The Electrical Trades Union has slammed an opinion piece in The Australian which accuses SPC Ardmona workers of being overpaid and undercommitted to helping the company through its struggles. [ + ]

The Department of Agriculture has officially approved Life Technologies' MicroSEQ Real-Time PCR workflow as an Approved Test Method to detect pathogens in export meat and meat products. [ + ]

Australian-made Prosecco will continue to be marketed and sold under the name Prosecco, after the Registrar of Trademarks upheld an objection to an application seeking to register the Italian geographical indication (GI) Prosecco as a GI in Australia. [ + ]

Fonterra and Nestlé have opened a NZ$45 million dairy distribution centre in Brazil through joint venture Dairy Partners Americas (DPA). [ + ]

While consumers say they'll purchase free-range meat and non-cage laid eggs, their knowledge of modern animal production is too vague to translate to spending extra on these products at the supermarket, according to new research from CQUniversity. [ + ]

Increasingly, manufacturers are turning to natural sources for food and beverage colouring. Of these colours, red is the most challenging, a recent poll has shown. [ + ]

Submissions are invited on an application to change the Food Standards Code to allow food derived from canola which has been genetically modified for tolerance to glyphosate herbicides. [ + ]

If you want your product to be successful, don’t refer to it as 'natural'. This is the advice of food specialist Julian Mellentin, author of 12 Key Trends 2014, which is published by New Nutrition Business. [ + ]

Matthew Guthrie, a procurement officer with Queensland Health, has been recognised and awarded the Certified Professional Logistician (CPL) qualification by the Supply Chain and Logistics Association of Australia (SCLAA). [ + ]

The Health Star rating system fails on one significant count, according to AUSVEG: almost no fresh vegetables qualify for the five-star rating, despite their being minimally processed and beneficial to good health. [ + ]

Krones has acquired process technology company HST Maschinenbau GmbH. Located in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the company designs and manufactures homogenisers and reciprocating pumps for the food and beverage industries. [ + ]

Rigid plastic and flexible packs are poised to take off in the US, with demand expected to increase by 32.85 billion packs between now and 2017, according to a new report from Canadean. [ + ]

The Fonterra Board has approved a $235 million high-efficiency milk powder plant, which will enable the co-operative to process an additional 2.4 million litres of milk each day. The plant will be built at Fonterra's Pahiatua site in New Zealand. [ + ]

Whether or not you succumb to infection by Listeria could come down to what’s in your gut. New research shows that germ-free mice are more susceptible to infection from the foodborne pathogen than mice with conventional intestinal microbiota. [ + ]

Advancing Food Safety (AFS) - SAI Global has announced the winner of its inaugural scholarship program: Emma McPherson, a laboratory technician at Lion Dairy and Drinks. [ + ]