If you know of someone who has had a brain or neck injury, has Parkinson’s disease, has had a stroke, is a child or adult with a developmental condition, has motor neurone dieases or is in an aged care centres, the chances are very high that you will personally know someone who has some level of swallowing difficulty.

When you stop to think about it, swallowing is something we do  a lot each day, whether it be with food or drink or just saliva, we do it and not even think about it.

It is actually an amazing process where the food enters the mouth and is then broken up into pieces which allow it to go down the oesophagus using the teeth and saliva, then the food has to be moved to the back of the mouth and the flap moved to prevent that food from going down into the lungs and causing choking, then it has to be pushed down toward the stomach.

Apparently the process using 32 paired muscles, and both sensory and motor nerves. It is really incredible that more of us do not experience that dreadful choking when we try to swallow.

Some foods and size of food s are more of an issue than others when it comes to swallowing difficulties. Alcohol and some medications can also contribute to issues with the swallowing process.

Food is  such an important part of out lives, none more so that during our annual festivals, like Christmas. Special foods are often a key part of these festivals, for example plum pudding at Christmas, or Hot Cross Buns at Easter.

The experience of those with swallowing difficulties at these times is even more than during the rest of the year and these difficulties are often even more obvious to those surrounding them during these times. This cause much embarrassment and can become a reason for these people to start isolating themselves from social contact.

So what is the solution to enable these people with Dysphagia to be able to enjoy the foods we all do and not miss out on the joy of those special foods?

Texture modification will not give these people the experience of the crunch of hot chips as an example, but it will enable them to enjoy the flavour of all foods.

As of 01 May 2019, there will be a worldwide standard in place for texture modification of both foods and drinks. It uses a eight level system starting with the thinnest drink at a Level 0 through to a level 4 which is the thickest drink and food and ending with a level 7 with regular food.

It is designed to be used for both adults and children and will be in use in aged care centres, child care centres, hospitals and respite centres across Australia by the end of April.

The process starts with a Speech Pathologist assessing a person’s ability to swallow and recommending a suitable level from the new IDDSI Framework. The centre providing the food then ensures that that recommendation is recorded in the person’s file. The kitchen at that business then ensures that food of that level is available and then it is served to that person. For these people, there is an absolute requirement for continuous monitoring by those serving the food, as the level required may change without any warning.

The following is from a Recall Notice from Food Standards Australia New Zealand and is included here with permission.

Vic’s Meat BONE-IN HAM HALF LEG 4.5kg Best Before 29/01/2018

Vic’s Premium Quality Meat is conducting a recall of the above product. The product has been available for sale at Simon Johnson, Victor Churchill and Vic’s Meat Brisbane in NSW, QLD, WA.

Problem: The recall is due to microbial (Listeria monocytogenes) contamination.

Food safety hazard: Listeria may cause illness in pregnant women and their unborn babies, the elderly and people with low immune systems.

Country of origin: Australia

What to do: Any consumers concerned about their health should seek medical advice and should return the product to the place of purchase for a full refund. For further information please contact:

Vic’s Premium Quality Meat

(02) 9317 6900 www.vicsmeat.com.au

For more information about Listeria and what can be done to prevent it causing you or your family harm, look at http://foodsafety.asn.au/topic/guess-whos-coming-to-christmas-dinner/

The Australian newspaper recently ran a survey to the leaders of some of Australia’s biggest businesses and the following are the answers from the CEOs of our biggest supermarket chains;

1. What should be the key issues in the next federal election?

Woolworths

While there are a number of issues facing the nation currently, for us the cost of living pressures our customers are experiencing is a key focus area. As I mentioned last year, sustainability also remains a key issue for us. The phase out of single use plastic bags was only a first step and we all need to work together to deliver on the “circular economy” to ensure a more sustainable future for Australia.

Coles

Economic growth: Maintaining Australia’s solid economic growth track record requires government policies that increase the underlying productivity of the economy. Four priorities in this regard are:

Productivity and innovation: After several years of subdued wages growth, it is imperative that government does all it can to continually improve productivity so that all stakeholders may share in the benefits of economic growth.

Cost of living pressures: we are committed to continue delivering value to our customers, but the growing strain on household budgets requires a concerted effort across all parts of the economy, particularly in areas that account for a large proportion of living expenses such as utilities and health care.

Transport infrastructure: continued economic growth requires targeted public funding for and timely delivery of high priority transport infrastructure.

Tax reform: Proposals to make the corporate tax rate more internationally competitive would help Australian businesses not only to attract more investment capital to fund growth, but also lower the hurdle rate of return for viable investments.

