In a previous article, we discussed a Recall notice system, released in August 2011 by GS1, called Recallnet.

It is a system that manufacturers, retailers, distributors and importers can join to spread information about product recalls. It includes a phone application and on line portal that allow recall information to be spread more widely, as well as providing a brilliant link for recall co-ordination. It is a simple and effective system.

There is a comparatively small joining fee of $120 and then a charge to recover the costs for using the system. It is a relatively inexpensive system to support a business’s recall program.

It already has quite a few members.

Four of the largest supermarket groups have now asked all their suppliers to join the system. This was done in an open letter to all their suppliers, which include the following; “We are pleased to announce our support of GS1 Recallnet, our industry’s tool for the effective management of recall and withdrawal notifications. We are now encouraging all of our partners to work with us by registering to use the portal. When you issue recalls and withdrawals today, it’s hard to know whether the right information is delivered to the right people at the right time; which is why we’re proud to be joining this industry-wide effort to improve and standardise recall and withdrawal notifications.”

Information about GS1 Recallnet can be found here.

Ausveg is the primary body and representative for the Australia vegetable growing industry.

It has just launched a new website that will help it’s growers, and others, monitor and reduce the impact their industry has on the environment.

The new website is called Enviroveg and has a great self assessment to help growers work out what their current impact is on their environment and from that an Action Plan can be developed using the Manual from the site. They will also be able to compare their performance to averages of other growers in their specific product type and farm size as well as to state and national figures.

The data from the self assessment will also be collected anonymously by the website to start painting an overall picture, for Ausveg, of what is happening in terms of environmental controls in the industry.

The Enviroveg program was originally launched in 2000 and currently has 300 members with 50,000 ha of farming land.

The new website will make the program more accessible to not only Ausveg members but to other growers as well.

“The EnviroVeg website gives Ausveg the ability to analyse the environmental performance of growers in areas such as energy management, water use and soil nutrition. Our new website will collect data from the self assessments and present detailed results showing how participating growers are performing at the national and State levels, or even by crop type and farm size.”

said Jordan Brooke-Barnett, Environment Coordinator for Ausveg.

The new self assessment can be found at http://ausveg.com.au/enviroveg/self_assessment.htm

Australians are well recognised as being cynical when it comes to any type of claims on food or other items. We are a nation of people that generally need to have someone prove something or have someone we trust validate it, before we believe it.

Well known sports stars are often in advertisements because it encourages us to believe that the product is everything that is being said.

Recently I had solar electricity put onto my property and I used a company that had done the same thing for a neighbour and friend. I had done some checking on prices previously but did not get a second quote because the price was reasonable. The thing that made me go with that company was the recommendation from my friend.

I am not alone in taking the recommendation of someone I know. This is one of the most common ways for businesses to do business – referrals. It immediately establishes a level of trust that would not exist without it.

A Centre for Food Integrity is being established in Australia. It is based on a model of the not for profit Center for Food Integrity in the US. It will be launched in October 2012.

Like the one in the US, our Centre will be focussed on building trust and confidence in the food we produce and our food industry.

The Centre will hopefully have representatives from all food sectors and the plan is to assist each sector improve communication to consumers about the food and industry. It will also work on collaboration between business sectors and types. It will not be working for, or on behalf of, individual businesses

The Center for Food Integrity (CFI), a U.S. not-for-profit organisation established in 2007 to build consumer trust and confidence in the food system, is to be launched in Australia in October 2012.

The US Center uses it’s five websites as the key tools in spreading the message. One of these, Farmers feed us, has an average time spent on the site of 11 minutes per person.

Representatives from the National Farmers Federation, Australian Pork Ltd, and the Australian Wheat Board are on the Foundation Board of the Australian CFI. It is expected that interest, which is already high in the food industry, will continue to increase.

The Maximum Residue Limits are the top level of specific chemicals permitted to be in certain types of foods. It is a requirement in Chapter One of the Food Standards Code.

The following is information from of Food Standards Australia New Zealand and is included with permission. You can find this and other information through subscribing to the Subscription Service at subscriptions@foodstandards.gov.au.

For more information please call the FSANZ media phone on 0401 714 265 or email media@foodstandards.gov.au.

Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) today invited submissions on proposed changes to maximum residue limits (MRLs) in the Food Standards Code.

FSANZ Chief Executive Officer Steve McCutcheon said FSANZ periodically reassessed MRLs for agricultural or veterinary chemicals that may be present in food.

