September/October 2006
NZ’S AUTHORITY ON FOOD TECHNOLOGY, RESEARCH AND MANUFACTURING
In this issue we look at:
Foodtech Packtech Preview
Four Conference Reports
NZIFST Careers Programme
THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE NEW ZEALAND INSTITUTE OF FOOD SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY INC.
EDITOR’S NOTE
COOKIES
Editor’s Note
This issue marks the beginning of a
new chapter in the story of Food New
Zealand – a new publisher, Peppermint
Press, owned and run by long-term
NZIFST members who are committed to
the Institute and aim to build the journal’s
reputation as a credible, authoritative
publication with visibility and prestige.
Dave Pooch, my fellow director at
Peppermint Press, and I are proud to be
publishers of Food New Zealand.
We have a strong focus on conferences this month. Warren Larsen’s keynote
address from our Conference is an important paper – the vision of a man with
years of experience looking outward to
New Zealand’s place in global trade.
NZIFST members attended the AIFST
Conference in Adelaide and the IFT congress in Florida and have supplied interesting and thought provoking reports.
The MIA Conference in Nelson is previewed and Dave Pooch attended the
GS1 Conference for us. Conferences are
so much more than a collection of presentations by ‘experts’. They allow delegates to learn, share and network across
disciplines and oceans.
We have also previewed the Foodtech Packtech exhibition at some length,
running a feature incorporating editorial
supplied by exhibitors.
The first part of a report on the
NZIFST careers programme is very encouraging – committed members doing
the hard work needed to get more young
people into food science and food technology courses – a recurring theme in
many articles in the magazine.
Anne Scott, Editor
Dave Pooch, Anne Scott, Sally Hasell
and Marion Cumming confirm the
new publisher of Food New Zealand
President’s Note
It has been my pleasure again this year
to attend the Australian Institute of Food
Science and Technology conference and
to host their president, Ken Grice at our
NZIFST conference. Our two organisations and, of course, our industry and
food regulations have much in common
and there are many benefits in working
together and sharing experiences. As
we are no longer able to hold joint conferences, we are always looking for the
opportunity to work together in other
ways. One such proposal is to have a
joint study tour to Singapore and possibly China in 2007.
Both our organisations and similar
organisations worldwide have identified a major concern in the shortage
of skilled technologists, food engineers
and specialist food scientists. Attracting
young people into the profession is of
vital importance. NZIFST is committing
significant resource into this area as
you will see in the relaunching of our
website pages on Careers and Education. This committee is NZIFST’s most
active and is doing great things in collaboration with external programmes
such as Futureintech. At Branch level,
involvement with Science Fairs and
Contacts
New Zealand Institute of Food
Science & Technology (Inc.)
Rosemary Hancock, Executive
Manager
PO Box 8031, Palmerston North,
New Zealand
Phone: 021 217 8298 or 06 356 1686
Fax: 06 356 1687
Email: rosemary@nzifst.org.nz
Website: www.nzifst.org.nz
Dairy Industry Association of
New Zealand Inc.
Toni Hunt, President
Email: tonihunt@pcconnect.co.nz
Meat Industry Association of
New Zealand
Caryll Shailer, Chief Executive
PO Box 345, Wellington
Phone: 04 473 6465
Fax: 04 473 1731
Email: caryll.shailer@mia.co.nz
Next editorial and advertising
deadline: 16th October 2006
mentoring school students is a valuable
contribution. Skills shortages have been
identified by the Food and Beverage
Taskforce as a key to New Zealand continuing to have a profitable future in the
food and beverage area and we can expect to see more government initiatives
in this area. For NZIFST this must be a
key focus for our strategic plan. I would
encourage all of you to help in any
way you can, whether as an individual,
through involvement with the NZIFST
committee and Branch initiatives, as Futureintech ambassadors or through the
company or organisation you work for
and to promote food science, engineering and technology to children, parents
and teachers.
Sally Hasell, President, NZIFST
Peppermint Press
5 Rupi Court, Mt Wellington
P O Box 11 530, Ellerslie, Auckland 1542
New Zealand
Phone/Fax 64 9 527 8449
www.peppermintpress.co.nz
Symbols of
integrity
Copyright © 2006 Peppermint Press
No part of this publication may be
reproduced or copied in any form by
any means (graphic, electronic, or
mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, taping information retrieval
systems, or otherwise) without the
written permission of Peppermint
Press. The views expressed in this
journal are those of the writers and
do not necessarily represent the view
of the Publisher, the Scientific review
board, NZIFST, DIANZ, or MIA.
September/October 2006
3
CONTENTS
TEMPERATURE
Measurement Technology
NZ’S AUTHORITY ON FOOD TECHNOLOGY, RESEARCH AND MANUFACTURING
September/October 2006
HACCP Compliance
VOLUME
7,
NO .
5,
ISSN
1175 – 4621
3
Editorials
5
Inbrief – assorted local & international news
10 Foodtech Packtech preview
20 Nutrition – Not all fats are created equal
22 Food Safety – The safety of chicken meat
24 Oils & Fats News
25 Conference Keynote Address – Warren Larsen
30 NZIFST Branch Reports
33 NZIFST Careers
36 AIFST Conference Report
39 MIA News
45 GS1 Conference Report
In today’s hygiene conscious world
it is critical food products reach the
consumer in prime condition. For
those exporting food products,
meeting the strict HACCP/ISO9000
standards requires close monitoring
at all stages of production and
transportation.
47 IFT Conference Report
48 Book Reviews
50 Events
For temperature measurement
at these critical stages Testo
measuring instruments will ensure
your products measure up from
“Farm to Fork”.
Publisher and Managing Editor
Anne Scott, Peppermint Press Limited - anne@peppermintpress.co.nz
Director and Writer
David Pooch, Peppermint Press Limited - david@peppermintpress.co.nz
For further information on how the
Testo range of measurement
technology products can assist your
business, contact TESTO's sole
New Zealand Agent:
Advertising
Anne Scott - anne@peppermintpress.co.nz
David Pooch - david@peppermintpress.co.nz
Layout
Hart Design - foodnz@hartdesign.co.nz
ET/HACCP
Regular Contributors
Laurence Eyres, Alison Spencer, Laurie Melton
Chairman Scientific Review Board
Dr Owen McCarthy,
EUROTEC INSTRUMENTS LIMITED
HEAD OFFICE : AUCKLAND Unit C - 750 Great South Rd Penrose
Tel : (09) 579 1990 Fax : (09) 525 3334 Email : sales@eurotec.co.nz
WELLINGTON : Tel : (04) 499 3591 Fax : (04) 499 3696
CHRISTCHURCH : Tel : (03) 366 0017 Fax : (03) 365 6357
WEBSITE : www.eurotec.co.nz
O.McCarthy@massey.ac.nz
Published by Peppermint Press Limited
Printed by MH Print
The Official Journal of the New Zealand Institute of Food Science and Technology
4
Food New Zealand
global news items
More fame for one of our
new Fellows!
Paul Tocker is now a member of the board of
the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology
Paul is currently the Chief Executive of the
New Zealand Institute for Crop & Food Research
Limited (Crop & Food), a Crown Research Institute. He has of Bachelor of Technology (Honours)
and is a Fellow of NZIFST and the New Zealand
Institute of Management. He has a strong record
of achievement in the private sector through positions with Tasman Milk Products Limited and Anchor Products prior to joining Crop & Food. He
is a past member of the Biotechnology Taskforce
and a current member of the Food and Beverage Taskforce and is the Chair, or a Director, of
several of Crop & Food’s subsidiary or associated Paul Tocker
companies.
Kerry Tyack has been appointed to
the position of Executive Director of
the New Zealand Juice and Beverage
Association, replacing Bronwyn Bartley who sadly passed away in May
this year. The Executive Director is a
part time role responsible for overall
management of the Association and
in particular communication and
contact with external parties and the
membership.
Kerry has a background in public relations, journalism and event
management, and now has his own
business, Tyack Marketing Communications, which provides services to a range of companies and
organisations. He also holds an MA
(Hons) degree and lectures in event
management and beverage studies,
amongst other subjects. Kerry has
done a lot of work in the food and
beverage sector, including editorship
of F&B and Hospitality magazines,
writing the wine column for Metro
magazine, serving as Director and
past Chairman of BrewNZ, and as a
judge of numerous food and beverage competitions to name just a few
things.
New Head of IFNHH at Massey
Professor Richard Archer has recently
been appointed the new Head of the
Institute of Food, Nutrition and Human
Health at Massey University.
Richard’s background of collaboration and multidisciplinary thinking
equips him well for his new role in the
Institute of Food, Nutrition and Human
Health (IFNHH) – a leading provider of
knowledge for food and health innovation in New Zealand. He is keen to see
continued integration of IFNHH’s specialist capabilities in and around food
and health with that of Crown Research
Institutes and New Zealand industry.
Recognised as an innovator, his work
has been multi-disciplinary and inventive, leading to a large number of product and process improvements that have
increased revenue streams and cut costs
in dairy processing. He is a Fellow of
the Institution of Professional Engineers
of New Zealand, a Fellow of the New
Zealand Institute of Food Science and
Technology and is an Associate of the
Riddet Centre.
Since 2004 Richard has been Head
of the Institute of Technology and Engineering at Massey. Prior to his appointment at Massey, he was a senior
manager at FonterraTech Limited, responsible for identifying leading edge
opportunities for substantial new businesses, then generating the necessary
technology and intellectual property
and initiating that new business to the
point of first sales. Before that he spent
five years heading the milk powder
protein and sections of the New Zealand Dairy Research Institute.
Professor Richard Archer
IN BRIEF
In-brief
- assorted local &
New Exective
Director for
NZJBA
IN BRIEF
COOKIES
Lifetime achievement Award For
Laurence Eyres
The New Zealand Food and Grocery
Council (NZFGC) established the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005 to
recognise industry figures who have
contributed substantially to the industry, have played a strong role in the affairs of the former GMA and now the
FGC, usually through membership on
the Board or FGC Committees, and
who have demonstrated leadership,
vision, integrity and inspiration. The
Award is to acknowledge the personal
contribution the recipient has made to
the industry.
At the recent NZFGC AGM, Laurence
Eyres was announced as the recipient
of the 2006 Award to very popular acclaim. In presenting the Award, Peter
McClure, CEO, Fonterra Brands NZ Ltd
acknowledged the invaluable contribution Laurence Eyres has made to the
industry. His technological expertise
has made an outstanding contribution to the New Zealand food industry
and his input on the FGC Science and
Technical Committee has also been
invaluable.
McFoodies initiates forum for
small food manufacturers
New Regional
Director for Danisco
Sweeteners
Bram van Hulsen has been appointed
Regional Director of Danisco Sweeteners’
operations for the SE Asia, Oceania and
India region. Bram will continue to operate out of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where
he heads the Sweeteners team and activities for the rapidly developing market of
Danisco’s speciality sweeteners xylitol,
lactitol, Litesse® (polydextrose) and fructose, as well as related ingredients.
He joined Danisco Sweeteners almost
4 years ago, having previously worked as
the National Sales Manager for Danisco
Australia, which was formed following
the acquisition of Germantown Australia.
Before this, Bram was employed by DMV
Nutritionals, a Dutch speciality dairy ingredients company.
Over the past 6 years of working with many small players in the food industry,
McFoodies has identified a need for food business owners and managers to have
the opportunity to network with people from similar businesses. With this goal
in mind, McFoodies has initiated ‘Fab Foodie Forum’, a gathering of food manufacturers, ingredient and packaging suppliers, contract manufacturers and food
industry consultants.
The first forum will be held from 4-6pm on Wednesday 13th September.
Bob Spencer from Pacific Flavours & Ingredients will give a presentation entitled ‘Wake Up and Smell the Roses: Ingredients to add the WOW Factor to your
Food’.
Numbers are limited, so if you are interested in attending the forum, please
contact Cathy Merrall of McFoodies by phoning 09 232 8062, or by email:
cathym@mcfoodies.co.nz
Bram van Hulsen, new Danisco
Regional Director
6
Food New Zealand
IN BRIEF
COOKIES
Queen’s Birthday Honour for NZIFST members
Dr Jane Harman
Dr Jane Harman
Dr Jane Harman
Unitec New Zealand horticultural researcher and lecturer, Dr Jane Harman,
became a Member of the New Zealand
Order of Merit for her services to food
science and technology.
She is currently a senior lecturer in
Unitec’s School of Natural Sciences, having previously held a number of senior
positions at the institution, and is the
chairperson of the New Zealand Horticultural Science Advancement Trust and
co-chair of Sustainable Aotearoa New
Zealand.
Jane has worked in many areas in her
chosen field – plant physiology – including pure research, industrial research and
development and in tertiary teaching and
management. Her work with DSIR in the
late 1970’s played a significant role in
protecting New Zealand’s export markets
through the development of maturity indices for kiwifruit and other crops.
She undertook one of the first waste
audits of a major company in New Zealand while working with Goodman Fielder Wattie. Methods developed from this
exercise were later used by the Ministry
for the Environment in developing protocols for waste audits.
While working for the Ministry of
Agriculture and Fisheries Quality Management Division as a food quality consultant in the early 90’s Jane developed
quality assurance systems and training
packages for several food companies to
ensure high standards of food safety and
quality. She became a registered quality
systems auditor.
She developed her own consultancy
business in postharvest science and technology for a few years before moving
into the tertiary education sector.
In 1996 she joined UNITEC as a senior academic manager and, as Dean, supported the development of the Faculty of
Health and Environmental Sciences.
Jane Lancaster
Consultant and Director of Catalyst Research and Development Ltd, Jane Lancaster was appointed a member of the
New Zealand Order of Merit in recognition of services to agricultural and horticultural research.
Catalyst is research & development
consultancy which works with businesses in the biological sector to develop
their research and development and innovation. Jane has been involved in R&D
in food, biotechnology, horticulture and
agriculture in New Zealand and internationally for 30 years
She trained in plant biochemistry and
plant physiology. She has a BSc Hons
from Canterbury University. Until 1997
she worked ini research at DSIR and Crop
& Food Research is most recognised for
her work in the biosynthetic pathways
leading to colour and flavour in plants
and food, and their regulation. Jane has
published over 70 articles, reviews and
chapters in refereed journals, as well as
numerous conference presentations.
She has served on science advisory
and review committees with FRST and
MRST and was a board member of New
Zealand Environmental Risk Management
Authority from 2001-2003. She is currently a science adviser with AGMARDT.
A professional member of NZIFST
since 1998, Jane is a CPAg with NZ IAS
and a member of the Royal Society of
New Zealand.
PulseNet Aotearoa New Zealand receives
International Recognition Award
The work of ESR towards establishing
PulseNet Aotearoa New Zealand was
recently recognised with the presentation in Miami of a PulseNet International Recognition Award. The global
vision for PulseNet is the creation of
worldwide regional networks utilising
standardised identification and isolated characterisation methods and sharing information in real-time to provide
early warning on foodborne disease
outbreaks, emerging foodborne infections, and acts of food bioterrorism. The
award ESR received recognises both the
initial steps taken to establish PulseNet
methodology in New Zealand, and also
its contributions to the establishment of
PulseNet Asia Pacific.
PulseNet Aotearoa New Zealand has
initially focused on the four most common notified bacterial diseases in New
Zealand - Campylobacter, Salmonella,
shiga-toxin producing E. coli (STEC)
and Listeria.
For each organism the standardised
PulseNet methodology for pulsed-field
gel electrophoresis (PFGE) has been established at ESR, and certification with
PulseNet USA completed. PFGE is a
molecular fingerprinting tool that generates a barcode-like fingerprint from
each isolated organism.
ESR would like to acknowledge
support and funding for the development of PulseNet Aotearoa New Zealand from Ministry of Health, the New
Zealand Food Safety Authority, Dairy
Insight, and the New Zealand Enteric
Disease Research Committee.
September/October 2006
7
IN BRIEF
Seeing the Light – Long-life
milk in clear PET bottles
Scott Hutchings – taking on the
challenge of new packaging for longlife milk
A new trend that is emerging overseas
is the packaging of long-life milks in
plastic bottles that allow for the transmission of light and oxygen, and therefore there is the likliehood that without
adequate barrier protections the shelf
life of the milk may be compromised
owing to oxidation.
Massey University was approached
by Xenos Limited, an innovative New
Zealand company that specialises in
aseptic processing and packaging, to
undertake a project on this topic. A
fourth year Food Technology student
project was then established which has
been undertaken by Scott Hutchings,
supervised by Dr Owen McCarthy.
Scott is looking at the factors that
affect the rate of oxidation of full cream
UHT milk when packed into clear plastic PET bottles. If multilayer barrier
plastics are required then the packaging cost increases and manufacturing
flexibility is decreased. However, consumers often prefer packages where
they can see the product so that they
can tell how much is left in the pack.
Following a detailed literature
search a trial was initiated. Several
hundred bottles of long-life milk in
Xenos material were produced and
these are now being stored under a variety of conditions for several months.
Several methods to track oxidative
changes over time are being used in
the study. These include the use of the
thiobarbituric acid (TBA) test and taste
panels. Early results suggest that exposure to light is the key factor leading
to oxidative deterioration, whilst exposure to oxygen in the absence of light
is less important. Antioxidants may also
have an important protective effect.
Once the study is complete it is expected that Xenos Limited will be able
to give companies wishing to adopt
this form of packaging advice on how
to ensure the oxidative stability of
milks when packed into PET plastic
containers.
Filthy lucre? It’s
all in the mind
In association with EIT in the Hawke’s
Bay (NZ) researchers from the University
of Ballarat decided to study just how dirty
Australian and New Zealand money is.
The belief that money can be the
source of microorganisms, especially in
food outlets where those serving food
also handle money, is yet another urban
myth that science has, apparently, debunked. Dr. Frank Vriesekoop and his
team collected money (for scientific purposes, of course) from food outlets and
checked for total and food borne pathogens with further screening for antibiotic
resistance.
Results on the coins were quite surprising, with typical counts of only 1-10/
cm2, with many coins sterile and only
occasionally really dirty coins. Banknotes
had a higher spread in counts with averages around 10-15/cm2 with no sterile
notes and one particularly dirty Aussie
$20 note with a 104 count. Some of the
different pathogens found did indeed
show antibiotic resistance. The cleanliness of these polymer notes will be compared with those of paper notes in other
countries. Conclusion: the number of
bacteria on money is actually quite low,
but don’t throw away your latex gloves
yet – the number of bacteria on hands
is quite high, even ‘clean’ hands, as we
all know.
Rentokil expands its capabilities
With its acquisition of fumigation company Akarana Environmental Services Limited, Rentokil has further expanded its
capabilities to assist companies protect their businesses from
furry, feathered and feelered pests.
“For Rentokil to be truly effective,” says Tony Poulsen, Divisional Manager Rentokil Pest Control, “we need to control
the entire chain from farm to fork. And if that fork resides in
Brussels - then so be it. Akarana brings us a step closer to
8
Food New Zealand
ensuring every single link of our client’s supply chain, from
Timaru to Timbuktu, is protected and safe.”
Tony Poulsen sees pest control as part of a company’s
overall food safety strategy – prevention being the watchword. “Rentokil isn’t about ridding you of pests, its about
making your operation as unappealing to them as possible
through our three-pronged fail safe policy – exclusion, restriction and destruction.” he says.
“Commercial mushrooms can be easily
treated to enhance Vitamin D”, says Anne
Perera of Crop & Food Research.
“We have found that ultraviolet energy treatments can be readily applied in
a commercial setting to a range of mushroom tissue types,” she says. “This gives
food manufacturers the possibility of enhancing vitamin D in products by either
using mushroom components or using
a natural nutrient extract derived from
mushrooms.”
Vitamin D is well recognised as an
important nutrient that plays a vital role
in calcium metabolism and bone mineralisation. Scientific evidence also suggests
that vitamin D intake decreases the risk
of developing cancers, heart diseases,
obesity, diabetes and arthritis.
Dr Perera said there are several recent
scientific studies involving the conversion
of a natural precursor found in mushrooms (ergosterol) into vitamin D by exposing mushrooms to ultraviolet energy.
“At Crop & Food Research, we have
scaled up these laboratory findings to assess the commercial potential. We have
also established vitamin D analysis protocols so levels of this important nutrient can be measured in the mushrooms,”
she says. “We have also shown that the
vitamin D levels obtained in mushrooms
are relatively stable for the shelf life of
the mushrooms and for dietary cooking
needs.” The procedures to enhance vitamin D levels in mushrooms are flexible
enough to be incorporated into an existing operating procedure.
IN BRIEF
COOKIES
Enhancing vitamin D in mushrooms
Foodservice journal
from Blackwell
Publishing
Call for papers
A comprehensive new journal created from the merger of ‘Foodservice Research International and ‘Food
Service Technology’ aims to advance
the technical understanding of all
aspects of foodservice by disseminating comprehensive information
about foodservice research, development, and technical operation. This
publication contains peer-reviewed
original papers of basic and applied
research, methodology, current issues and trends, reviews, case histories, and practical applications.
‘The Journal of Foodservice’ is
aimed at both technical and managerial personnel in the foodservice
industry, academia, and other appropriate institutions and organizations world-wide.
Editors Herbert L. Meiselman,
John S.A. Edwards, and Peter L. Bordi, Jr. are currently accepting submissions of new manuscripts for the
Journal of Foodservice. Visit http://
www.blackwellpublishing.com/fri
for complete author guidelines.
Eating smart to resolve stomach ailments
A change in diet may reduce the need
for gastritis and stomach ulcer-related
medication, if a new line of research is
successful. A team of scientists, led by
Crop & Food Research’s Alison Wallace,
is investigating the effect of a group of
foods on the well-known stomach bacteria, Helicobacter pylori.
