Do you want “dead horse” with that “dog’s eye”? – A campaign to save our slang
G’day mate and how’s it going?
Every country has it’s own slang and even across a country there is different slang in different areas. Experts in language often use this to determine where a person actually comes from.
Australia has it’s own slang as well and it is always evolving. What was commonly used years ago may no longer be in the common tongue. There are many who think this is sad and that the character of a country’s language is very much influenced by it’s slang, and when the slang changes, the language is reduced and is no longer unique.
So why am I talking about slang and language in a food safety related article?
A well known pie company in Australia has just launched a quest to get the public to let it know their favourite Aussie slang words.
The top 70 of these are going to be seen on the Company’s pie packaging from mid May.
This is another of the marketing campaigns which personalize or characterize the packaging of food. The campaign in December 2016 to have your name on well known food products as a Christmas present was very successful or the campaign run by Vegemite to find a name from the public for a new product some years ago.
These campaigns are fun and help develop and reinforce brand and product loyalty.
This Slang word campaign has the added benefit of linking a favourite Australian food to something which is uniquely ours – our slang.
Four’N Twenty’s Marketing Manager, Mario Matchado said; “It’s time to honour our rich and varied vocabulary of slang expressions.”
Who knows what words we will see on these pies, but it sure will be good to see some of them back and maybe this campaign will help save some of our slang and keep our language unique.
- Published in News
So What is the average age of a farmer – the results from the latest Agricutural Census
| We all know about the Census which was held last year and the electronic issues associated with it. Even with the problems it had, the end result met the standard required and the collated summary was recently released.
At the same time as the National Census, the 2015-16 Agricultural Census was also held. This required farmers to complete not only the National Census but the Agricultural Census as well. The results are interesting. More fruits and nuts are being grown around the country, with Queensland and Victoria leading the way. Here are some of the key statistics from the Agricultural Census 2015-16 |
- 85, 681 farming businesses operating in Australia
- The gross value of Australia’s agriculture production was AUD $56 billion
- Australia’s top three crops for the year were wheat, fruit, nuts & grapes and vegetables
- Farmers used 9.2 million mega litres of water on their properties
| Mandarins are the fruit with the biggest increase since the previous Census with a 24 percent jump and Queensland was the number one state for this fruit, with 59 percent of the total crop for the country.
There has been a 39 percent increase in the production of avocadoes to 67,000 tonnes. Apples now have a production of 308,3000 tonnes, with 43 percent coming from Victoria. 90 percent of Australia’s pear now come from Victoria – with 93,500 tonnes. There has been a 30 percent increase in Almond production to a huge 73,000 tonnes, with 56,000 tonnes from Victoria. Victoria remains the dairy capital with two thirds of the nation’s 2.7 million cows, even though there has been a two percent decrease since the last Census. There are now 302,000 meat cattle in the country, which is a one percent decrease. A big surprise is the five percent decrease in wheat production, down to 22 million tonnes. The total area planted with crops nationally fell by 8 per cent to 11 million hectares. Farmers are getting older, with the average age being 56, and around 78 percent are male. |
Census results are used by governments of all sizes, to determine funding and resources.
- Published in News
New Bananas and no bananas
| There is a type of fungal disease called Panama TP4 which gets into the soil in banana plantations and eventually chokes off the plant’s ability to produce bananas. Once it is in the soil, it is nearly impossible to remove and that land can never again be used to produce bananas. The fungus does not affect humans at all, but is a death sentence for bananas and the end of a banana farmer’s livelihood and dreams.
