The recent report from the Department of Health shows that we have had a reduction in the number of cases of foodborne illness from 5.4 million in the 2000 report to 4.1 million in this report, which examines food poisoning in this country up to 2010.

This is a really good result and shows that people are starting to get the message that they have an important part to play in preventing food poisoning.

However, the report also shows that of the 4.1 million cases per year of food borne illness in Australia, the actual cause can only  be identified in 800 000 of those cases. That means that more than 3 million cases each year have no identifiable cause.

Regardless of the actual cause of a food poisoning, it is a fact that food poisoning bacteria grow best in the temperature range of 5° to 60°C – commonly known as The Temperature Danger Zone.

The Food Safety Information Council promotes a week each year to highlight some aspect of food safety that the public needs to follow or be aware of to prevent food poisoning.

This year the theme is The Temperature Danger Zone.

The focus is on reminding the public that hot foods need to be kept hot and cold food cold.

Foods should not be left on the bench overnight, including rice. Recent studies have shown that many people thought it was OK to leave rice out overnight. Rice is one of the potentially hazardous foods and will allow bacteria to grow easily if not handled properly – and this means keeping them hot or cold. In other words, keeping those foods out of the Temperature Danger Zone.

Even though Food Safety Week each year is focussed on the public, the principles are exactly the same in food businesses.

For more information – go to the Council’s website at www.foodsafety.asn.au

Written by Rachelle Williams, The Green Food Safety Coach – and Secretary of the Food Safety Information Council.

Recently the Australian Government’s Industry Innovation and Competitiveness Agenda was launched by the Prime Minister.

Although the food industry in general has supported the idea, there are concerns about how far red tape cuts which will be part of the Agenda should go, so that food safety and Australia’s reputation for it is protected.

The Agenda is an important part of the Economic Action Strategy of the Government

Red tape are government documents, requirements and processes, which may be seen as slowing down business and it’s growth. It has long been recognised that cutting through some of this can improve business efficiency and growth.

Therefore nearly every government at every level worldwide has a commitment to reduce red tape.    

The difficulty is that to remove these processes, requirements and documents may not improve business efficiency but might actually weaken it.

This is what has some food industry people questioning. Just because a certain standard is acceptable in another country or internationally, does not mean that it should automatically become what we do in Australia.

Australia is recognised as having one of the best standards of food safety in the world. So the question is how much red tape related to food safety can be removed whilst continuing to maintain that enviable position.

To try to address the concerns and still reduce the red tape, the Government has now decided that if a product, system, service or process has undergone assessment and been approved under a recognised international standard or risk assessment process, then there should be no additional approval requirements required in Australia, unless there is a good reason for doing so.

The Agenda does not specifically mention Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ), which is the food safety regulator for both Australia and New Zealand. This may mean that this decision does not specifically relate to food.

Written by Rachelle Williams, The Green Food Safety Coach.

Recent research by Roy Morgan Research has shown that even though Australians are wanting to eat less additives and fats, we are not as concerned with cholesterol as we once were.

In research done in June 2010, 38.3 percent of Aussies over 14 were “concerned about my cholesterol level’, compared to 34.1 percent in this research from June 2014.

The trying to buy and eat lower fat food has maintained at around 35 percent during the four years between these two research projects.

48.4 percent of those surveyed are now concerned with eating additive free food, compared to 45.6 in the 2010 research.

So business can take from this research that although cholesterol is still and issue, it is not as important to people now as trying to purchase and eat low fat and minimal additive food.

The research also shows that men think differently about this to women, with 55.3 percent of women surveyed buying and eating additive free foods compared to men at 41.3percent.

Norman Morris, Industry Communications Director, Roy Morgan Research, said; “Australians are clearly becoming more mindful of what they put in their mouths, with an increasing number choosing to avoid foods with excessive fat content or additives. We would therefore hope that the decreasing national concern with cholesterol is indeed a consequence of such dietary changes rather than a tendency toward apathy.”

The concern that we, in the food industry should have about this type of research is around the definition of the word additive. As an example, salt has many uses in food processing and recipes. Would people consider it to be an additive that should be eliminated or is it something that is “natural” so is not really an additive. Sugar is another example.

Written by Rachelle Williams, The Green Food Safety Coach.

