Simple items, such as straws, takeaway cutlery and food packaging make a huge contribution to the 2.5 million tonnes of plastic waste Australia produces each year, about 84 per cent of which is sent to landfill. Of that, 130,000 tonnes of plastic waste leaks into the environment annually and once thrown out, it takes 500-1,000 years to degrade.

It’s a problem that is not going away unless behaviours change, and penalties apply.

The good news is that the Australian Government has announced it will phase-out single use plastics by 2025. The phase-out will include problematic and unnecessary plastic waste such as lightweight plastic bags, plastic misleadingly labelled “degradable”, plastic utensils and stirrers, plastic straws, polystyrene food containers, polystyrene consumer-goods packaging, and microbeads in personal-care products.

If everything is on track, under the National Plastics Plan, polystyrene should be gone from food and beverage containers by December 2022. That means it is time to start using alternative packaging options, and the good news is there are plenty available that are made from alternative materials, including food waste.

Eva Ross, Chief Marketing and Customer Officer at carbon neutral courier service Sendle, says there’s a growing number of everyday materials being used to replace plastics.

“There’s a lot of great packaging options coming out made of pineapples and other fruit and vegetables, as well as starches and plant material,” she explains.

“For example, we’ve got compostable mailers that you can feed straight into your worm farm, they are made of corn and plant starch and they will disappear between 45 and 90 days.”

Here we take a look at three great options already saving the planet.

Mushroom mania

Mushrooms might not seem like they’ve got the strength behind them to package anything – but the fact is they are a great alternative because they mimic plastic in many ways.

The manufacturing process begins by mixing fungus sprouts with seedlings or other residues from agriculture. Without the need for either light, water or chemical additives, the result is a fully natural composite material with similar material properties to synthetic foam plastics like Styrofoam.

Mushroom’s springy texture also makes them an alternative to packing filler – and they are an excellent way to package wine bottles or other fragile food items.

They are also 100 per cent biodegradable so, instead of the bin, they go straight in the ground or compost.

Rice and wheat

Recycling disposable plastic items used in the hospitality sector is a resource-intensive process. Food contamination means the plastic needs to first undergo high-pressure water cleaning – and remaking them into new plastic items demands a chemical process.

Fortunately, takeaway cutlery has been revolutionised with the invention of edible spoons, forks, coffee cups, straws and stirrers.

Amol Kingaonkar, Founder and Managing Director of South Australian-based Use N Eat Edible Cutlery, says there are three key benefits for their use as an alternative to plastic cutlery – in addition to the obvious fact that they taste delicious and come in a range of flavours including chocolate, strawberry and various natural herbs.

“There are many reasons these products are a sustainable alternative to non-plastic options,” he explains. “Firstly, they are made from naturally produced materials (wheat, rice, corn and spices). No trees are cut or chemicals are used in making them.

“Secondly, there is zero waste, if not eaten after use – the spoons can be recycled (green waste recycling) and finally, if it goes into the landfill – there are no adverse impacts on the environment as edible cutlery will biodegrade faster than a wooden or paper cutlery option.”

Pineapple

The Philippines has found an excellent way to use the enormous amounts of pineapple leaves it produces as the world’s second-largest pineapple grower.

Researchers have created a new product called pinyapel, which is a paper-like product that doesn’t involve cutting down trees. It’s now being used to create everything from coffee cups to shopping bags.

The product is a popular choice as it decomposes faster than other paper products and it’s naturally water-resistant, so when it comes to coffee cups, for example, there’s no need for the plastic film layer, which prevents the cup from being recycled.

With all these options out there, and many more under development, there is a clear case to join the push to phase out plastics by 2025.

The post How mushrooms, rice, wheat and pineapples are helping save the planet appeared first on Fine Food Australia.

An explosion of experimentation led to shortages of flour as people lovingly nurtured a sourdough ‘mother’ to life at home. Others headed for the unique qualities of fermented foods, such as kimchi and sauerkraut. Beverages kombucha and kefir also gained cult followings.

Two years later, the home experimenting may have abated but the popularity of these fermented foods and drinks has only grown due to a global demand for probiotics. This may be due to increased health awareness and concern for maintaining immunity and well-being during a global pandemic.

Whatever the reason, the microbial culture market has clear commercial appeal and is projected to be worth US$2.2 billion by 2024.

What is fermented food?

Fermented foods are foods and beverages that have undergone a process where micro-organisms (like yeast and bacteria) break down food components (like glucose) into other products (like organic acids, gases or alcohol).

Accredited Practising Dietician and founder of Your (Gut) Feeling, Annaliese Collier, encourages people to introduce a small amount of fermented food into their diet on a regular basis.

“Fermented foods have been associated with several positive health effects, including improved digestive health and increased availability of beneficial nutrients, such as vitamin B12,” she says. “They may also play a role in maintaining a healthy immune system, with further research still needed to understand the amount and strains of bacteria necessary for this.

“For the average person, fermented foods are a safe and convenient way to get those beneficial live bacteria into our gut, with the bonus of adding complex flavours and textures to meals.”

Rise and shine

There’s a wide variety of fermented foods making their way off the supermarket shelf and into bars and restaurants, complementing many dishes with unique flavours.