The bacteria is found in the gastrointestinal tract of 50 to 70 per cent of
the world’s population and can cause
some serious diseases, including stomach cancer in some carriers. Dr Wallace
describes the bug’s impact as complex. “In some people it wreaks havoc while in others it actually seems to
be doing some good. Research shows
that in western countries, where antibiotics have been used to combat H.
pylori, stomach cancers have become
less common, but on the negative side,
cancers relating to the oesophagus have
increased. It seems that H. pylori may
have some beneficial effects by helping
reduce acid reflux.”
Dr Wallace is looking to resolve
these questions via a collaborative
project involving the natural healthcare company Comvita, as well as researchers at the University of Otago’s
Christchurch School of Medicine. “The
team is coming up with some interesting results,” she says. “There are a
number of quite common foods that
are showing traits that will reduce the
sort of inflammation in the stomach
that H. pylori is capable of and they are
all foods or ingredients that are readily
available at the moment.” Dr Wallace
describes broccoli sprouts as a good
example. Products from the beehive
are also proving interesting. “What we
hope to do is come up with a combined
approach,” she says.
Ultimately Dr Wallace and her team
hope to produce either a food or supplement that will work for people at
risk of gastritis and stomach ulcers. The
project has received $2 million in funding from the Foundation for Research,
Science and Technology.
Broccoli sprouts are showing
potential in protection from the
effects of H. pylori
September/October 2006
9
FOODTECH PACKTECH
Foodtech Packtech
2006
Auckland, 17 – 19 October
O
nce again, the biennial Foodtech
Packtech exhibition will give
visitors the opportunity to view
products and services for the food industry. From the tiniest tincture of colour, to
the six figure processing plant, whatever
you are looking for will be there.
While new packaging technology will
be much in evidence, visitors can expect
greater visibility of food technology disciplines.
During the show, seminars will be run
by the Packaging Council of New Zealand (Inc) and by the Auckland Branch
of NZIFST.
As usual winners in the Massey University Awards will be displayed on a
special stand, following the Awards dinner on 16th October.
Further industry awards on show will
be the Plastics New Zealand Awards and
the Innovation Awards from The New
Zealand Institute of Packaging.
Food New Zealand has canvassed exhibitors for a preview of their offering.
The following is a sampling of companies
whose products and services will be on
view.
Shrink pack from
Multivac for attractive
presentation
FormShrink is an innovative new packaging process from machine manufacturer
Multivac suitable for food products and
also consumer goods or
technical articles.
Upper and lower webs are used to
produce highly transparent shrink packs
that surround the product like a second
skin – without any wrinkles. Filled packs
are evacuated and sealed to the upper
web under high pressure, producing a
very secure seam.
The process allows unusual geometries to be processed at high speeds
on rollstock machines producing packs
with excellent visual appeal. Packaging
is on a customised basis, with fluctuating
weights and sizes being no problem.
“The new systems are highly economic,” says Stephen Holmes of Multivac
NZ Ltd. “Machine handling is simple and
differs fundamentally from the standard
method used on conventional shrink
pouch machines. In the FormShrink process, pack pockets are thermoformed from
a lower web to be completely open at
the top and are filled cleanly and hygienically from above. Output is very high due
to multiple dies, high cycle speeds and
a fully automatic product infeed system.
The machines can be operated efficiently
with few staff, an important consideration
in these days of labour shortages.”
“This year we are exhibiting the compact R 150 model for medium-sized and
smaller capacity requirements. Its bigger
version, the R550 is a high-speed machine suitable for high capacity requirements and large product dimensions and
weights,” he continues.
All of the machines are modular and
are produced from stainless steel in accordance with customers’ individual
needs. Special requirements such as the
space available or additional equipment
can be taken into consideration
in machine design.
Formshrink Machines
from Multivac
10
Food New Zealand
Gravure printing on
flexible packaging
delivers results
Cas-Pak is one of the few companies in
New Zealand to offer up to 10-colour gravure printing on flexible packaging. The
superior quality of this printing process
adds significantly to shelf appeal of the
product.
This unique offer, at very competitive
pricing, continues a tradition of forwardlooking innovation. Cas-Pak was one
of the first companies to bring stand-up
pouches and recloseable technologies to
the Australasian market.
“With over 15 years experience and
offices in Australia and New Zealand,
Cas-Pak is big enough to deliver flexible
packaging solutions to producers in both
countries,” says Cas-Pak New Zealand’s
managing director, Harry Zwalue. “But
we’re still small enough to do so with
personalised service.”
One of the aspects Harry is proudest
of is Cas-Pak’s ability to offer the highest-quality gravure printing process at a
price many customers find surprisingly
affordable. It is not a process that is often
offered for flexible packaging, then normally at a stiff premium.
“The gravure process delivers notably superior quality,” says Harry. “With
gravure printing, your packaging will
look crisper and brighter. It all adds up
to greater visual appeal, which yields improved sales results.”
He believes the small amount of extra
investment pays off very quickly.
“Everyone along the supply chain,
from producer to reseller to consumer,
wins with Cas-Pak,” says Harry. “Our
flexible packaging is cost competitive,
lightweight, space efficient, modern, attractive and convenient.”
Look for Cas-Pak’s stand at Foodtech
Packtech.
At this year’s Foodtech Packtech show
SEW-Eurodrive (stand 141) will be presenting a full range of global drive solutions; motors and brake motors, servo
motors, gear units, geared motors, drive
electronics and heavy duty industrial gear
units.
SEW-Eurodrive (NZ) Ltd have just
released onto the New Zealand market
a new Variable Speed Drive (VSD) that
provides 100% constant
torque
from 0 to 50Hz.
This torque
is also adjustable so that it
can be set for
a torque limitation, for
Revolutionary new
products and services
from Saito
Saito Group, founded in 1985 and 100%
New Zealand owned and controlled, has
completed a major addition to its services
and product offerings.
“As a New Zealand owned company
we subscribe to growing NZ Inc,” asserts
Dean Prosser, Group Sales Manager “Two
years ago we embarked on a research
and development programme that would
provide a
Baking
industry crate loader from ECS Engineering
example, tension control. Greater than
100% torque is achievable depending on
the mix of VSD output current capability and motor size. The new Movitrac®
LTP controllers are available in the power range of 0.75kW to 160kW 3 phase
380~480V. Models are also available with
American/Canadian voltages.
Movitrac® LTP VSD controllers incorporate a new patented 3GV technology which allows its unique open loop
product to be used without the traditional
feedback device currently incorporated
in ‘Vector Control’ systems. Latest technology control and power semiconductor
components are used
within the Movitrac®
LTP to offer unrivalled
technical performance
whilst maintaining the
Movitrac® LT products
legendary ease of use.
Only the motor nameplate data is required
to achieve optimum
performance, the drive
continuously and automatically determines
the key motor characteristics required for
vector control – all at
market
competitive
pricing.
range of services engineered in NZ aimed
at changing the way labels were applied
and used in all markets and the food industry in particular.”
“The interesting thing about labels,
unlike most other printed material, is that
the end product has an enduring function
beyond its apparent visual use. The label
industry is in fact a very technical industry and the properties of labels and their
unique functionality were the focus of the
research and development project. This
project was named Smart Label (a Saito
Group Trademark) and the results will be
on display at Foodtech Packtech.”
Label traceability
“When most people
think of Smart Label
they think of RFID,” says
Gavin Hodder, founding
Director of Saito Group,
“in our development
process we looked at
issues in critical export
industries, such as meat
processing, and identiSEW’s ground breaking new Movitrac LTP
compact speed controllers come in a range of
power sizes
The team from Saito
fied opportunities to remove cost through
the supply chain with a re-engineered
product offering. We recognised that
compliance with GS1 traceability regimes
required the ability to verify all components of the packaging as well as the
product itself. To meet this requirement
we have invested in a full laboratory that
not only determines the very properties
of the label but each of the components
itself. We can tell any user the origin of
not only the label but also the individual
components such as the adhesive and the
substrate materials. No other label organisation provides this service as part of its
product offering”
The laboratory is available to third
parties to test the technical performance
characteristics of the label materials that
they use. It is expected this service will
enable improvements in the manufacturing and application of labels to be
achieved.
The laboratory and staff are fully certified by FINAT the global labels standards
body.
Label and Litho bring
liner-less self-adhesive
labels to New Zealand
Label and Litho Limited are very excited
to be launching liner-less self-adhesive
labels (no backing sheet) at Foodtech
Packtech.
“We have been a major supplier of
self-adhesive labelling to the New Zealand market since 1978 and when we
read about the development of linerless labels (www.catchpointlabels.com)
we wanted to know more as we could
see huge advantages for users of self-adhesive labels in New Zealand,” Camilla
Welch, Label and Litho’s General Manager told Food New Zealand. “The inventor
of the system came to New Zealand to
meet us and quickly recognized that our
technical ability and quality systems met
Catchpoint’s high standards. Label and
Litho was signed up in May 2006 as the
first company in Australasia to become a
September/October 2006
11
FOODTECH PACKTECH
Talk torque
FOODTECH PACKTECH
license holder to produce liner-less labels
the ‘Catchpoint’ way.”
Liner-less labels are not suitable for
all self-adhesive labelling – but they are
suited to many self-adhesive labels. The
advantages of liner-less labels include:
• Approximately 2.1 times more labels
per roll than a conventional roll
meaning savings in freight costs
• Savings in time management
(handling, storing, counting and
moving fewer rolls etc)
• Potentially large savings in
application costs (less downtime
– because the rolls hold more labels
they don’t have to be replaced as
often)
• Savings in waste disposal and landfill
charges (no waste to dispose of)
Over a period of approximately 28 years
of supplying labelling, Label and Litho
has shown itself to be flexible, capable
and committed to service excellence. Visit Label and Litho at Stand 182.
Rentokil-prevention is
better than cure
Gone are the days when the pest control company’s van outside your business
was an embarrassment. A Rentokil vehicle says that you are engaged in an active pest management programme – what
every food business needs.
“Rentokil is in the business of prevention,” says Divisional Manager Tony
Poulsen. “To be truly effective we need
to control the entire chain, from farm to
fork, so we approach a food manufacturing operation with a view to holistic pest
management using a full suite of technologies aimed at ridding your operation
of all pests. Modern compliance requirements make pest control mandatory,
we are here to work with companies to
achieve the best possible outcome. We
don’t deal in fixing symptoms of infestation, our goal is to manage the situation,
using a minimum of chemicals, much of
it is good old common sense.”
Rentokil has recently acquired the
Auckland-based company, Akarana Environmental Services Limited. Poulsen
believes Akarana brings Rentokil a step
closer to ensuring every single link of
their client’s supply chain, from Timaru
to Timbuktu, is protected and safe. Rentokil Pest Control’s new division will enable the company to dig deeper into the
supply chains of its clients, offering fumigation expertise to importers and exporters in New Zealand.
Rentokil’s capabilities will be on display at the exhibition.
12
Food New Zealand
Modular plastic conveyor belt from Intralox
Bizcaps Formulations
& Costings Module for
NPD
Available for demonstration at the show,
the Bizcaps Formulations & Costings
Module, which operates either as a stand
alone system, or as part of a comprehensive product management system,
Bizcaps Enterprise, gives you complete
control over your product development
right from the start.
It allows you to accurately and instantly record each stage of development,
without losing your best formulation in
the confusion of hundreds of forms and
reports. All the information that is needed
for nutrition panels, allergen statements,
costing and production are available from
the system.
By keeping the data in one central
system you automatically eliminate the er-
rors that can occur with manual checking
and cross referencing. You also greatly
reduce the risk of packaging and production mistakes that may lead to costly
product recalls.
“Bizcaps lets you create superior
products at the best price in the shortest
time… and reduce risks,” says Peter Blinco of Bizcaps. “Getting just the right formulation for a new product in your test
kitchen is a lengthy process that doesn’t
need the added frustration and costs of
inaccurate reports and time-consuming
record keeping or cross referencing.”
Information from the test kitchen is
automatically integrated into one central,
web based system giving everyone in the
organisation access to accurate, current
information about a product or concept
regardless of their location or time-zone.
With pre-configured industry business rules, customisable rules, workflows, views and user access options,
email alerts and complete management
visibility you will always have access to
the information you need to ensure your
products get to market in the shortest
possible time with all the right information created.
Bizcaps Enterprise is invaluable as
a central source for your data, integrating fully with other systems such as ERP,
CRM, WMS, messaging systems, as well
as publishing to catalogues, websites and
external systems such as datapools.
If your company has a strategy that
THIS PACKAGE IS FOR YOU
Foodtech Packtech 2006 packages up all the latest ideas, technology, and products
into one comprehensive trade event. If your business involves the New Zealand
food technology and packaging technology industries, then this package is for you.
Avoid delays – pre-register now for Foodtech Packtech 2006 at our website
www.foodtechpacktech.co.nz or by phone 0900 39767 (calls cost $2.95+gst).
Presented by
Endorsed by
Official Publication
September/October 2006
13
FOODTECH PACKTECH
includes innovation for competitive advantage, then the combined strength of
Bizcaps Enterprise and the Formulations
and Costings Module gives you your biggest advantage for producing new products on time, at the best price and ahead
of your competition – look for their stand
at the show.
FPE at FoodTech
PackTech 2006
“This will be our biggest year ever!” says
Tania Carey, General Manager of FPE.
“We have a 95 square metre booth filled
with; something old – personnel who
have over 100 years of combined meat
Stork Townsend Model SK11-320 Skinner will be launched at the show
On show from Analytical Technologies, a Division of Biolab, is the new Agilent
1200 Series HPLC with it’s flexible, modular design which allows configurations
ideally suited to meet application requirements. The Agilent 1200 Series Rapid
Resolution LC System provides up to 20 times faster analysis and 60 % higher
resolution than conventional HPLC without sacrificing resolution, precision or
sensitivity. The system was designed to provide the highest analysis speed and
resolution while keeping system pressure at a minimum. As a consequence it
maintains the robustness and operating principles known from conventional
HPLC instruments and methods. The unique design makes the 1200 RRLC a
universal LC for the analytical flow rate range, with column dimension from 1
to 4.6mm ID, 10 to 300mm length and particle sizes from 1.5 to 10 µm.
industry experience; many things new
and something borrowed (thanks to Exhibition Hire) but absolutely nothing blue,
just all FPE yellow.”
“One of the focal points of our booth
will be the Stork Townsend De-sinewed
Mince Meat machine. This is a meat recovery system that is used to remove the
remains of meat still on the bone after
normal manual deboning. This technology is on the tip of everyone’s tongues
at the moment and at the show everyone
will get the chance to see why.”
FPE will have a full range of Henkovac vacuum packers on display, including machines for all production levels,
whether you’re a one man band butcher
or a main stream abattoir. In their small
tool range will be Bettcher Whizard trimmers, Accles & Shelvoke (Cash) stunners
and for the first time, their newest agency
line, the EFA range of power tools.
The full range of Stork Townsend
skinning machines will be on display. An-
Cut your mixing time by up to 90%
Silverson high shear Batch mixers offer unrivalled speed and versatility and
can cut mixing times by up to 90%.
Easily interchangeable rotor/stator workheads allow each machine to mix,
homogenise, dissolve, disperse, disintegrate or emulsify a wide variety of products.
ADVANCED PACKAGING SYSTEMS LIMITED
Ph: 09 966 3360
14
Food New Zealand
Fax: 09 966 3361
Email: sales@advancedpackaging.co.nz
www.silverson.co.nz
CamSensor Machine
Vision System used to
reduce giveaway
On display at the show will be CamSensor’s Machine Vision system designed
to accurately control smallgoods pack
weights
Standards approvals
“Cameras are
frequently included in systems designed
to
improve
quality
control but smart
cameras, with
their
in-line
measurement
ability,
can
also help improve process
control,” says
Robert Hodge
from CamSensor. “Our smart
cameras give
the engineer
another tool to
measure product on-line – once
you can measure it you
can control it.”
Camsensor’s ‘reduce giveaway’
project was carried out in cooperation with another local manufacturer,
SI-Hermes Advantage NZ Ltd, based in
Nelson which produces Titan slicing machines used in the small goods industry.
SI-Hermes wanted to provide their clients with more consistent end-product
weights.
Meat giveaway occurs when the
weight of the meat cut for a pack exceeds
the weight that it is to be sold for. Incremental savings in managing giveaway do
not affect the customer but have a big
payback for the producer.
CamSensor has developed a new
system that scans the leading face of
the product before slicing. It measures
the area and the fat/lean ratio and takes
into account any holes. This data is then
used to control the output thickness and
See us at Stand 141
Foodtech Packtech
Industrial
Gear Units
F Type
R Type
FOODTECH PACKTECH
other release with be the new SK11 Open
Top Skinner. New to the product range is
the German-designed Sepamatic separator and of course, the booth wouldn’t be
complete without the ever reliable PAC
branded bandsaw.
“Lastly, we are delighted to be able
to exhibit the latest technology in Microwave Analysis equipment. This is Microwave technology at its best. This analyser
can measure moisture, salt and temperature and it is New Zealand-made by
Keam Holdem,” concludes Carey.
FPE will have overseas agents on hand
for advice and to help with the DMM cook
up included in this year’s show. There is
just one last thing waiting to surprise visitors to booth 121, you’ll have wait for the
show to find out what it is.
Just look for yellow. See you at the
show.
Collapsible
sided plastic bin
from Pallenz Plastics
weight of the product by adjusting the
thickness of each slice.
This minimises giveaway while maximising on-weight percentages, resulting
in the best possible yield and throughput.
Due to the orientation of the meat as it
is cut, a smart composite imaging technique was developed especially for this
application.
CamSensor Technologies developed
the IP67-rated smart camera right here
in NZ and also make all the associated
lighting and write specific software for
each application. It’s all their own design
– they have been providing solutions for
customers’ quality control problems and
helping to improve their process control
for close ten years.
Tuesday 11th to Thursday 19th October
ASB Showgrounds, Greenlane, Auckland
Controllers
Advice, planning & drive
calculations. Fast service
customised units from
our huge range of in-stock
components, 24 hour support
SEW-EURODRIVE
(NZ) LTD
S Type
K Type
Movimot
Built-in motor
speed controller.
Servo
Motors
W Type
AUCKLAND
82 Greenmount Drive, East Tamaki
PO Box 58 428, Greenmount
Ph: 09-274 5627 Fax: 09-274 0165
PALMERSTON NORTH
Phone: 06- 355 2165
CHRISTCHURCH
10 Settlers Crescent, Ferrymead
PO Box 19 825, Woolston
Ph: 03-384 6251 Fax: 03-384 6455
FOODNZ1006
September/October 2006
15
FOODTECH PACKTECH
Why Test for Food
Allergens?
People with severe allergies are
living with the time bomb of
life-threatening allergic reactions
where a mere trace of something
as innocent as peanuts, wheat,
dairy products or eggs, can trigger
one of the most terrifying types of Neogen’s system sanitation
reactions; anaphylactic shock.
assessment tool; Accupoint
Testing for the presence of
food allergens assures the food
manufacturer that an unlabeled and potentially dangerous ingredient has not made its way into a food product. Testing can
also add to and protect a company’s reputation.
Neogen offers food allergen kits to detect gliadin (gluten),
milk, peanut, egg, almond, hazelnut and soy residues. Companies can use these kits on raw material before it enters production or on equipment or product at any point throughout the
production process.
Neogen also offer an ATP system sanitation assessment tool
– AccuPoint, which gives immediate hygiene testing results – infinitely better than a visual examination, to determine whether
plant is clean. Microbial monitoring, at best, gives a result next
day; Accupoint’s immediacy is its real advantage.
RFID technology here to stay
Testo portable instrumentation from Eurotec
Assured
Filtration
Performance
Our range of
filters and vessels
can significantly
increase productivity
and reduce your fluid
filtration costs.
• Bag Filters
• Cartridge Filters
• Food Grade Filters
• Industrial Filters
• High Efficiency at Realistic Prices
• High Flow Rates
• Low Pressure Drop
• Semi-Automatic Systems
You can expect assured performance from
our range of international and New Zealand
brands.
NZ distributors for these international brand filter products and systems.
See the full range and talk to us in person
at the FoodTech PackTech Show - stand #285
Leaders in Liquid Filtration
Tel: (09) 826 3486 • 0800 423 477 • Fax: (09) 826 3485
www.particlesolutionz.co.nz
16
Food New Zealand
MMS885
The
eighteen
months of hard
core hype about
RFID
and
the
Electronic
Product Code seems to
have dried up, so
one would assume
that it was just that
– hype! But just
because the noise
has died down it
RFID tape
doesn’t mean that
the buzz around
RFID has gone with it. “On the contrary,” says GS1’s marketing
manager, Gary Hartley, “What we’re seeing is a transition into
the next phase where companies are concentrating on developing business cases for imminent RFID implementation. In short,
companies are recognising that RFID is here to stay – ready or
not.”
The RFID story is a classic example of exciting new technology in the early stages of adoption.
One of the burning questions for early adopters is “Will I
get a competitive advantage? The answer? Yes…. but perhaps
not quite in the way that you might think. In the beginning,
those who adopt this technology first will have a competitive
advantage over others who don’t. We may see that the early
adopters have increased sales by ‘x’ and reduced costs by ‘y’ for
example. The key is that companies using RFID technology
have access to additional information about, for example, product movements; locally (ie on-site), nationally and internationally and it is a question of what to do with it and how to use it
internally and with your trading partners. The real trick to fixing
many of the problems is to know what the real problems are.
To learn more about the potential of RFID technology go
and see the GS1 team at the exhibition.
FOODTECH PACKTECH
Brookfield R/S Rheometer
ove in the
m
w
We
best circ
l
e
ld’s
s.
or
Industrial Technologies, a division of Biolab, will be demonstrating the improved
Brookfield R/S Rheometer which offers
superior viscosity profiling, thixotropic
response, yield stress determination and
creep analysis. The Brookfield R/S Rheometer offers both controlled rate and
controlled stress measuring modes for
powerful flow characterisation including ramp, loop and single point testing.
The principle of operation is
to drive the motor very precisely
with a defined quantity of electrical current and then to measure
the rotated position of the spindle
with an accurate optical encoder.