It has already done irreparable damage to the Northern Territory banana industry, and now a potentially positive case has been found in far north Queensland. The environment around Tully is perfect for growing bananas and if this disease takes hold it is going to have a devastating impact on the industry as a whole and consumer across the country. This is a major potential issue. The specific property in the Tully Valley has been isolated and an exclusion zone set up to try and stop the spread of the fungus. Simply walking on that soil and then going to another farm can be one way of spreading it. |
Biosecurity Queensland Chief Biosecurity Officer, Dr Jim Thompson said; “The suite of tests will take up to 4-6 weeks to complete. The property owners are working with Biosecurity Queensland to control and contain any disease and mitigate the risk of further spread. They’re exceptionally proactive and already have strict on-farm biosecurity measures in place on their property. The property owners are erecting exclusion fencing around the area to minimise the potential risk of disease spread while diagnostic testing is completed.”
| So while a major potential problem is rearing it’s ugly head for the banana industry, elsewhere in Australia researchers at the Queensland University of Technology have been busy developing bananas with extra pro-vitamin A.
This is an amazing humanitarian development, because there are some 700000 children worldwide dying from pro-vitamin A deficiency annually. The genetic modification project has been ongoing for ten years and the near $10million funding was provided by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. |
Professor James Dale, lead researcher for the project, said; “What we’ve done is take a gene from a banana that originated in Papua New Guinea and is naturally very high in pro-vitamin A but has small bunches, and inserted it into a Cavendish banana. Over the years, we’ve been able to develop a banana that has achieved excellent pro-vitamin A levels, hence the golden-orange rather than cream-coloured flesh.”
The Plant Biotechnology Journal published an article about the new banana in volume 15 issue 4.
- Published in News
And the portion sizes are getting bigger!!!!!
| We are often being told that obesity is on the increase in our country to the point that many are now known as morbidly obese. We are also told that the rate of diabetes in our population is also increasing and it is known that the two are very closely linked.
So are we eating more, or exercising less or a combination of both? I was watching TV the other day and on came an ad for a large quick serve chain and they were selling a pack containing a normal burger, a small burger, three nuggets, a medium serve of chips and a standard size soft drink all for under $12. It is obviously intended as a single person serve and is quite simply a massive amount of food. So is this type of meal being demanded by the public and the companies then providing, or is it the other way around and the companies come up with these huge meals to then market to get sales? Well, it seems we have the answer to that question. The George Institute for Global Health has found that we Aussies are eating significantly bigger serves or both fatty and sugar foods than we have in the past. Data was compared from 1995 to 2012 and the sizes of portions of items like pizza, cake, sausage, cereal bars, processed meat and ice cream have increased. Pizza and cake have the biggest increase with Australians eating 66 percent more kilojoules when eating these, than in the past. |
Dr Miaobing Zheng, of The George Institute for Global Health, said; “Over the past two decades we found that foods which provide very little nutritional benefit have surged in size, and this is helping to fuel Australia’s obesity epidemic. We had expected portion sizes to have grown but we were still surprised by just how much. It’s pretty disturbing that an average slice of cake has increased in size so much it now contains almost 1000 kilojoules more than it did two decades ago.”
There is a little good news, the portion size of some foods has actually decreased, eg; pastries, and snack foods like popcorn and hot chips.
| Dr Zheng stated; ” We aren’t 100 per cent sure why the portion sizes of these foods reduced, but if you take fries, for example, most fast food chains offer small portions, so it could be the case that people recognise these foods are unhealthy and consciously try and eat less of them. But, unfortunately these foods items were the exception, not the norm. We know that people often under report the amount of food and drink they consume, especially if they consider them as “bad foods”. So the true picture of what Australians are eating could be much worse.” |
- Published in News
Do emotions drive sales?
| It is something which seems really obvious, but there is now proof that emotions drive sales of foods and beverages.
