The salt reduction trend is set to continue as some of the biggest international food processors launch salt reduction strategies.

The Taiwan Bureau of Food and Drug Analysis (BFDA) has purchased and installed a total of four Waters Acquity UltraPerformance LC (UPLC) systems and nine Xevo TQ tandem quadrupole mass spectrometers to support its efforts to protect Taiwanese consumers and the country’s food supply by monitoring domestically produced and imported food sold within the country.

A broken or damaged load cell can be impossible to detect or predict. Only once batches start appearing out of specification, or the weighing results appear unstable, do users realise that there might be a problem and call out a service technician to identify and repair or replace the broken load cell. This can result in lost production time and disappointed customers.

In a world where navigating the carbon jungle is often considered as ‘just too hard’, a century-old family firm has been rewarded for getting excited about sustainability.

The recent recall of salami due to a salmonella outbreak, which allegedly may have originated in the black pepper used in the salami, has manufacturers looking for safe alternatives to traditional ground black pepper.

Check scales were recently supplied to Montague Fresh at Strathfield in NSW. The check scales are being used for checkweighing and prepacking of organic fruits for delivery to clients.

Three sets of ingredient scales were recently supplied to South Australia’s largest confectionery maker, Robern Menz. The ingredient scales were supplied to their Glynde factory in Adelaide for weighing ingredients and for weight-checking filled boxes of sweets.

Drought, and the fundamental need to stay in business, has brought on a radical process re-engineering effort at Radford Meats in Warragul, Victoria.

Summit Matsu Chilling Systems has provided a reliable cooling solution for Grove Fruit Juice, supplying the company with two air-cooled chillers that are used for process cooling at several stages of production.

Researchers have found that beer is a significant source of dietary silicon with beers containing high levels of malted barley and hops being the richest in silicon. Silicon is implicated in bone health.

The ultrafiltration system installed at Radford Meats with the assistance of an AusIndustry grant, is expected to recycle up to 90% of the water used at the abattoir.

The packaging landscape is set to change as new, disruptive technologies displace and replace current packaging options and solutions.

Animal lovers have something to cheer about in 2010 as market research firm Datamonitor predicts a banner year for products sporting the ‘free-range’ moniker as a growing number of food companies will be hailing humanely raised protein products. 2010 is also expected to be a big year for a new generation of biodegradable plastics that may succeed in greening the image of plastic water bottles.

With Chinese food exports growing, up from $4.5 billion in 1986 to $25.7 billion in 2006, the safety of food produced in China is becoming an increasingly international issue but the recent arrest of two managers of a Chinese milk producing company serves as a salient reminder that the new food safety laws are being enforced.

Global supply chains bring with them huge difficulties of assuring quality and ensuring supplier responsibility for their products. A different solution to this problem, suggested by Professor Luciana Echazu, revolves around the supplier's contract.