Sharon Flynn, the founder of Victorian-based outfit The Fermentary, says orders for her signature red sauerkraut have tripled in the past year as restaurants join the stampede towards good quality fermented products.

“I’ve noticed an increase in orders for our sauerkraut from one tub to three or four tubs a week, which shows there is a willingness to pay for good quality fermented food,” says Flynn.

It’s not only good for your gut, say the experts. While there is still research to be done, there is a growing consensus that fermented foods have another superpower.

“You can’t compare a can of sauerkraut that has been pasteurised to my hand-chopped, wild-fermented kraut” says Flynn. “It is good for digestion, and it contains all kinds of things that will release serotonin. So, you feel good, too – and you can’t put a price on that.”

Collier agrees and says while the pandemic may be partly responsible for driving people towards fermented foods en masse, there is another health benefit emerging.

“There’s also new evidence to suggest that there could be a link between fermented food consumption and improvements in our mental health,” she explains.

“This is very much a growing area of research, it’s likely that additional benefits associated with consuming foods in this traditional method are yet to be discovered, so watch this space.”

The post The Massive Potential of the Fermented Food Market appeared first on Fine Food Australia.

From red wine to beer and every type of spirit and pre-mix option imaginable, non-alcoholic drinks are filling the shelves of bottle shops across the globe. They are also turning up on the menus of restaurants and bars who previously only offered sugary mocktails, soft drinks and water for non-drinkers.

According to the No- and Low-Alcohol Strategic Study 2021 from IWSR Drinks Market Analysis, the low/no-alcoholic market has cornered 3 per cent of the market in countries including Australia, the UK, Brazil, Germany, Japan, South Africa and the US, and is forecast to increase by 31 per cent by 2024.

Leading the way is the beer and cider category, which holds a 92 per cent share of all sales in the low/no-alcoholic market globally. While sales have recently slowed, showing only a 0.5 per cent increase, in contrast, the no/low spirits category – which has 0.6 per cent share of the market – increased volume sales by 32.7 per cent. Non-alcoholic wines are also growing in popularity.

This obviously presents opportunities for hospitality venues to join the party and meet the growing demand.

Cheers to that

During the lockdowns brought on by the pandemic in 2020 and 2021 in Melbourne, Brunswick Aces built the first Halal-certified non-alcoholic gin distillery in the world, as well as a bar and two e-commerce websites.

What started off as a backyard project among friends has turned into a viable commercial venture and Stuart Henshall, Brand director and Co-owner, says business is booming.

“It was an uphill battle in the early days to convince bars and restaurants to put a non-alcoholic cocktail on their menus,” he notes. “However, we used the success of the bar to go out there and show that there is a demand. The bar is absolutely pumping, it proves that it’s a thing.”

Brunswick Aces now supplies hundreds of bars and restaurants across Australia with non-alcoholic products, while also exporting to New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, the Middle East, Europe, UK, Canada, and the US.

“The fact that bars and restaurants are adopting non-alcoholic drinks to their menus makes it so much more accessible for people to feel comfortable,” adds Henshall. “They are not stuck with water or a sugary fizzy drink – and it also elevates their experience when they’re in that venue as well.

“We were quite badly hit by the pandemic in terms of our on-premises customers, but that’s now a key focus for us.

“The feedback that we get from our restaurant customers is that they are being asked for non-alcoholic drinks more and more. We’ve become a one-stop shop and source of expertise for bars and restaurants. We curate menus with them and supply everything.”

For low-/no-alcohol supplier Lyre’s, the story is similar. Chief Marketing Officer Paul Gloster explains that the entire range is designed to be true to the taste of the equivalent alcoholic spirit.

“The Lyre’s process is unique in that we never start with an existing product and take the alcohol out,” he says. “We start with the natural flavours, the aromas, the mouthfeel, everything that makes up the essence of the drink, and then carefully layer these onto a non-alcoholic base.

“We’ve had a lot of positive feedback from world-leading, iconic restaurants that now range Lyre’s. They have discovered that there’s a great option available now for people who are not drinking.”

Maturing with age

The proof is in the data. IWSR forecasts that the no- and low-alcohol volume in Australia will grow by 16 per cent by 2024. The study also found that 71 per cent of Australian consumers intend to increase or maintain their no-or low-alcohol consumption, and 65 per cent plan to try new no- or low-alcohol brands.

Gloster believes restaurants not offering quality no- or low-alcoholic options are missing an opportunity.

“We’re seeing phenomenal growth; the reason is simple – venues are buying more and more because they have customers who keep coming in and asking to make it non-alcoholic,” he says.

“There were people who might sit down for a meal and have one drink and then switch to water. We are seeing a lot of growth out of those consumers because they still want to be part of the dining occasion, enjoying flavours that go well together.

“Extending the food and drink experience by enjoying a cocktail without the booze is a massive plus for many people.”

The post The Unstoppable Rise of Non-Alcoholic Drinks appeared first on Fine Food Australia.

Unique Health Products National Grocery Manager Jay Rogers says new product innovations are helping reinvigorate sales in grocery categories.

“Those once niche categories like gluten free, low carb/keto and vegan convenience are now critical for every retailer wanting to meet the needs of the modern consumer. They’re ripe for innovation and expansion, and offer opportunities to grow sales, maintain existing customer loyalty and attract new segments,” he says.

