The recent Future Food Systems Conference in London saw experts from around the globe come together to discuss the complex challenges and opportunities of emerging food systems. Sustainability consultancy, Salterbaxter, shares its five key takeaways from the conference with Food & Drink Business readers.

Australia’s premier craft beer festival, GABS, has announced it is relocating the Melbourne leg of its three-city tour from its ‘spiritual home’ at the Royal Exhibition Building to the Melbourne Showgrounds.

The winners of this year’s Australian Organic Industry Awards, hosted by Australian Organic Limited (AOL), have been crowned. Top honours went to Australia’s largest certified organic meat producer, Hewitt, winning Business of the Year. It’s retail brand, Cleaver’s Organic Meat, took home Brand of the Year.

Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) Australia has announced that following a strategic review, the company will withdraw from the sale and distribution of the Rekorderlig Cider brand in Australia.

Disorganisation, haphazard storage, locating stock, and safety are common distribution challenges. Robotic Automation explains how a specified Automated Storage and Retrieval System (ASRS) shuttle system can help solve those issues.

Asparagopsis, or red seaweed, is a hot topic now due to its ability to cut methane emissions from cattle. Marine scientists at CQUniversity’s Coastal Marine Ecosystems Research Centre (CMERC) are researching a variety that grows in warm waters and may also help prevent coral bleaching.

Wide Open Agriculture (WOA) has signed a binding conditional MoU to sell its retail brand, Dirty Clean Food (DCF), to CEO Jay Albany’s holding company, DCF Global. Albany will resign as WOA’s CEO immediately, after 15 months in the role.

After nearly six years at the helm of Australian Organic Limited (AOL), Niki Ford is stepping down as CEO at the end of July. Ford was AOL’s first female CEO and led the organisation through a demerger and restructure while driving discussion on regulatory reform for the organics sector. 

When New Zealand cheese company, Dairyworks, contacted Process Partners to install a new line, the food engineering firm offered another idea that would drive greater productivity, efficiency, and savings. Kim Berry speaks to Process Partners program manager – Food Manufacturing & Packaging, Craig Gilbert.

McKenzie’s Foods, a household name in pantry staples, has launched into an entirely new market with the release of its Ready to Bake Cookies. It is the company’s first foray outside ‘scratch cooking’ products such as specialty flours and baking aids in its 172-year history.

In a bid to remove more than 10,000 kilograms of plastic from circulation, Coles has begun phasing out the plastic bottle seals for its two and three litre milk bottles.

For the fourth consecutive year, Mars Food & Nutrition Australia has committed to help Foodbank Australia by supplying Dolmio and MasterFoods products and ingredients that will make three million meals for people experiencing food insecurity.

In partnership with the International Packaging Press Organisation (IPPO) and the Australian Packaging and Processing Machinery Association (APPMA), Food & Drink Business will join fellow Yaffa Media titles PKN Packaging News and Print21 in presenting the industry forum, Packaging Perspectives: Global Trends Driving Change at APPEX next week. On Tuesday, 12 March, from 2pm at the APPEX Seminar Theatre, join us for an afternoon of expert insights and discussion with some of the industry's leaders and brightest minds.

Fortifi Food Processing Solutions has acquired New Zealand-based MHM Automation to extend its automation and robotics capabilities. MHM had entered a Scheme Implementation Agreement with Bettcher Industries, a business unit of Fortifi, in November. Fortifi is owned by private equity firm, KKR.

Altered to be resistant to a disease that could cripple the global banana industry, Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) says the genetically modified (GM) Cavendish banana, QCAV-4, is permitted for consumption.

Poultry processor Inghams Group says the acquisition of New Zealand’s only organic poultry producer, Bostock Brothers, will build the company’s capabilities and extend its range. Ingham’s existing New Zealand operations showed a strong recovery in 1H24 with a 17.5 per cent increase in revenue.