“This is a routine process, both to allow the sale of food with legitimate residues and to remove limits that are no longer required,” Mr McCutcheon said.

“This Proposal includes consideration of MRLs gazetted by the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority for carbendazim and dimethoate. It also considers MRLs requested by other parties, to align the Code with Codex (the body that develops international standards) or trading partner standards.

“FSANZ’s dietary exposure assessments indicate the limits set out in this Proposal do not present any public health and safety concerns.”

The closing date for submissions was 13 August 2012.

For full details about approvals and other standards matters see the latest FSANZ Notification Circular

Media contact: 0401 714 265 (Australia) or +61 401 714 265 (from New Zealand) or email media@foodstandards.gov.au

It is well known that we all need calcium in our diets to have good strong bones. However you also need Vitamin D and a well balanced diet, as well as regular exercise.

Dairy Australia launched Healthy Bones Week in 1994 and the 2012 one was in late August

This year the focus was on trying to get Cafes involved through the “Free Shake Days” promotion, The aim was that Cafes will give away free milkshakes and smoothies as a way of encouraging people to drink more milk and eat dairy foods.

It was hoped that the Mass Milkshake Giveaway would highlight the importance of keeping bones healthy.

The Cafes taking part were promoted for free on a special webpage, as well as on Facebook and Twitter. To get more information go to the Dairy Australia website.

Schools were also encouraged to take part through a dance related competition. Details can be found at Milkshake

Healthy Bones Week is a little controversial however. Although the aim is to help highlight the importance of healthy bones by making sure that we all consume calcium in our diets, it can also be seen as a way of getting people to drink more milk and eat more dairy foods.

Some have argued that as it is run by Dairy Australia it is in fact not a promotion of calcium as a healthy nutrient but a campaign to encourage more milk consumption.

Even three years ago there was not as much food or advertising about oats and wholegrain as there is now.

So is there anything to this whole thing about oats being good for you?

Recent studies published in the journal, Molecular Nutrition and Food Research, from Germany have reinforced that oats have the ability to lower bad cholesterol (Low Density Lipo-proteins – LDLs) by binding up bile acids.

Oats also have an anti-inflammatory effect against the inflammation that can be caused by high cholesterol levels.

On top of this, the anti-oxidative capacity of oats can lower hypertension (high blood pressure), obesity and diabetes.

Of the hypertensive patients in the study, 73 percent of them could have had their blood pressure medication reduced after eating meals containing oats. Only 42 percent of those eating the control cereal meals were able to have their medication reduced. This shows convincingly that consuming oats does reduce blood pressure when compared to other cereal types.

Oats are of particular interest to researchers because they are easy to prepare and eat. Little processing is required to make them both edible and easy to use. Rolled oats are both easy to produce and easy for consumers to use.

It is this unique property that makes oats the cereal of choice at the moment for food manufacturers. This can be seen by the sheer number of advertisements now out there for products that contain oats and other wholegrains.

A simple indication of this is the number of quick porridge products and wholegrain foods that are now available.

So oats are good for us and food businesses are now developing and selling product to meet this increasing customer requirement. It is just another example of how the market is an important driver of the food industry.

The World Food Prize was created in 1986 by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Norman Borlaug and General Foods. It has international standing and recognises a person who has advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world.

It is funded by a philanthropist from Iowa in the USA, and is presented annually around the same time as October’s World Food Day.

The prize is US$250 000 and the winner is also called a Laureate. Winners have come from many countries and all have made significant contributions to humankind.

The 2012 World Food Prize winner is a world-renowned Israeli environmental scientist and hydrologist, Dr Daniel Hillel.

Israel is a country full of very dry areas and yet it is able to sustain itself through clever use of micro irrigation techniques. Dr Hillel has been instrumental in the development of these techniques.

His work has significantly improved the water efficiency in many very dry countries, including; Pakistan, Sudan, Iran, Egypt, Jordan, Cyprus, and Australia. This has vastly improved agricultural outputs of these countries. The Middle East, in particular, has benefited enormously from his work in food production and micro-irrigation.

He has also been heavily involved recently in the production and publishing of the Handbook of Climate Change and Agroecosystems. The first Volume has already been published. This is the result of his work on the effect of climate change on water shortage.

Dr Hillel has also been an advisor to both the World Bank and the United Nations.

For more information about the World Food Prize.