Unique Health Products is Australia’s leading distributor of natural, organic, eco-friendly, fair trade, vegan and free-from products. For 25 years they’ve played a role as trusted advisors to grocery managers across the country, helping them stay at the forefront of consumer demand.

“We’re here to help grocery buyers curate fresh and exciting shelves based on our understanding of what today’s consumers are looking for. We have insights into what’s selling across the country and abroad as well as how to tailor that to their local stores. Our job is to help grow their business and make doing business easy,” Mr Rogers says.

“We’re always trying to innovate in those foundational categories with products that sell through week after week. Today consumers’ needs are complex. They expect to find a wide range of gluten-free, low carb and vegan grab-n-go type of products for themselves and their families where they shop regularly so if you’re not ranging them, unfortunately you’re losing regular sales to another store.”

How can you take advantage of these growth opportunities?

Growth category 1: Vegan convenience

Australians are hungry for plant-based food. According to data and modelling by Deloitte Access Economics, retail sales jumped 46% year-on-year, driven primarily by consumer demand for healthier meat alternatives. Coupled with the drive for convenient grab and go snacks and easy, timesaving do-it-yourself options and you have another category where consumers are seeking more variety.

For wholesome plant-based snacking you can’t go past CLIF Bar. The number one selling plant-based protein bar in the US**, the range is available in nine delicious and top-selling flavours. With 20 grams of protein, CLIF Builders Bars are made with organic ingredients and free from high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, flavours, and preservatives.

For a full umami savoury option try adding Gimme seaweed snacks; Vego vegan chocolate for something sweet; and Noble Jerky for a flavoursome and nutritious jerky alternative. Bragg Nutritional Yeast is a vegan pantry staple for its nutritional value and cheesy flavour.

A hot new product in this category is the Pimp My Salad Vegan Mayo from Extraordinary Foods. It’s creamy, delicious and completely plant-based.

Growth category 2: Low carb and keto

High fat, low carb keto diets have grown in popularity during the last few years, with the global market expected to be worth AUD $20.09 billion by 2027*. Demand for keto and low carb friendly foods has skyrocketed, paving the way for new, innovative and convenient on-the-go products.

For keto snacking, Keto Naturals offers both sweet and savoury options, many of them also plant-based. The Keto Bread in a Mug range from Get Ya Yum On has also proved popular as a convenient and tasty treat.

Low Carb Life is a great option for shoppers looking for DIY bread and bake mixes and Lakanto Monk Fruit Sweetener is a keto-friendly alternative to sugar

For high protein keto-friendly options, PBCo. offers bread, cake, pancake and pizza bake mixes along with other pantry staples. Vitawerx has also created a high-protein, keto-friendly chocolate plus a selection of keto mayo.

Growth category 3: Gluten free

Australia is the largest gluten free market in the Asian Pacific region. And the growth we’ve seen in recent years is showing no sign of slowing down. Mordor Intelligence predicts 7.8 percent compound annual growth from 2020 to 2025.

For gluten free plant-based “fast food” Plantasy Foods Mac ‘n Cheez is an absolute favourite. Focusing on the most innovative, nutrient-dense ingredients, Plantasy Foods offer a wide range of high-quality, minimally-processed alternatives that make healthy, vegan, gluten-free cuisine accessible to everyone.

Bragg Coconut Liquid Aminos is a gluten and wheat free alternative to tamari and soy sauce that’s made from non-GMO coconut tree nectar and distilled water.
For gluten free baking products, you can’t look past The Gluten Free Food Co.el

Grow with the trends

With these trends are on the rise, now is the time to capitalise and give your shelves a healthy boost.

For help improving your grocery sales contact Unique Health Products National Grocery Manager Jay Rogers on 0421 086 687.

About the writer:
Lisa Crawford Jones is a journalist, business consultant and strategic communications specialist working in the Australian market for healthy packaged goods.

*The Insight Partners, 2020.
**IRI Total US MULO 52 Weeks ending 7/12/20

The post Ripe with opportunity: The grocery categories boosting sales appeared first on Fine Food Australia.

Here are five ways to reward and retain employees:

1. Create opportunities to learn

Matt Jenkins, Group Human Resources Manager at Applejack Hospitality, says the key to keeping staff motivated and committed to your business is by valuing their contribution and helping them grow.

“Our kitchen teams are probably the most stable kitchen teams I’ve ever worked in, and I’ve been in the hospital industry a long time,” says Jenkins. “Our turnover is very low and it’s down to creating opportunities for people and providing feedback to help them grow.”

Those opportunities can include helping people step up to more senior positions when leaders are on leave or trialling different positions throughout the team.

2. Professional development

Melanie Aldred, Owner and Managing Director of East Brunswick local pub Teller, says offering formal training and development to all staff is a sign that you value their skills and want them to continuously improve.

“We have a training and development leadership course that everyone gets an opportunity to go into if they want to,” says Aldred. “It’s not compulsory but it’s available if people want to develop their skill set.”

Some of these courses could be to provide barista or bartender training, or to get the necessary hospitality certificates.

Jenkins says providing leadership training is also a great way to build a strong and healthy culture. “We chose leadership management courses because you can easily teach someone the hard parts of how to run a business, but the real value is in developing leadership qualities and emotional awareness. That benefits everyone in the team.”