The following recall information is provided with permission by Food Standards Australia New Zealand and you can find more details at http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/industry/foodrecalls/recalls/Pages/default.aspx

Vege Farm Vege Beef Chunk (soy beef)

Vege Health Foods Pty Ltd has recalled Vege Farm Vege Beef Chunk from Asian supermarkets in VIC,  NSW, QLD and SA  due to the presence of undeclared allergens (egg, sesame, peanut). Any consumers who have an egg, peanut and/or sesame allergy or intolerance may have a reaction if the product is consumed. Consumers who have an egg, peanut and/or sesame allergy or intolerance should not consume this product and should return it to the place of purchase for a full refund.

Date notified to FSANZ – 31/10/2014

Food type – Soy beef product – vegetarian

Product name -Vege Farm Beef Chunk

Package description and size – Plastic packaging, 454g

Date marking – All best before dates up to and including 2016.01.31

Country of origin -Taiwan

Reason for recall -The presence of undeclared allergens (egg, sesame, peanut )

Distribution – Asian supermarkets in VIC,  NSW, QLD and SA 

Consumer advice -Any consumers who have an egg, peanut and/or sesame allergy or intolerance may have a reaction if the product is consumed. Consumers who have an egg, peanut and/or sesame allergy or intolerance should not consume this product and should return it to the place of purchase for a full refund.

Contact – Vege Health Foods Pty Ltd  03 9884 7316 enquiries@vegefarm.com.au

Whole Perfect Vegetarian Chicken products 

Ettason Pty Ltd has recalled Whole Perfect – Vegetarian Chicken Cubes 600g and Vegetarian Chicken Nugget 600g from Asian supermarkets nationally (excluding WA and NT) due to the presence of an undeclared allergen (egg). Any consumers who have a egg allergy or intolerance may have a reaction if the product is consumed. Consumers who have a egg allergy or intolerance should not consume this product and should return the products to the place of purchase for a full refund.

Date notified to FSANZ -31/10/2014

Food type -Vegetarian soy chicken products

Product name

• Whole Perfect Vegetarian Chicken Cubes 600g

• Whole Perfect Vegetarian Chicken Nugget 600g

Package description and size

• yellow plastic packaging – 600g

• orange plastic packaging – 600g

Date marking – All Best Before dates currently in the marketplace

Country of origin – China

Reason for recall -The presence of an undeclared allergen (egg)

Distribution -Asian supermarkets nationally (excluding WA and NT) 

Consumer advice -Any consumers who have a egg allergy or intolerance may have a reaction if the product is consumed. Consumers who have a egg allergy or intolerance should not consume this product and should return the products to the place of purchase for a full refund.

Contact -Ettason Pty Ltd (02) 9728 2288

Written by Rachelle Williams, The Green Food Safety Coach.

“The Foodborne illness in Australia: Annual incidence circa 2010” Report, has just been released by the Federal Department of Health.
Although the information it contains is now four years old, it shows that since the previous decade’s report, there has been a significant decrease in the number of foodborne illnesses per year. The number of cases of food borne illness has gone down from 5.4million cases in the previous report to just over 4 million in this report.
We can all feel proud of this, but there is still much more work to be done to avoid and prevent this serious health issue for the whole country, because when you look at the statistics, it works out to be that each of us has around a 1 in 6 chance of getting food poisoning each year.
The results in the report also highlight that many of these cases are for the most part preventable by having good food safety controls in food businesses, and even more so being practised by the community.
Food safety is not the sole responsibility of food businesses, as it does not matter how much they do to protect the food, if a shopper does not maintain good temperatures and hygiene at home and when transporting their food.
The report identified a couple of frightening trends, there are increasing cases of both Salmonella and Campylobacter by 24 per cent and 13 per cent respectively. These are the two leading causes of hospitalisation from foodborne illness and for them to be increasing is a worrying result.
The report also showed that of the 4.1million cases of food borne illness per year, only 0.8 million have the cause identified on average. This means that for the vast majority of foodborne illness in this country, there will be no identified cause regardless of the research done.
With Australian Food Safety Week 2014 rapidly approaching in the second week of November, it is a good time to remind the public that they have a huge role to play in keeping food safe and not allowing themselves or their families to become one of those food poisoning cases.
The theme of this year’s Australian Food Safety Week is The Temperature Danger Zone and reminding the public about the importance of keeping hot foods hot and cold foods cold. Salmonella is readily killed by high temperatures if the public can take on the measure from this year’s Food safety Week and apply it to their homes, we may have a good chance of easing this increasing trend as well as reducing the total number of cases of food borne illness each year.
You can find the full report at – http://bit.ly/10qcZQg and information about Australian Food safety Week 2014 at www.foodsafety.asn.au
Written by Rachelle Williams, The Green Food Safety Coach.

