Tag Archives: Australia

Is that a Vegemite or an iSnack 2.0 sandwich, or are you just happy to see me?

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In one of the most bizarre marketing decisions – ever, even for Australia – Kraft Foods decided to name its second generation Vegemite the iSnack 2.0.

I first heard the term Vegemite near the beginning of the worst decade of music ever, in the 1981 song, Down Under, by Men at Work.???

Vegemite is made from leftover brewers’ yeast extract, a by-product of beer manufacturing, and various vegetable and spice additives. The taste may be described as salty, slightly bitter, and malty – somewhat similar to the taste of beef bouillon. The texture is smooth and sticky, much like peanut butter.

Helen Razer, a Melbourne writer, says in today’s (tomorrow’s) The Age, that the chief element in Vegemite’s new product is cream cheese. A secondary ingredient appears to be abject failure. No one likes the name of this new yeast product, except at least six Harvard MBAs at Kraft Foods who adore it.

The winning name was announced during the telecast of the AFL grand final. In an effort ”to align the new product with a younger market – and the ‘cool’ credentials of Apple’s iPod and iPhone” Kraft chose iSnack 2.0 from a field of 48,000.

This raises many questions. Chief among them is how very terrible were the other 47,999 competition submissions that Kraft was left with iSnack 2.0?

Razer says the label is every bit as hip as a polka convention and every bit as convincingly ”now” as parachute pants.

Sounds like the wardrobe for a 1981 video shoot.

Razer also says, on Monday, the global noticeboard Twitter was jammed with disgust. Comments that included ”I said do you speaka my language? She just smiled and gave me an iSnack 2.0 sandwich” and ”What’s the matter, was the name Crap Paste already trademarked?”

Australia: Tables restaurant find $19,000 for deadly asparagus; widow says, ‘we’ve had enough’

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A fancy restaurant that served a man deadly asparagus sauce has been fined $19,000 – a fraction of the maximum penalty available under the Food Standards Act.

William Hodgins, 81, died of a ruptured stomach about 12 hours after taking his wife to the award-winning Tables Restaurant at Pymble, in January 2007.

Food Authority spokesman Alan Valvasori said legal advice was that it did not have enough evidence for a charge such as manslaughter.

A coronial inquest heard Mr Hodgins dined on snapper covered in a creamy asparagus sauce that had bacteria spores at 10 times the toxic level.

The maximum penalty under the Act is $275,000.

Mr Hodgins’ widow, Audrey, said the family had decided not to proceed with further legal action.

"We’ve had enough."
 

Poison pawpaw sickens 7 with Salmonella in Australia

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I’ve had pawpaw when in Australia. It’s yummy. And like other fresh produce, can be an excellent source of Salmonella.

The West Australian Department of Health issued a statement on Tuesday saying seven cases of salmonella poisoning linked to the tropical fruit had been uncovered over the past six weeks.

WA environmental health director Jim Dodds said,

"Wash all pawpaws with running tap water immediately before eating, this includes pawpaw that has been cut prior to purchasing. After cutting pawpaw at home thoroughly wash hands, cutting boards and knives."

That’s nice. And prevent Salmonella from gettiing on the pawpaw on the farm.
 

Listeria-laden chicken on Virgin Blue flights leads to two premature births

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The corporate geniuses at Virgin Blue airlines must be delighted that the listeria-laden chicken served on Virgin Blue flights that sickened seven and caused two premature births has been linked to Wollongong-based company GMI Food Wholesalers.

But Virgin Blue served the food – they are responsible.

"It appears the likely source of the contamination was an ingredient supplied to the manufacturers of the wraps and not Virgin Blue or other companies who received the affected products. Virgin Blue has removed the product from service at the end of June."

Brisbane-based solicitor Mark O’Connor stated what any company should know: Virgin Blue served the food, Virgin Blue is responsible.

"The airline in turn would have to make a claim against the supplier of the food but for passengers, it’s the airline that is liable.”

Virgin Blue should check on its suppliers rather than trying to cover their ass with (bad) PR.
 

New hand dryer eco-friendly, food safe

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I’ve waited a whole month for this Saturday to roll around. For weeks, I’ve been rinsing, drying, crushing, and collecting our cans, bottles, and boxes in anticipation. This Saturday is the day the county picks up our recycling. I have to drive my tubs to the library parking lot, but I don’t mind. I’m happy to be counted among those who choose to waste less. This reflects one particular side of my personality.

