No policy reforms in Australia’s food and grocery sector will see the industry become less competitive by 2020.

Tastier cheese, improved food security and disease-resistant rice are some of the possibilities from $310 million investment in research from the government.

Stronger steel, higher quality wine and cleaner, safer cars could soon be manufactured in Australia thanks to research made possible with funding from the Labor Government.

Woolworths Supermarkets has outlined a five-year plan to double its customer take‐up of own brand products. [ + ]

Muddy Boots Software has won the inaugural Coles supermarket IT Vendor Award 2011. This follows the implementation of a quality management solution that improves the consistency and quality of fresh produce throughout Coles’ 742 Australian stores. [ + ]

The Crystal Diagnostics MultiPath system uses liquid crystals to detect multiple harmful pathogens in food in a single test, offering significant time savings over the most common testing methods. [ + ]

DuPont Qualicon has added over 1500 patterns to its RiboPrinter System database, providing pharmaceutical and food companies, public health practitioners and epidemiologists with more of the information they need to identify contaminating bacteria in production environments.

SPX Corporation is expanding its food and beverage capabilities with the acquisition of e&e Verfahrenstechnik GmbH, a leading supplier of extraction, evaporation, vacuum and freeze-drying technologies to the global food and beverage, pharmaceutical and bioenergy industries.

UKTI has launched Go UK - a business plan competition open to Australian and New Zealand businesses with an interest in expansion to the UK.

SEW-Eurodrive has acquired a new building to house its Industrial Gears division.

Wiley gets the go-ahead for second stage of Australia’s largest smallgoods factory.

Hoshizaki Lancer’s overseas success has been recognised with a major export award.

Membership of the new Manufacturing Taskforce was announced by Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

The Smart Lid, a disposable colour-changing coffee lid, has won the Occupational Health & Safety 2011 New Product of the Year Award in the US. [ + ]

Coca-Cola Amatil's new Mount Franklin easy-crush bottle has won Gold in the Sustainability category of the 2011 Australian Packaging Design Awards.