Customer data collected through Flybuys helps us to assess new store locations and make ranging decisions to meet the needs of local customers, as well as provide more relevant offers to customers.

Each week, we survey 35,000 customers and hear from another 20,000 through social media and 25,000 via our Customer Care team. We use this information to help guide our thinking and assess how well we are executing against our aim of making life easier for our customers.

2. What are they key challenges for your company next year?

Woolworths

A key ongoing challenge is meeting our customers growing demand for convenience, both in terms of how they shop but also how they eat. We’ve come a long way in 2018 in terms of further improvements to our pick-up and delivery services, as well as the introduction of express delivery to a number of our supermarkets, but there is more work to do to continue to meet the changing needs of our customers in this space. The other big challenge is working hard to improve our key business

Coles

Cost of living pressures, low real wage growth and a slowdown in the housing market remain headwinds for consumer spending. The impact of drought on fresh produce and some agricultural commodities is also expected to add to input costs, while the competitive landscape continues to rapidly evolve in response to the entrance of new offshore competitors and the growing importance of technology in all aspects of retailing.

processes to offset wage and input cost increases.

3. How can big business regain community trust?

Woolworths

In my view, “big business” needs to behave a lot more like “small business” and be focused on the specific needs of the local communities in which they operate. We are trying to do this via living our Group Purpose of “We Create Better Experiences Together” and our Food Purpose of “We Bring a Little Good to Everyone Every Day”. Trust is not a right, but is earned based both on what we do and also what we choose not to do.

Coles

Trust takes a very long time to build and can be lost very quickly. Therefore it’s not enough to treat Corporate Social Responsibility as simply an add-on to your business. It needs to be embedded in everyday processes that meet and exceed community expectations. At Coles we have worked hard to earn the trust of customers on delivering value by lowering the price of a weekly shop every year for the past decade.

At the same time we have committed ourselves to serving the communities in which we operate through initiatives like our partnership with SecondBite our $50 million Coles Nurture Fund which provides grants and interest-free loans to foster innovation in food production.

We have also done a lot of work to strengthen our relationships with suppliers, including through our work in formulating the Food and Grocery Code of conduct to which we were among the first signatories in 2015.

At the same time, our own Supplier Charter, which has been in place since 2014, is alone in the retail space in including an independent arbitration process that is both binding on us and carrying no cost to suppliers.

4. What cost pressures are hitting your company? How are they being offset and do you see any pressure to lift wages and if so by how much?

Woolworths

We are in the process of increasing wages and this is a good thing. Team wellbeing is also a key focus and we break this down into physical safety, mental health and financial security. Outside of wages, we have also increased our team discount from five to 10% on our own brand products, increased paid parental leave from 6 to 12 weeks and we were the first retailer to introduce paid superannuation for up to 12 months for those on parental leave. We’re working hard to offset electricity cost pressures by being much more sustainable in our energy demand management and generation and are making good progress in this regard. For example by the end of FY19, we will have close to 100 stores with solar panels installed.

Coles

Like all Australian businesses we are seeing higher energy costs, the impact of which we are seeking to reduce with more efficient store design. We have called out that we will face higher wage costs this financial year as a result of our new enterprise agreement, which came into effect in April.

Our Supermarkets store team enterprise agreement is in place until April 2020 and increases in wage rates are based on the annual increase applied to the General Retail Industry Award by the Fair Work Commission. Coles has also seen some increase in food commodity, some of which we are absorbing to reduce the impact on customers at the checkout and make their lives easier.

We are also reducing costs throughout our supply chain via the use of technology to better plan transport movements, and the two new automated ambient distribution centres we will build in NSW and Queensland over the next five years will also allow us to reduce costs and improve stock availability for customers.

So what does sustainable actually mean and why is it important?

There are many available definitions for that word and what it means and there are almost as many disagreements about the whole thing.

All would agree that to be sustainable something has to be able to last into the future and be viable, efficient and economic.

When it comes to food another factor to consider is whether a sustainable food is also good for us, in other words how is it’s nutritional content.

Apparently more than 85 percent of the seafood caught in Australia can be considered to be sustainable but it may not all be the most nutritious.

A recent study in the journal, Frontiers in Nutrition has looked at the relationship between, socio-economic groups and their consumption of seafood in terms of sustainability and nutrition.

The findings are very interesting. The data used in the study was based on the latest Australian Health Survey.

In summary the study found that those in lower socio economic groups consume seafood which is both lower in nutrition and is less sustainable.

The reverse seems to apply to those in the higher socio economic groups with higher nutrition seafood consumed and these are also more sustainable.

