Page 5 - Food&Drink Magazine October 2018

Strawberry crisis hits hard
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confused the issue and led to an overreaction in the market.
In response to the crisis, jail time for people contaminating strawberries was extended from 10 to 15 years, and a new offence of recklessly contaminating fruit was introduced that carries similar jail time.
Queensland Strawberry Growers Association vice president Adrian Schultz says the crisis brought a multi- million-dollar industry of 150 Queensland growers to its knees, with huge piles of strawberries having to be dumped.
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt has called on Food Safety Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) to investigate the handling of the contamination.
Inspection equipment suppliers, meanwhile, have been educating the market on security-boosting technology and where to source equipment (readmoreonp42). ✷
STORIES ON OUR WEBSITE LAST MONTH
NEW laws have been introduced, relief packages have been announced and investigations commenced in the wake of last month’s strawberry needle contamination crisis.
Sewing needles were found in strawberries in all six states and New Zealand, and despite the relatively low public health risk, supermarkets including Coles
and Aldi pulled strawberries from their shelves, as did New Zealand supermarkets Foodstuffs and Countdown, which are owned by Woolworths.
Although only three brands were affected, with Berry Obsession, Berry Licious and Donnybrook Berries recalling their strawberries nationwide, copycat needle incidents
TWE SCALES UP AR
Following its successful foray into augmented reality on its 19 Crimes wine labels last year, Treasury Wine Estates has invested in the technology at scale.
UPSIDE DOWN YOGHURT
In an Australian first, WA’s Brownes Dairy has turned yoghurt on its head – literally. Top Down Yoghurt is being positioned as a ‘life hack’ product (see page 7).
HONEY PURITY
HEATS UP
Controversy continues over the purity of honey, with new reports questioning the motives of the horticulturalist who funded the testing (see this page).
ICE CREAM COMPANY COLLAPSES Melbourne ice cream maker Bon Appetit Australia, which recently rescued the Dairy
Bell ice cream business,
has entered voluntary administration.
IXL AND TAYLOR’S BRANDS BOUGHT
A newly formed company Kyabram Conserves is to become the new owner of the IXL jam and Taylor’s marinade and sauces following their sale by SPC (see page 6).
HELLOFRESH LAUNCHES LUNCH Mealkit company HelloFresh has a new product offering called Dinner to Lunch that leverages the office midday staple: leftovers.
NEW WASTE TARGETS ANNOUNCED
In what has been hailed as a milestone event, the government has joined industry leaders to announce new targets to reduce packaging waste by 2025 and improve recycling in Australia.
Honey scandal hits home
AUSTRALIAN honey testing and the scandal over the purity of honey continues with the release of a new study that implicates local products.
The study on the global honey industry conducted by Macquarie University scientists and peer reviewed and published in the Nature journal, Scientific Reports, looks at testing undertaken by the National Measurement Institute, the same high-security government lab used to test drugs seized by Border Force.
The study found that almost one in five of 38 Australian honey samples sourced from supermarkets and markets had been adulterated by mixing honey with other non-honey substances.
The adulterated honey
was sourced from Victoria, Queensland, NSW and Tasmania, while samples sourced from South Australia and Western Australia tested pure.
“Manufacturers have been producing adulterated honey, which is typically bulked up with sugar syrup or other products, to boost production artificially,” according to IBISWorld Senior Industry Analyst, Nathan Cloutman.
Previous controversy initiated discussions about honey testing methods but now with the latest report showing honey sourced along the eastern seaboard of Australia including
boutique brands, to
be fake, this global
scandal over the
impurity of honey is growing.
In Australia, only imported honey is tested. Results of
the study are expected to
put pressure on authorities to start testing local honey.
Using a reportedly decades-old C4 sugar test, only five per cent of imported honey is tested and the C4 test can’t detect adulterations such as added rice syrup.
Peter McDonald, the chairman of peak body the Australia Honey Bee Industry Council (AHBIC), said local honey was not tested by the authorities.
“It is up to the individual companies that actually buy the honey to then test,” he said.
According to IBISWorld, strong demand for Australian honey is likely to continue to incentivise companies to produce adulterated or counterfeithoney. ✷
www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au | October 2018 | Food&Drink business | 5