You see them everyone and not just being drunk by sports people or those doing the gym thing. Yes, it is sports drinks and the general perception by many is that they are not only good for you but can improve performance as well.

Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) is currently holding a public consultation as part of it’s process to determine whether to allow sports drinks labels to contain health claims.

To make a health claim a product must meet specific requirements, including criteria for energy, sodium, sugars and other important nutrients.

The Australian consumer group, Choice, is very concerned that if this proposal is approved after the FSANZ assessment there is the possibility that people may be misled into believing that “sports drinks are generally a healthy option”.

CHOICE spokesperson Tom Godfrey, said; “Rules about health claims were introduced last year to stop situations where you had clearly unhealthy products like sweets and chocolates making claims that they were 99 per cent fat free. There’s extensive research showing that any specific health claim gives a product a ‘halo effect’ and people believe the product is healthier overall. People should have the confidence that if a product has a health claim, then it is a healthier product. Creating a loophole for sports drinks is a backwards step.”

The Obesity Policy Coalition (OPC) agrees with Choice and is asking for the proposal to be denied, especially considering the sugar content of these drinks compared to  soft drinks, and the fact that most Australians do not meet the national physical activity guidelines of between 2.5 and 5 hours of moderate activity per week.

Jane Martin, Executive Manager of the OPC, said; “These new health claims are only relevant to serious sportspeople, however currently these products are marketed to, and consumed by, large numbers of Australians, who may already perceive them as a ‘healthier’ alternative. This change has potential to add to the impression that these products are beneficial for anyone who engages in sport.”

On the other hand, the Australian Beverages Council believes that the “minimal changes” to sports drink labelling being proposed will benefit consumers on the whole.

Geoff Parker, CEO of the Australian Beverages Council, said “The changes to the labelling of sports drinks (also known as Electrolyte drinks) proposed by Food Standards Australia and New Zealand are designed to provide consumers with information on the beverages they are consuming. Having scientifically substantiated claims clearly stated on the labels we hope will further assist consumers in making sure that particular types of drinks are right for them.  It’s something the industry is very open about – that these types of sports drinks are absolutely for people who engage in intensive exercise.”

With these drinks intended for athletes and those doing exercise, now being widely available in supermarkets and other locations for purchase by anyone. FSANZ will have to weigh up the benefits of improved labelling for those who the drinks are designed for, with the wide availability of them to anyone.

Written by Rachelle Williams, The Green Food Safety Coach.

15 October marks Global Handwashing Day each year, and for 2014 the theme is “Choose handwashing, choose health”.
The goals for this year are;

1. Handwashing is a choice everyone can make multiple times a day.
2. When people choose to wash hands with soap, they choose to create a healthier environment for all.
3. Good hygiene practices must become a habit.

Around the world about 200 million people participate Global Handwashing Day in 100 countries.

Although the focus of the day has always been on health and the use of soap in washing hands, good handwashing is a key to ensuring food safety, so it is well worth all food businesses recognising the day to promote the importance of handwashing in keeping food safe.

The day was originally set up to encourage children in poorer countries to develop washing their hands and to use soap when doing it as a habit. Children are the primary victims of gastrointestinal and other related diseases and conditions worldwide and it is recognised that proper handwashing will have a significant positive impact on this.

Although children remain the primary focus as agents for change in whole communities, there has been a spread to anyone who wants to promote the importance of good handwashing.

The partnership that co-ordinates Global Handwashing day has three long term goals;

1. To foster and support a global culture of handwashing with soap
2. Shine a spotlight on the state of handwashing in every country
3. Raise awareness of the benefits of handwashing with soap.

For more details about Global Handwashing Day and the partnership co-ordinating it – go to http://globalhandwashing.org/ghw-day

Written by Rachelle Williams, The Green Food Safety Coach.

For many a vegetarian meal means not eating meat. However, to some it means eating white meat and not red. Then there is vegan and what it means to people.

As a simple explanation from this vegetarian, a vego diet is one that does not include any meat at all, but may include dairy and egg. This is called ovo-lacto vegetarianism. To people like me, a person who eats any meat, including the white meats is not a true vegetarian.

A vegan is a person who eats absolutely no animal products at all, and that may include honey as it is produced by “animals”.