Food manufacturers have for a long long time put pictures of their foods on the labelling to encourage sales by making people know what is there and that it looks good and it appeals to their emotions. Wine labels generally don’t have pictures of the grapes but do contain beautiful descriptions of the flavours in the wine and where the grapes were grown and processed. The descriptions include words like; fruity, chocolately etc etc For most of us, we would not be able to place those flavours in what we drink, but they sure do sound good and give an idea of what is inside the bottle. Few are actually involved in the making of wine, so these descriptions help us know about what is in the bottle and help us decide whether to purchase or not. A study by the University of Adelaide has shown that these sort of descriptions of the wine and it’s production encourage do sales. The study was published in the  August 2017 edition of the Food Research International Journal. It was funded by grape growers and wine makers and the funding was matched by the Commonwealth Government. Research leader, Associate Professor Sue Bastian, said; “Cleverly written wine and producer descriptions when coupled with unbranded wine tasting can evoke more positive emotions, increasing our positive perception of the wine, our estimation of its quality and the amount we would be willing to pay for it.” The study involved Australian white wines using three different information labels. The 126 consumers were asked to taste the wines using the tree types of labels; no information, basic description (eg; Riesling) and one with a description similar to those we see commercially. |
The study found that even though the wine in the bottle was the same, the descriptive label significantly increased the preference for the wine.
The results of this study are something that other industries should look at closely as it shows just how important words, and the right words the right way are to sales.
Researcher, Dr Lukas Danner, said; “Companies could even consider involving consumers in label description optimisation.”
- Published in News
MRL requirements about to change
| The following is a recent media release from Food Standards Australia new Zealand and is included here with permission
|
Call for submissions on changes to maximum residue limits
Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) has called for submissions on a proposal to amend maximum residue limits (MRLs) for certain agricultural and veterinary chemicals.
FSANZ Chief Executive Officer Mark Booth said the proposal aimed to harmonise limits in the Food Standards Code with limits used overseas.
“If a chemical is found in a food product that does not have an MRL for that chemical it cannot be legally sold in Australia,” Mr Booth said.
“Chemicals can be used differently around the world because of different pests, diseases and environmental factors. This means residues in imported foods may differ from those in domestically produced products, but that does not mean there is a safety issue.”
“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. The ministers can decide to adopt, amend, or reject standards or they can ask for a review.”
The closing date for submissions is COB 25 July 2017
More information
Read the call for submissions report for M1014
What are MRLs and how are they currently set?
Media contact: 0401 714 265 (Australia) or +61 401 714 265 (from New Zealand)
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The Top Restaurant for 2017 is……..
At a gala ceremony in Sydney this month, the Top Restaurant for 2017 was named and it is in NSW.
Brae was this year’s winner.
This award is unique, because it is about industry recognition, as the public are not involved in the judging.
It is decided by chefs and restaurateurs.
The top ten are mainly from NSW and Victoria, but number six (Franklin) is from Tasmania.
The Top Newcomer is Restaurant Hubert from NSW which also took out the number ten spot as well.
The smallest restaurant on the list is Fleet in Brunswick Heads and has only 14 seats. It was voted the Qantas Top Service Team.
The following are the Top Ten Restaurants for 2017;
- Brae – NSW
- Attica – Vic
- Ester – NSW
- Sixpenny – NSW
- Sepia – NSW
- Franklin – Tas
- Tipo 00 -Vic
- Embla – Vic
- Automata – NSW
- Restaurant Hubert -NSW
The top restaurant for Queensland was at 48 on the list, for Western Australia it was at 60, for South Australia it was at 29 and for the ACT it was at 89. The really interesting feature of this year’s list is that 14 of the restaurants recognised in 2017 are not in the capital cities.