3. Listen to your staff

Your staff are the eyes and ears of your business. Listening to their opinions and acting on their ideas and feedback develops a sense of trust and encourages respect throughout the business.

For example, Applejack holds regular development days to hear from all staff and remind people of the value of being a team.

“I think it just comes down to creating a sense of purpose for our teams,” says Jenkins. “I think a lot of hospitality businesses fall into the trap of just thinking their managers are there to open it up and then lock up. Whereas we really want to give people a sense of purpose so that they are not only developing themselves professionally, but also personally.”

4. Healthy treats

Working in hospitality can mean long, unsociable hours and hard physical tasks. It’s important to look after your staff and let them know their health is a priority.

Aldred says apart from providing regular breaks and reminding people to eat well and stay hydrated while working, it’s a good idea to offer other rewards. “We get a great company once a month to provide 15-minute massages to anyone who wants one,” she says. “Everyone asks to be rostered on the day they come!”

Jenkins says acknowledging the long hours and finding ways to help people balance their work and life is also a good tactic. “We do rotating rosters because we want to give our chefs and our managers weekends off and have a life,” he says. “That comes at the cost of having a higher labour percentage, but in the long run giving our staff the time off means they’re staying with us longer.”

5. Rewards programs and discounts

Offering staff a discount to eat or drink at the venue isn’t new, but it’s still a great way to show recognition of your staff’s contribution.

Many businesses are also developing rewards programs, where staff can build up credit based on the length of time employed, extra tasks they’ve taken on, or ideas they have brought to the business.

Jenkins says in addition to providing staff with credit through a mobile app (based on how long they have been with the business) that can be spent in any of their eight venues across Sydney, rewarding individual staff for excellence is a good strategy.

“Every night the managers in each venue nominate a front of house or a kitchen staff member who went over and above their role for that particular evening,” he says. “At the end of the month, each venue looks at all the nominations and chooses the ‘Unicorn of the Month’, who gets $100 on their Applejack app. They also get a T-shirt. We make a bit of a fuss and it’s a lot of fun.”

The post Rewarding the unicorns: attracting and keeping your best staff appeared first on Fine Food Australia.

Lauren Mathers is unstoppable.

The 40-year-old farmer, butcher, charcutier and businesswoman is a vocal role model in the regenerative food movement, inspiring many other women and men in small food businesses across Australia.

And she does all this from her family farm on the banks of the Murray River at Barham, 800km southwest of Sydney and 300km north of Melbourne.

She works alongside her husband and business partner Lachlan Mathers, whose experience in the family’s transport firm added to their success by nailing distribution from day one.

The couple raise 120 breeding sows on a free-range regenerative pig farm called Bundarra Berkshires, the productive heart of Mathers’ butchery and manufacturing business, Bundarra & Co.

Bundarra & Co. sits in a small industrial estate in Barham. A butcher’s shop front and small delicatessen hide a labyrinth of white panelled cool rooms for butchering, smallgoods and charcuterie, along with a distribution centre for home delivery for customers in Melbourne and Sydney.

Mathers has also purchased an existing butchery in Deniliquin in partnership with beef cattle farmer Hayley Pattison, with investment from Mathers’ mother and father.

And they also have eyes on other butcheries in regional New South Wales and Victoria.

Once COVID restrictions ease, Mathers is planning to open a charcuterie bar in the township of Barham, population 1520.

The final part of the vertically integrated businesses model will be complete when a micro-abattoir is built outside of Barham in the next 12 months.

“It’s about a passion for food,” says Mathers. “It drives everything we do and informs every decision we make.

“Everything we do is about making delicious food that makes people happy, so they pay us the right price to make enough money to look after our staff and for all of us to have a comfortable life.”

Mathers has always loved good, healthy food. A former athlete, she developed a palate for fine food and travelled to France with her mother to explore European food culture.

“It struck me one day just how delicious pork can be when we sat down in a park by the Eiffel Tower, with a baguette, rillettes and a bottle of Champagne,” she said. “Stereotypical I know.”

Mathers returned from that trip with the taste of great pate, salume and charcuterie on her lips and fire in her belly.

In 2009, Mathers bought a large Berkshire sow, a rare pig breed with sun-protective dark skin that makes them perfect for free-ranging. These natural foragers put on thick layers of fat to keep them warm in winter – a trait that made them unpopular as a commercial breed when the meat industry was focused on lean pork.

Photo by Richard Cornish

Mathers worked with regional butchers to process her pork, but she was not satisfied with the results.

“I want to work with people with a passion for food,” says Mathers, who went on to study butchery and built her own on-farm butcher’s shop and farm gate.

To increase public awareness of her style of pork, Mathers and her husband travelled to Melbourne to sell their produce at farmers’ markets.

“We had to tell people that fat is where the flavour is,” remembers Mathers. “Those who got what we were trying to achieve are still customers a decade later.”

Mathers stays connected with a mailing list, using Mailchimp to build her database and deliver regular specials and codes to access member deals. In the past, she has rewarded regular customers with on-farm events with celebrity chefs, spending the weekend cooking, eating and drinking with paying customers. COVID has put those events on hold for the time being.

