The Colombian beverage group Postobón is using a NitroHotfill process for its drink bottling. The process injects nitrogen into the filled bottles shortly before they are capped - an alternative to the conventional hotfill concept. The Krones PET line featuring NitroHotfill technology was commissioned in May 2010.

Minimising the power consumption of industrial and commercial processes is gaining increased focus with rising oil and coal prices, as well as impending emission trading systems in Australia and elsewhere. The power consumed by large industrial refrigeration plant often makes up the major portion of site power used on refrigeration-intensive sites, such as food processing plants.

Households throw away billions of dollars of edible food each year. To overcome this massive waste of food, energy, water and resources, Australians need to develop the proper infrastructure - waste reduction, re-use, recycling and composting services - and support those businesses which collect and process these materials and manufacture and sell zero-waste products.

Glass packaging manufacturer Owens-Illinois, has launched a black glass in the Asia-Pacific marketplace following consumer research indicating a strong preference for this colour.

Fish processing company V Hukkanen Oy is launching its Kalaneuvos marinated salmon strips in microwaveable and ovenproof Stora Enso DeLight modified atmosphere packaging. The board package replaces the aluminium tray that was used previously.

International Food Partners Ltd (IFP) has released a sealing technology for flexible packaging that is claimed to be able to save food manufacturers thousands of tonnes of film per year, while also improving seal integrity.

Taking delivery of fresh salads direct from growers, packaging in see-through retail packs for supermarkets and other retailers and then despatching for arrival in fresh condition for retail shelves as ready-to-eat is a highly disciplined operation.

Low kJ beverages with added protein are claimed to improve endurance times in cyclists more than higher energy drinks.

Redpoint Bio is utilising proprietary assay technology and rats for the discovery of natural taste modifiers.

Is the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry or the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research responsible for the Australian food industry? The answer is, apparently, both.

Mars Petcare Australia has implemented a customised compressed air system from Champion Compressors, optimising production, reliability and energy efficiency.

Eggs are implicated in more food safety incidents than just about any other ingredient. Now, a newly developed rapid egg cooling technology could reduce future contamination events.

A recently developed system that uses air, rather than water, to blast peels off fruit could reduce water use by 80%.

Driven by OHS concerns and skills shortages, there is an increasing demand for smart solutions that take mixed case palletising in a new and exciting direction. Advances in software, robotics and intelligent storage, buffering and sequencing systems have enabled the development of two innovations designed to reduce the cost and improve the efficiency, productivity and safety of building mixed case pallets.

Three safe and sanitary robotics solutions have reformed a dangerous work environment for a meat processor.