With the emphasis on Fine Food Australia this month, Australia’s export development agency has reported major demographic changes in worldwide food consumption.

The Australian Packaging Machinery Association (APMA) has elected two new directors following two retirements.

Food aid to developing countries could actually worsen rural poverty and distort global trade, according to a report by the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC).

DNA-embedded ink used in packaging may become the solution that authorities and companies need to combat counterfeit products.

A study by researchers in the UK has shown evidence of increased levels of hyperactivity in young children consuming mixtures of some artificial food colours and preservatives, particularly sodium benzoate.

Shaking and tapping is often the only way to get the last drop of tomato sauce out of the bottle. But soon a special coating on the packaging will make every last, precious drop of sauce ooze out of the bottle with ease.

Amcor Group’s food can and aerosol business in Australia and New Zealand will no longer be Australian owned by the end of this year.

Procter & Gamble (P&G) has filed a patent lawsuit against Kraft Foods, over a dispute on some new packaging for Kraft’s Maxwell House coffee brand.

The Japanese External Trade Organisation (JETRO) has announced the launch of the JETRO Invest Japan Invitation Program for food-related machinery companies, in collaboration with Chiba and Hiroshima Prefectures.

Neighbourhood property values predict local obesity rates better than education or incomes, according to a study published online this week by the journal Social Science and Medicine. For each additional $100,000 in the median price of homes, US researchers found obesity rates in a given ZIP code dropped by 2 %.

Researchers at the US University of Arkansas have discovered that some dangerous bacteria thrive as strongly without food as they do with it – a finding that could have great implications with current food preservation and hygiene practices.

Hepatitis E virus infections can be fatal in pregnant women, but until recently doctors thought the disease was confined to China, India and developing countries. Now Europeans are also contracting the disease, according to scientists at the Society for General Microbiology’s 161st Meeting at the University of Edinburgh, UK, from 3 to 6 September 2007.

In an effort to boost Japanese trade with Sydney businesses, the Japanese Government is funding a free seminar on 3 October, organised by Austrade.

Antibacterial soaps show no hygiene benefits over plain soaps and, instead, may increase bacterial resistance to some common antibiotics, according to a study in the August edition of Clinical Infectious Diseases.

Two of Australia’s largest logistics companies have combined forces this week, with the announcement that CRT Group has acquired the family owned Golden Bros.