A revolutionary thermal processing technology using 915 MHz microwave energy has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The Tasman Tank Co, which produces more than 200 large industrial and municipal tanks a year, says advances in specifying, design, protective coatings, manufacture and installation need to be understood to get the best results for particular industries and applications. The company says these changes are particularly important to the resources, energy and ‘green’ environmental processing industries.

The potential for food contamination, economic adulteration, and other related food safety issues are leading to an increased awareness of the important role that food testing laboratories play in ensuring the safety and quality of our food supply. The requirements for sophisticated instruments and well-trained, experienced analysts in food safety laboratories are essential factors in making certain that food is safe from chemical contamination.

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.

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.

The field-proven technology of monobloc machine synchronisation can now be used for packaging functions as well: Krones has also come up with a monobloc solution for the dry end. The Ergobloc D (for Dry) combines field-proven standard machines with innovative new designs to create a holistically harmonised system for end-of-the-line packaging and palletising. It can be used for canning lines, non-returnable-glass lines and non-returnable-PET lines in all speed categories.

Motors used in food production areas are primarily selected for either ‘dry’ areas or ‘wet’ areas. These are entirely different situations with very different demands. We assume we are looking at safe areas, where there is no hazard from combustible gas or liquids.

A ‘cradle-to-cradle’ life cycle assessment of glass packaging has confirmed the positive environmental impact of glass packaging and recycling.

Experts have been investigating how the efficiency of energy and resources can be increased, in the long term, in the manufacture of PET bottles.

Some consumers are misinterpreting low carbohydrate claims on food packaging and assuming health benefits and weight loss qualities beyond the nutrition facts.

Front-of-pack nutrition claims seem to be misinterpreted by consumers, who give more credence to the claims than is warranted.

By understanding the role of the food matrix, researchers may be able to explain why consuming Listeria in one food may be quite safe, while eating the same amount in another food might be lethal.

Gourmet biscuits are in increasing demand in various sectors of the consumer market, from airlines to health food shops to the regular supermarket outlets. With this increase comes the requirement to handle the biscuits in the most efficient manner, avoiding damage and reducing the manual handling in meeting with attractive packaging parameters.

The Del Monte company processes fresh fruit, fruit juice and fruit cans based on mainly tropical fruits like pineapple, banana, mango, litchis, etc. The company has designed a road map for a global plant implementation of Lean & Six Sigma as part of a major improvement process which is planned to deliver substantial cost savings.

The Adelaide Hills pizza restaurant has solved the problem of peak-hour demand with a triple-stack XLT oven from JL Lennard. The company had the common problem of coping with the massive peak demands that can swamp a casual dining and takeaway establishments.