The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Seafood Federation is a newly formed federation of seafood producers, processors and exporters from ASEAN countries. The Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI) has been extended an invitation to join the group. According to SEAI President Mr. Anwar Hashim, We are definitely interested in joining the group since it will give us access to better technology, food safety assurance, logistics and marketing. And when India and China join the group, it could become quite a powerful force accounting for 70-75 per cent of global seafood production. Though the ASEAN Seafood Federation was formed mainly as a private producers and processors group, this body has the blessings of the ASEAN Secretariat. The founding members and signatories of this entity include the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Viet Nam.
Source: www.fnbnews.com

The European Commission (EC) recently decided to allow an additional 30 Vietnamese seafood processing businesses to export their products to the European Union (EU). According to Viet Nams National Agriculture and Fisheries Quality Assurance Directorate, four new businesses will be allowed to sell seafood in Japan. The Republic of Korea and China have agreed to grant licences to four more Vietnamese businesses. This initiative by EC raises the total number of Vietnamese businesses exporting seafood to EU to 330. Japan has opened its door to almost 450 seafood producers while China allows products from over 400 enterprises, Brazil permits 60 and Russia allows 30.
Source: english.vietnamnet.vn

Chinas Ministry of Commerce will provide training on the quality and safety standards for key export markets in an effort to ensure the safety of its food exports. Assistant Minister of Commerce Mr. Lu Jianhua said the Ministry would further improve service for food exports, watch for changes in key export markets and provide risk alerts as needed. The Ministry is supporting industry associations to compile handbooks for key export destinations, and will continue to organize overseas exhibitions for qualified food and drug exporters. To strengthen food and drug exporters self-discipline, it is formulating blacklists of offenders and setting up an industry credit system. The Ministry is also working with other government agencies to set up a system to trace the exported products, help enterprises recall unsafe food items and compensate for any losses.
Source: www.china.org.cn

In Australia, fruit juices developed with the assistance of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) have won the prestigious Beverage Innovation Award in Germany. Preshafood Ltd., formerly Donny Boy Fresh Food Co., won the first prize in the Best new juice or juice drink category and the overall prize for Best new concept across all 24 categories. The firm was also a finalist in the Best newcomer brand or business category. The fruit juices were produced using high-pressure processing technology wherein pressures about 6,000 times the average air pressure at sea level are applied to pasteurize food products. Contact: Mr. Lloyd Simons/Ms. Pamela Tyers, CSIRO Food and Nutritional Sciences, Locked Bag 10, Clayton South, Victoria, VIC 3169, Australia. Tel: +61 (3) 9731 3311/9731 3484/9731 3200; Fax: +61 (3) 9742 0201/9731 3201; E-mails: Lloyd.simons@csiro.au/Pamela. tyers@csiro.au.
Source: www.csiro.au

The National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI), India, has developed extruded milk solids and sorghum-based products that can add value to snack foods. The process may inactivate anti-nutritional factors that may be present and largely destroys micro-organisms, thereby extending the product shelf-life. Sorghum can be used effectively in milk solids to make extruded breakfast food. Sorghum extrusion products have not yet been produced on a commercial scale. Hence, NDRI scientists studied sorghum-based extruded breakfast foods, especially with high shelf-life.

Popped sorghum or roasted sorghum were blended with skimmed and whole milk powders (SMP/WMP) at 20, 30 and 40 per cent, and sugar at 8 per cent was added in all the trials. Temperature of extrusion was kept constant at 120C. Formulation with roasted sorghum has SMP-sugar in 10:6.1 ratio scored higher than the other formulations, in terms of appearance and overall acceptability. The composition of the breakfast foods is as follows: 4.5 per cent moisture, 17.96 per cent protein, 1.5 per cent fat, 2.48 per cent ash, 2.6 per cent fibre and the total carbohydrate by difference was 71.25 per cent. Results of storage studies showed that the product in aluminium and HDPE rigid containers and multi-layered flexible pouches stored well up to eight months without significant changes in sensory characteristics. NDRI is scouting for potential industry partners for technology transfer.
Source: www.fnbnews.com

The Government of Viet Nam has drafted new procedures that will allow the origins of seafood to be traced through the entire cycle from farms to export firms. Initially, shrimps and tra catfish in the Mekong Delta will be traced. Mr. Tran Bich Nga, Deputy Head of the National Quality Control of Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery, stated that importers had urged the government to apply international tracing standards to check products thoroughly and professionally. With processors, purchase agents, farmers and breeders asked to clearly record origins and addresses, poor quality products can be withdrawn, allowing seafood quality to be improved. According to an official from the Viet Nam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers, with Viet Nam exporting seafood to 145 nations and territories, having procedures in place to trace the products would enable Viet Nam to build global brands.
Source: www.saigon-gpdaily.com.vn

In China, the State Food and Drug Administration has launched a food safety reporting system and offered it for public consultation. The new system is designed to ensure food safety accidents or potential food safety accidents at the regional level are reported swiftly and accurately. Any food-related accident that involves more than 30 people must be reported to the local food administration department within 6 hours. Accidents involving more than 100 people or cause more than one death and those that occur in schools or during national events will have to be reported to the local health department and the food and drug administration of a higher level within 6 hours. They must also be reported to the State Food and Drug Administration. Regional (above county level) food and drug administrations have been empowered to look into food service providers who are obliged to provide food samples and information. They will be allowed to take some provisional measures including, but not limited to, isolating the food and materials that may be related to the incident, sealing contaminated tools and disclosing information about the accident. The rules require food service providers to report any food related accidents within 2 hours to the local supervision departments and to take effective measures to coordinate the investigation of the accidents.