Another side is evident when I wash my hands: I soap up my palms and fingertips. I get between my fingers and up my wrists. After I rinse away the soap, I dry them thoroughly.

And this is the point where the two collide: When I go to dry my hands (and am not at home where clean cloth towels are available), I always reach for the paper towels over a blow dryer.

I know many trees are felled in the making of single-use paper towels, but blow dryers are disgusting: They collect microbes that may have been aerosolized when the toilet was flushed and then blow them onto your hands.

At least, most blow dryers do. HACCP Australia thinks the Dyson Airblade hand dryer can effectively dry hands without recontamination.

Australia Food News reports that the Dyson Airblade is the first hand dryer to be approved for use in food handling areas. AFN explains,

“Using high velocity sheets of unheated air, hands are dried in just ten seconds while, at the same time, 99.9% of bacteria and mould is removed from the air using HEPA filtration…The dryer, unlike conventional warm air hand dryers, does not blow bacteria back onto freshly washed hands nor use a heating element that can induce bacterial growth.”

As an added ecological bonus, the Dyson Airblade uses up to 80 per cent less energy compared with conventional hand dryers.

“Recently unveiled in Australia, the Dyson Airblade hand dryer has already had local success by receiving a New Product Award at its first public launch. It has now been introduced in food manufacturing areas at Cargill’s, Kellogg’s, Fletcher’s International, KFC, Tabro Meats, Wingham Beef and George Weston Food’s Tip Top bakeries, as well as a number of kitchens at McDonalds Restaurants.”

Until these are available in all the kitchens and public bathrooms I visit (and the data shows up on their microbial safety), I try to strike a balance between food safety and eco-friendliness: I use one paper towel to its fullest (two, if necessary), and avoid grabbing a handful out of assumption that they’ll be needed.

I hate assumptions.
 

I said a quarter chicken not a whole chicken – unleash the oil

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Borrowing medieval battle tactics, a 24-year-old Australian man poured boiling oil over his sleeping housemate last August because he bought a whole takeaway chicken instead of a quarter.

Today he was sentenced to six years in prison.

Justice Mark Weinberg said the man’s act was "of extraordinary violence bought about by your feelings of anger and resentment towards your victim. Yours was a cowardly act and one of great cruelty."
 

Tainted plane food linked to listeriosis increase in Australia

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Our friends are pregnant and recently returned from Australia; I hope they didn’t fly Virgin Blue.

The Australian reports tomorrow morning that two pregnant women gave birth prematurely after eating contaminated chicken wraps that were sold in their thousands on Virgin Blue flights from Brisbane and the Gold Coast, triggering a national public health alert.

The airline confirmed yesterday that up to 5000 flights in May and June could have carried the snacks laced with potentially deadly listeria bacteria.

Five Queenslanders are known to have contracted listeriosis food poisoning after consuming the wraps, including the two women who gave birth prematurely, a known complication of the illness.

Both women and their babies survived.

The Brisbane Times reported yesterday that Queensland Health has confirmed nine cases of listeriosis so far this year, compared to 56 cases nationally. Last year, 12 cases were recorded for the whole of 2008 in Queensland, compared to 68 nationally.

Virgin Blue today in a statement an outside contractor may have been to blame, adding,

"It appears the likely source of the contamination was an ingredient supplied to the manufacturers of the wraps and not Virgin Blue or other companies who received the affected products. Virgin Blue has removed the product from service at the end of June."

Brisbane-based solicitor Mark O’Connor stated what any company should know: Virgin Blue served the food, Virgin Blue is responsible.

"The airline in turn would have to make a claim against the supplier of the food but for passengers, it’s the airline that is liable.”

Virgin Blue should check on its suppliers rather than trying to cover their ass with (bad) PR.

Producing unsafe food will cost you in Australia

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During my year of study in New Zealand I plan on hopping across the ditch to Australia. Although my main goal is to bump into Mr. G (from Summer Heights High, see right), I will most inevitably have a meal out. Australian Food News reports that Australian courts have handed dirty restaurants hefty consequences for preparing food under unsafe conditions.

