Canadean is a market research company specializing in beverages. It’s latest findings are that worldwide, bottled water is headed to be the dominant player in the soft drink sector within the next two years.

This is not surprising as people generally become more health conscious, however for the very well known soft drink and cola brands, this heralds some bad news. Most of the bottled water brands are already owned by the same companies that make these soft drinks and colas, so sales will not actually decrease, however the marketing mix will alter.

It is the Asian market that will be the main driver, as the research shows that one of every three litres of bottled water is consumed in Asia. This is being driven in part by the need for “clean” water and the desire to be seen drinking such a product within increasingly affluent areas.

There are several large Asian countries that still have low bottled water consumption, so there is a huge market potential.

In western countries, it is the health benefits and low kilojoule contribution that is seen as the main driver for these markets. So although these markets are not growing as quickly as Asia, there is steady growth but low margins.

There is a major problem with bottled water and that is the bottles themselves and especially what happens with them once the water is gone.

These bottles are now recognized as an increasingly significant environmental issue. The material they are made from does not generally break down well or easily and so millions of these bottles are being added to landfill annually. It is a big problem. On top of this problem, are the bottles that make their way into the oceans and become both pollution and risks to wildlife, both in and on the water.

The Australian Packaging Covenant requires that manufacturers must take responsibility for their product from development to disposal. It is voluntary but has increasing membership. The manufacturers of all bottled water in this country must follow the requirements of the Covenant to ensure that the material used is able to break down or be able to be easily recycled.

This is the only way that we can reduce the already large amounts of these bottles, and this quantity is set to increase based on the research by Canadean.

This article was written by Rachelle Williams – The Green Food Safety Coach.

The basic concept behind organic food is that it has been grown and handled without the use of chemicals. The resulting produce is often different to that which has been involved with fertilisers, pesticides and other chemicals.

There are many that say that organic food tastes better and is much better for you. Others believe that it goes off more quickly than chemical contact produce.

In Australia a business needs to meet specific requirements to be able to claim that it’s food is organic, and only when this is confirmed, can it label it’s products with the recognized organic logo. Our industry is self regulated with strong consumer protection through the Trade Practices Act. The US has a different situation, where the organic industry is regulated and has legislative requirements.

Everyone who goes shopping would know that organic food is more expensive than produce that has had contact with chemicals. This is a distinct inhibitor to sales generally. The industry says that the reason the price is higher is to allow for the higher losses with organic produce as well as other reasons.

Organic food is recognized as being better for the environment and this is increasingly a reason cited for it’s purchase.

However, even though a recent poll in the US shows that people are buying organic in part because of it’s better environmental impact, at least half of the respondents believed that labelling as organic is just an excuse to charge higher prices.

This means that, based on the results of this poll, at least half of Americans probably believe that food labelled organic is actually not organic, just labelled that way to make more money.

Mike de Vere, President of the Harris Poll said; “What surprised us most was that while Americans are showing more concern for the environment, they aren’t necessarily willing to pay more to do anything about it. While Americans feel better about the economy, many are wary of the ‘greenwashing’ concept that gives companies a chance to cash in on consumers who want to help the planet but are confused by all the eco-friendly jargon.”

Even though when asked most Australians say that the main reason for not buying organic food, there is still in many people a cynicism to the organic labelling. However, the poll in the US and recent research in Australia have shown that there is an increasing trust in the recognized organic logo.

This article has been written by Rachelle Williams – The Green Food Safety Coach.

If you see a pink food, the immediate assumption by most people is that it probably tastes like strawberries. If you see a brown looking food which is obviously sweet, most of us probably already have a chocolate image in our heads. White sweet foods will most likely trigger thoughts of vanilla for most of us.

Terry E. Acree, Ph.D, a Professor of Food Science at Cornell University in New York, who was presenting at a recent meeting of the American Chemical Society showed that people can see flavours before eating them.

Professor Acree said; “There have been important new insights into how people perceive food flavours. Years ago, taste was a table with two legs – taste and odor. Now we are beginning to understand that flavour depends on parts of the brain that involve taste, odor, touch and vision. The sum total of these signals, plus our emotions and past experiences, result in perception of flavours, and determine whether we like or dislike specific foods.”

Tests have been done on assessing the role that eyesight plays in the taste of food. One such test involved asking people to drink a white wine with distinct flavor notes and then drinking the same win but coloured red. Those being tested were found to only taste the flavours of red wines and not those of the white.

Our visual perception can also be over ridden, because there are some foods that simply look unpalatable but we love them anyway, especially at some times of the year and in certain cultures. There is a cheese in Italy that should be eaten only when it has been allowed to be full of maggots. As another example, there is a type of egg that is eaten in China that contains a very young chick.