The electronic controller corrects
any friction within the instrument
during the calibration process.
Brookfield R/S Rheometer
With the world turning back to
nature for ingredients, now you
can turn to us.
As New Zealand’s innovative
supplier of natural colours, flavours,
sweeteners and stabilisers we bring
the world’s best to you.
Economical labelling machine from RBS
T:+64 7 5750998 • F:+64 7 5750999
E:sales@victus.co.nz • www.victus.co.nz
July/August 2006
17
FOODTECH PACKTECH
Portable
Instruments and
Ice making from
Eurotec
Portable measuring instruments for the food sector and
a
re-launch of cube and flake ice
machines on display on Auckland based company, Eurotec
Instruments’ stand at this year’s
Foodtech/Packtech show.
Eurotec Instruments is one
of the leading instrumentation
and control companies in New
Zealand with agencies from
world leading food instrumenScotsman NME650-1
tation and control brands such as
ice maker
Testo and Carel.
At their stand (#116) this year
Eurotec will introduce a new range of Testo portable instruments for HACCP & Food safety – an issue that is increasingly
demanding the public’s and regulators’ interest alike.
In addition to instrumentation, Eurotec will be re-launching the Scotsman Ice Systems range of cube and flake ice machines.
Scotsman is a name synonymous with ice-making systems
worldwide, and is one of the leading brands available, offering
a comprehensive line-up of models for all food, hospitality, retail and catering ice requirements.
Since its introduction at the Milan HOST tradeshow last October , the Scotsman Series 6 has captured the position of most
innovative and user friendly product in this industry.
Its features enhance ease of operation as well as easy cleaning and sanitation, and greatly contribute to the solution of
all-time bacteria issue in ice makers. All these features in a wonderfully designed “package”!
Seals and the food industry
GAF
Filters
have been used
in the New Zealand food industries
for over 30 years, and
Particle Solutionz are
proud to continue into
their 10th year representing
this brand in New Zealand.
Over the past years we have
seen many changes, however the
latest food standards are setting new
benchmarks in most food processing
plants. All sealing materials used in the
food industry should comply with international food safety standards. Particle Solutionz have a good understanding of what
sealing materials best suit the GAF filter system
and have developed these areas of expertise to
better solve the sealing problems now facing the
food industry.
Particle Solutionz offer, ex stock, a full range of
compliant O-Rings and seals to suit all GAF Hayward &
Loffler filter vessels. A recent, additional offering has been
18
Food New Zealand
a range of RJT connection seals
in response to demand in the industry for an RJT seal that
would meet food grade standards, have minimal absorption and
good memory so joints would stay sealed after many applications of hot and cold processes. The stocked range includes
RJT Seals in 1 inch through to 6 inch stepped configuration in
Nitrile, EPDM, PTFE, Polyurethane etc
The company can also supply custom seals for difficult sealing applications as long as the parameters of any application
e.g. temperature, chemicals involved, pressure, etc are known.
Enercon Super Seal™ Max from
Amseal
Enercon’s Super Seal induction cap sealers are recognised
around the globe for uptime and reliability. Thanks to a robust
design these systems are a fixture on some of the most demanding packaging lines on the planet. New Zealand’s own Amseal
Closure Systems Ltd team has installed Enercon Super Seal cap
sealers throughout the region.
“The advantage of Enercon’s integrated cap inspection and
container rejection systems is that we can modify the system
to suit specific requirements,” says Amseal’s Director, Adrian
Esdaile. “We have integrated Super Seal™ induction sealing systems into a wide variety of companies’ packaging lines. The
non-contact process allows dairy, fruit juice and pharmaceutical companies to take advantage of hermetic sealing which
provides tamper evidence, prevents leaks and preserves freshness.”
At the top of the Super Seal product line is the world’s fastest cap sealer, the Super Seal Max. Using this technology and
equipment, Enercon and Amseal have earned a reputation
for providing a sealing system of unsurpassed value and reliability, exceeding customer expectation and demands. Adrian
Esdaile continues; “… we are confident of providing the best
sealing solutions for our customers. We represent innovative
and advanced equipment and materials and have the expertise
and flexibility to look outside the square. When our customers
need something extraordinary, we are willing and able to help
them.”
A diverse range of induction sealing sealers are available. To
see more of Amseal’s packaging solutions visit them at FoodTech PackTech, Hall 1, Stand 169.
EnviroDAF waste water system from
AJM Environmental Services
FOODTECH PACKTECH
Packaging Council Report
text to come...
September/October 2006
19
NUTRITION
Not all fats are
created equal
ISSFAL congress 2006, Cairns, Sunday 23rd July to Friday 28th July
By Kate Ormerod
Cairns Convention Centre
O
besity, and in particular childhood obesity, is nearing
epidemic proportions in many parts of the world, and
as a result has received a lot of media attention as of
late. Dietary fat and, more importantly, total fat intake is often
labelled as the common culprit in this area and there is continued pressure from health professionals to reduce dietary fat to
lower and lower levels. Research into the effects of different
types of fat has given us greater insight into the complex tapestry that defines an optimal diet and it is now clear that not all
fats are created equal. Yet even with that insight we are probably left with more questions than answers!
ISSFAL congress 2006: an attempt
to answer the questions…
Scientists and medical specialists from around the world assembled in Cairns last month for a landmark conference exploring
the role of dietary fatty acids and lipids in health and disease.
The Congress of the International Society for the Study of Fatty
Acids and Lipids (ISSFAL) was held at the Cairns convention centre from Sunday the 23rd July to Friday 28th July. It also incorporated the Essential Fatty Acids and Eicosanoids Congress and
the regular meeting of the Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids (PUFA)
in Maternal and Child Health interest group. ISSFAL’s members
came from more than 40 countries and included scientists working in nutrition, physiology, pathology, biochemistry, cellular
and molecular biology and clinical medicine -– whose research
investigates the biological effects of fatty acids and lipid metabolism in health and disease. The objective of the conference
was to increase the current understanding of the role of dietary
20
Food New Zealand
fatty acids and lipids in health and disease through research
and education, ultimately interpreting the new facts into sound
nutritional advice for the public.
Fatty acids: the details uncovered
Fatty acids are simply components of fats. These can be classified as either essential or non-essential fatty acids. There are
two essential fatty acids, alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) belonging to
the omega 3 family and linoleic acid (LA) of the omega-6 family. Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid
(EPA) are synthesised within the body from ALA and therefore
assumed to be non-essential fatty acids which do not need to
be provided in the diet. DHA and EPA are commonly referred to
as Long Chain Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids (LCPUFA), and with
the Government’s recent suggested Dietary Targets for these
long chain omega 3s for optimal health, it is not surprising that
recent research, presented at the ISSFAL conference, focused
on the health benefits of these. Snippets from the vast array of
research are presented below.
DHA: should we consider this an
essential fatty acid?
A common question which is often at the forefront of conversations within this area is whether or not it is sufficient to supplement with the precursor ALA in order to maintain optimal
DHA levels within the body? Recent studies suggest that tissue
levels of DHA in animals and humans are minimally influenced
NUTRITION
by increasing the level of its precursor ALA in the diet, and that
ALA may be inadequate to allow short-term recovery of brain
DHA following omega 3 deficiency. One study found that supplementation with high doses of ALA led to striking increases
in ALA content of nine major organs/tissues but no significant
increase in brain DHA levels. This implies that there may in fact
be a need for supplementation with DHA in its preformed state
in order to maintain optimal brain DHA levels following a period of inadequate omega 3 intake. Taking this one step further
it is now suggested that both the level of fat in the diet as well
as the PUFA content and LA:ALA ratio regulates both heart and
brain DHA levels1.
Enhancing health from womb to
old age
Although there were a number of sessions devoted to the maternal infant area, there were just as many studies suggesting
a beneficial effect of dietary fish consumption and omega 3
fatty acids in the prevention of age-related cognitive decline.
Although large, randomised, controlled interventional studies
will be required to confirm a significant benefit for DHA, the
body of the literature demonstrates a consistent association between DHA levels and cognitive function, including a strong
relationship between DHA deficiency and age-related cognitive
impairment.
Man cannot live on fish alone!
Fish is currently the most important dietary source of the essential omega 3 fatty acids, but unfortunately fisheries are now
a severely depleted resource and limited in their scope for providing adequate additional supplies. Scientists now have the
ability to incorporate genetic pathways to synthesise omega 3
from primitive plants, such as algae, into higher species including canola, soy bean and linseed. For the first time we could see
seeds containing EPA and DHA, the principle long chain omega
3 fatty acids of nutritional importance. Seeds from these crops
have the potential to provide an affordable, environmentallysustainable source of omega 3 fatty acids, without the ‘fishy’
flavour.
Exchange of views
The conference concluded with a lively interactive session
which allowed conference participants to express their views
on a number of hot health issues in the hope that some of the
unresolved questions may finally be answered! Topics were designed to cover key themes of the conference and ranged from
fish as a sustainable source of DHA to arachidonic acid (ARA)
requirements in early life. The discussions were to highlight
gaps in specific areas of research. Although several ideas were
generated, it was concluded that indeed more research would
be needed!
Kate Ormerod has a double degree in Human Nutrition and Psychology from Otago University. Her key areas of interest
are the maternal and infant nutrition and
health areas. Kate is Nutrition Specialist
for Fonterra Brands.
September/October 2006
21
FOOD SAFETY
Misunderstanding or
misinformation?
The safety of chicken meat
By John Brooks
T
here has been a flood of reports in the media recently
about the safety of chicken meat, triggered by a survey
suggesting that New Zealand now has the highest reported incidence of Campylobacteriosis in the developed world. The
survey was conducted by a team at Otago University and was
published in the international journal ‘Epidemiology and Infection’, a journal where papers are reviewed by other experts before they are published and the information can be relied upon.
The immediate result was a flurry of political point scoring,
blatant scare mongering and ill-informed selective reporting,
which served only to frighten and confuse consumers.
The fuss all started when the leader of the Otago study stated
that the causes of this high incidence of Campylobacter infection
are not known for sure, but then went on to suggest that they
are likely to be linked to the rise in consumption of fresh chicken. A recent report commissioned by the New Zealand Food
Safety Authority noted that up to 90 per cent of fresh chicken
sold for consumption is contaminated with Campylobacter. This
shows a correlation, but not cause and effect. Other studies had
suggested that the true incidence of Campylobacter infection
could be 7 to 8 times higher than that reported and that 50% of
infections could be tied back to contaminated chicken. These
sources enabled the Otago group to calculate that there might
be up to 50,000 cases of Campylobacter infection in New Zealand caused by chicken. This type of logic is normal scientific
practice. Unfortunately, going beyond the bounds of the survey
data, the study leader then went on to call for a ban on the sale
of fresh chicken in favour of selling only frozen product, saying
that freezing greatly reduces contamination levels.
This was seized upon by Sue Kedgley of the Green Party,
who then urged the Government to ban the sale of fresh poultry. She also accused the NZFSA of knowingly permitting poultry processors to sell heavily contaminated chicken meat.
To the layman, this all sounds reasonable – nobody wants to
buy food that could cause illness. But neither of these protagonists has provided the full facts. There are already ‘Microbiological Reference Criteria’ limiting Campylobacter in raw poultry
but they do permit some level of contamination. Campylobacter
is also found in cattle and sheep, ducks, seagulls and domestic pets while water and dairy farm effluent have been found
frequently to be contaminated. Campylobacter may also be
present in raw milk through contamination with bovine faeces.
Though intuition suggests that chicken must be involved in at
least some of the infections in New Zealand, no clear mode of
transmission has been established between chicken meat and
humans. Freezing does reduce the contamination level. However, “greatly” is not a very scientific measure. In fact, the reduction varies dramatically and may be by a factor of ten million
times, but might be as little as a halving of the level. FAO/WHO
data suggest a hundred-fold reduction if the product is frozen
22
Food New Zealand
… chicken meat has rarely been
demonstrated as the direct source of
human infection
and held for a minimum of 3 weeks. (Non microbiologists are
often greatly impressed by the apparently huge numbers of bacteria quoted and fail to realise that reducing large numbers by
orders of magnitude can still leave a lot of survivors). So if we
have 10,000 Campylobacter cells on a chicken, after freezing
there could be anywhere between no survivors or 5,000 cells
left. The survivors, still capable of causing infection, can be
recovered from the frozen meat at least 5 months later. That’s
not the whole story either. The number of bacteria you need
to swallow to get an infection is called the “infecting dose”.
For many types of bacteria this is in excess of 100,000. But for
Campylobacter, the infecting dose appears to be less than 800
cells and might be as low as 6 cells. So freezing may not provide
the hoped for protection from food-borne illness and demanding total absence of Campylobacter would be impractical.
How does the contamination arrive on the carcase? In a recent ‘Checkpoint’ television interview it was claimed that poultry
processors permit carcases to lie around in the factory, during
which time the Campylobacter multiplied. Campylobacter cannot grow below about 30C, so it can’t grow during processing.
The bacteria are found in the gut of animals and birds, so spillage of faeces onto the carcase or cross contamination during
transport and processing is the most likely route. The Poultry
Industry Association is very aware of the problem and growers have made attempts to eradicate Campylobacter in chicken
flocks, but this is very difficult. Intestinal colonization occurs
readily in poultry flocks and most chickens in commercial operations can be colonized by 4 weeks. Campylobacter cells are
also found in flies and the infection spreads through a rearing
house like wildfire. There is no discernable difference between
an infected bird and an uninfected one. Birds are transported to
the processing facility in stacked cages, so further cross contamination can occur. The recent coverage has painted the poultry
industry as unscrupulous, producing meat that is New Zealand’s
“cheap and dirty food”. This is unfair – a visit to a modern poultry farm would disabuse anyone who thinks that.
The processing side of the industry is more difficult. Chicken
carcases are processed by automatic equipment which is rinsed
in chlorinated water between birds. It would not be possible to
process the vast numbers of chickens by manual methods and
it is by no means certain that manual processing would reduce
the contamination levels. It has been claimed that the chilling
system, known as spin chilling, causes cross contamination between carcases, but research conducted in a plant by one of my
Associate Professor John Brooks is a food microbiologist in Massey University’s Institute of Food, Nutrition
and Human Health and has been a consultant to the food
industry for 30 years. His main research interest is in
biofilms in the food industry and with a colleague from
Thailand he has recently examined the interaction of
Campylobacter with Enterococcus biofilms.
FOOD SAFETY
students showed that contamination was at its lowest just after
this step. However, there are other areas of specific factories
that can act as cross contamination routes, such as mechanical
defeathering machines. Physical separation and airflow control
between this “front end” and the chilled chicken processing
areas helps – it is normal practice in the industry to have very
large extractor fans above the scalding tanks, which ensure that
air flows from the clean areas of processing towards this ‘dirty’
area. Reducing the number of carcases exposed and the length
of time of exposure within the factory is another aspect that can
be improved. Carcase inspection, proposed by a representative
of the red meat industry, is unlikely to have much effect on the
frequency of contamination.
There are other ways of reducing carcase contamination, for
example rinsing with simple chemicals such as chlorine solutions, salt and organic acids like acetic acid. Even this appears to
have caused confusion: one lady interviewed in a supermarket
said she was not keen on the idea of having chlorine on her
poultry, but as we have seen, chlorine is used during processing
to keep contamination down.
In the kitchen, thawing of frozen chicken can have its own
hazards – the release of drip can cause cross contamination of
surfaces and other foods. Certainly, if the chicken or any other
meat is contaminated with Campylobacter, it becomes a potential source of infection in the kitchen. Proper cooking of the
chicken will destroy the Campylobacter. Of course, some foods
such as salads will not be heated before consumption, so they
must be protected from cross contamination. Knives, chopping
boards and wiping cloths are obvious transmission vectors and
proper stacking of refrigerators is essential. We don’t know how
many of the reported cases of Campylobacteriosis were caused
by undercooking of chicken on the barbecue, but we do know
that it is difficult to ensure even heating of chicken pieces. This is
quite different from barbecuing slices of red meat, which are essentially sterile on the inside and so can be cooked rare with no
risk to the consumer. Even the utensils used in barbecuing can
cross contaminate raw and cooked meats. Keeping them hot on
the barbecue will eliminate the Campylobacter from the tongs.
While it is undesirable for any raw foods to contain pathogens, it is quite common and the consumer must take some responsibility for controlling food poisoning by preventing cross
contamination in the kitchen and cooking raw foods properly.
Though this argument has been criticised repeatedly as a copout, education of the consumer is an essential link in the chain
of food poisoning control. Our mothers knew about the need
for cleanliness in the kitchen; maybe we have failed our younger people in not educating them properly in these life skills.
Perhaps the most important aspect of this episode is that
many studies have been conducted in New Zealand and overseas showing that up to 90% of fresh chicken meat is contaminated with Campylobacter. However, chicken meat has rarely
been demonstrated as the direct source of human infection,
while contaminated drinking water is often involved. We may
have the highest incidence, but our lifestyle and farming methods are also different from those in other countries. Before we
invoke legislation against the sale of fresh poultry, we need to
ensure that we are targeting the true cause of the high incidence
of this disease in New Zealand.
Andrew McKenzie
Chief Executive
NZ Food Safety
Authority
NZFSA Conference
The Heritage Hotel, Auckland, November 1 and 2
Food industry professionals from all sectors and all parts
of New Zealand have benefited from attending one or
more of the three New Zealand Food Safety Authority
(NZFSA) annual conferences to date. In 2006, the aim is
again to provide attendees with a valuable and worthwhile
experience.
This year’s theme is ‘Prospering with Safe Food’ and the
conference programme will offer insights into a wide variety of developments and issues affecting the food industry
here and overseas.
For example, if you want to find out more about the
likely direction of future regulations in New Zealand, you
can get an update on the Domestic Food Review. Or if your
interest is not purely commercial, you can hear the latest
about the Wild Food Review.
Considering 80% of food produced in New Zealand is
exported overseas, international developments need to be
understood. One of the topics on the agenda is science and
new technology, an area which underpins NZFSA’s food
safety programme.
This year we have speakers from Ireland, Australia and
Britain. They will share their knowledge about their own
local issues, such as working in partnership with local government, an area that New South Wales Food Authority
Chief Executive George Davey, will be discussing, or the
‘safe food = better business programme’, an initiative that
the United Kingdom Food Safety Agency has undertaken.
Trans-Tasman issues are another topic of much interest and
relate to many in the industry dealing with trade and Food
Standards Australia New Zealand Chief Executive Officer
Graeme Peachy, will be on hand to discuss this further.
Topics such as fortification, allergens and restaurant
grading schemes have been in the news recently and therefore make for timely discussion. To that end, key NZFSA
decision makers will provide clarification as to where we
stand on such issues, and provide other informative insights.
As with previous years, workshops based on NZFSA’s
core business of science-based research, decision making,
policy-setting, market access, and domestic and exported
food standards will be held over both days giving everyone
the opportunity to attend more than one.
Conferrence registration forms can be downloaded
from the NZFSA website and presentations from last year’s
conference are also available in the events section.
Limited opportunities are available for trade displays
and researchers are also invited to provide posters for display during the conference. You do not need to be attending to do so.
For further details, contact conference@nzfsa.govt.nz.
www.nzfsa.govt.nz
July/August 2006
23
OILS & FATS
Oils and Fats News
Laurence Eyres
Trans fats
After over 20 years of controversy, trans
fats in food are now being either labelled
(USA), banned (Denmark) or evaluated
as to their current level of concentration
in food and subsequent risk.
An in-depth explanation of their
structure, their derivation and their effect
on cardiovascular health is fairly complicated but in simple terms the following
may suffice.
Spreads, margarines, biscuits, cake
and pastry shortenings rely on a certain
significant proportion of solid fats in
their composition. The original solid fats
were butter and edible tallow and then,
in later years, palm oil. All of these fats
are approximately 50% saturated which
is why they are solid. Over 30 years ago
nutritionists advised consumers and the
edible oil industry to reduce saturated
fats in the diet as saturated fats raise serum cholesterol. In the USA and Canada
the main oils were soybean, cottonseed,
canola and sunflower. Whilst polyunsaturated oils are a key component of “soft”
polyunsaturated spreads they still need a
solid fat component to give them structure. The Industry achieved this by hydrogenating liquid unsaturated oils and
producing, not solid saturated fats, but
solid trans monounsaturated fats – these
latter fats were not thought at the time to
affect serum cholesterol nor cardiovascular health.
Over the years nutritional science has
conducted a great deal of research into
dietary lipids and cholesterol. The importance of HDL – cholesterol (beneficial)
and LDL cholesterol (detrimental) have
now been determined with the findings
that trans fats are even more detrimental
than saturated fats. In the USA, Canada
and Europe liquid vegetable oils were
also hydrogenated in order to make them
more stable towards oxidation. In USA
the oil was mainly Soybean. In Canada
this was Canola (rapeseed) and in Europe
was fish oil. This is unlike the situation
in Australasia where dairy fats and edible
tallow/palm oil were used in baking and
frying. Traditionally the intake of trans fats
overseas has always been higher in other
countries than in Australasia. Spreads in
NZ and Australia are now virtually trans
free but utilise more saturated fats as a replacement. Products with ‘Pick the Tick’
labels contain less than 2% trans fat and
less than 28% total trans and saturated.
A new study has published some of
the levels of trans fats found in fast foods
and shows a wide variation across the
world. Details of the study, by the former
head of the Danish Nutritional Council,
were published in April 13 issue of the
New England Journal of Medicine (345 :
1650 – 1652, 2006).
Conclusions
Denmark has taken a very tough stance
on trans fats (< 2% in food products),
Canada is following, USA has mandatory
labelling (from January 2006). Australa-
Summary
24
New Zealand estimate average total fat intake
75-110g per day.
Heart Foundation Recommendation (Trans)
< 8% Energy ~ 5-6g)
Estimated NZ + Aus trans fat intake overall
< 5g per day
<8% of total energy intake.
