ANZ Focus: Cultivated protein career options, New Zealand dairy farming, Australia food recalls and more feature in our round-up

‘Real-world applications’: Cell Ag Australia urges government to push career options in cultivated products​

Australian cellular agriculture industry group Cell Ag Australia has urged the government to take a leaf from Singapore’s book and approach cellular agriculture and cultivated products as a practical, real-world career option for students and researchers in order for the sector to reach its full potential.

Australia has long taken pride in its promotion of and numerous successes in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) given its relatively solitary geographical state, but according to the local cellular agriculture sector, these successes are not always seeing real-world results – a situation that progress in developing cultivated products could help to correct.

“Australia has all the right ingredients to thrive in cellular agriculture [and we should], given how we take such pride in promoting and succeeding in STEM,”​ Cellular Agriculture (Cell Ag) Australia Director told FoodNavigator-Asia​.

New Zealand dairy farming’s water use under scrutiny​

New Zealand is facing new questions about the impact of its dairy system after research claimed that every litre of dairy milk produced in Canterbury can require up to 11,000 litres of water to dilute the pollution from its production.

Analysis carried out by the Institute for Governance and Policy Studies at Victoria University of Wellington and published in the Australasian Journal of Environmental Management,​ revealed the nitrate grey water footprint for Canterbury ranged from 433 to 11,110 litres of water per litre of milk, depending on the water standards applied.

Lead author Dr Mike Joy said: “This footprint is higher than many estimates for global milk production, and reveals that footprints are very dependent on inputs [such as feed and fertiliser] included in the analyses and on the water quality standards applied to the receiving water.”​

Safeguarding supplies: Annual food recalls drop from 109 to 80 in Australia in 2021​

Food recalls in Australia dropped last year from 109 to 80, according to new data released by the regulator Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ).

Almost half of these were due to undeclared allergens, with other reasons including microbial contamination (19), foreign matter (5) and incorrect labelling (3).

At the same time, the organisation published an analysis of annual food recall statistics for the last 10 years, including the new data for 2021.

It detailed there had been 776 recalls between 2012 and 2021.

‘Possible opportunity’: ANZ infant nutrition firms gear up for US market entry amid formula shortage​

Some infant formula manufacturers from Australia and New Zealand are preparing their US market debut amid the current shortages across the country.

However, whether this will become a long-term opportunity will depend on the US’s willingness to relax its stringent policies on overseas products, said industry players.

The Australia and New Zealand companies which are seeking entry into the US include brands well-established in the Asia-Pacific, as well as start-ups, the region’s industry body Infant Nutrition Council CEO Jan Carey said.​

Broccoli sprout for cellular health: Australia’s Ora expands practitioner-grade product range​

The cellular health supplement category has soared due to nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) and nicotinamide riboside (NR) products, and now Australia’s practitioner-grade supplement brand Ora is entering the category with sulforaphane from broccoli sprout concentrate.

Ora, which was only launched about six months ago, currently has six SKUs addressing needs across immune, hormonal health, sleep, stress, muscle function, and general nutritional support.

The brand’s products are available in about 200 points of distribution, mostly in health foods stores and are also sold via practitioners’ recommendation.

It is adding six more SKUs to its range from end May, addressing common health issues such as digestive, immune, and cognitive health.