After determining global food losses in terms of kilocalories per person, it has beed established that halving current food losses would mean feeding an extra billion people. [ + ]

IMCD Group has signed an agreement to acquire PT Alam Subur Tirta Kencana, a Jakarta-based food ingredients distributor. The acquisition is IMCD’s first entry into South-East Asia. [ + ]

Macleay River Meats, which trades at Eversons Food Processors, has won the 2012 Prime Minister’s Water Wise Award. The award was presented at the savewater! awards gala dinner on 26 October. [ + ]

Young adults can boost their working memory by increasing omega-3 fatty acid intake, research from the University of Pittsburgh has shown. [ + ]

AUSPACK PLUS will feature the successful Bioplastics Pavilion at the 2013 event. The pavilion allows key industry experts to come together under one roof to help visitors understand bioplastics. [ + ]

Krones AG has been awarded the Bavarian Energy Prize for 2012. The company was presented with the award on 18 October for its energy-efficient EquiTherm brewing system. [ + ]

Royal DSM has reached an agreement with Cargill to acquire Cargill’s cultures and enzymes business for €85 million. The business generates net sales of about €45 million. [ + ]

Nestlé has announced it will invest more than $17 million in a new facility at one of its factories to produce ready-to-drink medical supplements such as Resource, Isosource and Sustagen. [ + ]

Business is booming in Australia’s organic sector. The Australian Organic Market Report shows that organics is worth $1.27 billion and is predicted to grow by up to 15% each year. [ + ]

TÜV NORD has opened a state-of-the-art laboratory and office in Pune, India, for the testing of agricultural and processed food, materials, animal feed, and pharmaceutical and cosmetic products. [ + ]

Blantyre Farms is the first approved piggery project under the government’s Carbon Farming Initiative. By covering effluent ponds to capture methane, the farm converts the methane to electricity using a biogas generator. [ + ]

Resveratrol, an ingredient in red wine thought to improve insulin sensitivity, reduce risk of heart disease and increase longevity, does not appear to offer these benefits in healthy women, new research at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis indicates. [ + ]

Consumers may want to think twice before paying a premium for manuka and other monofloral honeys. Research from New Zealand’s Lincoln University has shown that a number of honeys from NZ are not true to label. [ + ]

According to a report in the American Chemical Society’s Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, carob leaves are a rich source of antibacterial substances ideal for fighting the microbe responsible for listeriosis. [ + ]

The 14th annual Food Regulations and Labelling Standards Conference will be held over 10 and 11 December. It provides a platform to discuss the ongoing issues in food policy. [ + ]