New York Fast Food Outlet
10.2 trans fat/serving
Denmark Fast Food Outlet
0.3g
Danish Legislation
< 1.0%
Average Canadian Intake
8.4g (~10% Energy)
Food New Zealand
sian intake is quite low(<5g per day) so
the issue is currently not seen as being of
high priority from a dietary health point
of view. In Australasia we still consume
too much saturated fat – almost as bad as
trans fats. There are still issues left to be
resolved, namely are the trans fats in animal fats such as butter, cheese and tallow
as harmful as those in hydrogenated oils
– and what is a safe level?
Please note there will be a practical
talk at the seminar on November by Danisco on how to effectively remove trans
acids form the food supply.
Healthy progress
The National Heart Foundation has just
released a media pack of information celebrating ten years of the ‘Pick the Tick’
programme. Figures just released show
that margarine and spread manufacturers
reduced trans fat by 92 percent, removing
266 tonne of trans fats from the food supply in New Zealand.
In parallel, the Foundation wish to
see a removal of saturated fat from our
diet and in the past year or two manufacturers have shed 49 tone of saturated fat
to earn the tick.
Butterfat and serum
lipids
A recent review in Inform by Arnis
Kuksis suggests different results for the
effect of feeding milkfat on serum lipids.
It makes interesting reading and suggests
that the hypercholesterolemic effect of
butterfat is due to the cholesterol. I must
confess to developing a headache when I
read these reports as we have been confused for decades about this topic.
<subhead>Plant Sterols<endsubhead)
Currently plant sterols are only allowed in yellow fat spreads in Australasia. There are valid reasons to allow them
in a wider variety of low fat foods.
Application A433, A434 and A508
to FSANZ for permission to utilise plant
sterols in breakfast cereals, low fat milk
and yoghurt are being currently reviewed
prior to submission to the Ministerial
council.
CONFERENCE KEYNOTE
COOKIES
Food:
Wealth creation for
New Zealand
NZIFST Conference Keynote Address
Warren Larsen
The question is: How can this be achieved?
Introduction
You have asked me to address the challenge of Food and Wealth Creation for
New Zealand. So first, a summary of
some economic facts, that hopefully puts
the topic in perspective.
Your website states that the food industry in New Zealand produces 23% of
this country’s manufacturing GDP and
represents half the total value of merchandise exports. In 2004, value added food
and beverage exports were 54% of total
exports. The sector generates about $29
billion per annum and employs around
150,000 people.
In Australia, food accounts for about
40% of total merchandise sales and when
the production, transformation, wholesale
and retailing of food is combined into
one sector it represents a gross value of
around $140 billion per annum – the largest single industry sector in that country.
We can easily confirm from these
numbers that the food sector in both
countries is large, growing and very, very
important to the respective economies.
The problem
Today, primary products contribute
around 60% of total exports, and over
75% of this total comes from animals –
principally milk products, lamb and venison. Overall, agriculture still accounts for
9% of GDP. When other service elements
are added, the total economic contribution climbs to 15% and it’s high on the
annual productivity growth achievement
list as well.
This strong performance has been
built on the international capability of
New Zealand food producers, ably supported by strong service industries. New
Zealand farmers and growers are very
good at what they do. Their willingness
to adopt new approaches in animal genetics, grassland and crop production and
other new technology has led to productivity improvements that can only be described as outstanding. But, as Rod Oram
pointed out in an article in the ‘Sunday
Star Times’ on 18 June, 2006, the primary
sector should be the leader of New Zealand’s transformation into a sophisticated,
high value, export-oriented, internationally competitive economy. A few islands
of success apart, this has not happened,
and the fortunes of the sector (and for
New Zealand) are still significantly linked
to low cost production, pursuit of scale,
innovation, historical distribution methods and relative exchange rates. There is
nothing inherently wrong with this commodity-based approach but the problem
is that costs are increasing. Our international competitors are also getting very
much better. This anticipated competitive
threat – to New Zealand’s historical low
cost position in dairying, for example
– was the rationale for the investment by
the former New Zealand Dairy Board in
Bonlac in Australia and to a lesser extent,
Soprole in Chile. The New Zealand food
sector has to escape this commodity trap
and therein lies the challenge.
The challenge
Your website also states that the food
technologist’s job is to add value. In short,
create wealth. Short of finding commer-
cial deposits of oil or mineral wealth, in
my humble opinion, the increased application of science to food products from
the land and sea, is the key to improved
economic prosperity for New Zealand.
The question is: How can this be
achieved?
A potential solution
One approach is for the NZIFST to develop its own vision for the New Zealand
food industry and use the vision to drive
value change. The Australian food industry certainly appears to have a vision.
Their aim is “to be a significant global
player with a sustainable and profitable
role in the global food product system by
2007” and they have committed significant capital towards this objective.
So what can we do? Value adding can
be defined as the enhancement of a product. Cutting up a lamb carcass and packaging it is value adding, but the process
need not necessarily involve physical
transformation. Value can be added, for
example, by objective measurement of
a product, by its description, creating a
new identity, or by quality systems and
other “knowledge” inputs.
Your website again states that value–added food products generated $7.6
Billion of export income in 2003, an increase of 7% or 200 million over the previous year. Let’s assume the 7% growth as
a constant, by 2010 that’s $12.2 Billion of
growth or a 60% improvement on 2003.
That’s real wealth creation and I suggest
a realistic target.
So what are the essential elements of
a value–added growth strategy?
September/October 2006
25
CONFERENCE KEYNOTE
Let’s examine four key areas:
1. The Organisation of World Food
Markets and the implications for
New Zealand
2. Innovation
3. People
4. Environmental and Food Safety
issues
All of this needs to be in partnership with
the Government.
Implications of
organisation of world
food markets for New
Zealand
How the New Zealand food industry
responds to international change is obviously a critical element of the vision.
What are some of these critical changes?
Globalisation is obviously the most
significant. The world is indeed a much
smaller place day by day. Globalisation
can be defined as a conscious and escalating attempt to commit all your organisation’s resources against identified
competitors, wherever they are in the
world. This means that resources are
moved to the most economic and intellectually capable location, all with increasing rapidity. You will all be aware of
the escalation in global retail consolidation. Eight out of ten of the largest retailers in South East Asia are multinationals.
... a shift from product and
firm competition to whole
of chain competition
Companies such as Carrefour, Tesco and
others are all taking aim at the one third
of the world’s population that lives within
the Asia-Pacific region. Globalisation has
also impacted significantly on food logistics, assisted by improvements in communication technology. Today, I note that
some exporters claim fresh produce can
be harvested, processed, packed in the
country of origin, exported and be sold
to a consumer on the other side of the
world in 48 hours or less. Supply chain
developments are also very impressive.
A rapid shift has occurred from product and firm competition to whole of
chain competition, all focused on driving
out costs and meeting consumer demand.
New technology in the form of automatic
re-ordering systems at store level, scan
based trading, warehouse database systems and radio frequency identity tags,
are examples of this efficiency improvement.
26
Food New Zealand
Today, around two-thirds of the world
economy is seen to be in the early stages
of globalisation. The size of the global
market is estimated to increase 12-fold by
2027 and globalisation is now largely unquestioned by corporations. The technology revolution, particularly the internet,
has facilitated the globalisation process
and reduced the importance of borders.
What is abundantly clear is that globalisation will impact business, much more
than estimated, even five years ago.
Demographics also matter. North
America accounts for about 35% of world
GDP, followed by Western Europe and
Asia Pacific at around 33% and 27% respectively. Collectively, these three regional economic groupings account for
about 95% of world economic activity.
below the company profit of 107 million
euros for the 2004/2005 year. Total common agricultural production subsidies,
within the European Union, are around
43 Billion euros, per year; a number of
such magnitude that it is difficult for most
of us to comprehend.
All this means that we must continue
the fight for trade reform in partnership
with the Government.
You need to understand the ramifications for your sector and support the
multi-lateral focused effort, through the
World Trade Organisation, to change the
rules, remove export subsidies, lower tariffs, reduce domestic support and strive
for more market orientation in global
trade policy. The continuing inclusion of
agriculture in trade agreements remains
… countries with the greatest wealth also have some
of the highest barriers to trade
What comes from this is a simple
confirmation that those countries with
the greatest wealth; North America, Western Europe and Japan also have some of
the highest barriers to trade, particularly
for products derived from the land. Improved access to the lucrative markets is
the highest wealth creation priority for
us.
So how do we organise ourselves in
response to all of this?
The predominant focus of globalisation is on manufactured exports. Duty
rates have certainly been lowered for this
sector. Agricultural products are a different matter. Despite the significant historical, and continuing, negotiation effort the
level of agricultural protection globally
has not fallen materially. Global agricultural protection still costs us dearly.
To put this in some perspective
– ARLA, the Scandinavian food giant,
received 862 million euros in subsidies
between 2000 and 2005. In 2005, the figure was 95.7 million euros, only slightly
vital but we need to do more.
The success of Regional economic
groupings around the world is compelling. In South America, Mercosur (Uruguary, Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil)
with a combined market of 210 million
people and GDP at US 900 million is
prospering. NAFTA, at around 400 million people and GDP of $US 8.2 Billion,
is a huge success story, particularly for
Mexico, and in a similar but less dramatic
way, CER has been a success for New
Zealand and Australia.
The success of regional
economic groupings is
compelling
In Europe, regionalism has progressed even further. The enlargement of
the European Union has continued and
is estimated to reach a GNP of over $US
8.0 trillion. Also, the EU is a customs un-
thereby improving market focus.
There were other major benefits.
The purchase of Bonlac in Australia was
developed from a global strategic assessment of growth opportunities. New
Zealand dairy farmers’ real competition is
parts of Australia, Chile, Argentina and,
to a lesser extent, Brazil. The Bonlac investment took out a major competitor for
New Zealand in South East Asia and provided a foothold in Australian milk production.
The Nestlé alliance with Fonterra was
different, but no less strategic. Pre-Mercosur, the Nestlé dairy model in South
America was based on a 3-5 tonne/hour
milk powder drier and local distribution
in almost all markets, with strong local
brands. Mercosur removed the need for
all these inefficient small driers in those
member countries. It took the Nestlé CEO,
Peter Brabeck, less than five minutes to
accept the benefits of a New Zealand alliance when he saw a 24 tonne/hour drier
operating successfully in a New Zealand
factory. The concept was clear. We could
do the manufacturing and logistics better
than them and in return we shared in the
brand value growth.
do if you were the Tesco buyer, after the
first five exporters had made their sales
pitch? Demand futher price reductions, I
suggest, because the pendulum of market
power always shifts to the buyer where
multiple exporters offer the same or similar products. This price driven approach
removes almost entirely the opportunity
for margin enhancement. One option is
to encourage more foreign investment to
remove market uncertainty and finance
risk by having retailers and their suppliers
as strategic partners. Foreign partners can
facilitate access to export markets, particularly consumer markets. It’s not about
“selling the farm” but reducing risk.
New Zealand, unfortunately, usually
doesn’t have enough supply capacity to
interest the major players. Nevertheless,
this approach can work, but any investment partnership should be unreservedly
linked to market access. The Fonterra
North American dairy joint ventures, for
example, were structured this way.
Significant investment will be required if New Zealand is to create new
value adding opportunities. The ability of
an enterprise to attract capital, adequately
service debt and provide acceptable re-
… the pendulum of market power always shifts to the buyer where multiple
exporters offer the same or similar products
Any strategy we develop on a national scale must include China. What can be
done at the sector level? One option is
to continue with the status quo. The sector would then continue to be dominated
by minimally transformed food; food ingredients and commodity exports, supplemented by higher value exports such
as dairy products and wine, high value
niche products like seafood, and smaller
volumes of horticultural products. Nothing inherently wrong with this approach,
but will it allow us to meet the value
growth targets?
We do not have a domestic market
large enough to easily grow “global”
companies, so we need to develop companies capable of competing on a global scale. The global turnover of Nestlé’s
dairy business for example, exceeds
$US15 Billion which gives us an idea of
the size of players and the importance of
scale in the global food market. Fonterra is the only true global New Zealand
company that has enough scale to compete, albeit with difficulty, in this global
league. The creation of Fonterra massively strengthened the position of the New
Zealand dairy sector in the global traded
dairy product sector. The greatest single
benefit has come from integrating manufacturing and marketing operations and
Now, the creation of these global enterprises is made much more difficult,
given the current attitude of regulators.
Regrettably, they often confuse domestic market issues with the need to build
globally competitive companies. For example, 96% of New Zealand’s milk production is exported. The domestic market
in New Zealand is so small to be insignificant and any monopoly issues can
be controlled by regulation, as was the
case in the creation of Fonterra. The government approach should be to try and
facilitate the development of companies
with sufficient scale to compete globally,
not impede them, but there is an important cultural factor to be overcome with
New Zealand food producers if we are to
succeed in doing this. Farmers and growers have an option to take their profit
at the farm gate, as for example many
meat producers do, or from the market
– the dairy farming pathway. This “farm
gate” mentality, constantly leaving someone else to invest in the marketing of
the product, is a huge barrier to wealth
creation. As a producer, you disassociate
yourself from the market at your peril.
In New Zealand today there are now 80
exporters of apples, 40 exporters of mussels, and multiple exporters of meat and
horticultural products. What would you
turns to investors is a major challenge
in this growth scenario. The development of a true global player in the international food sector eventually requires
investment in production and processing in other countries. The Dairy Board
processed milk in Venezuela, Chile, Mexico and North America. Zespri produces
kiwifruit in Italy. These developments are
necessary, not only from a market perspective, but a trade policy standpoint
as well. In my experience, when imports
in a particular category escalate above
about 30%, you can expect domestic producers to demand import protection. To
overcome this you need to invest in the
local industry and become a “trusted global corporate citizen”. It’s another reason
why the producers should be encouraged
to invest downstream and at least share
the market risk. Optimum wealth creation is closely linked to the establishment
of a truly global brand. I was always envious of the Nestlé returns from brands
like Milo, because value growth is driven
largely by intangible rather than tangible
assets. We have few New Zealand produced examples, but I was always greatly
heartened by the value growth that was
created in the FMCG dairy business from
establishing brands like Anchor and Anlene.
September/October 2006
27
CONFERENCE KEYNOTE
ion with a common external tariff against
non-European imports. The EU version
of regionalism is therefore a real threat
to global traders like New Zealand and
Australia.
Technology, especially the internet, is
changing the traditional view of markets
and with these changes come new questions about the ability of small nations
like New Zealand to continue to provide
a constantly growing standard of living
for citizens without some association
with larger trading partners.
New Zealand can’t stand aside from
these developments, and the WTO approach will not be enough. We need to
be part of a wider economic grouping,
perhaps with the ten ASEAN countries of
South East Asia. If CER and AFTA were to
join forces, a new trade bloc of over 500
million people and GNP of more than
one trillion US dollars would be created.
A market of that size would be impossible for the USA and EU (the other two
major trade groupings) to ignore. Then
there is China, a rapidly developing economic powerhouse of over 1.25 Billion
people, and with more than a quarter of
this number under 15 years of age.
CONFERENCE KEYNOTE
Innovation
The Proctor and Gamble definition of innovation: “The marriage of what’s needed with what’s possible” is as good as I
have seen. Innovation is the cornerstone
of value growth. I want to share with you
one product-based approach to innovation. There are many others. I believe that
the application of robust science to create points of product difference is a very
powerful value creating approach, particularly for food products, but innovation
by itself is only part of the required effort.
Innovation is about creating a culture of
innovation, not just in product areas but
in all aspects of organisational endeavour. It’s my view that there are probably
enough ideas and good applications of
scientific work on food products stored
away in research organisations and in the
heads of scientists, to underpin all the
product marketing initiatives we need for
the next five to ten years.
We are good at doing the investigative
work and basic research. We are much
less successful at the commercial development of these projects and that has a
lot to do with organisational issues and
leadership. Innovation is a critical element of success in value creation. It must
be part of the culture of the organisation,
like brand values, part of the ethos, not
something that is turned on or off, as
the financial fortunes of the organisation
fluctuate.
It’s always worth remembering that
the competition:
• Has the same access to capital
• Has the same access to technology
over time
• Has the same access to information
The key point of difference is always
28
Food New Zealand
people, and how they function together.
I am often asked what I consider to
be critical success factors in the New Zealand dairy industry story. The answer is
very simple. A large number of successful people who are very good at what
they do.
In my view, whether the focus is corporations, sports teams or not for profit
organsations the people with focus and
dynamic teamwork consistently win.
Leadership elements such as:
• Clarity of Vision
• Building collaboration, trust and
respect
• Clear accountabilities and regular
monitoring
• Organisational climate of
achievement
• Culture of innovation
• Development of potential and talent
are much much more important than
structure.
selecting the best performing family or
private company in a region. We would
then, overtime, form a joint venture, usually for distribution. As part of the process we would seek to have one of our
people added to the staff to learn the
business. This meant a requirement to
learn the language. Total proficiency was
not necessarily the end goal, but the ability to converse with a customer, at a basic
level, was. Multi-language capability is a
vital element in any global enterprise.
Educational
opportunities
Given the critical importance in value
creation of capability and skill, I am surprised as to why there is so little growth
in food science, technology/chemical
engineering graduates in New Zealand,
given the obvious importance of these
organisations that are stable consistently outperform
those subject to constant or even intermittent
restructuring
Furthermore, global performance literature comparisons show that organisations that are stable consistently out
perform those subject to constant or even
intermittent restructuring. New Zealanders have consistently shown they can
compete with the very best in the world.
You can be confident your training will
allow you to take on the very best and
win.
With language capability our position
is not as good. The Dairy Board’s growth
strategy was usually based on carefully
disciplines to the economy. What’s more,
I am regularly disappointed at the relative
position of science in the New Zealand
education system. One university I am
familiar with trains only one science or
applied science graduate for every four
others. I’m also told that every food science/technology graduate from Massey
University gets around four job offers.
This poor national resource allocation effort, for whatever reason, (and I suspect
is has a lot to do with funding methods
and total cost) is not only appalling, it’s
The future
I want to share with you some observations on future socio-economic trends
and the implications for FMCG organisations and their brand portfolios. According
to Hugh McKay, a respected Australian
commentator, three socio-economic trends
will drive future consumer behaviour:
The environment and food safety
This topic is of sufficient importance and
magnitude to justify a conference by itself. Any wealth creation strategy based
on food products from New Zealand is
fundamentally underpinned by a favourable environmental and product ethic image. This image, commonly referred to as
clean and green, communicates freshness
and health to our customers. Undermine
this, and the whole marketing effort is at
risk.
Conclusion
The “farm gate” mentality
... is a huge barrier to
wealth creation
Warren
Larsen,
formerly the Chief
Executive of the
NZ Dairy Board,
a position he held
for nine years up
to the formation
of Fonterra. Prior to that was the
CEO of Bay Milk Products Ltd, following an earlier career with the Wool
Group of UEB Industries Ltd. His he
currently holds an number of directorships. He is the Chairman of the
New Zealand Racing Board, Consortium Ltd and the Massey University
Foundation. Mr Larsen holds a Masters degree in Agricultural Science, a
Business Studies degree in Accounting and Finance, is a Chartered Accountant, and a Fellow of the New
Zealand Institute of management.
We need to be eternally vigilant in
both maintaining and enhancing our position. Border controls, food safety regimes
and a strong community effort to support
the overall environmental improvement
concept, are vital. I realise it is not economically possible to get to the optimum
position “overnight”. But the bar will be
constantly raised by competitors and we
need to accept that without reservation.
You all have a role in enhancing community awareness on these critical issues and
supporting the impact of penalties, on
those who wilfully transgress the accepted
performance and ethical standards.
!
David Munro Consultants Ltd
Strategic and technology planning
Research and development management
Development of technical people
Dairy and food technology projects and training
David Munro BSc BE(Chem)(Hons) MIChemE FNZIFST
Mobile: 027 484 0952, Email: munrodca@wave.co.nz
In writing this paper my objective was
convince you that you have a critical role
in improving New Zealand’s economic
fortunes. I’ve suggested a targeted approach and tried to highlight important
factors that will affect success.
I wish you every success with this
challenge.
Cumming & Associates
Product & process development
Feasibilty studies & technical services
Marion Cumming
B Tech (Food), BBS, FNZIFST
mobile: +64 21 521 576
phone/fax: +64 9 521 5768
email: mcumming@xtra.co.nz
Professional Investment Services
Retirement saving & superannuation
Savings plans that work
Investment and financial planning
Fixed interest, Funds and Shares.
Portfolio design for your age and risk tolerance
Stuart Scott
Phone/Fax: +64 9 527 8449, Mobile: 0274 901 884
Email: investment@ihug.co.nz Visit: http://www.savingworks.co.nz
An advertisement in Food New Zealand is a cost effective way of
getting your name and services ‘out there’.
To help build your business, place your business card advertisement.
Contact Anne Scott, Mobile: 021 901 884
email: anne@peppermintpress.co.nz
September/October 2006
29
CONFERENCE KEYNOTE
just plain stupid. So what are you doing
about this? The wealth creation target
can’t be reached without a major additional injection of capability. The Dairy
Industry maintained a graduate recruitment programme for many many years.
I cannot begin to estimate the value of
the contribution of this group of young
people to the organisation. Dairy industry marketers for example need to understand the biology of milk. They need to
be able to show a plant manager how to
improve processing yield by 1-2% and to
explain that in his or her first language.
They are not there to sell 5000 tonnes
of ingredients; their role is to show how
the customer can improve the value of
their business. What generally follows is
a favourable formulation inclusion and a
good business relationship based on real
competence and “technical trust”. I think
this model has universal application to
the food industry. Do you?
Understanding the customer so as to
understand the customer’s trends is obviously a critical component in any strategy.
NZIFST
Branch Reports
New Auckland branch Committee, left to right, Paula Thomson – Kerry Ingredients,
Cathy Merrall – McFoodies (secretary), Megan Johnston – APS Food & Nutrition,
Natasha Truter – Hawkins Watts (chair), Dave Pooch – Peppermint Press, Marion
Cumming – Consultant, Dr Siew Young Quek – University of Auckland.