These foods look completely inedible but are loved by those who eat them. The eyes of these people are seeing something that most others do not. They see these foods are being delicious when the rest of us would not touch them.

At university we did a taste test on venison and served exactly the same sample, cooked identically, under different coloured lights. The green light yielded very poor results. It was the eyes of the testers that were deciding what the venison was like before they even tasted it.

The research now being undertaken is confirming that it is not only taste than determines flavor but smell and eyes as well. It seems that the eyes do truly have it.

This article has been written by Rachelle Williams – The Green Food Safety Coach.

Salt is a key part of processed foods and nearly all have at least a small amount present. As humans we naturally look for foods that have a salt note.

The problem is that salt has been attributed to specific health issues and therefore there is a global move in manufacturing to reduce the salt content of our processed foods.

There are food safety issues associated with this move, as we have discussed in articles here previously. As salt has antibacterial properties, this reduction can create potential food safety issues. This has to also be carefully managed against the taste problems and likely loss of sales.

To ensure that the new limits, set by governments around the world, are being met, there is a requirement to very accurately test the foods.

To assist with this, a well known manufacturer of precision testing equipment, Mettler Toledo, has developed a new eBook that can be downloaded for free from it’s website.

Mettler Toledo is based in Switzerland is is often associated in most people’s minds with the highest quality weighing equipment. However, the company also makes other testing equipment.

This Salt Guide explains where salt comes from and it’s importance to us and our food. It then details the recognized and other methods that can be used to test for salt levels in foods.

Mettler Toledo said; “Salt is one of the key ingredients for almost any food product. Determining the right salt content makes or breaks the quality of food products.”

You can download the Salt Guide here

This article has been written by Rachelle Williams – The Green Food Safety Coach.

A person with Coeliacs Disease has an immune reaction to gluten and has potentially major issues with their lower gut. These issues can be as simple as flatulence or as significant as removal of parts of the bowel and potentially even death.

Unfortunately there is no cure for this disease. The person must simply avoid all foods containing gluten.

Gluten is a protein found only in some specific grains. Wheat is the main gluten containing crop and as it is the second most consumed crop in the world, this is a problem for those suffering from Coeliacs Disease.

Gluten is also found in rye, barley and, it is also believed, in oats.

Those foods that are now available labelled gluten free are made using non gluten crops like rice and soy. Unfortunately these foods do not always taste, or have a texture, like those foods that originally contained gluten.

There has been a search undergoing through many of the other grain crops to try to find a material which has similar properties to flour but without the gluten.

Sorghum has been grown for many years in western countries as an animal feed crop, although in Africa and India it is eaten by humans.

Research just published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry shows that bio-chemically sorghum is a grain that is safe for consumption by Coeliacs.

Farmers in the US have bred a new version of sorghum that is white. It does not take much to see that in the very near future, this white version will be used by manufacturers to replace wheat flour in gluten free foods.

This article has been written by Rachelle Williams – The Green Food Safety Coach.

The “Australian Food Statistics” report recently released by the Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) shows that there was a 4.2 percent increase in the total value of food and liquor retailing in Australia, it is now up to $135.8 billion.

The data for the report comes from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) for that time period.

The report also shows that although supermarkets make up the largest amount of this spend at 62 percent, this level has not changed significantly since the previous year.

The rest of the spend is from the following; cafes and restaurants at 14 percent, takeaways at 11 percent, liquor stores have seven percent and the remaining sic percent is covered by all other food outlets.

This really shows the power that the supermarkets have in our food industry, but interestingly, according to the Report, Australian supermarkets are only middle powers in global terms. We are seeing more and more internationally owned supermarket chains, like Costco, are starting to take Aldi’s lead and set up on our shores. This is making the market progressively more divided, although the Australian big two still dominate.

The number one largest supermarket chain across the world is the US-owned Wal-Mart Stores Incorporated.

Although two supermarket chains dominate the Australian market, Metcash is also a significant player, and between them the Report shows 3996 food stores across the country. There are also 4970 liquor stores. Interesting to note that there were more liquor than food stores in 2011-12.

The biggest foreign owned food retailer, Aldi, shows only 200 stores in the Report, so is the fourth biggest supermarket chain in the country.

According to the data, it is Woolworths that had been the most successful in 2010-11 with a profit margin of 7.4 percent for it’s food and liquor business compared to Coles and Metcash at 3.6 percent.

The Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC) is the peak body for manufacturing in Australia and is an advocate for the food industry at all levels of government.

