Celebrating 30 years of food innovation

The finalists have been announced for the prestigious New Zealand Food Awards 2017, recognising Kiwi companies for their outstanding innovations in New Zealand’s food and beverage industry.

Now in its 30th year, the awards, powered by Massey University, celebrate the creative innovations from New Zealand’s artisanal and large-scale food and beverage manufacturers.

Finalists have submitted their finest products in the hopes of taking out one of the top awards, including the Artisan Food Producer Award, BITE Gourmet Award, Export Innovation Awards and the coveted Massey University Supreme Award.

The high-calibre finalist line-up includes a diverse range of food and beverage producers from across New Zealand.

Massey University Vice-Chancellor Professor Jan Thomas says she is proud of the role that the New Zealand Food Awards have played in recognising and promoting innovation and excellence in food and beverage production and manufacturing over the past 30 years.

“The New Zealand Food Awards take great pride in celebrating New Zealand’s progressive food and beverage industry and every year we are impressed by the calibre of the finalists,” Professor Thomas says. “The awards provide local producers with the opportunity to elevate their business on a global scale.”

The New Zealand Food Awards is excited to welcome back their expert judging panel, including Bite magazine’s Ray McVinnie, chef Geoff Scott, as well as World Kitchen television host and chef Nici Wickes. For the first time, New Zealand’s first certified cicerone (beer expert), Josh Scott, joined the judging panel.

Mr McVinnie says he is “absolutely blown-away” at the calibre of this year’s finalists. “I have had some major ‘wow’ moments throughout the judging process and it was fantastic to see modern technology used to produce food that is completely natural and fresh.”

Mr Scott shared the same sentiment, saying, “The finalists are inventive, original, resourceful and clear food and beverage industry leaders in New Zealand. There is an immense variety across all the catego-ries and it is really fascinating because you get to see innovative ideas and fantastic produce from all parts of New Zealand.”

Ms Wickes says, “We have such a vast array of fantastic ingredients and products available to us now and the NZ Food Awards do an exceptional job of highlighting those. Every year I get a steer on what is going to become more fashionable, what is popular, and what is next on the horizon!”

Winning products are eligible to use the New Zealand Food Awards “Quality Mark”, which highlights the superiority of products to both consumers and industry, and can help boost sales and distribution do-mestically and internationally.

The New Zealand Food Awards winners will be announced at a Gala Dinner at Sky City Convention Cen-tre, emceed by broadcaster Kerry McIvor on October 12. For more information, please visit www.foodawards.co.nz.

The New Zealand Food Awards is made possible thanks to Massey University and the family of strategic and supporting partners – Auckland Tourism Events and Economic Development, Countdown, FoodHQ, The FoodBowl, The New Zealand Institute of Food Science and Technology, Ministry for Primary Indus-tries, New Zealand Trade & Enterprise, NZME, Review Publishing, XPO Exhibitions, RangeMe, Brother Design, Palmerston North City Council and Villa Maria.

| A Foodworks release  ||  September 4,  2017   |||

Whittaker's, a premium brand of chocolate in the Land of the Long White Cloud has established a foothold in the Fijian market thanks to an exclusive distribution deal with the Motibhai Group.

Whittaker's head of international markets Matt Whittaker who visited the country this week on a market-familiarisation trip, said he was very impressed with the response from Fijian customers.

"We're delighted to now have this opportunity to build our relationship with chocolate lovers in Fiji via the strong distribution network of Motibhai Group and Prouds retail outlets," he said.

Mr Whittaker said while more established brands in the Fijian market would prove to be a challenge, Whittaker's unique manufacturing process and taste would ensure local chocolate lovers would take to the brand.

"As a family and as a company, we are steadfastly committed to producing only chocolate of the highest quality.

"Whittaker's ensures quality by controlling the whole manufacturing process — from bean to bar — from our one factory in Wellington, New Zealand."

Mr Whittaker said the brand was available in 20 markets around the world with the biggest being Australia followed by Malaysia, China and Canada.

"Of strategic importance is the North American and Asian markets and for the Pacific, one of them is Fiji.

"I think Fiji is going to be exponential — we have already seen four times the sales in the first year with Motibhai and its really exciting days ahead for us.