Absent; Nicholas Hay – Phoenix Organics (Vice Chair)
Auckland
Bay of Plenty
New Auckland branch committee chairman, Natasha Truter, of Hawkins Watts,
had a full house for her first branch meeting. Eight tables of eight members had
a convivial evening at Villa Maria’s winery near Auckland airport. There, they
listened to an address, tasted four wines
and took part in a food quiz. Quiz master Dave Pooch had questions on wine,
food and general knowledge. For example. “cork was used for sealing bottles
of wine; but what is the biggest city in
County Cork Ireland? Answer. Cork City.
The next meeting is on 27 September.
Come for a cooked breakfast and a talk
on ‘Dirty Money’ by Dr Dr. Frank Vriesekoo, Lecturer Microbiology and Fermentation Technology, University of Ballarat
Australia.
Natasha plans meetings for every
month right through to Christmas. Go
Natasha!
Dave Pooch
Visit to Comvita and AGM
Comvita is a thriving company with a
global reputation for premium natural healthcare products, primarily derived from bees. It was formed in 1974
by Claude Stratford – now 96 years old
– and has grown into a $30 million company, listed on the NZAX. The company’s growth comes primarily from export
sales, which now make up about 60%
of turnover. Manuka Honey is the major
product, but the growing range includes
products based on pollen, propolis, royal
jelly and bee venom, often in conjunction
with other functional ingredients. One of
the flagship products is Active 5+ Manuka Honey, which contains a ‘Unique
Manuka Factor’ which has anti-microbial
properties. Comvita sells dressings containing high UMF honey for medical applications.
Fifteen NZIFST members and guests
were hosted on a tour of Comvita’s Paen-
30
Food New Zealand
Role of Executive
Manager
Strengthened
As the result of a review initiated
by the Institute’s strategic plan, administrative arrangements have been
modified and the Executive Manager’s role strengthened.
Until now, the role has been a
part-time one, covering the day-today running of the Institute, but leaving little time for supporting strategic
activities.
At their meeting on 16 August,
Council approved new contractual
arrangements as of 1 September
whereby the role becomes close to
a full time one, with provision for
a part-time Administrative Assistant.
These changes will essentially double our administrative resource.
Our Executive Manager, Rosemary Hancock, has served the Institute well for a number of years. On
behalf of your Executive and Council I would like to thank Rosemary
for the excellent service she has provided for us, and wish her well in
her expanded role.
Because Rosemary will have
more time to support our projects,
volunteering to lead a project will
become much less onerous! We
have a number of strategic projects
requiring leadership, so please let
Rosemary know if you are able to
help.
David Munro, Vice President
garoa manufacturing plant (near Te Puke
in the Bay of Plenty) on 12 July. Our host
was Ralf Schlothauer, recently appointed
General Manager Technical. Ralf talked
about the excitement and challenges of
research and development in a rapidly
growing company with limited resources,
but with more freedom than a large organisation.
We then borrowed Comvita’s board
room for a brief AGM while we sampled
propolis lozenges. Lynley Drummond is
the new branch chairman, with committee members Helen Tervit, Hari Baresic,
David Munro, Beth Davis, and Sarah
Colquhoun. This was followed by an excellent dinner at the cosy Trading Post
restaurant across the road.
David Munro
NZIFST
Waikato
On 26 July a branch meeting was held at the Avalon Campus of WINTEC (Waikato Institute of Technology) featuring
presentations from their Industry Training Centre as well as
the School of Science & Primary Industries. Karen Morton,
co-ordinator of the Industry Training Centre, provided a tour
of the training facilities available to the industry, while Rosemary Wyborn, Head of Department, Science and Primary Industries, presented detailed information on courses offered
by them including a tour of the facilities at the Centre for
Hospitality, getting a first hand view of their training programme in action.
The meeting was very positive towards developing networking across a range of interests, as well as encouraging
opportunities for interaction between NZIFST and education
providers. There was also an opportunity for attendees to
voice their preferences for the format and activities of future
branch meetings.
Branch members thought that from a Strategic Plan point
of view, the Waikato branch should focus on promoting ‘The
development of the profession – Food Science as a career’.
The attendance of 17 members and 5 non-members indicates that there is interest in NZIFST, and opportunity to
grow membership. Being a new branch, the Waikato branch
committee will endeavour to get their membership list updated more regularly in order to disseminate information to
all members.
NZIFST Directory
ADMINISTRATION
EXECUTIVE MANAGER
NZ’S AUTHORITY ON FOOD TECHNOLOGY, RESEARCH AND MANUFACTURING
SUBSCRIPTION FORM
OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF NZIFST • ENDORSED BY MIA
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2006
Name
Address
Phone
Email
Please invoice me for $
(See below for rates) and add me to your subscribers’ list. Note that your
subscription will be activated on receipt of payment
SUBSCRIPTION RATES:
New Zealand: $NZ70.00 incl GST
Australia: $NZ125.00
Rest of the world: Price on application - email
subs@peppermintpress.co.nz indicating your country
Return completed subscripton form to:
Peppermint Press, P O Box 11 530, Ellerslie, Auckland,
New Zealand or go to www.peppermintpress.co.nz and subscribe on line.
Rosemary Hancock
PO Box 8031, Palmerston North
Ph (06) 356 1686
Fax (06) 356 1687
Mob (021) 217 8298
rosemary@nzifst.org.nz
NATIONAL EXECUTIVE
PRESIDENT
Sally Hasell
Ph (04) 475 7989
hasell@netaccess.co.nz
VICE PRESIDENT
David Munro
Ph (07) 575 7940
munrodca@wave.co.nz
TREASURER
Carol Cullen
Ph (07) 304 9707
lescullen@xtra.co.nz
DIVISION CONTACTS
DAIRY INDUSTRY
Toni Hunt
Ph 021 210 3963
tonihunt@pcconnect.co.nz
FOOD SAFETY
Shane Hopgood
Ph (09) 846 8492
hopgoods@paradise.net.nz
SENSORY EVALUATION
Veronika Jones
Ph (06) 350 4649
veronika.jones@fonterra.com
FOOD MARKETING
Tony Garrett
Ph (03) 478 8195
tgarrett@commerce.otago.ac.nz
NUTRITION
David Monro
Ph (09) 571 9191
davidm@nhf.org.nz
Domestic Matters
Contributors’ advice
When submitting editorial for Food New Zealand
please observe the following recommendations
Editorial to be submitted as plain text files,
NO FORMATTING please.
Images should be sent as high resolution .jpg or .tiff
files. Do not embed images in word documents,
send separate files. Any images smaller than 500 kb
may not be printed as the clarity of the print may be
compromised.
Advertisers
Please refer to rate cards or Anne Scott,
anne@peppermintpress.co.nz +64 9 527 8449 for ad
sizes and specifications.
July/August 2006
31
NZIFST
New members of
Executive
At the Conference AGM the 2007 Executive was elected. Sally Hasell remained as
President, David Munro as Vice-President.
Carol Cullen was confirmed aS Executive
Treasurer, and Toni Hunt was elected DIANZ President. Below are profiles of the
two new Executive members.
Carol Cullen
Treasurer
Carol gained a National Diploma in
the Science and
Practice of Dairying
from Seale Hayne
Agricultural College
before working as a
Technical Assistant at Grassland Research
Institute, Berkshire and then coming to
New Zealand in 1972 as a Herd Tester
with the Northland Herd Improvement
Association.
She joined Maungaturoto Northland
Co-op Dairy Company in 1974 as a Laboratory Technician, becoming Test Room
Supervisor before leaving the industry
temporarily to raise a family and work
with her husband, Leslie. After moving
to the Bay of Plenty in 1986 Carol made
goat cheese for a while before starting
with Bay Milk Products in Edgecumbe as
a Laboratory Technical Officer.
Carol now works as an independent consultant using her experience with
Quality Systems Development, Product
Safety Programmes, Pathogen Awareness,
Training, On Job Assessing and Auditing.
Her vision for the Institute? Carol
wants to help make the Institute a ‘wanted’ organisation which has people queuing up to join by steadily enhancing the
benefits members receive through membership.
Toni Hunt
DIANZ President
Toni Hunt has a Masters in Dairy Science
& Technology and a BSc in microbiology
from Massey University. She has worked
in the dairy industry for 12 years,
starting in the laboratory at Kiwi Dairies, and progressing
into process microbiology and process technical roles.
As a Senior Process Technologist for
Fonterra, Toni specialised in whey protein processing and ion exchange operation, and microbiology troubleshooting
and traceback. She has recently taken up
a position of Technical Account Manager
for Orica Chemnet. Toni joined DIANZ in
1998, and was on the organising committee for the 2001 DIANZ conference held
in New Plymouth. Toni is Chairperson
of the NZIFST Dairy Division, President
of DIANZ, and was previously the Dairy
Division awards officer. She believes that
the Institute needs to continue its work
in providing tangible benefits to its members. The challenge is to provide members
with opportunities and benefits that they
would not otherwise be able to access.
Manawatu/Wellington Science Fairs
School Science Fairs in the Manawatu
and Wellington regions were held from
24 – 27 August. NZIFST was again there
to judge the best presentations in the area
of Food Science and Technology.
In the Manawatu area there were two
awards, which went to Georgia Jamieson
of Monrad School for her project ‘Pop
Bars’, and to Brandon Jackson of St Peter’s College for his project titled ‘You
Suck Wow’.
The winner in the Wellington region
was Ellen Sanders from De la Salle for
her project, ‘Attention Pie Lovers’. The
projects were very innovative and the students were keen to share their research
with the audience that came to view the
exhibits. We hope to invite the students
to share their projects with our Members
at the next appropriate branch event.
Several of our members volunteered to
join the panels of judges for the Science
Fairs in both Manawatu and Wellington
areas. Many thanks to them.
Anne Perera and Janet Goodman
East Coast Regional
Science Fairs
From 18th – 20th July, Juken Nissho Limited, Gisborne, held the annual East Coast
Regional Science and Technology Fair.
The Fair drew 173 entries from students in Years 1 through to 13. The majority of these entries were from year 7
to year 10 pupils, most with a science
32
Food New Zealand
focus.
Junior Secondary) from Campion College
Brandon Jackson of St Peter’s College,
Palmerston North
Georgia Jamieson of Monrad Intermadiate School, Palmerston North
The Hawkes Bay/Poverty Bay branch
of NZIFST offered special prizes to the
two outstanding entries in the area of
Food Science and Technology. Representatives from the Branch, Lynda Gaukrodger and Alison Moorcroft, evaluated the
16 Food Science and Technology related
entries and found a fairly wide selection
of subject matter and presentation style.
Two entries stood out from the others,
both projects demonstrating sound scientific technique and understanding. Both
students had taken a simple concept and
developed it into a more complex and
thorough investigation.
This year the NZIFST prize was equally shared by Beth Thompson (Year 10 –
and Mark Geuze (Year 13 – Senior Secondary) from Lytton High School. They
each received $50.
Beth’s entry ‘Superchick’ looked into
the presence of antibiotics in various raw
and cooked chicken products. Her enthusiasm, research into the subject and
presentation skills were outstanding. It
was a very ‘eye-catching’ display.
Mark’s entry ‘Vitamin C in Mandarins’
investigated the degradation of Vitamin
C in mandarins over a 12 day period.
A well planned and presented project,
which showed great promise of a future
food scientist.
Lynda Gaukrodger
great deal of work by a dedicated team has reinvigorated the
NZIFST Careers initiative. The
project includes an NZIFST website section devoted to careers, a team of Futurintech ambassadors who work with
Technology teachers, branches running
careers evenings.
We all know how much our industry
needs trained professionals and our Institute is uniquely placed to teach young
people the value and satisfaction working in New Zealand’s arguable most valuable international asset.
This is the first installment of the feature – next issue NZIFST’s partners in
the project, Futureintech, Techlink and
CREST will be covered.
Careers on the web
By Chris Newey
As someone who has been involved in
NZIFST Careers efforts in the past, one of
the frustrations has always been the lack
of a central repository for all the ideas
and material developed by hard-working
voluntary committees and individuals.
This has made it difficult to coordinate a
consistent, Institute-wide effort year after
year, when branches are widespread, and
individuals are coming and going at both
national and local levels.
The website (www.nzifst.org.nz) offers a permanent home for Careers resources, a way for members, students
and teachers to access it easily, and a
medium for members and committees to
share ideas and materials. This was recognised by the Executive two years ago,
when the decision was made to upgrade
to a dynamic website, and the current incarnation of the Careers Committee has
spent the past six months or so working
hard on a number of fronts, particularly
focusing on supporting the teaching of
Technology in secondary schools, and
looking to work in with the efforts of
TENZ, HETTANZ, IPENZ, RSNZ and others. It quickly became clear that the two
pages on the website currently dedicated
to Careers and Education would no longer be enough!
The challenge has been to present all
the material accumulated in a way that
is interesting and easy to access, for secondary students in particular.
To simplify access, Careers & Education has been split into three primary
areas: “Schools - For Students”, “Schools For Teachers”, and “Uni’s - For Students”.
Supporting these are areas devoted to
“Tertiary Courses”, “Tertiary Scholarships”, “Tertiary Resources” (educational
material), and “Industry Training” (continuing professional development).
“What do Food Scientists
and Technologists do?”
This section is aimed at secondary students. A set of career profiles of young,
working food technologists talking about
their jobs provides an excellent starting
point. These were generated in IPENZ’s
excellent
Futureintech
programme
(www.futureintech.org.nz, promoting careers in engineering, technology and science), and Futureintech have generously
allowed us to reproduce profiles of Ambassadors who are NZIFST members.
A future addition will be a section
profiling food technologists who have
The website offers … a
medium for members and
committees to share ideas
and materials
each ‘made a difference’ in their field.
A set of typical job options offers a
more generic answer to the question of
what we do, including job descriptions,
career and salary prospects, competencies and qualifications typically required
for each role linked to appropriate course
information. This links into the section titled “What do you have to study to become a Food Technologist?” The list of
food science, technology and engineering-related courses available in
New Zealand has been expanded and
will be updated annually. For the first
time, we have attempted to pull together
all the various tertiary scholarships and
funding options available in this country
to both undergraduate and post-graduate
students in the Food Science and Technology and Engineering (FST&E) field.
Food technology in action
Another section sets out to illustrate food
technology in action. This consists mostly
of links to sites showing industrial food
processes, and sites with useful information on how food science and technology
is applied in the real world. This material
will be of interest from both careers and
school project points of view.
Resources for teachers, pupils and
students
In “Schools – for Teachers”, under teaching food science and technology (FS&T)
in the secondary curriculum, new food
technology teaching resources, developed by NZIFST members, will feature,
supported by a range of resources available elsewhere on the web.
Under “How NZIFST can help” we
provide teachers with local NZIFST
(Branch) contacts and suggestions as to
how NZIFST can help with ideas, materials and experience to support experiments and projects. The Futureintech
Ambassadors programme is also featured,
with a list of NZIFST Futureintech ambasarors and articles explaining how
they have worked in secondary schools
to support teachers delivering the food
technology curriculum.
This section will also incorporate ways
that NZIFST can support schools’ Careers
efforts, including details of the new food
technology big day out programme.
Under “Universities - For Students”
we will pull together information on career and job prospects in FS&T, along
with details of initiatives such as Massey’s successful Speed job seeking
event. New developments underway in
the Employment section of the website
will provide students with information on
specialist FST&E recruitment companies,
and some of the larger employers in the
FST&E area.
Future plans
The re-launch of Careers & Education
site is just a start. There is more in the
pipeline, and we are hoping that this new
July/August 2006
33
NZIFST
OILS & FATS
CAREERS
Careers and education
initiatives relaunched
A
NZIFST CAREERS
material will stimulate contributions and
suggestions for additions and improvements from NZIFST Branches, individuals, academia and industry. We welcome
your input and contributions. Remember
there is also a list of Careers and Education resources building up in the Members’ Area on the website, for Branches to
share and copy. Besides making students
aware of the exciting range of careers
available in food science, technology &
engineering, these efforts can only help
the image of the profession, and the profile of the Institute.
www.nzifst.org.nz/careers
The role of a Futureintech
Ambassador
Bronwyn Hawker
As a recent graduate from Otago University I thought training as a Futureintech
Ambassador would be a great way to help
get young people involved and interested
in food science. I work for Frucor Beverages as a product development technologist and I recently had the opportunity
to work with a year 10 food technology
class at Macleans College over a period of
6 weeks. This involved giving three presentations about different aspects of food
technology and product development.
The presentations focused on different aspects of what I do everyday as part
of my job, and how this could be applied
to product development the students
were carrying out in class. Product development, food processing and sensory
evaluation were the main topics of each
presentation; each talk also included a
practical exercise. One such exercise
involved students coming up with their
own ideas for an ‘innovative beverage’
which they had to present to the class,
for which cold drinks were handed out
as rewards.
The idea of giving presentations was
initially quite daunting but I have found
it great to be able to interact with both
students and teachers, all of whom are
really enthusiastic and keen to find out
more about food technology in industry. It’s great to give information to the
students, who initially had little or no
idea about what food technologists do
and how what they learn can be applied
to a real job. Many of them had tricky
questions prepared, which sometimes required quick thinking on my part to give
accurate answers!! It was sometimes challenging to communicate to the students
exactly what I did without confusing
them with technical terms and abbreviations. Overall I found it to be a rewarding experience and beneficial to both the
students and me.
34
Food New Zealand
Studying Food Technology
at Scholarship Level
Samantha Eagle,
year 13 student
Technology is a
fascinating subject.
I found it to be an
outlet for my ideas
and a great opportunity to extend my
knowledge and use
problem solving. It is far more useful than
I would ever have imagined. My scholarship project was to develop a soy-based,
dry mix yoghurt product.
Why did you choose to study food
technology for scholarship?
I felt that trying for a scholarship in food
technology would help me combine my
technology practice with some higher
critical thinking about my work and technology as a process. I was interested in
having a taste of being a technologist
and understanding the intricate process
of product development. The scholarship
report in itself meant I had to critically
reflect on my technology practice and
justify my decisions and the outcome.
What support did you get from the
food industry?
Carol Pound, my mentor, helped broaden
my understanding of technological processes. She helped me to see how scientific methods and concepts (particularly
chemistry) were the underlying framework of a sound technological process
or product. In particular she kept me on
track.
I gained amazing respect for food
technologists through my work with the
industry. Hansells NZ Limited was the
Client for the project, which gave me motivation to have an outcome that could be
meaningful for them and not just for the
purposes of my project.
Other than how to do food product
development, what other skills did
you learn that will help you in your
career?
I enjoyed that I was able to use my
knowledge from my other subjects (biology, chemistry, mathematics, physics and
English) to broaden my understanding of
yoghurt, relate to processing techniques
and to communicate this in a format appropriate for the targeted reader. I had to
learn to alter my findings so that it would
suit the technologists, the stakeholders
and the consumer panel. This meant I
developed a deep understanding of my
project, my product and my aims. I learnt
the value of consultation and keeping
to the point, as I had to isolate exactly
what needed to be said and convey the
information appropriately for the different stakeholders.
Would you recommend it to other
students?
I would definitely recommend technology to other students. It has its own learning process which will help me in the
future. The great thing about technology
in general, is you are solving the issue as
you see it.
(The full version of Sam’s report is on
the website)
Teaching Food Technology with Futureintech and
NZIFST support
Carolyn Norquay
My introduction to the real world of
food technology began in 2003, when
I spent a year in the food industry as a
teacher fellow with the Royal Society of
New Zealand. After three years back in
the classroom, the benefits from that year
continue to grow. The fellowship year
enabled me to experience first hand the
work of a sensory scientist, a food technologist and a food writer. I learned a
great deal and became inspired about the
possibilities for food technology in the
classroom.
I spent time with people who worked
in the industry, and their ideas and enthusiasm for my subject was infectious.
Nothing was in the too hard basket and
I was never exposed to any negative attitudes suggesting ‘it will never work.’
These people were problem solvers and
it showed.
A study tour to Australia with the
Dairy Division of NZIFST was a highlight.
We toured 15 food processors in six days.
I observed food processing systems that
had previously only been available to me
through textbooks.
My introduction to members of NZIFST
continues to be invaluable. NZIFST members have visited my classroom to introduce sensory evaluation techniques
to my students, talk about their careers
or describe what product development
involves in their industry. In the past 2
years, Futureintech has provided me with
the opportunity to extend my existing
network of food industry professionals.
Now I can simply make contact with a
Futureintech Facilitator and they will arrange for an Ambassador to come and
work with my students. I have especially
enjoyed the expertise Ambassadors have
provided about the impact legislation has
on their jobs, along with discussions on a
technologist’s ethical and moral responsibilities. The students begin to relate their
Speed job-seeking
Abby Thompson
much through the summer-job arrangement. Students in the early stages of
their degrees can provide an able pair
of extra hands in production areas, gaining exposure to a food processing environment and how a company operates.
More senior students usually work on
projects ranging from product/process
development to quality assurance. This
lets employers get those projects that
they otherwise never get around to done
quite cheaply.
Increasingly, companies are struggling to recruit food technologists on demand. The smart ones are using students
employed in summer jobs at second and
third year as an excellent way to find
good potential staff and build loyalty and
understanding ready for a rapid start after graduation. A very high proportion of
students end up working in the industry
area where they have completed summer
work, as this is where they have developed specific knowledge and industry
contacts.
Several companies have found that
attendance at the Speed Job Seeking
evening is an excellent way to show
themselves off to four years of Technology, Engineering, Science and Nutrition
students all interested in food industry
The crowd at the Speed job-seeking event
Speed Job-Seeking ‘06 was held on a
chilly winter’s night in Palmerston North
at the Massey University Event Centre. A
twist on the speed-dating concept, the
successful inaugural event last year motivated the NZIFST Manawatu-Wellington
branch and Massey University to do it
again on the 9th of August.
