Winners of the annual 2021 Australian Institute of Food Science and Technology (AIFST) awards have been announced, with Nestle, v2food and HJ Langdon securing awards.
The virtually held AIFST awards ceremony saw multiple companies, organisations and individuals receive recognition for their efforts towards the food industry.
AIFST CEO Fiona Fleming said the awards recognised their contribution to the AIFST but also what the recipients and nominees do every day tosupport the advancement of Australia’s food industry.
Foodbank Hero Award
Nestle supply manager Lisa Rivers was presented the Foodbank Hunger Hero Award.
Either through developing a new initiative in their company or volunteering personal time and expertise in the community, the Hunger Hero Award gives recognition to a person or team who has displayed exceptional effort towards tackling food insecurity.
Nestle Oceania communications manager Amanda Andrich told Food & Drink Business that the company was proud of Lisa Rivers.
“Nestlé Australia is a long-standing partner of Foodbank and over the past six years, Lisa, our Nestlé Oceania Supply Chain Manager, has been working closely with the Foodbank team to help drive awareness and simplify our donation process.
“Lisa has a genuine passion for fighting food insecurity and has gone above and beyond to create shared inventory efficiencies along the way, while proactively developing new opportunities for donations,” said Andrich.
Allergen Bureau Award
The Allergen Bureau Julie Newlands Award was presented to HJ Langdon head of quality assurance and projects Joanne Price.
Guiding industry best practice, the accolade recognises a consistent science-based approach to food allergen risk assessment, management and assistive communication which utilises label information to guide allergen sensitive consumers.
Price told Food & Drink Business it was an honour to receive the award and explained the complexities of allergen management.
“Allergen management is a challenging area for all food organisations and receiving this award recognises the collective efforts of our team in navigating best practice approaches for managing food allergens.
“It is an important ‘nod’ of approval that we are on the right track and hopefully making a difference with respect to understanding more about potential allergen presence in ingredients and what that means with respect to the impact on the allergic consumer,” said Price.
Price added that they hope to have a positive impact on consumers through the company’s pragmatic approach towards allergens.
“Unfortunately, with the complicated supply chains that we have in our global food industry and the lack of harmonisation in allergen requirements from country to country it is not always possible to prevent unwanted allergens in food,” she said.
Industry Innovation Award
Having launched Australia’s first plant-based meat analogue product, v2food CEO and founder Nick Hazel was presented with the Food Industry Innovation Award.
The criteria for the award consisted of receiving successful commercial application in any section of the Australian food industry for a new process, product, ingredient, packaging or equipment in development.