Bundarra pork is truly excellent, winning many awards. Mathers has worked on the pigs’ diet and hand-picked breeding animals that are most suited to the climate and conditions. The thick layer of fat has reduced a little bit, giving a better flesh to fat ratio and her preserving techniques are being continually refined. The development of a deli with a pork takeaway section inside the Bundarra & Co. butchery in Barham saw her able to feed the local population with top-quality porchetta.

“One of the things about living in the bush is that we produce some of the best food in the world and then we ship it hundreds of kilometres away for other people to eat,” Mathers says vehemently.

“One of my aims to make sure that country people have access to great food, just like the city people have.”

Mathers also enjoys the direct, instant feedback she gets from customers about the meat she grows, butchers, cooks and carves.

But COVID restrictions have hit Mathers and her partners hard. At one stage this year, she had a surplus of animals she could not process. They were getting bigger and bigger, past optimum prime pork stage and heading towards animals only fit for making bacon and salami.

But there have been silver linings too.

“As anyone knows, staff are your greatest strength, but also your weakness,” says Mathers. “I need people who know food and who want to work in food, not just clock on and clock off then head to the pub.”

She now has a small, tight team with great skills: a master charcuterie with experience in top restaurants, a former owner of a successful butchery and a baker who has come on board to help with bread and pastries.

“Did I say we do a good beef pie?” Mathers says cheekily.

The production in the kitchen sees zero waste from the animals, and this requires a lot of skill. Bones are simmered for broth. Trim is minced for sausages. Muscles are carefully seam butchered, salted, and cured. Even heads are cooked, and the meat stripped to make an incredibly rich and lip-smacking ragu sold through the deli.

“It is not about being all things to all people,” says Mathers. “It’s about being true to yourself. And the satisfaction of working towards your goals creates its own energy. And brings good people along for the ride.”

Journalist Richard Cornish has been writing about Australian food and drink for almost three decades, amassing a cult following for his weekly column in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. Richard has also co-authored best-selling books with MoVida’s Frank Camorra and bakery doyen Phillippa Grogan.

Journalist Richard Cornish has been writing about Australian food and drink for almost three decades, amassing a cult following for his weekly column in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. Richard has also co-authored best-selling books with MoVida’s Frank Camorra and bakery doyen Phillippa Grogan.

The post Farmer, butcher and charcutier Lauren Mathers is on a mission to change the way Australians eat pork, one country butcher shop at a time. appeared first on Fine Food Australia.

Bertocchi Smallgoods is Australia’s largest 100% Australian owned & operated smallgoods producer and celebrates 50 years in business in 2022. This family company has survived and thrived through decades of economic peaks and recessions, but how has it come through the Covid pandemic?

Bertocchi’s Marketing and Merchandise Manager, Tony Rapone, said three generations of family heritage and strong foundations of tradition and authenticity provided the fortitude required to keep going.

“The past two years have been tough with the impact of hospitality closures and seeing our incredible wholesale customers really suffer,” said Tony. “The number of insolvencies in the restaurant trade was heartbreaking,” he said.

However, the impact of revenue loss from hospitality was compounded by the devastating effect of reduced production capacity due to Covid workplace restrictions. The business had invested heavily in a state-of-the-art processing facility in Melton and an upgrade to the Thomastown plant which was completed in 2019. Within months, the world had been plunged into lockdown.

A vastly reduced production capacity was coupled with a major investment in ensuring the health and safety of employees. The business installed thermal imaging cameras, where all manufacturing employees were scanned prior to commencing work. Split and staggered shifts ensured social distancing was adhered to, increased lunch/tea break rooms were introduced to ensure social distancing and further PPE clothing was introduced. Additional thorough cleaning activities also ensured all surfaces and equipment within the premises was regularly cleaned and alcohol sanitised to DHHS and Food Standards Australia requirements.

“We are a family at Bertocchi so it was essential we look after the safety and wellbeing of our staff,” said Tony. “The business implemented these measures quickly and ensured we always kept up to date with a situation that changes so rapidly.”

However, the retail demand for Bertocchi products boomed during Covid as the team maintained their product innovation and launches. With Australians cooking from home, there was increased focus on food quality and consumers seeking superior taste profiles.  The company is starting to plan its Fine Food exhibition stand and there’s no shortage of innovative new products from which to choose.

“Because Bertocchi uses traditional methods to create smallgoods, our products have a definite quality advantage,” said Tony. “During lockdowns, consumers were experimenting with various brands and found they didn’t want to compromise. If you’re going to make your bacon and egg panini at home – you might as well have the best,” he said.

The company’s long-term relationship with its retail partners have been crucial in bringing new products to market.

“We work very closely with our retail partners to develop products that delight their target consumers. Together we develop ideas, conduct focus groups and trials and bring new products to the market which is always exciting,” said Tony.

One of the more successful products during this period has been our Soppressa Salami ranges. “Customers just love our Soppressa’s and there has been a lot of growth with our Prosciuttos too,” said Tony.

If not for the manufacturing capacity limits imposed by restrictions, Bertocchi could have successfully pivoted in this challenging time and adjusted production to focus on the B2C market. “We are very much looking forward to being able to manufacture at full capacity and meet the new increased demand from Australians for Bertocchi products,” said Tony.