The event was initially inspired by
comments from students and employers
wanting a single forum to find and fill
summer and graduate jobs in the food
industry.
Both students and employers gain
careers. Even where they take only two
students on for summer they can show
off to hundreds who may become prospects later.
This year over 30 companies participated in the event, either in person or
through providing a flyer which was distributed to the students in an information
pack. The companies included some of
the largest players in the New Zealand
market (Fonterra, Nestlé, Heinz-Watties,
McCains, Goodman Fielder, Cedenco) but
it was especially pleasing to see a good
number of the up-and-coming companies
NZIFST CAREERS
classroom practice to that of a real Food
Technologist. These people make Food
Technology come alive for the students.
They provide students (and teachers)
with a greater understanding of the food
industry. Their expert advice is valued
and they often provide the opportunity
for students to undertake more authentic
practice.
The support I have received from
NZIFST and Futureintech over the past
3 years has made me more knowledgeable about food technology and the
food industry. The support has helped
me gradually make the shift from offering a traditional home economics course
of study to being able to implement a
full senior food technology programme.
NZIFST and Futureintech have certainly
helped my students become more aware
of the career opportunities that are available to them. The relationship between
schools, NZIFST and Futureintech will
continue to develop and provide ongoing benefits for everyone involved.
Carolyn Norquay teaches food technology at St Kentigern College, Auckland
Technology now a
University Entrance
subject
Sue Parkes
On June 12, NZQA extended the
‘approved subjects’ list for university entrance to include Technology,
following formal consultation with
universities and endorsement by
the New Zealand Vice-Chancellors’
Committee. This will apply for entry
to university from 1 June 2007.
This is a significant advance in
Technology education, as it now
has credibility amongst all the other
‘approved’ university entrance subjects, most of which have a long
history as UE approved subjects.
Technology as a school curriculum subject is still in its infancy; the
draft curriculum first appeared in
schools in 1993.
The Universities’ role now is to
add Technology as a recommended
supporting subject for their various
degrees in Technology, Engineering, Product Development, Design,
Architecture etc.
Top scholar in Technology 2005
was Samantha Eagle, a student who
undertook a project for a client to
develop a soy-based yoghurt. She
was supported by NZIFST member Carol Pound, previously a lecturer in food technology at Massey
University. Sam’s article about her
project is featured here.
as well (Barkers, Comvita, Phoenix Organics). Industry sectors covered ranged
from dairy-based (Gisborne Milk, Rush
Munros) to ingredient suppliers (Kerry
Ingredients, Danisco, Flavorjen); recruitment companies (Lawson Williams) to
convenience foods (Cowell’s Pavlova,
Meal Innovations, Prepared Foods, Back
Country Foods). The involvement of the
Crown Research Institutes, Crop and
Food and AgResearch as well as the NZFSA provided a nice balance to the mix.
Feedback from both students and employers has been excellent, and discussions regarding Speed Job-Seeking ‘07 are
already underway. Record Wednesday 8
August 2007 in your diary now. Don’t
miss out through lack of forward planning. And don’t wait for a project to pop
up before signing up a student – there
will always be a paying project come November. Contact Manawatu-Wellington
branch if you want to register your booking now.
July/August 2006
35
CONFERENCE
AIFST Conference,
Adelaide, July 2006
By Anny Dentener, Laurie Melton and Laurence Eyres
NZIFST President Sally Hasell with Alan Mortimer, President
IUFost, and AIFST President, Ken Grice
Tuesday’s CSIRO Well being diet lunch on Tuesday
T
Technical programme
he Convention Centre on the bank of the Torrens River
in the beautiful South Australian city of Adelaide made
a great setting for 500 or so delegates from the Australian food industry and the half a dozen from New Zealand. The
conference opened with AIFST award ceremonies on Sunday
afternoon. Notable events were the Danisco-hosted wine and
cheese evening in the Art Gallery on Monday evening and the
lunch on Tuesday, which followed the guidelines from ‘The
CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet’ book.
At the Conference dinner on the last night, the Australian
custom of ‘alternate plating’ caused some quick swaps of the
snapper and steak variants.
Visits to company stands during breaks were encouraged by
the chance to win an IPod for delegates whose exhibition passports were filled with stamps from the 37 stand holders.
The conference featured many excellent technical papers as
well as papers on legislative and food business topics.
Cost of Listeria recalls for cheese makers
Dr Anne Austin from Dairy Food Safety Victoria reported on the
costs of Listeria recalls for cheese makers. Even with modern
HACCP systems in place, incidents can and do happen. Losses
add up quickly, both for production loss costs; milk and other
ingredients, manufacturing, packaging and storage costs) and
clearance costs; product testing, environmental testing, recall
costs, disposal, clean up. Retail chains in Australia now charge
anything between $1000 and $50,000 to handle a recall.
Clearly, the potential impact on a business of even just one
Cost for one recall event in $Au
Small cheese maker
making 200kg / day
Medium cheese maker
making 2 tonnes / day
Large cheese maker
making 100 tonnes / day
Production loss
$1,150
$ 8,900
$277,000
Clearance costs
$3,295
$16,795
$198,125
Total costs
$4,455
$ 25,695
$475,125
This report was written individually by the three authors, and collated by Anny Dentener. There is a
mystery prize for the first reader who correctly identifies which author reported which papers. Email
your entry to me by 30 September. Results in next issue. Ed
36
Food New Zealand
incident is major. It pays therefore to regularly check cleaning
and sanitation by at least 5 individual well placed samples per
week. The cost can be reduced once a run of clear samples has
been achieved by making composite samples and reducing the
frequency to once every 2 weeks. If positives are found, using
the $40 rapid test kit is advised for faster action and reduced
recall costs.
So what causes the problems in the first place? Sources of
contamination can be hard to find, but focused sampling improved detection rates from 6% to 15%. Reasons were found
to be 47% attributable to the environment but also 40% to staff
training and competency!
Could a recall
screw your
business?
… how to feed 6 people for 3 years in a
completely alien environment
Speeding up cheese ripening:
The Accelerzyme enzyme which doubles the speed of cheese
ripening was profiled by DSM presenter Rutger van Rooyen.
This endoprotease enzyme speeds ups the casein proteolysis
without the risk of bitter peptides by sequentially cutting off
amino acids from the end of the protein chain. For American
Cheddar ripening time was cut from 6 to 3 months, but with
a slight softening in body. No other European style cheeses
have been fully tested yet, so the benefits or not for vintage
full flavoured real cheeses is still unknown. DSM also recently
launched the enzyme Preventase to prevent the formation of
acrylamide in bakery products.
Surface sterilisation by acetic acid vapours
David Lark form Vaporex outlined how small amounts of acetic acid vapour (well below taste thresholds) temporarily drops
the pH in the surface water phase of a product, thus creating a
short term high biocide concentration. This novel antimicrobial
surface treatment can be applied to smallgoods and other food
products from cheese to pasta. Applications tested in a pilot
plant have resulted in the extension of shelf life, for instance, for
fresh bread crumbs to over 2 years. More information available
from www.nfis.com.au/fig_projects.html under Weston Technologies. This is one of the projects awarded one million dollars
under the Australian FIG (Food Innovation Grant) scheme.
New sensory “The Authenticity Test” by Dr Forde
Spiking Australian Vegemite with just discernable levels of a
funny tasting chemical (Guiaicol) seems just the thing to do
to pester Australians. In this case the test was done to check
whether, when challenging the patriotic spirit of Australians
(“bet you can’t tell”), their emotional involvement made for
more discerning tasters or not. The conclusion: minor differences only. This novel test method has been applied to beer
too. “We have invented a much cheaper way to make beer, but
we are keeping the savings, since we think you can’t tell the difference anyway”. Well put that challenge to a man about his favourite beer and you are bound to get emotional involvement!
My conclusion on the Vegemite: well maybe Australians are not
as patriotic about it is as they (are lead to) believe?
Food on the Mission to Mars
The most exciting speech was that by Professor Arthur Teixeira
(University of Florida) on the Mission to Mars in 2030 and how
to feed 6 people for 3 years in a completely alien environment.
The first challenge is to provide food for the voyage out plus a
few months’ provisions while they are getting farming started
on Mars. Complete meals (e.g. casseroles) sealed in retortable
SOUTH ISLAND
Phone: 03 377 1276
NORTH ISLAND
Phone: 09 302
306037
September/October
2006
CONFERENCE
pouches will be the mainstay. Everything
will be recycled, including packaging,
food wastes, human wastes, air and water. Once on Mars, greenhouses will be set
up to grow soybeans (for tofu, soy milk
and oil) wheat, rice, sweet potato, especially tomatoes, carrots, cabbage, onions,
salad greens and herbs, while the only
fruit seems to be strawberries. Tomatoes
will be made into tomato sauce, which
will be used on or in virtually every dish
(they are Americans). Each meal preparation will be doubled with half consumed
and the other half being preserved in the
recycled retortable parcels (yes the same
ones used on the outward journey!) By
gum they’ll be sick of tofu and tomato
sauce by the time they touch down at
Cape Canaveral. I was keen to go until I
realised there was no plan to include red
wine or green tea in the menu. (No lamb
chops, no chocolate, no oysters!) Presumably warm water would be allowed
as a treat. Such fortitude is only for the
inspired or the truly crazy.
Coming up!
GI testing without people
presentation on healthy muesli bars,
which could have been a model for how
to approach NPD, and another which
could have been a pilot for an amusing TV show by two recent “new” Australians. The latter had the audience in
stitches with their send up interview on
a new product launch based on probiotic
ice cream. The science was good and the
style of presenting showed real innovation. It’s great to see young technologists
producing good work.
Long Chain plant Omega- 3‘s
(Dr Surinder Singh, CSIRO)
This research at CSIRO is really groundbreaking and involves equipping oilseed
crops with the necessary genes to produce long chain omega 3 fatty acids, EPA
and DHA. This work is necessary because
of growing demand, rapidly diminishing
fish stocks and the fact that fish farming
uses 2 tonne of fish meal per 1 tonne of
farmed fish. Fish in fact do not produce
EPA and DHA but accumulate them in
their tissues by consuming marine life
that have consumed micro algae that
produce these fatty acids. Scientists are
One thing has not changed in the past 20 years –
most people agree it is very difficult, if not impossible,
to measure GI accurately
Ian Brown suggested high amylose starch
was ideal for gradual energy release and
hence improved mental performance. He
believed energy release was more important than glycaemic index. There were a
number of papers espousing the benefits
of low GI, which is not surprising given it
was an Australian conference. One thing
has not changed in the past 20 years –
most people agree it is very difficult, if
not impossible, to measure GI accurately.
What you ate yesterday influences the
GI response. Vinegar lowers the GI, and
who swallows 50g of sugar in solution in
one go as part of the normal diet? These
difficulties are compounded by the large
biological variations in people. Hence,
David Topping’s group at CSIRO, Adelaide, are developing a fully automated
method of measuring the GI of all types
of foods, which does not involve feeding
people.
Student presentations
Sunday afternoon lectures are not everybody’s cup of tea especially after a long
and convoluted journey from Auckland
but the student presentations on the first
day of the conference were extremely informative, well presented and very entertaining. We listened to one very detailed
38
Food New Zealand
concentrating their efforts on identifying
the genes responsible in different micro
algae, cloning them and inserting them in
higher plants such as aradopsis, which is
closely related to canola. A patent on the
process has been filed, but safety testing
and regulatory approval will still be needed before commercialisation, expected to
be 4-5 years away. With DHA present in
the oil meal as well as the oil it can be
included in a whole range of feed or food
products. Chickens and sheep fed omega-3 LCPUFA pass them on in their meat.
With no DNA or protein present in the
refined vegetable oil there is also a good
chance of the cautious public accepting
oil from this GM crop.
Innovation
Smart systems Innovation (Raward. C,
Meat and Livestock)
This paper’s key message was that a systems approach to innovation implies that
firms cannot undertake innovation activities in isolation and their success involves
complex interactions and original approaches to changing the environment. It
is worthwhile to examine case studies on
failure and it was found that most innovation failures were as a result of system
failures. Modern approaches involve in-
teractions at many levels and a consideration of global issues.
National Food Industry Strategy Ltd
These talks were very interesting for the
Kiwis in the audience as the approach
seems to have favoured small Australian
companies with little research and development and no funds of their own. This
body favours strongly the open Innovation approach which, simply put, means
that organisations cooperate and work
with as many collaborators as possible
in the public and private sectors. Their
model suggests that this is a far more
successful approach than the traditional
secretive and non-collaborative approach
taken traditionally in food innovation.
The European experience- Peter Lillford, Consultant, CSIRO
Peter is an ex-Unilever research manager
who now spends a considerable time out
in Australia. He gave an insightful and
witty discourse on the experiences (good
and bad) in Europe on food innovation.
His talk was stimulating and despite being the last on the conference agenda,
was well attended. His talk encouraged
us to read up on fourth generation R&D
and he left us with a message ”Investment in research=investment in people”.
This is too often forgotten in this day and
age of budget cuts and cost cutting.
MIA NEWS
Meaty Morsels
Snippets from the vast array of research, technical, market and policy information received by the
Meat Industry Association
Sutton’s new role
welcomed
The Meat Industry Association has welcomed the announcement of former
trade and agriculture minister Jim Sutton
as Trade Ambassador for New Zealand,
following his retirement from politics. He
will also assume the chair of Landcorp.
MIA chairman Bill Falconer said: “Jim Sutton’s appointment….is an excellent use
of his skills and experience and will keep
him involved in an area where he has
been a key player. Jim has made huge
contributions to the primary industries of
this country in all his portfolios and we
are delighted that he will be continuing
in the trade sector at a time when there
are considerable challenges in both the
bilateral and multilateral arenas.”
Omega-3-rich Welsh lamb
The US National Sheep Improvement
Centre and the American Sheep Industry, Welsh sheep producers are starting
a research project to produce lamb that
is rich in omega-3 fatty acids, recognised
as an aid in preventing heart disease, according to meatnews.com. Nine farmers
near Aberystwyth in Wales have been
given backing by Hybu Cig Cymru (Meat
Promotion Wales) after coming up with
the plan. The group will use a mix of natural feeds high in long-chain fatty acids
and hope to identify the ‘right mix’ that
will boost the levels of the fatty acid in
the lean muscle tissue of lambs.
Cranberry lowers pathogens in minced beef
-– according to University of Maine food
technology researchers. Covered in an article in foodnavigator.com, new research
by the scientists shows that adding cranberry concentrate to raw minced beef significantly lowers the growth of common
food-borne pathogens. The University of
Maine researchers added cranberry concentrate to raw ground beef tainted with
bacteria that cause food-related illness.
They found that, compared to the control, cranberries significantly inhibited the
growth of those bacteria at both 7ºC and
21ºC and concluded that cranberry’s antimicrobial properties “offer considerable
promise as a natural and effective tool to
control food-borne pathogens…”
NZ consumers eating more
beef and lamb, despite
higher price
An analysis of Meat Consumption and
Expenditure by the Economic Service
shows that sheepmeat consumption in
New Zealand rose by 7.3% to 54,023
tonnes in the year ended 31 march 2006,
while beef and veal consumption lifted
by 8.4% to 128,804 tonnes. Red meat consumption at 44.6 kg increased by 7% per
capita. Additionally, beef and lamb prices
increased 3.9 and 6.3% respectively in the
2006 quarter, compared with a year earlier. The largest retail meat expenditure
category in the year to March 2006 was
beef and veal where consumers spent
$801 million. Rod Slater, chief executive
of the Beef & Lamb Marketing Bureau
(NZBLMB) says it was great news to see
‘two-fold’ support by New Zealanders.
New Zealanders eat lean beef and lamb
well within all national nutrition guidelines, including those of the Heart Foundation and Ministry of Health, the Bureau
claims.
New AgResearch food section incorporates MIRINZ
Centre
New Zealand’s meat science research capability is set to grow with the creation of
a new AgResearch section, incorporating
the Meat Industry Research Institute of
New Zealand (MIRINZ), that will become
the Crown Research Institute’s largest.
The Food, Metabolism & Microbiology
section will employ around seventy researchers and results from the merger
of the Meat Quality & Safety and Metabolism & Microbial Genomics sections,
which have significant complementary
skills, though overlap in some areas such
as microbiology and food safety.
The new section will have a wider
food focus, will grow the organisation’s
capability in meat science, investigate nutritional properties and potential of food
in the wider sense and will enable New
Zealand to capitalise on growing markets in countries like China and India by
finding ways to add value to meat and
increase the value of export returns, according to its new manager Dr Warren
McNabb. It “presents an opportunity
for AgResearch to capitalise on the good
name that our organisation has both nationally and internationally.”
Animal welfare official
standards for UK?
Animal welfare standards are being mooted by the British Farm Animal Welfare
Council (FAWC), the body which advises
the British Agriculture Minister on animal
welfare matters. In a presentation in Wellington to a range of interested bodies,
the new FAWC chairman, Professor Christopher Wathes, outlined the FAWC’s current focus, including consideration of the
issues relating to the economics of animal
welfare. British farm assurance schemes
have had ‘patchy uptake’ by retailers and
have not achieved the uniform coverage across the country originally envisaged plus there is some concern within
FAWC about the power of the 100 or so
supermarket buyers and their varying
effect on farm animal welfare, he says.
“There is not enough information available for the concerned consumer to be
able to gather information to make an
informed choice,” he commented. FAWC
sees a place for independent standards
rather than by groups with a vested interest and a working group is actively looking at proposals for a nationwide animal
welfare standards scheme, possibly with
gold, silver and bronze levels. Professor
Wathes is Professor of Animal Welfare at
the Royal Veterinary College, University
of London.
For further information on any of the
above items contact the Meat Industry
Association on 04 473 6465 or by email
info@mia.co.nz.
Visit the web-site www.mia.co.nz.
September/October 2006
39
MIA NEWS
MIA Conference:
Consumers, counterfeiting
and commerce
Consumer demands; how to forestall counterfeiting; European foreign policy; and current business
topics affecting the meat industry are some of the topics delegates will hear about at this year’s Meat
Industry Association (MIA) Conference in Nelson
ollowing the conference opening by His Worship Mr Paul
Matheson, Mayor of Nelson, and MIA chairman, Bill Falconer, the Minister of trade and trade negotiations, the
Honourable Phil Goff, set the scene for international trade and
gave an update on market access in his keynote speech.
Continuing and developing discussions started at the World
Meat Congress in Brisbane in April about changing trends in
global consumer demands on meat, keynote speaker David
Russell, chief executive of the Consumers’ Institute, gave a Kiwi
perspective on the issue. The onslaught of international consumer focused standards was the focus of Aus-Meat’s chief executive, Ian King’s presentation, while contemporary packaging
integrity, security and traceability tools were examined by John
Bradley, technical director of Adhaero IT Ltd. (see sidebar for
more information)
Delegates also gained a nutritional update from visiting British nutrition expert, Professor Rob Pickard, and heard about
economic, foreign policy and business topics affecting the New
Zealand meat trade from a number of different perspectives.
New British High Commissioner, His Excellency George Fergusson, described ‘Nearly 125 years after SS Dunedin: New Europe,
New Zealand and Global Issues Relating to the Meat Industry’.
Political journalist and director of the Hugo Group, Colin James,
provided a political and economic update in his ‘Riding the Alligator – the next three years’ presentation, while Meat & Wool
New Zealand Economic Service’s Rob Davidson, and Bell-Gully’s Andrew Scott-Howman covered economic issues and em-
F
ployment relations.
Dr David Skilling, the
founding Chief Executive of
the New Zealand Institute, a
think-tank that has been established to contribute new
and creative thinking to the
public debate on issues that
matter for New Zealand’s
future, provided food for
thought in his future-focused presentation on the
prospects and priorities for
the New Zealand economy.
The MIA is delighted
with the level of support for British Nutrition Foundation
this year’s conference. Plati- director-general Rob Pickard.
num sponsors Maersk Line
and Maersk Logistics were joined by their silver counterparts
Vero Marine, Aus-Meat Limited, Hamburg-Sud NZ Ltd, Thompson Clarke Shipping (on behalf of the Port of Los Angeles),
Port Otago Limited and Alcan Packaging Danaflex, and bronze
supporters Axis Intemodal, Hapag-Lloyd (NZ) Ltd and the Port
of Tauranga.
The 2006 Meat Industry Association Conference was held at
the Rutherford Hotel in Nelson on Sunday 10 and Monday 11
September.
Sticky solution for a major problem
taping was born and proved
in subsequent protoypes
and trials. The meat industry
was a bigger challenge as it
has the greatest variation in
box types.
After many frustrating
years of trial, error and cost,
the Horizontal and Vertically
Applied Taping System (HAVATS) and the Secure Seal
System (SSS) machines are
now a reality and the technology is patented. HAVATS
prints and applies adhesive
pressure sensitive tape to
close any carton type. SSS
The substitution of meats from other sources, masquerading under the good name of New Zealand, is a growing problem for
our meat industry in many countries. Providing a secure environment from plant to customer that also gives assurance about
source and provides trace back capabilities is essential.
One company has been working on a sticky solution to this
problem, from all angles. Its technical director, John Bradley, of
Feilding-based Adhaeroit Ltd, will outline its benefits for those
at the MIA conference in his presentation ‘So Your Good Name
Has Been Mis-used’.
For thirty years, Bradley has been in the business of servicing packaging machinery in the food industry and says his
personal speciality is the concept and design of a variety of
hybrid machines. He started working to find better ways to
close fish fillet cartons in 1992 and the concept of horizontal
40
Food New Zealand
The new patented HAVATS and
SSS technology from Adhaeroit
enables secure closing of meat
cartons, with electronically generated MAF seals printed on the
reverse of the adhesive tape.
prints and seals product details to be applied to closures that
exist, such as strapped or glued cartons. NZFSA approved the
company as official providers of electronically generated MAF
seals in December 2005.
