Innovations in packaging have allowed a newly formed Australian seafood company to expand its business to national and international markets.

Meat harvesting, the process of optimally scraping residual meat off animal carcasses, is a fast-moving industry subject to many of the megaforces that will dominate both production and consumption in the near future.

Brazil's second-largest brewing conglomerate, Grupo Petrópolis, ordered two identical breweries from Krones AG when it expanded in 2013-14. Both breweries have two filling lines and a capacity of six million hectolitres. [ + ]

It's clear that much more needs to be done about the obesity epidemic, but where should we best focus our efforts? Educating people to eat better and do more exercise? Or policy changes that will pull the levers to promote behaviour change at the population level? [ + ]

Price wars represent one of the most severe forms of competitive interplay in the market place, often leading to great losses. Retailers suffer losses in terms of margins, consumer loyalty and an inability to pull out of the downward cycle. [ + ]

Global demand for internationally traded dairy products is now dominated by China. Although Australia has benefited from this, with annual dairy exports to China now worth over A$500 million, the growth has been much slower than what New Zealand has achieved. [ + ]

What's holding back our efforts to reduce food waste? [ + ]

What's interesting is that when a person makes a perfect cup of coffee by hand, the element of craftsmanship is acknowledged. But when the same process is performed industrially, there's little recognition of the expertise involved.

Globally, sales of snack foods reached $374 billion in 2014, according to a new report. Europe and North America account for the majority of worldwide sales, but snack sales are actually growing faster in developing regions than in these established markets. [ + ]

HiteJinro Beverage wished to capitalise on Korea's booming water market but was limited in production space. The answer came in the form of the ErgoBloc L from Krones, an all-in-one filling monobloc.

While other nations have successfully reduced their sodium intake, Australians are still eating too much salt. It's time for the Commonwealth government to get tough on the food industry to reduce the salt content of processed foods. So, what's the best way to make this happen? [ + ]

Nutrigenomics is a relatively new field of research in which genetics and nutrition come together. These merging disciplines (nutrition and genetics), optimise the efficacy of diets and how dietary consumption affects gene expression. [ + ]

At every Foodtech Packtech we hand out hundreds of magazines and also farm animal-shaped stress balls. However, this year - to our horror - an incident of extreme chicken abuse occurred. An innocent chicken [stress relief ball] was misappropriated by a ruthless exhibitor, forced into a plastic bag and vacuum packed. [ + ]

There is rapidly increasing demand for packaging materials that give even greater protection to their contents. Functional additives are an important technology in meeting this demand for greater product protection in the plastic packaging market. [ + ]

Criticism of the food industry has itself become a niche industry. But the tendency to embrace a US-centric conception of how the industry works risks masking local variants and inhibiting a targeted response in other countries [ + ]