"In the New Zealand market, we are number two approaching number one and we are market leader in the categories we compete in."

Motibhai Group director Tajesh Patel said the Whittaker's brand was already making inroads in the Fijian market.

"Whittaker's were doing some supplying to some companies in Fiji directly before but about two months ago they nominated the Motibhai Group as their distributor in Fiji," he said.

"And that's how we came into partnership with Whittaker's.

"So Motibhai is the main distributor of Whittaker's in Fiji and we will be distributing through our Prouds stores, supermarkets and in time to come petrol stations as well."

| A Fiji Times release  ||  August 24,  2017   |||

Bluenote's contributor Briar McCormack takes a look at  'that worldly beer from Kingsland,' Auckland. That’s the concept behind Urbanaut Brewing Company - and it’s one hitting the mark with craft-beer enthusiasts.

When directors Thomas Rowe, Simon Watson and Bruce Turner embarked on their craft-beer dream they wanted to celebrate big cities around the world and use them as inspiration for the beers they brewed.

“We started with Kingsland Pilsner as our flagship beer, next came Brixton Pale Ale - paying homage to the home of pale ale,” says head brewer Turner.

" “[Craft beer] will continue to see growth but brewers need to be smart." John Bennett, General Manager for Central Region, ANZ NZ.

“We have Gastown Red IPA, inspired by Vancouver, Williamsburg IPA inspired by New York. Each of these cities has a place in our heart or a story behind the beer.”

Urbanaut are certainly in a growth industry: When the brewery opened earlier this year it joined a thriving, but increasingly crowded, craft beer industry in New Zealand.

The latest ANZ Craft Beer Industry Insights Report showed in 2016 growth was down from 28 percent to 22 per cent by volume and 39 per cent by value down to 32 per cent.

There are 194 craft beer breweries producing more than 1600 unique beers and small breweries accounted for 5.8 per cent of total beer consumed by volume – up from 4.9 per cent in 2015.

The question is when will the market reach saturation and how will it sustain its difference, the key marketing edge?

At Urbanaut, the founders were clear from the start on the business strategy. They thought hard about where they wanted to set up, how they were going to brand their product and what markets they were looking to target.

Producing beer for the general New Zealand market was important but the main goal was to sell to people in their inner-city Auckland neighbourhood.

“Engaging with our customers is really important so we talk to them about the philosophy behind our beer, how we make it and the merits . . .

Continue to read the full article here

| An ANZ Bluenote release  ||  August 21,  2017   |||

One of New Zealand’s fastest rising consumer production companies, The Pure Food Co, is about to take off as it has opened a massive new manufacturing facility in Auckland.

The Pure Food Co, rated one of the rising stars in the latest Deloitte Fast 50 Index, had taken control of its business by ramping up opportunities after building their own production plant in Mt Wellington.

Pure Food founders Sam Bridgewater and Maia Royal have spent the last three years growing their food business at Auckland’s food innovation incubator The FoodBowl.

They had reached the point where they had enough investment to build their own 600 plus square metre manufacturing facility to fulfil their goal of supplying every hospital and aged care facility with high quality pureed food with clinical benefits.

The FoodBowl accelerates or incubates clients’ progress so they can develop and prove their worth to investors to back them to build a new plant so they can start their own independent production.

Pure Food produced pureed food predominately for the growing elderly population, or anyone in need of better nutrition. Bridgewater says the new factory is future-proofed so they can grow about 15 times without needing to move. This will allow them to expand throughout the rest of New Zealand and start to explore export markets.

With support from partners, Bridgewater and Royal established The Pure Food Co after watching a family member suffer from swallowing difficulties. The business is a personal quest to bring food to people with eating difficulties, providing meals into the aged and healthcare industry nationwide.

To begin with, Bridgewater and Royal didn’t have the technology and manufacturing skills to produce their texture modified products, so the FoodBowl was the perfect first step for them to trial and iterate development of their products.

“We started in a small room to get proof of concept and samples in the market then jumped up to a large room doing multiple 700kg batches as the demand grew, eventually getting to 2 tonne per day. The FoodBowl helped by bringing in new bits of equipment for us to trial and scale up with,” Bridgewater says.