Adhaeroit – ‘adhaero’ being latin for ‘sticky stuff’ and ‘it’ for
intelligent taping’ - is commercialising the technology which
Bradley claims is “world first” in being able to close any style or
size of carton, randomly, and apply real time generated regulatory seals/product traceability details printed subsurface (on the
adhesive side of the tape).
“The system, which also has the ability to add RFID (radio
frequency identification) and temperature devices, gives New
Zealand’s export product the leading edge for integrity of the
carton and leads the world in traceability,’ he says.
With external perceptions of tariff barriers, pandemics and
transmissible animal diseases, meat companies are constantly
under pressure to provide immediate traceability and integrity
of the closure system. This is vital for New Zealand’s image as a
quality exporter of exceptional integrity, Bradley says.
“HAVATS will eliminate tampering and substitution of product exported from New Zealand because the cartons will show
dramatic signs of unlawful entry. Our customers will receive
fewer damaged cartons and displacement of regulatory seals
will be eliminated. NZFSA will be able to track the MAF seal
from the moment of application through to the carton’s final
destination, carton contents are data-matched with the MAF seal
serial number and are therefore identified.
“Any breach of export security or disease outbreak which
may be related back to New Zealand will catapult into existence
extraordinary security measures which will require compliance,
let alone the damage to our entire export market.”
John Bradley says Adhaeroit intends New Zealand to be
ahead of the game. He intends to keep the work local. “We
are manufacturing the machines entirely here in New Zealand.
Design and manufacture will be carried out by Metalform of
Dannevirke who are the manufacturers of the newly released
industry standard knife sharpeners and setters.”
Bread alone
‘Man cannot live by bread alone,” asserts a visiting British nutrition expert Professor Robert Pickard, who spoke speak for the
second time at an MIA conference, this time on diet, diversity
and well-being and where meat fits into a healthy New Zealand
diet.
Professor Pickard, the director-general of the British Nutrition Foundation, last addressed the meat industry in 2002 and
this year delegates had the opportunity to gain an update on the
latest nutritional thinking.
This year, Professor Pickard’s visit to New Zealand is hosted
by a group of seven organisations – Eggs Incorporated, Fonterra, the New Zealand Beef & Lamb Marketing Bureau, the New
Zealand Pork Industry Board, Deer Industry New Zealand, the
New Zealand Seafood Industry Council and the Poultry Industry
Association of New Zealand.
The focus of his visit is the launch of a new scientifically referenced paper ‘The Nutritional Importance of Foods of Animal
Origin in a Healthy New Zealand Diet’. A function at Parliament
in Wellington on 22 September will form the official focus of
events but he will be talking to a variety of groups while here,
including scientists, the media and the public.
The 96 page report covers food and nutrition guidelines for
all age groups, the eating patterns on New Zealand adults and
children, the role of animal foods within a healthy New Zealand
diet and in the prevention of common diet-related diseases, the
MIA NEWS
Conference Programme
Sunday, 10 September
16.30pm Official Opening – His Worship Mr Paul
Matheson, Mayor of Nelson, Mr Bill Falconer,
chairman Meat Industry Association
16.35pm Hon Phil Goff, Minister of Trade and Trade
Negotiations ‘International Trade & Market
Access Update’
17.00
David Russell, Chief Executive, Consumers’
Institute – ‘What Consumers Want, or Don’t, as
the Case Might Be: A Domestic and International
Overview on Emerging Consumer Trends’
18.30
Cocktail Function & Dinner at The World of
Wearable Arts and Collectable Cars
Monday 11 September
8.30am Technical sessions on Traceability and Tools to
Prevent Counterfeiting
• Ian King, Chief Executive, Aus-Meat
‘Comfortable, Confident & Vealing Easy?
Then Think Again, the Onslaught of
International Consumer-Focused Standards’
• John Bradley, Technical Director, Adhaero
IT ‘So Your Good Name has been Mis-used:
Contemporary Packaging Integrity, Security
and Traceability Tools’
9.00am Morning tea
9.35am Colin James, Political Journalist and Managing
Director of the Hugo Group, ‘Riding the
Alligator – the Next Three Years: A Political and
Economic Update’
10.35am Rob Davison, Executive Director, Meat & Wool
New Zealand’s Economic Service ‘International
and Domestic Meat Industry Outlook’
11.20am Professor Robert Pickard, Director-General,
British Nutrition Foundation ‘Man Cannot Live
on Bread Alone: Diet, Diversity and Well-Being’
12.15pm Lunch
13.30pm His Excellency George Fergusson, High
Commissioner, British High Commission ‘Nearly
125 Years after the SS Dunedin: New Europe,
New Zealand and Global Issues Relating to the
Meat Industry’
14.15pm Andrew Scott-Howman, Partner, Bell-Gully ‘The
Employment Relations Regime: Back to the
Future?’
15.15pm Dr David Skilling, Chief Executive, New Zealand
Institute ‘The New Zealand Economy: Prospects
& Priorities’
16.00
Conference Close
potential consequences of not including foods of animal origin
in the diet, new attributes emerging from scientific research and
common misconceptions.
It has been prepared by qualified nutritionists and dieticians
working for the first four members of the group in response to
the continued promotion of plant-based diets within the health
and nutrition field; is supported by the New Zealand Dietetic
Association and policy guidance has been given by the Ministry
of Health. It has been peer-reviewed by a panel of independent nutrition experts – Dr Laurence Eyres of the University of
Auckland, Drs Clare Wall and Carol Wham of Massey University,
Jeni Pearce, chair of the New Zealand Nutrition Foundation and
Jenny Reid of the New Zealand Food Safety Authority.
Copies of the paper are available from Fiona Carruthers,
Nutrition Manager, NZ Beef & Lamb Marketing Bureau. Email:
fiona@nzbeeflamb.co.nz.
September/October 2006
41
MIA NEWS
Meat News
Meat industry voyage continues
T
he voyage that started at Port Chalmers in February 1882
when the Steam Ship SS Dunedin, with its first-time cargo of frozen New Zealand sheep carcasses, departed for
Britain continues today, the MIA says in its recently released
2005/06 annual report.
Next year marks the 125th anniversary of that voyage to
New Zealand’s only export meat market at that time. Much has
changed since then but the one constant factor is the importance
of the export meat sector to the economy, the report says.
In 2005/06, over 400,000 tonnes of beef and 360,000 tonnes
of sheepmeat were exported to markets around the world – in
addition to 180,000 tonnes consumed here in New Zealand. Export revenue generated from red meat was $5 billion – 27 percent of our primary export revenue, 16 percent of total export
earnings and four percent of gross domestic profit. Over 24,000
people were employed in front-line positions during the peak
season, of which 7,000 were engaged in life skills training.
The stalling of the Doha Round of World Trade Organisation trade talks concerns MIA chairman Bill Falconer and chief
executive Caryll Shailer, as many WTO members seeming to be
resigning themselves to bilateralism and plurilateralism.
“This situation creates a difficult challenge for a nation such
as New Zealand, which benefits more from a shared bargaining
influence…New Zealand will need to reflect carefully on the
priorities under which its negotiating resources are allocated.”
Counterfeit product, while a testimony to the high regard
accorded New Zealand meat in overseas markets, continues
to be problematic. E-cert, New Zealand’s paperless electronic
certification system, is one of the remedies to the prevention
of fraud.
Business issues, including employment legislation, the ongoing work of the Food & Beverage Taskforce, food standards
and animal welfare continue to
be of interest to MIA members
and various submissions have
been made on different elements over the past year. While
the MIA was one of the business interests welcoming the scrapping of the Kyoto Protocol, it
is aware of New Zealand’s obligations in this regard and says it
will continue to monitor climate change policy development.
“There are obstacles as well as opportunities going forward.
High workforce participation and low unemployment rates will
continue to stretch both productive capacity and the minds of
those in the industry tasked with recruiting the massive labour
force which we need,” Falconer and Shailer say.
“The voyage of the Dunedin was the beginning of a long
journey – and one which is far from over.”
Copies of the MIA’s 2005/06 annual report are available on
request from info@mia.co.nz or 04-473 6465
Give them a chance
P
roposed new employment legislation governing probationary employment has been given support by the Meat
Industry (MIA), in principle, although there are some elements still to clarify from the trade association’s point of view.
Wayne Mapp’s (National) Employment Relations (Probationary Employment) Bill passed its first reading in Parliament in
March and moved on to the Transport and Industrial Relations
Select Committee.
The Bill aims to enable employers to ‘take a chance’ with
William Davidson 125
Conference
T
he 125th anniversary of the first shipment of New Zealand lamb to an offshore market is to be honoured
with a major meat industry event in 2007.
A conference is being organised to honour William Soltau
Davidson (1864-1924) who, almost single-handedly, invented
the export economy by creating a market for lamb in Britain
and by applying and adapting available technologies to get
produce there.
The conference will represent the interests of the New
Zealand meat and agricultural industry across the entire supply chain -– farming, processing, wholesaling, retail and marketing. A working party consisting of senior executives from
Federated Farmers, Meat & Wool New Zealand, the Meat Industry Association, the New Zealand Pork Industry Board,
Deer New Zealand, Retail Meat New Zealand and the New
Zealand Beef and Lamb Marketing Bureau are organising the
42
Food New Zealand
125 year commemoration.
The William Davidson 125 Conference is being
staged “not only to celebrate
the achievements and pioneers of the
past 125 years, but also to focus on the agricultural industry of the future,” says Rod Slater
of the New Zealand Beef & Lamb Marketing Bur e a u
(NZBLMB), which is coordinating the event on behalf of the
agricultural industry.
Speakers of the highest calibre are being approached,
including the Minister of Agriculture who has agreed to
participate. The organising team is also negotiating with a
‘confidential but world renowned identity’ for the keynote
speaker.
MIA NEWS
new employees without facing the risk of expensive and protracted personal grievance procedures – designed to help get
those with little or no experience into work. The loosening of
dismissal procedures around probationary periods is supported
by the MIA, in principle, since it encourages employers to offer
employment to groups such those who have been out of work
for some time and it also recognises the complex set of issues
involved in the early stages of an employment relationship.
However the MIA says the Bill is going ‘further than necessary’ and that ‘the existence of a probationary period should
only operate as a bar to the taking of an unjustified dismissal
personal grievance rather than prohibiting other forms of personal grievance proposed by the Bill’. In the face of union-organised opposition to the Bill, the Select Committee will report
back this month (September).
A copy of the full submission is available on the MIA website www.mia.co.nz.
Trace-back: next real
step in productivity
T
race-back is the
next real step in
productivity for the
meat industry, according
to technical advisor to the
meat industry and MIA affiliate, ProAnd Ltd.
“Whether we like it
or not, traceability in the
meat industry is here to stay,” managing director Robert Sinclair
says. “The reality is that it allows customers in the supply chain
the ability to verify supply (to avoid counterfeiting) and for recall of damaged products.”
Beef and venison farmers are already talking about issuing
their animals with individual ‘passports’ from birth and Sinclair
sees it carrying on through the meat plants, in time, and enabling a wealth of data from the meat process and supply chain.
Tracking of meat products through a meat plant as the carcass is
broken up allows for a whole new set of data to be assimilated
and analysed, according to Sinclair.
“At last the industry will be able to manage yield and productivity by individual worker and individual animal. There will
be the ability to give feedback to individual suppliers on how
they can improve their genetics and to reward the workers who
use the best skills. Production over-runs will be safeguarded
against and customers will be able to confirm the status of their
orders. The true cost of various products will be determined,
along with any variations to standard lines. All of this in real
time,” he explains.
“Often when traceability is mentioned, the industry only
looks at the extra cost they must bear when in fact they should
be saying, ‘Hey, look at the potential productivity gains that
can be made and oh - by the way - we also have full traceability!’,” Sinclair says. “Thankfully there are some New Zealand
processors who have seen the benefits and are moving in this
direction.
“New Zealand’s competitors in the global meat arena are
actually ahead of us and we have fallen back on our unique
island status for protection and comfort. But will our customers
be satisfied with this stance and will we be missing out on an
opportunity to take the next real step in productivity improvement?
“Time will tell.”
July/August 2006
43
MIA NEWS
The perfect machine
When no two cuts of meat are identical, designing an automated cut packing (ACP) system to sort
and pack them is a major challenge. But not an insurmountable one
C
ar makers have it easy. When
they’re producing a given model,
every bolt #231 that comes down
the production line is identical. What’s
more, if it goes into space A on car B,
that’s where it goes on cars C to Z as
well.
Which makes automation straightforward, relatively speaking… Unless you’re
packing meat cuts. Why? Because not only
does one leg of lamb vary from the next,
but their orientation on the conveyor belt
will be different, as will the position they
need to be moved to for packing.
With all those variables, you’d have to
be ambitious to design what Meat & Wool
New Zealand describes as a set of “advanced imaging techniques, automation
technology and robotics ... that identifies
cuts, and packs the cuts into designated
cartons with full traceability”.
Or, as the leader of the group that
took on this challenge, under contract to
Meat & Wool New Zealand, Shane Leath,
describes it: a system that tries “to imitate
the human brain and hand with a dumb
computer and mechanical gripper”.
Given such a complex problem, it’s
no surprise that the solution is, in fact,
a number of solutions involving various
specialists.
Similar projects are operating in other
parts of the world. The Danish pork industry is using robotics and cut imaging
technology is being used by packaging
companies in New Zealand to select uniform bag sizes and shapes, but, as far as
Shane Leath is aware, nothing has been
put together to use for beef or lamb cuts.
“Other sorting systems are usually
in processes where there is uniformity
of product, such as sausages or chicken
wings,” he says. “What ACP can do is accept a range of very different cuts and
identify them for sorting and packing.”
Building on existing Meat & Wool
New Zealand software, Michelle Challies
defined eight basic shape characteristics
unique to each type of cut which she
then used to ‘teach’ the system to see and
recognise them, no matter how they lay
approaching the camera.
Designer Don Graham came up with
the mechanical/electrical componentry
that mimics the human hand’s light touch
while also delivering the speed and metronomic, unerring accuracy we expect of
a machine.
Various techniques for lifting the
meat from the conveyor belt were tried.
Vacuum pickup, good in theory, distorted the cuts while they were suspended
in midair. Mechanical forceps were too
rough. Finally, Don developed a scooping mechanism that holds the meat like
two hands.
Building the equipment was also a serious challenge. In the car industry, free
standing robots perform many machinedriven repetitive functions. Their design
enables them to mimic the subtlety and
range of human movements as we walk,
twist, bend and move our arms to carry
out even simple tasks – such as transferring
meat from a conveyor belt to a carton.
In this case the research team was
able to develop a simpler automation solution, which uses a combination of linear automation components.
One of the most lateral solutions the
team came up with involved cut stacking. A human can easily place each cut
gently, regardless of how many pieces
are already in the box. Machines struggle
with such variability.
The answer was to place the box on a
sprung platform which ‘sinks’ according
to the weight of each new cut of meat.
That way, the topmost cut is always the
same height from the floor, regardless of
whether the box is near-empty or almost
full. Engineer, Keith Hill of Headco, was
contracted to build the actual mechanism.
Shane Leath describes himself as the
project manager. He defined the problem,
broke it down into its constituent parts,
and pulled together the team that would
crack each part of the problem open.
Packing and sorting machines are
common in other industries: this machine
is believed to be the world’s first proto-
Prime movers.
The following toll free numbers will connect you to your nearest Regional Customer Service Centre:
Outbound : 0508 222 444 Inbound : 0508 333 666 For more, visit us at www.hamburgsud.com
44
Foodwhat.
New Zealand
No matter
Built from readily available componentry, the prototype automated cut packing (ACP) machine (pictured here with
Don Graham and Michelle Challies)
is believed to be the first in the world
capable of sorting and packing cuts as
they come down the processing line
type capable of sorting and packing meat
cuts as they come down the processing
line.
As often happens, the benefits may
extend further than originally envisaged.
“We were motivated by the labour and
skill shortage in the meat industry,” says
Shane, “and by the rate of back injuries
suffered by meat packers.”
As it turns out, information collected
by the visual/computer componentry can
be used to tighten up the specifications
of cuts for particular customers. Such as
the restaurant that wants racks of lamb of
a certain and consistent size; it should be
possible to identify them on the conveyor
belt and set them aside for that customer.
Such cuts could attract a premium price.
Likewise, says Shane, the data could
be used to improve quality control off the
boning line.
Meat & Wool New Zealand is working
now to commercialise the system.
CONFERENCE
Joining the Dots
As Peppermint Press cub reporter I was lucky enough to be invited to attend the annual GS1
conference. This was held in Auckland’s Langham Hotel on 27 and 28 July
By David Pooch
the take up for bar codes. It will be decades before radio frequency tags replace
bar codes but in the meantime, they are
going to become more and more common. Key drivers that are bringing this
technology closer and faster are;
• Ultra high frequency tags are coming
down in cost
• Tag makers are keen to sell their
products
• Retailers see economic benefits
• Legislators make requirements
that need electronic systems for
compliance
RFID overseas
CEO GS1 Ireland, Jim Bracken and GS1 NZ Manager Strategic Initiatives, Gary
Hartley (Photo compliments FMCG magazine)
@bout GS1
Acronyms for Africa
GS1 New Zealand is an affiliate of GS1; an
international not-for-profit organisation
that ‘provides a common language for international trade and commerce’. Internationally, GS1 operates in 120 countries
and has more than one million corporate
members including some 4,000 in New
Zealand. GS1 is traditionally known for
managing bar codes and nowadays is at
the forefront of developing identification
systems and e-commerce throughout the
world. For more information on GS1 read
SCAN, the GS1 newsletter; check out the
website http://www.gs1nz.org/
Acronym junkies abound in this field.
The conference handout alone cited 44
acronyms. Here are just three essential
ones.
EPC – electronic product code
GTIN – global trading identification
number (this is the number written underneath the bar code on a retail food
product
RFID – radio frequency identification A memory chip or tag on a product
can communicate with a radio frequency
reader.
Pathfinder Group
announced
Gary Hartley, GS1 New Zealand’s Manager for Strategic Initiatives announced the
formation of a Pathfinder Group which
is intended to be an ‘EPC/RFID community to meet, exchange information, drive
pilots, research, share experiences and
provide a support environment as the
technology evolves in New Zealand and
internationally. Check it out on http://
www.gs1nz.org/EPCglobal/EPCPathfinderCommunity.htm
data must be ‘cleansed’
as a preparatory step for
e-business
Bar codes and RFID living
together
Bar code technology was first introduced
into supermarkets in 1974 and it took 25
to 30 years to become universal. In contrast, electronic product codes have been
around for only three years. Take up is
expected to accelerate and be faster than
Coming ready or not. The technology
is moving fast. Over 100 million Monza
RFID tags have already been shipped.
They can be read at the rate of 800 per
minute. Walmart, the American retail
chain, expects to have 1000 stores using
RFID by the end of 2006.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is moving towards radio
frequency tags for luggage identification.
They expect big savings with radio identification, as it will reduce the incidence
of lost luggage.
‘traceable proof of the
world’s best food’
… and at home
Steve Anderson, CEO of Foodstuffs South
Island, said Foodstuffs was committed to
e-commerce. Already they have 731 suppliers live on e-business systems and they
expect all their suppliers to be developing strategies to develop the capability.
Their volume of e-business is increasing
and there have already been some savings. How does this relate to food technologists working in industry? Simple.
The movement from a hands-paper-pen
system to e-business is a team effort and
one of the first tasks is ‘data-cleansing’.
To give a simple example, Foostuffs
found ‘Christchurch’ spelt in many different ways; now that the data has been
‘cleansed’ it is all spelt the same. Food
September/October 2006
45
CONFERENCE
technologists are commonly gatekeepers
of information such as weights, measurements, ingredients and nutritional detail.
Sara Kennedy, CEO of Healtheries,
made the point that “e-commerce is going to happen; we just need to be aware
of it”. She found that in her company different departments held different kinds of
information in different formats and that
these format “didn’t talk to each other”. It
took her employees a massive amount of
work to overcome this.
Meanwhile, The Warehouse has started using RFID at their central distribution
warehouse. Their experience, together
with Foodstuffs requirements, will help
drive progress in New Zealand.
Very close to home -– your new passport has an RFID tag built into it too.
From farm to fork
New Zealand Food Safety Authority
(NZFSA) Executive Director, Andrew McKenzie, talked about ‘farm to fork’ traceability and ‘traceable proof of the world’s
best food’. In New Zealand, development
work is being done on traceability of live
animals. Remember the foot and mouth
hoax on Waiheke Island a few years
ago and how there were problems tracing movements of animals? In the future,
these difficulties will be largely overcome
when all animals have RFID tags. How
New Zealand farmers will react to micro
chipping cattle is a moot point given their
recent outcry over plans to micro chip
farm dogs.
46
Food New Zealand
Meanwhile, in Canada
Traceability is flavour of the month according to Art Smith, CEO of GS1 Canada, and there is lots of media interest in
food safety issues. They too find they are
vulnerable to the risk of foreign governments setting up barriers to trade which
are based on food safety and traceability
requirements. Americans became much
more sensitive to the risks of bio-terrorism and tampering after the September
11 bombings and their requirements for
better documentation and verification are
not going to go away any time soon. On
the positive side, Smith sees traceability
as part of the selling process. If consumers can readily see when the bread was
baked, where the fish was caught and
who certified the organic apple they will
pay more and the brand will be stronger.
On to the future
As worldwide ‘traffic’ continues to expand, whether individuals, products or
ideas; threats to environments, personal safety or trade; our requirements for
monitoring continue to grow. Barcoding
was seen as potentially invading privacy
(on all levels) in its infancy. RFID, perhaps, has an easier path to acceptance as
the information explosion allows us all to
see its value.
The conference was
well supported by exhibitors, notable among
them were:
FINISH
Saito demonstrated a full working
model of an RFID tagging system.
A label was written to, verified and
read for every one to see. “When
most people think of Smart Label
they think of RFID” says Gavin
Hodder of Saito Group, “Our working model and more, will be on display at Foodtech Packtech.