- Published in News
New Chocolate recalls
| The following are two recall notices from Food Standards Australia New Zealand and are included here with permission. |
Hershey’s Kitchens Premier White Chips
(BB 04/2018)
Hershey’s Kisses Creamy Milk Chocolate with Almonds
(BB 07/04/2018, 21/02/2018)
Hershey’s Kisses Cookies ‘n’ Creme
(BB 03/11/2017, 05/04/2018)
A & W Hollier Wholesale Distributors Pty Ltd is conducting a recall of the above product. The product has been available for sale at Aldi Supermarkets in NSW, ACT, QLD, VIC, SA, and WA. Problem: The recall is due to the possible presence of peanuts and tree nuts which are not declared in the allergen statement. Food safety hazard: Consumers who have an tree nut and/or peanut allergy or intolerance may have a reaction if the product is consumed. What to do: Consumers who have an tree nut and/or peanut allergy or intolerance should not consume this product and should return the product to the place of purchase for a full refund. Country of Origin: United States of America (choc chips) and China (Kisses)
Hershey’s Cookies ‘n’ Creme Chocolate block 113g
Batch codes: 96E09133 (BB 03/2018), 12S09111 (BB 05/2018),12S09112 (BB 05/2018), 12S09113 (BB 05/2018)
A & W Hollier Wholesale Distributors Pty Ltd is conducting a recall of the above product. The product has been available for sale at Aldi Supermarkets in NSW, ACT, QLD, VIC, SA, and WA. Problem: The recall is due to allergens not present on the allergen statement (almond and wheat/gluten). Food safety hazard: Consumers who have an almond and/or wheat allergy or intolerance may have a reaction if the product is consumed. What to do: Consumers who have an almond and/or wheat allergy or intolerance should not consume this product and should return the product to the place of purchase for a full refund. Country of Origin: United States of America
For further information please contact:
1800 709 993
- Published in News
Is wholemeal bread better for you or you or you or you or….
| So wholemeal bread is better for you than white bread, right?
An article in Cell Metabolism in June 2017, shows that this is not necessarily the case. In the study, the 20 participants were asked to eat the same number of carbohydrates of white and wholemeal bread, and the health of each monitored afterwards. It was found that there was no significant difference in the health of any of the participants after eating the two types of bread. Researcher, Eran Segal, said; “We looked at a number of markers, and there was no measurable difference in the effect that this type of dietary intervention had.” This study confirms findings in previous studies that the glycaemic responses are not better with wholemeal bread in all cases. It seems that the reactions to diet are all about the individual. |
The researcher also said that; “The findings for this study are not only fascinating but potentially very important, because they point toward a new paradigm: different people react differently, even to the same foods. To date, the nutritional values assigned to food have been based on minimal science, and one-size-fits-all diets have failed miserably. These findings could lead to a more rational approach for telling people which foods are a better fit for them, based on their microbiomes.”
| There is obviously a lot more research to be done, as this finding may potentially lead to the concept of general Dietary Guidelines being abandoned and replaced with tailored requirements for individuals. |
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So who is the winner this year?
So it is that time of the year again, when young waiters and chefs from across the country wait with baited breath to find out who will receive The Electrolux Appetite for Excellence Award for 2017.
The national finalists will have a tour lasting six days through the food areas of regional Queensland before the winners are announced in mid July. It will give them a chance to personal meet the growers and producers of some of the country’s best meat, fresh produce and seafood.
The Electrolux Appetite for Excellence 2017 national finalists are:
Young Waiter national finalists:
Andrew Gale; Grossi Florentino, VIC
George Papaioannou; Sixpenny, NSW
James Boden; St Hugo, SA
Lara Graham; Wasabi Restaurant & Bar, SA
Mia McIntyre; Ecco Bistro, QLD
Morgan Golledge; Blackbird Bar & Grill QLD
Richard Trezzi; Otto Ristorante, NSW
Young Chef national finalists:
Adrian Hart; Bennelong, NSW
Alanna Sapwell; Saint Peter, NSW
Ben McShane; Kiyomi, The Star, QLD
Charley Snadden-Wilson; Embla, VIC
Josh Raine; Urbane, QLD
Shui Ishizaka; Bennelong Restaurant, NSW
Young Restaurateur national finalists:
Cam O’Keefe; Centra VIC
Dan Moss; Terroir Auburn SA
Erin Jordan; The Catbird Seat Bistro QLD
Thi Le; Anchovy VIC
The judges for this year include; Peter Gilmore, Luke Mangan, Christine Manfield, Mark Best, Danielle Gjestland, Peter Doyle, Ross Lusted, and Nick Hildebrandt.
- Published in News