Food crop yields and profitability soar when non-fertile flies are dropped over growing areas where they mate with the females but do not father a next generation of pests. But male pests sterilised by radiation tend not to be as attractive to the females - so what is needed is a way to "George Clooney-ise" the sterile flies. [ + ]

To ensure no keg filled with caustic lye leaves its brewery, Erdinger Weissbräu installed a FLIR Systems A-Series thermal imaging camera that measures the temperature of every keg before it leaves the conveyor belt of the filling installation. [ + ]

As its business expanded, natural spring water company Wet Fix found that its coding equipment couldn't keep up. The company chose two Linx CJ400 CIJ coders and a 30 W e-SolarMark laser from Matthews Australasia.

Environmental scientists have warned the long-term effects of synthetic chemicals used in packaging, food storage and processing food could be damaging our health. [ + ]

Implementing the Neste Jacobs NAPCON Suite enabled Finnish whey powder processor Valio to increase its production by 10% without investing in any hardware or using any extra energy in the process.

There is much to be said in favour of radiation-curing inks, as world-leading manufacturers of packaging print equipment already know. Because UV inks cure faster, work throughput is much more positive than with traditional print drying tunnels.

The Bio-Resource Processing Alliance (BPA) has NZ$2.5 million per year available to help NZ biological-based manufacturing businesses gain maximum value from waste and by-products.

Searching for a solution to replace a traditional vacuum filter, a well-known Italian producer tested TMCI Padovan's Dynamos machine, supplied with NORD gearmotors. Happy with the test, the company installed the Dynamos machine.

Aseptics have now breached the final building block in a beverage bottling line with the incorporation of the stretch blow-moulding machine in the aseptic concept. Aseptics now extend from preform decontamination through the aseptic blow module and aseptic filler to the aseptic closer.

The median salary for food scientists in Australia is $102,689, according to the latest Institute of Food Technologists Employment and Salary Survey. [ + ]

With its bottle-to-bottle recycling capability, Stute is processing its own PET waste and in future will also use non-returnable PET containers from its customers, using the decontaminated flakes as an admixture to the preform production process on injection-moulding machines. [ + ]

Long-life milk manufacturer Pactum Dairy Group has developed a state-of-the-art new ultrahigh temperature (UHT) milk processing facility at Shepparton with $950,000 in Victorian government funding - a significantly smaller amount than has been promised to SPC Ardmona. [ + ]

When SPC was asking the federal government for $25 million and the Victorian government for the same, it was reported that the mothership, Coca-Cola Amatil, was willing to put $90 million into the mix. With the ASX announcement of a new $100 million investment plan to assist the future of SPC Ardmona and the Goulburn Valley, I am wondering why has CCA dropped its contribution to $78 million? [ + ]

The development of oil-free emulsions is realising creamy mouthfeel products that are low fat or even fat-free. [ + ]

The plight of SPC has been front page news for a while; the media bemoans the fate of Australia's last fruit cannery and the viability of the entire Goulburn Valley. But not all first-world fruit processors are in such dire straits. [ + ]