The courts have dished out heavy fines of over $37,000 to two North Shore restaurants and three Hills District eateries for breaches of food safety regulations, Primary Industries Minister Ian Macdonald has advised.

Macdonald stated,

“I commend councils for being vigilant and proactive in ensuring that food sold in their areas is as safe as possible. It’s simply unacceptable for food retailers to ignore safety laws that protect consumers.”

North Sydney Council successfully prosecuted two restaurants for a total of 14 offences. Dai’s Golden Crown Restaurant in Military Road, Cremorne received a $15,333 fine for five offences ranging from chronic build up of waste and dirt to vermin in equipment and shelving. While Neutral Bay Seafood in Wycombe Road, will be forced to pay a $3,287 fine for nine hygiene-related offences.

Hills Shire Council successfully prosecuted the following three eateries for a total of 31 hygiene-related offences. Simply Irresistible Bakery, Windsor Road, Rouse Hill received a $5492 fine for four offences including storing food on the floor of a coolroom. Mountain View Chinese Restaurant, Old Northern Road, Dural was fined $7095 for 15 offences including presence of pests and dirty fittings and equipment.
Beijing Duck Restaurant, North Rocks Road, North Rocks copped a $5976 fine for 12 offences including storing meat in a sink and unsanitary cooking equipment and utensils.

Macdonald continued,

“Prosecutions are a last resort, but in some cases when critical failures have occurred or when proprietors have ignored prior warnings, that’s when they’ll end up in court.”

Sydney KFC sued for $10 million after 7-year-old develops Salmonella and brain damage in 2005

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Monika Samaan was seven years old when she collapsed and was rushed to hospital with salmonella poisoning after eating a Twister from the Villawood KFC outlet in Sydney’s south west in October 2005.

She has acquired spastic quadriplegia and a profound intellectual disability.

Today, Monika arrived at the New South Wales Supreme Court in a wheelchair (right) as her just over $10 million lawsuit against KFC got underway.

The family’s lawyer, Anthony Bartley SC, told the court in his opening address that Monika had been an extremely bright and active young girl before her illness.

Bartley said there was little doubt Monika’s illness was caused by salmonella on the chicken she ate, adding, "You will hear unsettling and disturbing practices in the kitchen, including the kitchen KFC operated at its Villawood store.”

To keep up with orders and deliver them with speed to customers, KFC’s "young, enthusiastic" staff would frequently help each other out. But by manning different work stations, the staff could easily have transferred bacteria from raw chicken to the cooked product, he added.

Food service food safety failures made public in Sydney; public benefits

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The Sydney Morning Herald this morning – this being Sunday morning in Australia – has a huge feature on the effects of the New South Wales state Food Authority taking a more, uh, vigilant approach to restaurant inspections.

The newspaper concludes that 40 per cent of all restaurants, takeaways and other food businesses in NSW were caught breaching one or more of the critical food handling practices when first visited by an inspector.

That may not be an entirely fair representation. Lots of places have at least one critical violation, and in the U.S., how a critical violation is defined can differ from state-to-state, and even county-to-county. There needs to be some sort of control or comparative group to determine whether that number is high or not.

But it sure sounds gross.

Inspection rates are woefully inadequate in some local councils, and there is often a lack of follow-up.

Anna Cenfi, part-owner of the Belli Bar, got it right when she said inspections conducted in the past few months were more thorough than in previous years, but that she had received three letters warning that a food safety inspection was imminent.

"I think that warning people that they are coming to inspect is ridiculous. They should just spot check everyone, even if it’s just once a year. I’m not worried for myself but I know a lot of dodgy places out there."

Journalist Mathew Moore does clearly state that whatever the limitations, “making this information public we can now expect improvements in standards that transparency and public scrutiny of government information can bring. The Food Authority deserves praise for releasing this information and giving the public far more data than it can get in any other state. It’s an important addition to the name and shame list … With its website and release of the statewide data, NSW has gone further than any other state.

“Yet it still lags behind many cities in Britain and the US, where the results of every restaurant inspection are posted online. New York City even allows consumers to search restaurants according to their number of violation points.

“Governments there have learnt what the NSW Government is now only beginning to realise; there are major public health benefits in shining a public light into the kitchens of every food business that serves the public.”