Fine Food 2022 will also allow Bertocchi to welcome buyers from the restaurant and hospitality industry and get together again to support each other. “It is also going to be fantastic to get back to supporting our friends in hospitality and seeing these businesses thrive again,” he said.

A large part of Bertocchi’s marketing program for 2022 is the Fine Food Show and the company’s impressive stand will be back and busy as ever next year. The company plans to connect with major partners and new customers at Fine Food to present ranges of new value-added products such as cheeses, dips, vegan-friendly jerky and antipasto type products to support the growing trend of entertainers and charcuterie lovers.

“We are really looking forward to getting back and talking to everyone again,” said Tony. “The Fine Food show certainly has the largest Australian audience and this is why we don’t invest in any other shows. It’s the biggest event we invest in and ensures we get to see all our important customers and buyers,” he said.

The post Bertocchi Prevails with Tradition, Innovation and Quality appeared first on Fine Food Australia.

And while some of those measures were temporary and worked well during lockdown conditions, others proved incredibly successful and have become lasting legacies rather than just short-term fixes.

For Victorian-based beef farmer Lizette Snaith, one of the best things to come out of the havoc created by the pandemic is that it has given her back weekends with her husband Allen.

Following 16 years of travelling to weekend farmers’ markets around her local region near Clonbinane, Snaith has cut back on the markets without cutting back on profits, after setting up an online shop.

For the Snaiths, owners of Warialda Belted Galloways – which specialises in supplying 100 per cent grass-fed, dry-aged beef to restaurants and farmers’ markets – their first move to combat the impact of COVID-19 was activating a dormant online platform they had set up a few years ago but never really embraced.

“We’d been talking about selling online for a while but hadn’t made the move, and then suddenly, within 10 days, we got ourselves set up through the Open Food Network platform,” Lizette recalls. “It was really trying to transfer what we offered at a farmers’ market face-to-face to online. We did our own deliveries and people had a choice of picking it up at a designated point in Melbourne or we’d leave it in an Esky on the front step.”

As restaurants closed and social distancing came into effect at the markets, the Snaiths, like many other businesses, saw a rapid drop in sales.

“We reduced how much we processed and our wholesale business pretty much stopped – I think we were probably down 50 per cent in sales,” says Lizette. “But it has evened out now. We’ve got more personal time, we are still doing some markets, but we now have another avenue through the online shop, and the wholesale market is coming back.”

The switch to online is permanent – and Snaith says the benefits go well beyond the balance sheet. “One of the best things to come out of this is that before we were doing eight markets a month and we are now doing four and that means we have two weekends off a month, which is amazing.”

The Snaiths’ move online echoes a trend across the country, says Paul Zahra, CEO of the Australian Retailers Association. He points to data from Australia Post, which indicates that 82 per cent of all households shopped online in 2020.

“The pandemic highlighted just how important it is for retailers to have an omnichannel strategy so they can cater for customers whichever way they interact with their business – through a mobile phone, computer or in-store,” Zahra says.

“Consumers are now expecting retailers to ‘meet them where they are’ – and the businesses that have made the investments in digital to meet the changing needs of customers are on the right path to success.”

The perfect pivot 

For online cheese seller Cheese Therapy, an idea born during the devastating bushfires on the east coast of Australia in 2019-20 came into its own again during the pandemic, resulting in a boom for small cheesemakers.

When Milawa Cheese came to Cheese Therapy owner Sam Penny with a cry for help to shift two tonnes of cheese that had been made in preparation for cellar-door sales over the Christmas period in 2019, he was quick to respond. The result was a special Milawa Cheese Box and customers already signed up for regular cheese deliveries jumped at the chance to support the business.

“To be honest, I thought we’d only sell 50 boxes,” he says. “We ended up selling 2,000 and it was purely because people want to support Australians in a time of need.”

Just months later, as the effects of the pandemic started manifesting, other cheesemakers started contacting Penny for help.

He says: “With those first lockdowns, they all had cheese they’d been making for weeks, in some cases months, and they didn’t know what they were going to do with them. And so we created something called Therapy Boxes, which include four different cheeses from four cheesemakers every month.

“It’s great because we get to spread the love and we’ve basically been able to keep the doors of 17 small cheesemakers open – on average their sales increased 30 per cent over 2019 figures.”

Cheese Therapy

Home sweet home 

Organic grocer Rhubarb Rhubarb, based at the Preston Market in Melbourne, also swiftly moved online as the pandemic caused lengthy lockdowns.

“We had recently moved into our new space at the market and things were going well,” says co-owner Sue Sheehan. “And then the lockdown came and we had to quickly adjust. We got our online shop up and running and we started home deliveries. That’s died off a bit now but we are set up to be able to deliver to customers, many of whom are immuno- compromised or with a physical disability.”

Rhubarb Rhubarb’s online presence not only catered to customer needs, it allowed the business to increase sales. The layout of the market shop met social distancing measures, and prompted Sheehan to fast-track plans to open for more hours each week.

“A big part of our adjustment was opening seven days a week so that we could give people who didn’t want to shop at busy times a quiet space,” she says. “People really appreciated that we adjusted to the situation and gave them what they wanted. Similarly, customers who didn’t want to come into the shop could order from home.