A recent customer complaint about a chicken fillet has been upheld by the Advertising Standards Board (ASB).

The case was upheld because the ASB found that the public perception of a fillet is that it is a whole piece of meat with no bone and not made from processed meat.

It was found that the fillet in question was not a whole fillet, and as such cannot be called a fillet.

Unfortunately there was no clear definition of chicken fillet in the Food Standards Code or Cuts of Chicken Meat from the Australian Chicken Meat Federation, so the ASB had to rely on what the public believes.

The company has been found to be using false advertising and is required to change the name of the product and make no reference to the word “fillet”. The change will be effective across all stores and the website by the end of July.

If the complaint had been made to Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) instead of the ASB, there would have been potentially massive fines as well as the name change requirement.

This case really highlights the absolute importance of a business making sure that it uses the right words to describe products on both labelling and in advertising. There are penalties, both financial and to reputation, if a business does it wrong, especially if it is done deliberately.

Most in the food industry do not understand how food laws are developed, maintained and monitored in this country, as they are mainly concerned with simply running their business. It is worth having some idea as we all have the opportunity to contribute to the laws in our country through the reviews that happen with each proposed change to the law.

At the top of the food law tree in Australia is the Food Standards Code. This document contains all the requirements for food and it’s manufacture, handling, packaging and labelling. It has four chapters / standards; General, Specific Foods, Food Safety and Primary Production. Chapters One and Two also apply in New Zealand.

Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) is responsible for the development, maintenance and review of the Code through Acts of the Australian and New Zealand Parliaments. The Code itself only becomes law when each State or Territory recognises it.

The process of developing a new standard or inclusion in a standard or adjustment to something already in the Code is not a quick process and involves many people and steps, in FSANZ and throughout the community. Fundamentally a new standard process involves the following steps; proposal by a recognised party, review by FSANZ, initial consultation by all stakeholders, Draft standard preparation, review by Ministerial Council, adjustments and further preparation by FZANZ, final consultation by general public and stakeholders, final standards preparation, final approval by Ministerial Council. It is then made law in each state and territory.

The above is a simplified version of what is currently happening and there are other steps and groups involved in the process as well.

There are always at least two opportunities for anyone in the community to have a say about the changes or new standard. The problem is that many people do not even know that laws are being changed. Everyone can sign up to be on the FSANZ database for free information and updates, and all business owners should do this.

As it is understood that the process to make and change food law is complicated, there is a review of the Food Regulation System currently underway in a process called the ‘Stakeholder Engagement Strategy’.

As both the New Zealand and Australian Governments want to ensure that there is good opportunity for stakeholders, like industry and consumer groups, to be involved in the food law process, the System Review is also open to all for comment.

Those that wish to have a say about how our food law is done and maintained should contact the Stakeholder Engagement Project officer by 26 July, 2012 – http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/foodsecretariat-1

Obesity is considered by many in the health industry as the biggest health problem in our society. The issue is that when people are heavily overweight it has an impact on many of the body’s systems. There are many diseases and conditions that are made significantly worse, or even brought on, by a person weighing more than they really should, including; diabetes and heart conditions.

I remember once being told by my Doctor that for every extra kilogram of body weight, the heart has to pump blood an extra kilometre. This obviously puts the heart and other organs under increased stress.

Western countries have a rapidly increasing diabetes rate and this is being attributed to the increase worldwide in obesity. Diabetes has two forms, Type 1 which requires insulin injections several times a day and Type 2 which can be diet controlled. People with diabetes can eventually lose limbs from the poor blood flow that is a symptom of the disease. It is having a serious impact on our society and is costing the economy a lot of money.

Governments everywhere are trying a whole variety of methods to try and reduce the increasing obesity rate around the world. New laws are being put in place across the world, including the requirement for large quick serve chains to display the energy content of each of their menu items.

In New South Wales, the state government has just introduced a brilliant new website which focusses on the key issue of controlling obesity, getting people to eat less and better, as well as do exercise.

It is a simple fact that if we eat more than our body needs, we put the excess on as fat and our weight increases. So there are two things we can do to prevent this fat being deposited, we eat less or we burn up the fat by exercising. Ideally we should do both to be healthy.

The new website is called 8700.com.au and is named after the average energy consumption by a healthy adult. It has some truly brilliant information and a great little guide to help you work out how much energy you do for your age, gender and activity level.

The website also talks about why many people actually put on more weight in winter than in summer and what they can do about reducing that.