worked as a National Manager for major Australian corporation Elders IXL and has held senior executive positions in major South Australian organisations such as RAA and Adelaide University.

Innovative insight to international food trends and news

In partnership with the new South Australian Food Centre website, Innova Market Insights will be providing free access to a series of detailed reviews and news features. They will highlight the latest international trends, data and product insights on food and beverage categories of relevance for the South Australian food industry. The Innova review for April, ‘Low Sodium Analysis’, shows that high salt consumption levels have become a key health concern in a number of countries. Reduction of salt levels in products has been apparent across a wide range of product types, including bread, breakfast cereals and ready meals. The review provides detailed analysis on markets, countries, companies, positioning and emerging salt replacement ingredients. Our latest international news feature addresses the rise and rise of gluten free products, with Australia playing a leading role.

Visit the SA Food Centre website for Innova Market Insights

Innova Market Insights is headquartered in the Netherlands.

For further information

Glen Wells
Regional Director for Australia and New Zealand, Innova Market Insights (Australasia) Pty Ltd
p + 61 2 9647 1479
m + 61 407 262 838
e Glen.Wells@innova-food.com.au
w www.innova-food.com.au

New SA Food Centre website

A new website portal for the South Australian Food Centre - www.safoodcentre.com.au - has been released. After surveying the SA food industry to discover their needs, a value chain approach has been developed to deliver key content using industry focussed language. The value chain has been designed to allow interaction both visually and with Flash technology. Another key feature of the new site is an RSS feed from Australian Food News updated daily and Innova Market Insights which provides exclusive reports on international food trends. It is hoped that business along the value chain will choose to visit areas of most interest to their business’ growth and development.

Want to know more?

Nicole Phillips
SA Food Centre
p +61 8 8226 0827
e nicole.phillips@sa.gov.au

Food businesses committing to environmental management

Six of South Australia’s leading food businesses are committing to a program to develop an ECO Map as a tool to initiate an environmental management program in their businesses. The program, a partnership between the SA Food Centre, the Environmental Protection Authority and Innovate SA, is assisting the businesses to implement environmental improvements and to apply for Australian Government grants under the 'Retooling for Climate Change' program. The program can help SME food manufacturers to improve efficiency, reduce costs and become globally competitive through adopting environmental management improvements in their production processes.

For further details

Linda Kwok
SA Food Centre
p +61 8 8348 2482
e linda.kwok@sa.gov.au

When did you last develop a new food product?

If you’re a food producer you need to know about the latest pathways to food research in South Australia and how the SA Food Centre and Constellation SA Food Science Cluster can assist your business at the upcoming Flavour SA Networking Night Wednesday 14 April 2010. If you need to develop new food products, value add, assess product shelf life, adjust flavours, textures or colours then Andrew Barber from SARDI will help you understand the process and pathways to food research at the SA Food Centre. If you require more sophisticated food solutions then Constellation SA Food Science Cluster will help you connect your food research project with specialised food researchers. Tim Rayner from Constellation SA Food Science Cluster will explain how an industry driven research project could be initiated and facilitated by the Cluster.

Flavour SA Networking Night Flyer (pdf, 83kb)

Want to attend?

Catherine Barnett
Flavour SA
p +61 8 8431 7131
e contact@flavoursa.com.au

Adelaide Food Summit

Mark this date in your diary now, 3 to 4 May 2010 for the Adelaide Food Summit, as part of Tasting Australia. The Adelaide Food Summit hopes to arm culinary tourism operators (eg. restaurants, cooking schools, cellar doors, food producers, farmers markets) and associated businesses with information on what it takes to make South Australia one of the world’s top food and wine tourism destinations. The Summit will provide the opportunity to workshop with other similar operators, discuss the industry as it currently stands in South Australia and provides a chance to learn about global trends in the industry, value adding and creating new products, and to understand the desires of the customer.

Want to attend?

Register at www.safoodsummit.com.au

Feedback on Food Labelling Review

An independent committee, set up under the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) and the Australian and New Zealand Food Regulation Ministerial Council is undertaking a review of food labelling law and policy in Australia. The Committee is embarking on the planned second round of public consultations in Australia and New Zealand and provides the opportunity for people to provide the Review Committee with specific information about ways to improve food labelling in Australia and New Zealand. A Food Labelling Review Issues Consultation Paper has been released and seeks feedback on a range of food labelling issues and how they might be addressed. As part of the consultation, the Review Committee will be holding a public forum in Adelaide on 23 April and stakeholders who are interested in attending should register at www.foodlabellingreview.gov.au. The Government of South Australia is also preparing a submission and PIRSA is seeking advice from key food SA industry stakeholders to inform the preparation of this submission and to help stakeholders determine whether they should make submissions.

For more information

John Cornish
PIRSA Industry Development & Renewal
p +61 8 8207 2361
e john.cornish@sa.gov.au

New SARDI sensory services offered

SARDI has a new sensory evaluation team working with the Food Innovation and Value Chain group. Sensory Technologist, Briony Liebich, joined the team in March 2010 and brings considerable experience with her previous role as sensory business manager for Provisor where she developed commercial services for the food and wine industry. A highly trained team of 13 assessors are able to measure the impact of product sensory characteristics as a result of growing conditions, packaging, storage, new processing equipment or changing ingredients. Services include difference testing, descriptive analysis, and benchmarking your competition. Briony can also offer industry specific training workshops to boost the sensory skills and confidence of growers, manufacturers, suppliers and hospitality workers.

For further enquiries

Briony Liebich
SARDI
p +61 459 102 947
e briony.liebich@sa.gov.au
w www.sardi.sa.gov.au/foodinnovation