“The benefit was a wide range of technologies under one roof for us to assess within our production line. It meant we didn’t have to spend a lot of money on pieces of equipment that we might not actually need down the line.

“Being under constant scrutiny from The FoodBowl pushed us to take it to the next level. We now have successfully commissioned a new plant within time and budget that exceeds MPI’s regulatory standards.

“We couldn’t have done things as fast without the assistance of The FoodBowl. They have introduced us to some of our suppliers like our packaging and machinery that we are working with now in our new factory. It was a perfect stepping stone for us and drove us to reach new standards and scale to ensure we were well equipped to make that leap out on to our own.”

The Pure Food Co is now providing close to 40,000 meals a month and has landed large clients such as Ryman and Compass group who caterer to hospitals.

|  A MakeLemonade Pure Food Co release  ||  August 9,  2017   |||

Minister for Food Safety David Bennett met with Dr Penny Lukito, the chairwoman of Indonesia’s National Agency of Drug and Food Control (BPOM) this morning.

BPOM is one of Indonesia’s five main regulators for food safety, animal health, and plant health.

It is responsible for the regulation and product safety testing of all processed foods, both domestic and imported.

“Meetings like this are important to ensuring that both agencies are aware of the goals each are working towards within their country’s food safety systems, a key tool underpinning agricultural trade,” Mr Bennett says.

BPOM and Ministry for Primary Industries signed a Food Safety Agreement in 2014 which promotes cooperation on food safety, particularly as it relates to management of risk and trade in processed food products.

“Indonesia’s demand for imported food with changing dietary habits, including milk, yoghurt, red meat, cheese and baby foods.

“New Zealand needs to have a good working relationship on all levels, but especially at a food safety level to ensure we can meet their needs, and expand our export markets.

“Next year will mark 60 years of diplomatic relationships with the two countries and it’s always positive to continue to solidify the relationship,” Mr Bennett says|

  A Beehive release  ||  August 1,  2017   |||

The Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC) today launched ePIF™, the first element under the AFGC Authorised Food Data System® initiative that is harnessing digital disruption to empower companies to better source and manage information on their products.

AFGC CEO Ms Tanya Barden said that ePIF™ provides a technological asset for industry to meet the increasing costs of operating in a highly regulated industry by enabling companies to track product information across its entire value chain.

“AFGC’s ePIF™ is a tool developed by the $126 billion food industry in Australia and New Zealand to obtain and share information needed to meet obligations under regulatory requirements and industry codes in regard to food ingredients and finished products in a consistent and standardised manner,” said Ms Barden. “ePIF™, which is version 6.0 of the PIF™, builds on a decade of industry knowledge. ePIF™ features updated content on issues like origin labelling and health star ratings and is being translated into a range of business-to-business software solutions.”

In delivering these solutions, the AFGC is partnering with established food industry software providers such as Hamilton Grant, Bizcaps Software and Oak Barrel Software. The AFGC also is engaged with GS1 Australia to align data standards to promote interoperability, ensuring the one set of data can be used for multiple solutions.

“This initiative has been developed to streamline the process of recording and reporting product information via the secure online portals, making it easier, faster and more flexible to use.”

“ePIF™, as the first part of the AFGC Approved Food Data System®, will be a valuable asset for industry at a time of increased demand by regulators for increased access to information regarding all aspects of the supply chain.”

“The AFGC has invested considerable resources to bring ePIF™ to life and we will continue to support its implementation and development as a resource to industry in Australia and abroad,” concluded Ms Barden.

 | An AFGC release  ||  July 19, 2017   |||

Tetra Pak has launched its next generation high shear inline mixer, offering packers and filler advanced ingredient mixing performance and lower operating costs. 

Featuring a new design that produces finer, more consistent and more stable emulsions, the new R370-1000D reduces the need for downstream homogenisation, delivers a better quality end product and cuts energy bills.

The mixer features a built-in deaerating system, a flexible powder introduction system and a newly-designed mixing head.

This allows the new machine to handle viscosities of up to 2,000 cP and break the size of the droplets to 1 micron (0.001 mm), significantly smaller than the industry average of 7 microns.