Ok, so now we have some basic idea about what vegetarian and vegan mean, it has been found in research done by global market research organisation Mintel, that the number of food and drink launches which have made a vegetarian claim is up by 12 percent since 2009. This obviously means that more people are choosing a completely or partly vegetarian diet.

In 2013, two percent of all food and drink launches across the world carried a vegetarian claim, so there must be a market for it.
The research was done in the UK, and found that around 12 percent of adults were either vegetarian or vegan and that in the 16-24 year age group, this number rises to 20 percent.

It is obvious from these numbers that restaurants and cafes must now be offering a vegetarian alternative as a minimum or they will be losing trade.

Mintel forecasts that in the UK, the meat free market in 2014 will be worth £657 million, which is a rise of £543 million since 2009.
People generally see vegetarian food as being healthy and environmentally friendly, so it’s popularity is almost certain to increase. The problem is that sometimes people choose to be vegetarian and do not balance their diet to ensure that they get enough good quality protein.

So many people are now choosing instead to adopt a “flexitarianism” diet, which means they consume primarily vegetarian with small amounts of meat throughout a week.

Laura Jones, Global Food Science Analyst at Mintel, said “Indeed, many meat-reducing consumers have adopted a flexible attitude, choosing to limit meat, rather than eliminate it entirely. Launches of vegetarian and vegan products echo manufacturers desire to communicate the suitability of their products to the widest range of consumers.”

Written by Rachelle Williams, The Green Food Safety Coach.

Genetic engineering is seen by some as a sort of bogeyman and for others it is the “best thing since sliced bread”. Crops and other foods are modified at a genetic level in labs to improve characteristics or to give them new desired ones.

As an example a type of rice in Asia was genetically engineered, or modified, with genes from carrots to give a golden coloured rice that had a high Vitamin A content. It was done because the population of Asia generally has a low vitamin A intake, so by adding it into rice, which is the most widely eaten food in that region, the people were getting a regular dosage of this important nutrient and the widespread deficiency was significantly reduced.

The negative side of GE (or GM) is that we don’t know the long term effects of this type of manipulation, we may be creating food allergies where there were none, some of these GM species are bred so that they will not produce seeds which means that farmers have to buy fresh seeds each time, and then there is the problem of the spread of GM crops in to places where they should not be.

It is this last effect that is causing the greatest concern as the patent for GM crops is often owned by large corporations and they obviously want to sell the seeds rather than give them away. The research and development of these GM foods is long and expensive, so giving the crop away does not make good business sense.
The problem is that with insects, the wind and other environmental impacts, GM crops can easily end up in places where they should not be and a farmer may be getting the benefit of that crop without paying for it. This has resulted in massive court cases.
So it is really no surprise that there has now been a second case under investigation by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for unauthorised GM wheat growing. In the first investigation, the authorities have not been able to find out how the non authorised crop ended up in the facility where it was found.

In both investigations the discoveries were made at test facility sites, where field trials had previously been conducted.
It is now a moral as well as legal dilemma about who actually owns an unauthorised genetically engineered crop – is it the farmer on whose land the crop has ended or is it the corporation that owns the patent on the GM?

It is an issue that urgently needs to be determined, with clear guidelines established to give us all direction. Right now it is an example of science moving faster than the law. However, if it is not sorted out soon, there is the very real potential that foods we all love and eat daily will not be able to be grown unless the farmer pays a significant premium to the owner of the patent on that crop.

Written by Rachelle Williams, The Green Food Safety Coach.

According to the latest report card for the Australian Food Industry, it makes up 28.9 percent of the manufacturing in this country and employs just under 300000 people, which is down by nearly one percent from the last year.

The Sixth Edition of the State of the Industry Annual Report from the Australian Food and Grocery Council shows that there are around 27460 companies in the food industry and the overall turnover is $114 billion, which is an increase of $3 billion from the last report.

Meat manufacturing continues to hold the largest proportion of turnover at 24.6 percent (a decrease of 0.7 percent from the previous year), with dairy next at 14.7percent (up by over nine percent from the previous report).

According to this Annual Report, with a  turnover of $91.6 billion the food and beverage processors have  the largest  proportion of the total turnover.

The report also shows that international trade is up by 7.3 percent from last year to $55.9 billion, with both imports and exports increasing by 6.1 and 8.6 percent respectively.

The report ventures that one of the reasons the trade turnover is up in this report is the lower Australian dollar.

Written by Rachelle Williams, The Green Food Safety Coach.