The nutrition was measured by the estimated contribution of 100g of a given seafood to the average requirement of protein, omega 3, calcium, iodine, selenium and zinc.

Sustainability was measured based on stock status, resource use, habitat and ecosystem impacts, and health and disease management.

The following is the Christmas  media release from the Food Safety Information Council and is included here with permission.

Guess who’s coming to dinner – avoid the listeria risk at Christmas time

The Food Safety Information Council and Tonic Health Media today launched their advice for people to check if any of the family or friends they are entertaining over the Christmas and summer period are at risk from the deadly Listeria food poisoning infection.

Rachelle Williams, FSIC Chair, said that recent research found that one in three Australians are either at risk of getting the potentially fatal Listeria infection themselves or live in a household with someone at risk.

‘This means it is likely that some of your Christmas guests may be at risk of Listeria infection which, although a comparatively rare form of illness, can be a very serious for:

• pregnant women and their unborn babies
• people who have diabetes, cancer or suppressed immune systems due to other chronic diseases such as leukaemia, HIV, diabetes, liver or kidney disease, cirrhosis or ulcerative colitis
• older people (generally considered to be over 65 to 70 years) depending on their state of health and especially if they have an underlying health issue like those above
• people taking a medicine that suppresses their immune system e.g. prednisone or cortisone
• organ transplant patients.

‘If your guests are at risk of Listeria infection you will need to avoid serving or, where possible cook, the following foods:

• Unpackaged ready to eat meats from delicatessen counters and sandwich bars; packaged, sliced ready-to-eat meats; cold cooked chicken purchased ready to eat, whole, diced or sliced and refrigerated paté or meat spreads
• All soft, semi soft and surface ripened cheeses e.g. brie, camembert, ricotta, feta and blue (pre-packaged and delicatessen), unpasteurised dairy products (e.g. raw milk or cheeses) and soft serve ice cream
• Pre-prepared or pre-packaged cut fruit and vegetable salads e.g. salads sold in bags or containers or from salad bars, shops or buffets, etc; pre-cut fruit and vegetables that will be eaten raw; frozen fruit or vegetables that may not be further cooked (e.g. berries, peas, sweet corn); rockmelon/cantaloupes (whole or cut); and bean or seed sprouts
• Raw seafood (e.g. oysters, sashimi or sushi); smoked ready-to-eat seafood; ready-to-eat peeled prawns (cooked) e.g. in prawn cocktails, sandwich fillings; and prawn or seafood salads; and seafood extender.

‘Also follow these food safety tips to reduce the risk of Listeria infection as well as other forms of food poisoning:

• Always wash your hands with soap and running water and dry thoroughly before handling food and keep food utensils and cooking areas clean
• Unlike most other food poisoning bacteria, Listeria can grow at refrigeration temperatures, so ready to eat food or leftovers should never be stored in the fridge for more than 24 hours. Since Listeria grows slowly in the fridge, it will do so only very slowly at cold temperatures so make sure your refrigerator is keeping your food at or less than 5°C.
• Avoid refrigerated foods that are past their ‘use by’ date
• Refrigerate leftovers promptly and use within 24 hours or freeze
• Always look for cooking and storage instructions on the food package label and follow them when provided.
• Cook high risk foods such as the turkey and other poultry, minced meat, sausages, hamburgers and leftovers to 75°C
• Cook egg dishes, such as quiche, to 72°C in the centre (or until the white is firm and the yolk thickens)
• Cook frozen fruit and vegetables

You can test your knowledge about Listeria by taking our quiz.

The Food Safety Information Council would particularly like to thank Tonic Health Media for their support. They are Australia’s largest health and wellness network and will be broadcast our important food safety messages in 5,300+ GP practices, hospitals, pharmacies and health centre waiting areas across the country to an audience of 15 million+ per month see their website for more info.

Media contact:

Lydia Buchtmann, Food Safety Information Council, 0407 626 688 or info@foodsafety.asn.au

The Food Safety Information Council is a health promotion charity which aims to address the estimated 4.1 million cases of food poisoning in Australia each year that result in 31,920 hospitalisations, 86 deaths and 1 million visits to doctors.

Many of those who work in retail, health and hospitality may not know about an important food safety issue called maximum residue limits. It is an issue which is top of mind for those in agriculture and processing as it is a vital food safety control which must be monitored at all times. There is currently a call for submissions to FSANZ to change some of these MRLs, so here is some information about what MRLs are and how they are set and then the actual call from FSANZ for submissions

The following is from the Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) website (www.foodstandards.gov.au);

A maximum residue limit (MRL) is the highest amount of an agricultural or veterinary (agvet) chemical residue that is legally allowed in a food product sold in Australia whethe​r it is produced domestically or imported.