“Even though it felt quieter, people’s spends were larger. And that meant takings were up generally, even though it felt like there were less customers coming through.”

The post Pivoting: The Lasting Legacies from Lockdown  appeared first on Fine Food Australia.

So how do you choose seafood that’s sustainable for both the environment and your bottom line? And is frozen seafood the way to go?

Food writer Richard Cornish asks experts for their take on this slippery issue and discovers some of the best value seafood in Australia.

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Australians love seafood. They also love Australian seafood. But they also love the idea of doing the right thing when it comes to protecting our nation’s waterways and fish stock.

Research by the Fisheries Development and Research Corporation shows that Australian consumers have more than a passing interest in where their fish comes from and if it is sustainable. There are many ways we as an industry can engage in sustainable seafood that will also help our businesses be more economically sustainable. Going green doesn’t mean going into the red. As chefs and business owners we can make changes that look after the seas and look after our bottom line. It comes down to a few points: we can be flexible about the species we serve; we can aim to get more value from whole fish; we can be clever as chefs and make dishes that make the most of our precious seafood.

“Some of our best seafood is frozen,” says celebrity chef Peter Kuravita. From his kitchen overlooking the Pacific Ocean at Noosa Beach House in Queensland, he told Fine Food that he has no problems using frozen seafood, especially as it can cut down on food wastage at sea and on land.

Peter Kuravita – internationally renowned chef, restaurateur, television presenter and author.

“Prawns, wild caught at sea, can be quick frozen and packed withing 30 minutes of harvest,” he says. “They cook, look and taste better than ‘fresh’ prawns that may have been refrigerated for days on end.

“We have some of the best seafood in the world here in Australia. It is up to us in the hospitality industry to get our customers to engage with sustainable seafood, local seafood, seasonal seafood. We need to educate ourselves so we can educate our customers. Speak to your fishmonger, look at the information that is available and tell your customers.” Kuravita offers some great insights into using frozen seafood on this podcast.

One of the nation’s best seafood communicators is Sydney seafood guru John Susman from marketing company Fishtales. He has noticed a rise in the old-fashioned use of whole carcass seafood skills.

“We really are at the renaissance of smart seafood,” says the Sydney seafood guru. “For people working in the restaurant game, we are witnessing chefs buying whole fish from the fishmonger and making a profit from every single part of the fish.”

John Susman – seafood Guru and owner of Fishtales.

Susman points to Sydney fish chef Josh Niland’s new cookbook Take One Fish which includes dishes like tuna mayo tufu make from minced offcuts of tuna, or gravy made from fried flounder bones. One spectacular but simple dish is a soft white bread sandwich filled with a succulent coral trout fillet and its super crisp skin.

“Take salmon,” says Susman. “A whole salmon. If we want to get value for our businesses, we need to consider every part of that fish.” The glamourous centre cuts, he says, can be cooked in the pan and finished in the oven as usual. He says the belly can be sliced fine and used in stir fry, while the tail can be stuffed with herbs, trussed with string, roasted and served as a dish to share. “The head can be hot roasted and served as part of tasting menu (cheeks are delicious). We’re seeing fried wings as a bar snack.”

Susman says chefs and diners are becoming more sophisticated in their tastes, accepting more and different ways of enjoying seafood. He refers to chefs taking fish frames, roasting them, smoking them and pulverising them with salt as a seasoning. “That is a lot of value from one fish,” he says. “Sustainable also means affordable. To everyone.”

When it comes down to simple dishes like fish and chips, avoid sticking to one species. Punters love flathead, which is a moderately sustainable fish, but the price of this consumer favourite rises and falls. Buy it in when it is at the bottom of the cycle and highlight it as a special. At other times, other species from sustainable farmed barramundi or sand or school whiting caught off southeast Australia can be championed in large turnover venues. Some of these species are delivered fresh, some frozen.

Do not be caught in the vortex of media about “fresh is best”. Snap frozen seafood is of better quality than fresh fish that has been slopping about cool room for several days.

Prawns  

Extreme weather this season has knocked about the wild prawn population, so expect higher prices for wild prawns from Spencer Gulf to the Gulf of Carpentaria. Look for farmed Australian Tiger Prawns from northern New South Wales and coastal Queensland. They all have the highest rating from Best Aqua Culture Practices (BAP). Also, have a look at school prawns from regional fisheries. Fried whole they represent 100 per cent recovery and can be purchased under $15/kg.

King Trout  

In some markets, due to negative media, Tasmanian salmon has lost its allure. Consider Victorian King Trout. These rainbow trout grow to 5-7kg in fresh running water. The flesh is deep red orange, marbled with fat and super tasty with the tang of fresh water. They’re also incredibly versatile in the kitchen.

Oily Fish   

Every chef in the nation has caught on to the flavour and health properties of Spanish Mackerel, but it can be overpriced. Try its cheaper cousin, Spotted Mackerel, which cooks as well and can handle strong flavoured sauces. When it comes to tuna, Yellow Fin is well recognised, but consider using its cheaper cousin Albacore Tuna. It is a beautiful meaty fish and some fisheries are certified by the Marine Stewardship Council.

