Safety, quality and hygiene are, more than ever before, top priorities in the meat-processing sector. Consumers expect and demand safe products made using perfectly hygienic methods. [ + ]

Infor has announced a deal with iconic Australian company Peters Ice Cream to implement a complete ERP system in just seven and a half months. [ + ]

For the last 50 years the Australian Institute of Packaging has followed this credo: To serve as an independent professional body of packaging specialists; To promote professional standards of competency through education and training; To advance and promote the standing of packaging specialists as a profession; To serve and establish the confidence of the community in the packaging profession; To aim towards professional qualifications for all Members; To uphold professional integrity and ethics within the profession of packaging. And its continued existence is a testament to the institute’s success. [ + ]

The Australian Packaging and Processing Machinery Association (APPMA) is Australia’s national organisation that has been representing the packaging machinery industry for 30 years. It spread its wings in 2010 and now represents the processing industry and other allied industry groups as well. [ + ]

New research from Harvard University helps to explain how waterborne bacteria can colonise rough surfaces - even those that have been designed to resist water. [ + ]

Researchers have discovered the secret of potato chips - why it is that once you pop, you can’t stop - and have even come up with a complicated-sounding name for the phenomenon: hedonic hyperphagia. [ + ]

NIZO food research and Medimetrics have joined forces by developing a technology to sample from the small intestine in a non-invasive way. The small intestine plays a crucial role in digestion and immunity. Building proof of the effects of nutritional and probiotic interventions based on small intestinal content is now within reach. [ + ]

Cape Cod Potato Chips was faced with a conundrum: how do you squeeze higher output from the same floor space without changing product quality or ruining the charm of a popular tourist destination? [ + ]

The University of Tasmania has launched its new Centre for Food Innovation (CFI) and also announced a groundbreaking science collaboration with the Commonwealth Government’s Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). [ + ]

If an apple a day supposedly keeps the doctor away, what does it do to the allergist? Scientists may be able to genetically engineer apples that don’t trigger allergic reactions, but would people want to eat them? [ + ]

The Hite Brewery Company installed 25 Hanovia UV water disinfection systems at its Massan and Gangwan plants. The UV systems ensure water used in the production processes remains free from microbial contamination, ensuring a high-quality product. [ + ]

Teralba installed a Dimpleflo heat exchanger to replace an existing plate-type unit used to cool food products. This has reduced the maintenance interval to once per year and the total gasket cost is less than half the cost of the plate heat-exchanger gaskets. [ + ]

There’s only so much you can do with a soft drink recipe. While carbonated beverages dominate in terms of market size, they accounted for only 14% of global new product activity in soft drinks in 2012, according to Innova Market Insights. [ + ]

George Wolfe, Agr’s Chief Technical Officer, delivered a presentation on successful lightweighting of PET bottle production at the Packaging Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, in February. [ + ]

Engineering consultancy pitt&sherry met a rigorous design and development project timeline to accommodate the opening of the new $80 million Tasmanian Dairy Products processing facility in Smithton, Tasmania. [ + ]