Walker Datavision (a division of
SATO NZ) General Manager – Labeling Solutions, Nicole McKenzie
(A division of SATO NZ), a premium
alliance partner of GS1 were represented by Lisa Kershaw. A recognized market leader in all aspects of
Data Capture, Walker Datavision offers complete solutions in the fields
of Software Integration, Labelling
and Identification, Barcoding, RFID,
Wireless Communication, Handheld
Computers and Communication and
Integration and Support.
Walker Datavision combines local
market expertise with world leading
hardware and software providers
such as Intermec, Datamax, Symbol, SONY and Seagull Scientific.
CONFERENCE
IFT Conference
The Institute of Food Technologists’ 66th Annual Meeting + Food Expo took place in
Orlando, Florida, June 24-28, 2006
By Howard Moore FNZIFST
New Zealand food scientists and technologists should be regularly attending IFT
T
he IFT Annual Meeting and Expo
in Orlando was the first IFT I had
attended since Chicago in 1997.
While the elements of this event remain
much the same (16,000 attendees this
year from 75 countries) what was notable for me was the relatively few New
Zealanders in attendance. The clash with
with all high schools and making contact with all science teachers. The food
industry in the US is already facing the
consequences of this shortage of graduates with major problems in recruiting
technical sales representatives, QA staff
and nutraceutical specialists.
… this is an excellent opportunity for the New Zealand
food industry to have a profile at this significant event
the flag on topics of ‘Nano-encapsulation’ and ‘The History of Freezing’. It was
also good to see HortResearch there with
a stand in the exhibition promoting their
capabilities. I also managed to capture
the presentation by Biovittoria on their
Pure-Lo product. Fonterra did manage to
have some representatives present at IFT
but the days of New Zealand’s leading
company having a promotional presence
seem to have passed.
Current trends
the NZIFST Annual Conference probably
contributed to this but the fact that this
was allowed to happen indicates a lack
of understanding of the value of the annual IFT event. This is one of the world’s
premier food industry conferences and I
believe New Zealand food scientists and
technologists should be regularly attending. Hopefully more New Zealanders will
be present for the next IFT to be held in
Chicago July 26 to 30, 2007.
A highlight of the opening of the
conference on Saturday afternoon was
the Awards ceremony. Americans love
to celebrate success and this was the
next best thing to the Academy Awards.
I was intrigued by the awards to Professor Mary Ellen Camire from University of
Maine. Professor Camire has published
extensively on the nutrition implications
of extrusion processing but I was more
interested in her research on the health
benefits of anthocyanins from blueberries
and cranberries for preventing diabetes
and heart disease. This has some relevance in New Zealand to our production
of anthocyanins from black currants.
Graduate shortages
Several speakers during the opening session spoke of the need to increase the
public visibility of the food science profession. The food industry in the US is
obviously facing similar problems to that
in New Zealand. There are inadequate
numbers of university graduates in biological sciences. IFT is attempting to
ameliorate this through communicating
World Food Prize
The recipients of the 2006 World Food
Prize were announced. The three men
who will share the 2006 World Food Prize
are; former Brazil Minister of Agriculture,
H.E. Alysson Paolinelli, and former Technical Director of EMBRAPA Cerrado Research Center, Mr. Edson Lobato, both of
Brazil; and Washington Representative
of the IRI Research Institute, Dr. A. Colin
McClung of the United States. The winners all contributed to the opening up of
Brazil’s “closed lands” and are therefore
recognized for fostering “one of the great
achievements of agricultural science in
the 20th century”. The World Food Prize
will be highlighted at the World Food
Prize Symposium to be held in Des
Moines, Iowa, October 18 – 20, 2006. The
theme of this will be “The Green Revolution Redux: Can We Replicate the Single
Greatest Period of Food Production in Human History?” Given the attempts by the
New Zealand Government and the Iowa
State Government to build collaborative
relationships, this is an excellent opportunity for the New Zealand food industry
to have a profile at this significant event,
perhaps, one day, a recipient of the prize
from New Zealand or Australia.
Kiwis at IFT
While there were really was a low number
of New Zealanders attending IFT, the commitment of some organisations is worth
noting. For example Harjinder Singh and
Donald Cleland of Massey were flying
One of my motivations for attending
IFT was to access current trends in the
functional foods and nutraceuticals areas. I was not disappointed. There were
numerous sessions on these topics and
many of the posters had a bioactive focus. My problem was trying to balance
what to attend while also viewing the
exhibition and fitting this in with pre-arranged appointments.
In the intervening years since attending IFT in 1997 I have attended many of
the annual Bio AGM and Expos. These
have been well supported by New Zealanders and NZTE and NZBio have been
proactive in encouraging the biotechnology industry to support this annual Bio
event. I would like to see NZIFST and
NZTE be similarly proactive in promoting
attendance of professionals from the food
industry attend the annual IFT event.
Howard Moore joined venture capital company, BioPacificVentures, in
March 2004 as executive director.
Prior to joining BioPacificVentures,
Howard was executive vice president of Tercica Inc., a U.S.-based
corporation he co-founded in Auckland before moving the business to
San Francisco. He is an experienced
dairy industry executive with 25
years in the business. Howard has
a Bachelor of Food Technology from
Massey University.
September/October 2006
47
BOOK REVIEWS
Book Reviews
Dietary Supplements
and Functional Foods
Geoffrey P. Webb, Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, UK, 2006, 242 pp
ISBN-10-4051-1909-8
Price $120 plus postage
This
is
a
compilation
of every dietary
supplement and
every functional food
the author
has come
across.
It
r a n g e s
from saw
palmetto
to fluoride
and covers every
condition
from children to lactating women to senile
dementia. It really is surprising how wideranging the coverage is. Obviously nothing is done in great detail. Each succinct
entry contains useful, dare I say sensible,
conclusions. For example, in this regard
the author rightly states, after reviewing
the data, that there is no scientific validity in the claims made for spirulina.
Likewise, the author is critical of the evidence for the efficacy of St John’s Wort
in the treatment of depression. Wisely,
he warns that self-medication with saw
palmetto should not be attempted. As for
performance, athletic or otherwise, he is
suitably sceptical about the vast majority
of claims. Webb is also concerned about
safety, he points out that iron supplements for adults are a common cause of
poisoning of children; vitamin A (retinol)
is extremely toxic in high doses and it
may increase the risk of fractures in the
elderly; high folate supplements may interfere with action of some drugs and it
may disguise anaemia caused by vitamin
B12 deficiency.
All this reinforces my attitude to supplements, which is for most people they
are not a good idea except when recommended by your doctor. People who
work in health shops are not health professionals, their advice is not balanced
and it could be dangerous. Further, you
48
Food New Zealand
might ask yourself how the human race
has managed to survive for its whole existence without supplements, but now
some people want to brainwash the public into thinking they are essential. Soon
or later someone in New Zealand will die
from over consumption of a dietary supplement.
Oh yes, it is a very sensible and
worthwhile book and should be in most
university libraries.
Laurence Melton
Food Science, University of Auckland
Advances in
Pectin and Pectinase
Research
Editors: Fons Voragen, Henk
Schols and Richard Visser,
Kluwer Academic Publishers,
Dordrecht, The Netherlands,
2003.
ISBN 1-4020-1144-X
A book on pectin? Don’t we
know all about pectin? Well it
may surprise you to know that
the chemical structure of pectin, as it occurs in nature, is unknown. We have a pretty good
idea of the structures of commercial pectins used as food
additives, but these are much
abused, degraded molecules. The real
thing, found in the cell walls of plants, is
a much more complex polymer consisting of at least three large polysaccharides:
a polymer of galacturonic acid, a polymer
of galactose and a mixed polymer composed of arabinose and galactose. The
pectin in nature is most likely the largest molecule in existence. Fascinating to
think you eat it every day!
As we all know commercial pectins
from different sources have different effects as food additives. Moreover, high
methoxyl pectin has very different properties to low methoxyl pectin. While the
calcium egg box model of Dai Rees readily explains the gel formation of pectin,
a very different model has to be evoked
to explain the action of high methoxyl
pectin in jam.
If we are ignorant of the structure of
pectin we also don’t fully understand the
action of the various pectic enzymes so
a comprehensive book on pectin and
pectinases is always welcome and most
particularly when so many people make
a contribution. I counted 137 authors of
the 36 chapters. So many expert workers’ names jump out – Fishman, Albersheim and Darvill, McCann, Thibault,
MacDougall and Ring, de Vries, Knox and
Willats, Pauly, Ishii and so many more –
not forgetting the Wageningen University
food chemistry team of Voragen, Schols,
Huisman, Vincken, Beldman, and Visser
– who were the driving force behind the
book and the conference on which it is
based.
The book comprises 6 sections. The
first supposedly addresses pectin biosynthesis but in reality is more about the
chemistry and biochemistry
of pectin. It
contains the
first announcement of Jean
Paul
Vincken’s alternative
model
structure of pectin in
which what had
been regarded
as the side arms
is now the backbone and the
erstwhile
backbone, polygalacturonic acid, is a
side chain. This is
still a controversial
model and it may be some years before
the matter is resolved when the full structure is elucidated.
The second section is concerned
with physical and chemical properties
of pectins and includes the work of Albersheim’s group on the cross-linking of
pectins by the borate ions. Remember,
plants deficient in boron have a wilted
appearance and tend to fall over. The
borate complex is between two rhamnogalacturonan II side chains. Rhamnogalacturonan II (RG-II for short) is my
favourite polysaccharide. It is composed
of just 30 sugars most of which are different and some of which are extremely
rare (e.g. aceric acid occurs once only in
a RG-II molecule). It is probably the most
complex polysaccharide in existence. I
was lucky enough to work on its chemical structure for a year. Its full structure
still has yet to be determined. You eat it
Food Carbohydrates:
Chemistry, Physical Properties and
Applications
Editor Steve W Cui, CRC
Press, Boca Raton, FL (2005)
ISBN 10: 0-8493-1574-3
I would like to write a book on
food carbohydrates. After thirty
years of challenge and fascination I can still say “I never met
a carbohydrate I didn’t like,” so
I was particularly interested to
see another new book enter-
ing a field that is becoming somewhat
crowded.
Professor Cui, from the Food Science
Department at the University of Guelph, is
well known for his contribution to carbohydrate chemistry. The other four authors
(of whom I have never heard–probably I
don’t read the literature carefully enough)
work for Agri-Food Canada. This is reassuring, as we may expect them to focus
on food, but you do wonder about international co-operation. The temptation
with this type of book is to emphasise
chemistry at the expense of food. Whistler and BeMiller in their ‘Carbohydrate
Chemistry for Food Scientists’ get the balance just right – plenty of sound carbohydrate chemistry but always applied to
explaining what is happening in food.
Whistler and BeMiller’s book is, for me,
the gold standard.
The opening chapter of Steve Cui’s
‘Food Carbohydrates’ covers basic food
carbohydrates. It is thorough and explains
things better than most basic textbooks. It
is hard to make this exciting (Robert Stick
in ‘Carbohydrates: The Sweet Molecules
of Life’ is the only person I know who
has, and he does it with flair.) but I must
say if you read and remember most of
chapter one you will be well prepared to
deal with carbohydrates from any source.
Good one Marta Izydorczyk! The list of
suggested reading is helpful, and it is a
pity this is not done for every chapter.
‘Understanding carbohydrate analysis’ is the next chapter, and it is equally
thorough, starting with the classic phenol–sulphuric acid test and ending with
dietary fibre analysis. This is all good basic stuff. The usual barbaric methods for
measuring dietary fibre are given but it is
not the authors’ fault that food scientists
and nutritionists want such useless information. The chapter does lack the latest
developments,
but maybe I’m
expecting
too
much. Steve Cui
takes on ‘Structural Analysis of
Polysaccharides’
and does a good
job of it. Understanding the physical properties of
food polysaccharides is covered.
Once again, it is a
thorough review.
Could a discernable pattern be emerging? Under ‘gelation mechanisms’, all of
D A Rees’s research results, including his
original diagrams, are used but there is
no acknowledgment of the man. Is this
ignorance, or is it so mainstream that it’s
like acknowledging Watson and Crick
every time you mention DNA? I would
like to think the latter is the case.
Then there is ‘Understanding the Conformation of Polysaccharides’. All the traditional methods; X-ray diffraction, light
scattering and solution NMR–are well
covered. And yes, D A Rees’s classic work
‘Polysaccharides Shapes’ is finally mentioned. What about new developments
in the field? Solid-state 13C NMR, atomic
force microscopy, FTIR for instance could
have been mentioned. By page 260 one
must accept this is an incredibly thorough
treatment of food carbohydrate chemistry, but it simply hasn’t got room for the
latest developments.
Polysaccharide gums are reviewed in
45 pages. A big ask, but they do succeed
although it does seem to degenerate into
a catalogue because there is so much
material to cover. How you can write a
chapter about pectins and not include
some of the vast amount of work by Fons
Voragen’s group is beyond me. Considering the huge importance of plant cell
walls (dietary fibres to some people) in
the structure of food plants and their essential role in texture and physiological
roles, it’s hard to understand why they
don’t deserve a chapter to themselves.
I’m sorry to say plant cell wall
polysaccharides are lost in the chapter
on polysaccharide gums. The last two
chapters are devoted to starch, which is
appropriate considering their importance
in food.
Overall how does the book measure up to the gold standard? Frankly it
doesn’t. Whistler and BeMiller’s book on
food carbohydrates is still clearly the best
book on the topic whether you work in
the food industry or in a food science
research institute. Steve Cui’s book is a
different kind of book. Its strength is its
thoroughness. If you want a reliable summary of the basic facts, it is admirable. If
you want the excitement of scientific discovery with very descriptions of the latest
advances in food carbohydrate chemistry,
then forget it.
Laurence Melton
Food Science, University of Auckland
September/October 2006
49
BOOK REVIEWS
every day when you consume fruit.
Four papers on the ‘Molecular Genetics’ and ‘Regulation of Pectinase Biosynthesis’ comprise section three, while
section four is concerned with the ‘Mode
of Action and Three-Dimensional Structure of Pectinases’ and includes material
on pectin acetylase, a largely ignored
step in the biosynthesis. The degree of
acetylation has a profound effect on the
properties of polysaccharides including
pectins.
Sections five and six should please
the food technologists. They are devoted to the use of pectinases in foods and
beverages including the effect of high
press and thermal inactivation of pectinesterase – although polygalacturonase is
more often the problem when processing
fruit and vegetables. There are chapters
devoted to the texture of gums and jellies and use of pectins as stabilisers in
dairy drinks. The final chapters focus on
the bioactivity of herbal pectins and the
structural properties of apple cell walls
(dietary fibre from the doctors’ bane).
As you might anticipate, with so many
chapters, the quality is variable. However, most contributors are both insightful
and succinct. Each is fully referenced, but
there is no index. So this would not be
an easy book for a neophyte. All in all is
a damn fine book that should be in every
research library.
Congratulations to Fons Voragen and
his Wageningen team.
Laurence Melton
Food Science, University of Auckland
EVENTS
Events Sampler
IPENZ Courses for
NZIFST members
NZIFST Members can register for IPENZ’s
continuing Professional Development
Programme courses at the IPENZ member rate.
Courses on Negotiation, Mentoring
Project management, Finance, Ethics,
Leadership – have a look on their website.
www.ipenz.org.nz/ipenz/nzecal/
ks.cfm or email cpd@ipenz.org.nz
Richard Lavak, of Squish Drinks, busy on his stand at the Food Show
Auckland Food Show
Over 300 exhibitors and 30,000 people
attended this exhibition in early August
at Auckland’s showgrounds in Greenlane. This is an annual event that also
takes place earlier in the year in Wellington and, starting this year, Christchurch
as well.
While the focus of the show is very
much on retail, there was much to interest food technologists especially in
terms of new products – doubtless many
Institute members visited the show.
For smaller and start-up food processing companies it was clearly their big
chance to gain exposure and introduce
new products. There were lots of opportunities for tasting and most stalls sold
product as well.
A number of stalls stood out by virtue of their appearance, strongly motivated stall holders or novel products.
Squish Drinks is a Tauranga based
start-up company which used the show
to launch their single product, a bright
red ready to drink beverage based on
Hibiscus sabdariffa and fructose. Their
CEO Richard Lavack hoped that New
Zealander’s familiarity with hibiscus tea
and big demand for other fruit based
drinks would lead to commercial recognition for the product.
Freedom Farms, noting that free
50
Food New Zealand
range eggs had captured some market
share, launched their range of ‘free range
bacon’ about 6 months ago. Gregor Fyfe,
owner of Freedom Farms has put together some attractive promotional material
that builds on the free range image with
such as expressions as ‘farms approved
by the SPCA’ and ‘making sure our pigs
are happy’. So far, sales are going well.
Mustard Makers from Puhoi used
the show to introduce mustards made
with added dried kawakawa leaf and
another with horopito. Jon and Morag
Standbrook cannot afford to launch
straight into national distribution. They
use their own shop and sales at farmers
markets to build up sales then try and
get market leverage by exhibiting at the
Food Show. Their use of native plants
as ingredients in processed food for the
retail market is praiseworthy.
Freeze dried Hawkes Bay herbs
made by Fresh As Ltd and flavoured
hummus and fetta cheese spreads made
by Simon Davies of Me Foods in New
Plymouth prove regional innovation is
alive and well and that is a good thing
for our industry.
Some of these innovative little companies are already using the services of
consulting food technologists. And some
will mature into full fledged major players. Good luck!
Dave Pooch
Smart 2007 calls for
papers
Asia-Pacific’s premier supply chain
event, Smart Conference, has issued a
Call for Papers – Invitation to Speakers
for Smart 2007, taking place 20-21 June
2007 at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre, Darling Harbour. Conference theme is ‘Supply Chain – the Engine
for Growth’.
Conference organisers are looking for over 70 qualified, experienced
speakers from Australia and overseas to
present across the two-day forum. Potential speakers should note that previous
conference delegates have consistently
demonstrated a preference for case study
presentations, industry trends, and practical applications.
The conference is organised by: Logistics Association of Australia Ltd (LAA),
Australasian Production and Inventory
Control Society (APICS), The Chartered
Institute of Purchasing and Supply Australia (CIPSA), and The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport in Australia
(CILTA).
Online applications are available at
www.smartconference.com.au
For more information contact Pamela
Adams, Conference Director, on (02) 9223
9366 or admin@smartconference.com.au
Deadline for submissions: 13 November 2006.
EVENTS
Conference Diary
September 27-29, 2006
FSIS 2006 Food Safety Education Conference: Reaching
At-Risk Audiences and Todayʼs
Other Food Safety Challenges
Denver, CO, USA
www.fsis.usda.gov/Denver2006
October 29 - November 2, 2006
Food Processing Machinery
EXPO and PACK EXPO International
Chicago, IL, USA
www.foodprocessingmachinery.
com
September 19-21, 2006
Third International Symposium
on Milk Genomics and Human
Health
Brussels, Belgium
www.milkgenomics.fil-idf-pr.com
or www.acteva.com/go/cdrf
1-2 November, 2006
NZFSA Conference - ʻProspering with safe foodʼ
Heritage Hotel in Auckland,
Wednesday and Thursday
jane.hudson@nzfsa.govt.nz
16 October 2006
2006 Massey University Food
Awards
Auckland, New Zealand.
http://foodawards.massey.ac.nz/
October 17 - 19, 2006
FoodTech PackTech - 2006
ASB Showgrounds, Greenlane,
Auckland
www.foodtechpacktech.co.nz
October 20-23
27th World Dairy Congress
Shanghai, China
www.idf2006shcn.com
October 25-27, 2006
International Food and Health
Innovation Conference 2006
Malmö, Sweden
www.skanefoodinnovation.com/
ifhic2006
October 25-28, 2006
Cereals & Europe and American Association of Cereal
Chemists
3rd International Symposium
on Sourdough
Bari, Italy
www.aaccnet.org
www.cerealsandeurope.ne
November 7-9, 2006
EFFoST Annual Meeting Sustainability of the Agrifood
Chain
The Hague, The Netherlands
http://www.effost-conference.
elsevier.com/
November 16th, 2006
Functional Foods 2006: Lipids
for Lifestyle and ProÞt
Bruce Mason Centre, Takapuna,
Auckland
www.nutrigenomics.org.nz
Nov 29-Dec 1, 2006
Tharp & Young On Ice Cream
Embassy Suites Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
www.onicecream.com
2007
IDF/FAO Symposium on Milk
Quality
Tunisia
www.fil-idf.org
April 18-20, 2007
5th International Symposium
on the Challenge to Sheep and
Goats Milk Sectors
Sardinia, Italy
www.fil-idf.org
July 8-12, 2007
American Dairy Science Association
San Antonio, Texas, USA
www.adsa.org
July 26-30, 2007
Institute of Food Technologists
Chicago, Illinois, USA
www.ift.org
September 1-7, 2007
14th European Carbohydrate
Symposium
Lubeck, Germany
www.eurocarb14.de
September 7-10, 2007
Advancing Grain Science
Worldwide 2007 Annual Meeting
San Antonio, Texas, USA
www.aaccnet.org
20-21 June 2007
Smart 2007
Sydney Convention and Exhibition
Centre, Sydney
www. smartconference.com.au
September 29-October 4, 2007
IDF World Dairy Summit
Dublin, Ireland
www.fil-idf.org
October 23-25, 2007
3rd World Conference on Sampling and Blending
Porto Allegre, Brazil
November 1, 2007
3rd IDF International Symposium on Ice Cream
Cologne, Germany
www.fil-idf.org
List compiled by Dr David
Everett, University of Otago
July/August 2006
51
Leaving the others in our shadow
for the second year running.
Heinz Wattie’s Vendor of the Year 2005-2006 Logistics, Services and Engineering
ECO 9298
Ecolab have once again been recognised as the top of the industry for their outstanding products, renowned service and
100% commitment to the food industry. We’re looking forward to the challenge again next year.