Calamari 

Calamari and its cousins like squid and cuttlefish breed rapidly and are not considered endangered. Every customer wants the soft and succulent calamari but, because of this, it has become costly. Consider the more affordable arrowhead squid and the meatier cuttlefish. All are considered sustainable, but can be a third less costly than calamari. Look to Italian and French recipes for inspiration.

White Octopus 

A new fishery for white octopus has opened in Victoria offering great value fresh octopus. Tentacles are always popular in Italian, Greek and Spanish dishes but consider the heads which are often misunderstood. Mince them for Japanese Takoyaki or stuff minced octopus into cleaned heads, season, poach, chill and slice for octopus terrine.

Mussels 

Blue mussels are an Australian native and farmed in coastal waters in southern Australia. Being filter feeders, they improve water quality in the bays and coastlines where they are farmed. They’re also versatile, delicious and excellent value for money.

Image taken at The Rocks Mornington.

Other Fish  

Thread fin salmon is a fish from Australia’s northern waters and has been described as poor man’s barramundi. It is available in 5kg frozen shatter pack boxes at prices under $10. Thaw it overnight, brine it, dry it and treat it like barramundi.

If you want to learn about sustainable seafood from the seafood industry and the seafood conservation groups head to these websites.

Journalist Richard Cornish has been writing about Australian food and drink for almost three decades, amassing a cult following for his weekly column in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. Richard has also co-authored best-selling books with MoVida’s Frank Camorra and bakery doyen Phillippa Grogan.

The post Smart Seafood appeared first on Fine Food Australia.

There was a time when beef was the king of meat, but beef consumption in Australia has dropped by 41 per cent since 2000, just behind lamb, which has plummeted by almost 50 per cent. Meanwhile, we’re eating more chicken and pork.

For butchers across the country, this changing landscape presents an opportunity to pivot, and to look at ways of staying relevant.

Alison Meagher, a qualified butcher and educator, has been travelling through China and South-East Asia for the past six years as an ambassador for the Australian meat industry and has returned home to share her insights with local butchers and chefs.

Based near Warrnambool, Victoria, she recently launched Butcher Girl, and is on a mission to help butchers understand how to grow their business, increase profits and stay viable. She’s particularly focused on the possibilities of beef, beyond the common prime cuts.

“It’s been good to come back to Australia and see what’s going on in the industry, especially the butcher shops,” Meagher says. “I’ve noticed that the price of beef is very high and the average consumer doesn’t know about cuts apart from the prime cuts. And, to be completely honest, I don’t think most of the butchers know about these either. Many of them throw most of the secondary cuts into the mincer because that’s what they’ve always done.”

By secondary cuts, Meagher is referring to those usually used in slow cooking, such as oyster blade, flank and skirt. Instead of mincing these, and other cuts that commonly end up in sausages, she believes we should be educating customers on their qualities and showing how they can be turned into many different dishes.

Explains Meagher: “I’ve said to many butchers, ‘You know, this is the skirt, the inside skirt, the outside skirt, the palm skirt’ and they just say, ‘It’s all just mince to me.’ But you look at something like an oyster blade, for example. Most people slow-cook it. But what you can do is remove that sinew in the middle and you can make flat iron steaks, which then become the second most tender muscle in the whole animal, the first being the tenderloin.

“I think butchers could benefit from knowing more about the cuts of the animal, which is only going to help their business grow.”

Top to tail meat in fashion

For butcher Grant Hilliard, using the whole animal is essential to his business Feather and Bone in Sydney’s Marrickville. He says Feather and Bone, unlike many butchers who rely exclusively or substantially on boxed meat, only buys carcass meat or meat on the bone.

“We buy directly from producers,” he says. “We don’t deal with wholesalers and we visit every farm that we source from. So it’s a very, very different way of running a butcher shop.”

Like Meagher, Hilliard promotes using the whole animal. He says: “If you’re only looking at prime cuts, you’re doing both the animal and the production process a disservice. We believe that if you’re going to eat meat then you have to account for the whole animal – so we buy the whole animal. Then we can verify that it will meet our ethical framework for livestock management and environmental management.”

Hilliard has been running Feather and Bone for 15 years and has built up a strong customer base that he says is prepared to pay more for the value of nutritionally high meat.

“We find that just because some cuts are more expensive than our customers may be used to, they may consider other cuts – so-called lesser or secondary cuts – and they will recognise the quality of the meat and that it is tremendously flavoursome and rewarding. It’s taken us a while to build that diverse audience for all the different parts of the carcass.”

Instead of promoting more meat consumption, Hilliard argues that eating less meat, but with a higher nutritional content, is part of the solution to keeping butchery viable.

“By working with farmers who are focused on soil fertility, we’re also working with produce that has as high a nutritional content as possible,” he says. “And if it’s high nutritional content, you don’t need as much of it. So we’re talking about less quantity but higher quality. I try and convince people that what they eat matters – for the environment’s health and ultimately for theirs as well.”

Hilliard is the co-author of The Ethical Omnivore, a book promoting the importance of regenerative agriculture and community, and he is passionate about helping people better understand how we can live with less impact on both animals and the environment.

“We’re very interested in the educational process that allows people to see the benefits of those things and why it might be important from a personal level, but also on a social and environmental level, too,” he adds.

The post How Butchers are Helping to Carve Up the Market appeared first on Fine Food Australia.