MRLs help enforcement agencies monitor whether an agvet chemical has been used as directed to control pests and diseases in food production.

How are MRLs for food set?

The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) registers and approves all agvet chemicals in Australia and sets MRLs for these chemicals. Levels are set based on how much of the chemical is needed to control pests and/or diseases. The product’s chemistry, metabolism, analytical methodology and residue trial data are also assessed.

Limits are set using internationally recognized methods and national scientific data and are well below the level that could pose health and safety risks to consumers.

Call for submissions on changes to maximum residue limits 

(Australia only)

Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) has called for submissions on a proposal to change maximum residue limits (MRLs) for some agricultural and veterinary chemicals.

FSANZ Chief Executive Officer Mark Booth said some of the proposed changes would align limits in the Food Standards Code with overseas limits, while others have been proposed by the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority.

“MRLs are determined based on how much of a chemical is needed to control pests and/or diseases and are set well below the level that could pose health and safety risks to consumers, Mr Booth said.

“FSANZ has assessed the proposal and concluded there are no public health and safety concerns relating to the changes.”

All FSANZ decisions on standards are notified to ministers responsible for food regulation. Ministers can decide to adopt, amend, or reject standards or they can ask for a review.

The closing date for submissions for M1016 is COB 20 January 2019

 More information

Read the call for submissions report for M1016

What are MRLs and how are they set?

How to make a submission

Media contact: 0401 714 265 or media@foodstandards.gov.au​​​

Each year for the past 13 years the Parent’s Voice has run the Fame and Shame Awards. The winners of the 14 th year have just been announced.

The Parent’s Voice is an online network of thousands of parents, health professionals and carers, which aims to improve the food and activity environments for Aussie kids.

The following  are this year’s “winners” in the Shame part of the awards;

The Smoke and Mirror Category was won by Nestle for it’s promotion of Milo. The award is about how the promotion campaign is aimed at children and talks about how adding Milo to milk “adds more to milk”, whilst not mentioning that in each serve of Milo there is 9g of added sugar.

Alice Pryor, Parents’ Voice Campaigns Manager said; “Behind the smoke and mirrors, MILO only gets a 1.5 Health Star Rating without milk.”

The Digital Ninja Award went to McDonalds for it’s “Happy Land” app. Ms Pryor said; “Using popular SnapChatlike features such as digital masks, in conjunction with featuring the animated character ‘Happy’, the app is designed to increase children’s brand affinity with McDonald’s.”

The Pester Power Award went to the Coles Lttle Shop campaign, which encouraged children to nag their parents to make purchases to be able to get the little food replicas.

The Foul Sport Award went to PepsiCo for the Gatorade “The Game is Never Over” campaign. This award was based on the use of sports stars to promote a drink  to kids which contains 36 g of sugar in every 600mL bottle.

The following were the winners of the Fame side of the awards;

The Parents’ Choice Award for Food winner was the Phenomenom campaign This is a campaign funded by Horticultural Innovation Australia and produced by the former Masterchef contestant, Alice Zaslavsky. It makes food a core component of eduction by using springboard videos and interactive lessons.

The Parents’ Choice Award for Activity was given to VicHealth for it’s “This Girl Can” campaign. The aim of the campaign is to get women and girls moving by showing a variety of fun physical activites.

Chair of the Parents’ Voice Steering Committee and parent Ari Kurzeme said;  “‘This Girl Can’ presents a great opportunity and invitation for young women to try activities that suit them, to have fun whilst moving and says that sweating is okay – even beneficial.”

For more information about the Awards – https://parentsvoice.org.au/campaigns/fame-shame/

The following are recalls happening across Australia. The information is provided from Food Standards Australia New Zealand (Food.Recalls@foodstandards.gov.au) and the NSW Food Authority and is included here with permission.

Nanna’s Family Apple Pie 

(600g, Best Before dates 21 Oct 2020 and 22 Oct 2020 only)

Patties Foods Ltd is conducting a recall of the above product. The recalled product has been available for sale in Coles, Woolworths, IGA’s, Foodlands and other independent supermarkets throughout Australia.

Problem: The recall is due to the potential presence of glass in an ingredient used in the 600g Nannas Family Apple Pie. This is a result of an equipment failure with the supplier. No other Nanna’s products are affected by this recall.

Food Safety Hazard: Food products containing glass may cause injury if consumed. The company has initiated a recall of the affected batches as a precautionary measure.