The output of a much finer, more consistent and more stable emulsion reduces the need for downstream homogenisation, a highly energy-intensive step in food processing.

Monica Gimre, executive vice president, processing systems, at Tetra Pak, said: “We developed this revolutionary new design in direct response to customer needs. A complete break with the status quo, our new mixer streamlines production steps, reduces investment needs, lowers costs and sets a new benchmark for the industry.”

| A Packaging News release  ||  June 30,  2017   |||

Goodman Fielder plans to close two factories in Auckland, consolidating their production to a single site and shifting its pie-making operation to Palmerston North as part of an ongoing efficiency drive in what it calls "a very competitive market".

The diversified manufacturer owned by Singapore-based Wilmar International and Hong Kong-listed investment firm First Pacific Co will close its Irvines bakery at Wiri and its Hot Plate bakery in East Tamaki.

The Irvines line will relocate to Palmerston North while production at Hot Plate will be consolidated to Goodman's larger Quality Bakers Auckland facility.

Some 147 workers are affected by the company's plans, which include automating some warehousing functions in Auckland and Christchurch.

Goodman Fielder New Zealand managing director Tim Deane said the company's new owners "are taking a very long-term view" investing in some plants and closing others.

The net impact on the workforce may be smaller because 60 new jobs would be created at its Ernest Adams plant in Palmerston North and 25 at the expanded Quality Bakers Auckland site, he said.

Goodman Fielder currently has 14 manufacturing sites in New Zealand and employs about 2,000 people, according to its website.

Its range of household brands include Meadowlea margarine, Meadow Fresh milk, Vogels, Molenberg, Tararua Dairy, Chesdale, Irvines, Ernest Adams, Olivani and Puhoi Valley.

| A GoodmanFielder release  ||  June 8, 2017   |||

Goodman Fielder today announced proposed changes to optimise its manufacturing network across New Zealand.

Goodman Fielder New Zealand Managing Director, Tim Deane, said the proposed changes were part of the company’s strategy to invest further in its key manufacturing sites across its network to create a more sustainable business.

“These proposals continue the $80 million investment we have made in the company since 2015 and are part of our planned additional investment of nearly $150 million as we continue to create a more sustainable business for the longer term,” he said.

Goodman Fielder is proposing to relocate production of pies from its Irvine’s facility at Wiri, and ice cream cones from its Hot Plate bakery, to its Palmerston North facility, creating over 60 new jobs in the region.

Goodman Fielder is also proposing to relocate production of garlic bread and other baked goods from its Hot Plate bakery, East Tamaki to its larger site, Quality Bakers Auckland, creating 25 new permanent roles.

The proposed changes to relocate production would result in the closure of the Irvines and Hot Plate bakeries in around April 2018.

In a separate proposal, the company is also planning significant capital investments to increase efficiencies at its Quality Bakers Auckland and Meadow Fresh Christchurch sites.

“Today, we have put forward proposals to consolidate and invest further in our manufacturing network which will expand our regional operations, and ultimately create a more sustainable and competitive platform for the future of our business in New Zealand,” said Mr Deane.

“We are working directly with the 147 employees impacted by these proposals. Where possible, employees will be provided the opportunity for redeployment to fill vacancies at other Goodman Fielder sites. Employees who are not able to be redeployed will receive their full entitlements as well as an extensive employee assistance program including outplacement and career support.

“We understand the impact these proposals have on our people and our immediate priority is to ensure that they are supported through this process,” said Mr Deane.

|  A Goodmann Fielder release  ||  June 8, 2017   |||

Food sector magazine, Foodprocessing out of Australia report that post-harvest fresh and processed handling solutions company Wyma Solutions has announced a formal strategic partnership with North American supplier of fresh produce packaging and equipment automation solutions Volm Companies.

The partnership will allow the companies to work in a closely integrated manner resulting in turnkey solutions that leverage the global experience of both organisations. Both companies will be adding significant sales, engineering, technical service and manufacturing resources and select Wyma products will be manufactured for the North American market.

Continue to the full article here  . . .  ||  June 1, 2017   |||