Earlier last year, China had announced plans to launch a food safety commission to oversee the nations entire food monitoring system. The new commission is expected to focus on the nations macro food safety strategies and the division of responsibilities in times of emergency. It will not have any representatives from the food industry. Technical support for the organization is expected to come from three existing organizations State Food Safety Science and Technology Commission, State Food Safety Risk Assessment Commission, and State Food Safety Standard Commission.
Source: www.ap-foodtechnology.com

In the Republic of Korea, several leading food companies are hoping to take full advantage of the governments move to reduce the price of rice used in processed food and liquor by whipping up new products featuring the nations dietary staple. Top food maker CJ Cheiljedang launched three new instant rice products for its frozen line CJ Pressian, including chicken breast fried rice and shrimp fried rice. The company also plans to launch rice cereal bars and fermented rice beverages. CJ Cheiljedang was the first company to launch an instant rice product (called Hetbahn) in 1996. The firm buys roughly 7,500 tonnes of rice directly from local rice farms.

In the face of declining rice consumption in the country, the government had announced that it would lower the price of rice utilized in processed food by 30 per cent as part of a broader move to increase consumption. Some estimates peg the price of local rice at around three times that of the imported variety. Nongshim, the leading local ramen manufacturer and an active player in the instant rice market, purchased 2,500 tonnes of rice from local farms last year and some of its most popular products are rice ramen and rice chips. Kooksoondang, a maker of traditional alcoholic beverages including makgeolli (Korean rice wine) said it is planning to increase rice purchases to 300 tonnes annually compared with the current 200 tonnes.
Source: joongangdaily.joins.com

Navsari Agriculture University (NAU), India, has successfully converted unusable portions of the banana plant into useful products (including an edible candy with nutritional values) under a project entitled A Value Chain on Utilization of Banana Pseudostem for Fibre and Other Value-Added Products. NAU professors developed an edible candy with high fibre and nutritional content using the central core of the pseudo stem. The other products include fibre for the textile and paper industries and organic liquid fertilizer. The project goal focused on efficient use of every part of the banana tree.
Source: www.thehindubusinessline.com

Vissan, Viet Nam, has unveiled plans to build the nations largest food processing complex at a cost of 700 billion dong (US$39 million) on a 22.4 ha site in Long An province. The complex will include a slaughterhouse, a food processing system, freezer units and waste treatment facilities. Key products include Chinese sausage (with production estimated at 1,200 tonnes/year) and tinned food (total 2,500 tonnes together with hot dogs and pork pies). Construction is slated to commence at the end of 2010 with an operational deadline set for late 2012. According to Mr. Bui Duy Duc, Director-General of Vissan, the company will arrange to take care of ISO, HACCP and other standards of hygiene food safety.
Source: www.ap-foodtechnology.com

Pakistans Prime Minister Mr. Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani has announced that a joint commission comprising representatives from the centre and provinces would be set up to revolutionize agro-industrial activities in the nation. After inaugurating the Agro Food Processing Facilities (AFP) project at Industrial Estate Area Multan, Mr. Gilani also announced to establish an agro-based industrial park in Multan. Mr. Gilani said that AFP Multan is a good example of cooperation between the central and state governments for the benefit of the people. If this initiative proves a success, the government will replicate it in other parts of the country, he said. The modern food processing plant is the only facility in the country set up by the joint contributions of the central and state governments on the basis of public-private partnership. The plant has the capacity to process 10 tonnes/hour of mango and 5 tonnes/hour of guava, strawberry and apple. Vegetables like tomato and carrot can also be processed at the rate of 5 tonnes/hour.
Source: www.app.com.pk

In India, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has decided to retain 100 per cent reservation for jute bags for packaging sugar and food grains by government procuring agencies. The continuation of 100 per cent reservation under the Jute Packaging Materials Act (JPMA) of 1987 has put to rest all speculation of a possible 25 per cent dilution suggested by the Centres Standing Advisory Committee. The dilution proposal had led to an unprecedented situation resulting in a progressive decline in prices of raw jute and jute products. The Indian Jute Mills Association, the apex body of the jute industry in the country, had strongly objected to the dilution proposal keeping in view the interests of more than 4 million jute cultivators and 2.5 million jute workers across the country.
Source: www.business-standard.com