What to do: Customers should not eat this product. They should return the product to the place of purchase for a full refund.

Country of Origin: Australia

Contact details: For further information contact 1800 650 069 or info@patties.com.au

Charlesworth Nut

Charlesworth Nuts is conducting a recall on a range of products with various best before dates from April to July 2019. The products have been available for sale nationally through Charlesworth Nuts online store, and for sale at Charlesworth Nuts retail stores, independent retailers, wineries and cafes in South Australia and Victoria.

Problem: The recall is due to the presence of foreign matter (metal fragments).

Food safety hazard: Food products containing metal fragments may cause injury if consumed.

Country of origin: Australia

What to do: Consumers should not eat these products and should return the products to the place of purchase for a full refund. For further information please contact:

Charlesworth Nuts

(08) 8296 8366

ALDI Colway Real Mayonnaise

ALDI is recalling Colway Real Mayonnaise 466 g from all ALDI stores. The recall is due to faulty packaging and potential for glass breakage.

Product details:

• Colway Real Mayonnaise, 466 g, glass jar
• Affected batches: All batches

Problem: Faulty packaging could cause injury or result in glass contamination.

What to do: Consumers should not consume this product. They should return the product to the place of purchase for a full refund.

If you are concerned about your health you should seek medical advice.

For more information please contact

ALDI Food Recall Hotline on 1800 709 993.

There is a lot of talk about artificial ingredients and how “clean” foods are. Clean foods have a minimum of ingredients that are not natural. Although the definition for natural is not really clear.

One of the very common ingredients in many foods is sugar. It is not only included to provide part of the flavour of a food but has other possible functions as well.

Due to calls for reduced sugar in foods, producers have had to find alternative sweeteners, some are artificial and others natural. They nearly all are much sweeter than sugar, so are used in much smaller amounts.

So what are these alternative sweeteners and how are they approved for use in our foods?

The following is from the Sweeteners page on the Food Standards Australia New Zealand website – http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/consumer/additives/Pages/Sweeteners.aspx?utm_source=Food+Standards+News&utm_campaign=831cd2bce1-Food_Standards_News_Mar-18_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_71d71e1fc3-831cd2bce1-310072897

Intense sweeteners are many times sweeter than sugar which means they can be used in much smaller amounts. They are added to foods instead of sugar to provide low energy or sugar-free foods.

Some sweeteners are referred to as artificial sweeteners. Others occur naturally e.g. steviol glycosides, which are extracted from the stevia plant.

How are sweeteners assessed for safety?

We conduct a thorough safety assessment of all food additives, including sweeteners, before they are approved for use in food. We check whether:

• they are safe at the levels being proposed, and
• that there is a good technological purpose for their use.

Our safety assessment follows an internationally accepted model and includes a dietary exposure assessment looking at how much people would consume.

To assess safety, extensive testing is required, including animal and human studies if they are available. For example, human studies are sometimes conducted on people with diabetes to establish whether a sweetener will be tolerated by this population group.

Animal studies are designed to determine whether a substance can cause any adverse effects. They are usually conducted using very high concentrations of a substance—far greater than people are likely to consume if that substance was present in food. An uncertainty or safety factor is then applied to establish an acceptable daily intake (ADI) and a maximum permitted level, if needed, in the Food Standards Code.

An ADI is the amount you can safely consume every day, over the course of a lifetime. For example, the ADI for aspartame is 40 milligrams per kilogram (mg/kg) of body weight (bw). If you weigh 70 kg, then to reach the ADI you  would need to consume 2.8 g/day equal to 19 cans (375 mL) of diet soft drink every day.

The following are some of the facts from a great infographic from Safe Food Queensland – you can find it here – https://www.safefood.qld.gov.au/newsroom/infographic-10-facts-about-e-coli/?fbclid=IwAR11AGfpyCD412N2NjHsfWJhlnq13hHzifLk4Bke8426O-HNqoKp1DZGFYU

High Risk foods – Undercooked minced meat, salami type products, raw milk products, yoghurt, fruit and vegetables

Incubation period – 3-8 days

Estimated cases in Australia each year – 257350

Illness caused by – toxin

Food poisoning symptoms – Fever and fatigue, watery / bloody diarrhea, anemia or kidney failure

Growth range – 7- 50°C

Food recalls caused by it between 2008 and 2017 – 32

E.coli can survive on surfaces for weeks

Things to do to reduce it

• Heat foods to at least 70°C
• Wash hands properly
• Keep all surfaces clean
• Wash all fruit and vegetables before use