The Melbourne Royal Food Awards are gearing back up for 2026, introducing several major category additions and returns. Entries are now open for leading food producers across Australia to benchmark their products against the nation’s best.

Pure Foods Tasmania (PFT) has appointed Robert (Rob) Knight as CEO and managing director, effective 1 July. He takes over from Malcolm McAully, who has led the company as executive chairman since the resignation of former CEO Michael Cooper in July 2024.

Adelaide-based Creative Native Foods has secured one of the season’s final Kakadu Plum hauls through Larrakia harvester, Shannon Motlop, extending a supply chain built on direct relationships with Indigenous harvesters working on Country.

US ingredients giant, Ingredion, has made a conditional all-cash proposal to acquire British rival Tate & Lyle in a deal that would value the company at approximately $5.2 billion (£2.74 billion).

Coles Supermarkets Australia and Brownes Foods Operations have each paid $39,600 in penalties after the ACCC issued each company with two infringement notices for separate alleged contraventions of the Dairy Code of Conduct.

Mars Australia & New Zealand has appointed Karim Lokhandwala as its new chief customer officer of Petcare, commencing 1 June. The news comes as applications open for the company’s Next Generation Pet Food Program with Big Idea Ventures – now in its third year.

Aquafab received the Hive Award for Best Beverage Product for its novel approach to replicating the foaming capabilities of egg whites in cocktails, creating a first of its kind product with a shelf-stable formula of faba bean protein and water.

Bendigo Brittle has been awarded the 2026 Hive Local Manufacturer Award. The company is family-owned, employing a small team hand-producing hundreds of thousands of units of brittle every year in a custom-designed commercial kitchen in regional Victoria.

The Rising Star award took on a new format for 2026, honouring an individual shaping the future of the industry through leadership, initiative, and innovation. The Hive Award went to Sam Musson, who founded Zest Element and HarvestResQ to tackle the food waste crisis in Australia.

Freshwater Bev Tech has received this year's Gamechanger Award for its patent-pending unpasteurised production process, developed specifically to preserve bio-active compounds in the company's functional beverage brand, SUMMi Soda.

Sam Musson has been awarded the 2026 Golden Hive, impressing the judges with her work reshaping how the food industry thinks about surplus agricultural produce.

The 2026 Hive Award for Best Packaging goes to Amcor Flexibles, for its AmPrima Recycle-Ready Packaging for Shredded Cheese. The product replaces PET and PVDC with a mono-PE structure that meets Australasian Recycling Label requirements, without compromising performance.

The 2026 Hive Award for Best Technology goes to Treasury Wine Estates, for its low- and no-alcohol wine production process. The company unveiled its new $15 million Barossa Valley dealcoholisation facility in February, which uses a proprietary Flavour Lock process to capture and reintroduce the wine’s aromatic essence.

Simson's Pantry received the Best NPD Award for its High Protein Souvlaki, which delivers 10g of protein per serve while still maintaining the texture, flexibility and versatility consumers expect. By combining functional nutrition with everyday usability, the company has successfully introduced a new point of differentiation within the Australian flatbread category.

The winners of the 2026 Hive Awards have been recognised and celebrated as some of Australia's most innovative food and beverage manufacturers over the past year. The awards were presented on Thursday 21 May during a long lunch at Linseed House, Sydney, to a room of over 100 industry leaders abuzz with excitement.

Mars Food & Nutrition Australia is increasing its support for Foodbank Australia once again, helping to provide 4.4 million meals to Australians experiencing food insecurity in 2026, as frontline charities struggle to cope with rising demand.