It is constantly reviewing the industry to identify issues that new addressing and will often set up forms and other groups to review these and determine actions the AFGC can take to assist the industry. One of the best examples of this is the Allergen Bureau. This is an AFGC body that has developed the brilliant allergen labelling system called VITAL and a whole list of allergen control methods. It is considered to be the body for allergen control development in our food industry.

Recently the AFGC has been working on the issue of sustainability in the food industry and particularly the importance of all packaging being sustainable.

As a result it has just launched a Toolkit or set of guidelines that should be followed by all food manufacturers to ensure that they meet the requirements of the Packaging Covenant.

The Packaging Covenant is a voluntary agreement that manufacturers can sign up to , which commits them to responsibility for their packaging from development through to the customer and beyond. It is all about product lifecycle and means that manufacturers really need to be considering and building in sustainability from the very first point of design to allow for what will happen with that packaging when the consumer is finished with it.

The new Toolkit will help all food manufacturers meet this Covenant and be able to claim that their packaging stream is indeed sustainable.

It can be found at http://www.packagingcovenant.org.au/toolkit/

In the past people would pull into a service station or takeaway and pick up a meat pie (with tomato sauce) for a snack at almost any time of the day. Although this still happens to some extent, this Aussie icon is no longer king of the of convenience foods mountain.

That spot is now dominated by chocolate in it’s many snack forms. In fact, according to the latest research from Australian industry research group BIS Shrapnel, chocolate makes up 2/3 of the $ 711 million total value of the confectionery category, or over $ 457million. That means that Aussies are buying a lot of chocolate from service stations and other convenience stores.

The research shows that this category has increased by 18 percent since 2010. This is really interesting, considering the Global Financial Crisis and how money has been much tighter so less impulse buying.

It is however not unexpected, as chocolate and lollies are easy to eat and make a great little treat for ourselves every so often, especially during harder times.

According to the BIS Shrapnel research, this increase in confectionery sales is at the expense of ice creams, snack foods and the bakery items, including biscuits.

Meat pies are still the boss in bakery goods but the contender for the title is now sausage rolls, which are easier to eat when on the run. We are eating around $46million worth of these from convenience locations.

Mobile food vehicles are not uncommon. We have all had ice cream from an ice cream van as it was parked at the beach or as it drove down our street on a Saturday afternoon.

However, now there are gourmet foods being prepared, cooked and served from mobile food vans. The menus are understandably limited but these trucks are developing a rapidly growing popularity, especially late at night. People who have been out dancing and partying, are often looking for tasty and relatively inexpensive food late at night and these trucks meet this need perfectly.

The first food truck started in Sydney in 2012 and each of the other capitols are jumping on the bandwagon. Brisbane City Council has a tender process currently underway to license suitable “mobile food facilities” to operate in 11 parks and reserve across the city.

The Bun Mobile, which was Brisbane’s first food truck, started trading in March 2012.

These food operations are a common feature on the streets of many of the world’s big cities and have gained massive attention through social media and some now have cult followings. In fact, there is a phone app now available that will allow Sydneysiders to be able to locate their favourite truck.

The trucks position can be an issue as they can be seen as direct competition to existing restaurants and this is why Melbourne has been slower at the take up of this eating option. There was an issue related to restaurants and competition last year and licences were not reissued as a result.

Food safety is obviously an issue due to the nature of the business and set up, so these food business types must ensure that all requirements are met and are carefully monitored.

Keep an eye out for a gourmet food truck in your area, as this market contuse to grow.

According to IBISWorld, we will each spend around $132 over the four day Easter break. That is a small increase from the $130 of 2012.

I don’t know about you, but that is more than will be spent in my house, so there must be some big spenders out there, as IBIS World is predicting a total spend for Easter of more than $3 billion.

Of that huge figure, there will be around $185 million spent on chocolate alone, which is a five plus percentage increase on 2012. The biggest chocolate items are expected to be dark and organic. Dark chocolate is being considered by many to be a healthy option and so there will no doubt be a lot of dark eggs happening this Easter.

The other increasing interest in chocolate is the fair trade issue and buying a product that has not involved child or poorly paid labour.

The price of cocoa is expected to rise, so IBISWorld suggests that people will be paying more for their visit by the Easter Bunny. It is also expected that the premium brands will do well due to better economic conditions and low interest rates.

Although Good Friday is traditionally the day for eating fish and other seafood, IBISWorld expects that because Easter 2013 is outside of most state school holidays, there will mostly be celebrations at home, with seafood all weekend. This will generate sales that exceed last year by 4.9 percent.

It sure sounds like the Easter Bunny will be making the food industry happy this Easter.