Manufacturing news briefs – stories you might have missed

KFC names Detpak as national supplier of the year

Food packaging solutions company Detpak has been named KFC’s Supplier of the Year for Australia. Detpak, a subsidiary of South Australian family-owned Detmold Group, was recognised by the fast-food giant ahead of more than a dozen suppliers of packaging, chicken, potatoes, beverages, other food ingredients – like those secret herbs and spices – and distributors. Detpak has been working with KFC since 1972, establishing a long-standing relationship built on providing the highest-quality packaging products and reliability. Detpak Business Manager Ben Suttell said the company was thrilled to receive the award, which reflected the entire business’ input, continued commitment, focus and innovation. “It gives me immense joy to receive the 2023 KFC Supplier of the Year award on behalf of Detpak,” Suttell said. “I am thankful to the greater Detmold team who work tirelessly to ensure that we have maintained and strengthened our solid partnership with KFC, to ensure a great future together.

Fresenius launches solar system at Western Sydney plant

Renal medical product maker Fresenius Medical Care, announced the introduction of solar energy at their Smithfield plant with an event on Friday last week. According to a statement from the company, the 290kW solar system installation incorporates “537 Risen 540W solar panels, supported by 3x 50kW and 1x 110kW Sungrow inverters” and is “expected to avoid 342 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year, equivalent to the carbon sequestered by planting 64,871 trees.” The installation is expected to provide 84 per cent of the plant’s energy needs, resulting in a 52 per cent reduction in grid energy consumption.

Coomera Cybersecurity training centre opens

A new Cyber Security Training Operation Centre (CSTOC) at TAFE Queensland’s Coomera campus was opened on Thursday. According to a statement from the Queensland government, it will offer “world class training in how to monitor, detect and contain IT threats across critical applications, devices, and systems” and provide local industry with a pipeline of skilled workers for the future. The centre will integrate with the other Cyber Security Training Operations Centres located at TAFE Queensland’s Mooloolaba, South Bank and Cairns campuses. “This new centre will have attack and defence rooms, monitoring rooms for hacking/triaging web data and data centres to incorporate IT infrastructure providing additional training opportunities for future cyber security professionals here in South-East Queensland,” said minister for training Di Farmer.

Food and wine gets backing for exports

Australian Food & Wine Collaborators has been awarded a $600,000 Agricultural Trade and Market Access Cooperation (ATMAC) grant to promote Australian food and wine overseas. The group is a collaboration between rural research and development corporations and five agricultural peak bodies including Dairy Australia, Meat & Livestock Australia, Wine Australia, Seafood Industry Australia, and Hort Innovation. According to a statement from minister for agriculture Murray Watt, The group will use the grant to extend their ‘Team Australia’ initiative: “a shared marketing strategy-to incorporate more key markets and further embed a collaborative industry approach.” Group spokesperson Charlie McElhone said: “The project will communicate the positive attributes of Australian produce, leveraging the “Nation Brand”, as it delivers in-market activities in high growth markets for Australia. Taiwan will be targeted in a 6-month pilot and a similar approach will be adopted in other high-growth Asian markets.”

Bod completes acquisition of Aqua Phase 

ASX-listed cannabis-focussed drug development and product innovation company Bod Science has announced the completed acquisition of Aqua Phase, a process technology with the potential to increase the bioavailability of cannabis compounds. In a statement on Thursday, Bod said the newly-acquired technology allowed for “more rapid onset, better efficacy, and lower dosage rates”, addressing the intrinsically poor biological absorption of cannabidiol (CBD) and cannabinoids  Bod now holds the rights to use the Aqua Phase invention, together with all intellectual property (including a patent  application), confidential information, records, goodwill and the right to use the name Aqua Phase. CEO Jo Patterson said: “This invention provides Bod with a significant competitive advantage, expanding our value proposition & reinforcing Bod’s position as a leading, science driven product innovator”.

Food and beverage trailblazer offers $20 million to fund innovators

Food and beverage manufacturers can apply to share in $20 million to develop their ideas for products and ingredients to grow their business through the Food and Beverage Accelerator’s (FaBA) second investment round. FaBA is hosted by The University of Queensland and part of the federal government’s Trailblazer program, bringing together research teams and industry. FaBA Director Dr Chris Downs said the funding round would enable businesses to collaborate with researchers on ingredient and product development, sensory and consumer sciences, business insights and marketing. “We’re encouraging food and beverage manufacturers around the country to partner with us and share in dollar matched investment to turn their business ideas into reality,” Downs said. “FaBA aims to deliver ‘science at start-up speed’ to provide smart, sustainable solutions to industry challenges and grow Australia’s food manufacturing sector, creating jobs.” More information is available at a webinar to be held August 14, with registration and other details here.