The Naturally Good Awards were held this week as part of the eponymous health and wellness expo. LittleOak, Naked Rivals, Fine Fettle Foods, and Noumi all took home top honours, with companies spanning the organics industry contending 13 categories. 

Mondelēz International has commissioned its $7.5 million Regional Biscuit and Baked Snacks Lab and Innovation Kitchen in Singapore. The company’s executive VP and president AMEA, Deepak Iyer, said the lab would be a regional creative development hub and centre of excellence.

A report providing a nationwide snapshot of the Australian vegetable and onion industries, Level Up Hort, is being launched at Hort Connections this week, currently underway in Melbourne.

Fonterra Co-operative has joined 21 other food and drink manufacturers in championing more inclusive and gender balanced workplaces by joining the National Association of Women in Operations (NAWO). The association has more than 90 company members.

There has been much dissecting of the 2024-25 Federal Budget by some eminently qualified people. For Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre MD, Dr Jenns Goennemann, the budget was one of the most manufacturing-labelled, but there was a notable overlooked constituency – highly successful smaller enterprises.    

Drinks accelerator, Mighty Craft, has updated the market on the sale of Mismatch Brewing Co and 78 Degrees to United Publicans Group (UPG). The sale was announced in April, for $7.2 million.

Hort IQ, launched by Hort Innovation, provides fresh produce growers with the latest comprehensive Australian fruit, vegetable, and nut consumer data.

A fundamental understanding of the unit economics of your product and working capital cycle were just two recommendations from a panel discussing how to sustain growth at this year’s Naturally Good summit. Naturally Good continues today in Sydney at the ICC. 

The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation has discovered evidence of fraudulent Kakadu plum extracts in international circulation. The bush food is an important economic and cultural asset for Indigenous communities across northern Australia.

Do you have a solution that reduces food loss or food waste? Apply here for Rocket Seeder’s inaugural Australian Food Waste Challenge.

Duxton Vineyards says its 2024 vintage was excellent quality due to excellent grape growing weather and good rainfalls. With 48,363 tonnes of fruit crushed over the season, with the whites exhibited “exceptional freshness and vibrancy”.

TOMRA Food has merged its Fresh and Processed divisions to provide an integrated food sorting, grading and processing solutions for its customers. The company has also developed a new regional business model.

A new report on how discarded food can be transformed into new products, Upcycled Food, provides seven recommendations for Australia to accelerate the industry. Author and Churchill Fellow, Francesca Goodman-Smith, is the Transform program leader at End Food Waste Australia (EFWA).

At the Senate inquiry into greenwashing public hearing in Canberra this week, Australian Organic Limited (AOL) called for harsher penalties on companies found to be misleading consumers.

One of Australia's largest wholesale distribution companies, Metcash, is the latest signatory to the Australian Food Pact. It joins 37 other organisations committed to reducing food waste that contributed 54 million meals in the first year of reporting.  

Australia’s first commercial manufacturer of plant protein went into voluntary administration this week. Its first creditor meeting was yesterday (30 May) so we will see what comes from that. But the fall of a pioneer in an emerging food industry at a time the government is investing heavily in those it sees as being in the national interest begs the question, has it missed a major, lucrative and critical industry altogether?