News on Energy and Environment from Oceania

Australia faces a potato shortage after its toughest season in a decade. Extreme weather in South Australia, the nation’s main potato region, cut yields, causing supermarket shortages. Mitolo Family Farms cites heat, cold, and drought as main factors.

The recent study by McCain on potato production in New Zealand, following a regenerative agriculture approach, presents promising results for the future implementation of these practices.

Scientists have developed a more planet-friendly way to produce fertilizer, which is an essential component of global food systems.

Timaru’s McCain vegetable processing factory in New Zealand is now producing french fries using a boiler system powered by woodchips instead of coal, seeking to minimise waste by 20 per cent.

Snack brand Pringles has had a change to the packaging of its 53g varieties, with the plastic cap removed and replaced with a foil laminate seal, made by Sonoco.

A NZD 5.6 million (about USD 3.5 million) project to eliminate CO2 emissions and reduce demand for heating fuel at McCain’s Timaru factory will soon use woodchips to make their frozen french fries.

McCain Foods has installed proprietary world-leading technology in the form of a Pulsed Electric Field (PEF) generator, as part of the company’s latest upgrade to its Smithton plant in Tasmania.

McCain Foods Timaru potato processing plant is reducing its energy usage environmental impact, now looking to electrification, by installing Pulsed Electric Field (PEF) technology, a first in New Zealand.

In the race to decarbonise the economy, industrial processing is a tough nut to crack given the amount of heat needed to process goods.

Tasmanian potato growers, who produce the bulk of Australia’s French fries, are having a disastrous harvest. Months of wet weather is making it impossible to get onto paddocks in parts of the state.

Four of the largest potato producers in Australia want to convert 100% of their potato waste into commercial benefit through their partnership with the Fight Food Waste Cooperative Research Centre (CRC).

Nadia & Alf Taylor, co-founders of tna, a leading food processing and packaging solutions provider located in Sydney, Australia, were presented with insignias commemorating their appointment as Members (AM) of the Order of Australia.

New Zealand supermarket chain Countdown says its biggest selling potatoes are white washed potatoes. Customers also prefer that their potatoes are locally grown

Researchers from Australia, Germany, Switzerland and the US have quantified the effect of climate extremes, such as droughts or heatwaves, on the yield variability of staple crops around the world.

In an effort to combat food waste, Potatoes South Australia has teamed up with the University of Adelaide and Adelaide Hills Distillery to make vodka from potato skins.

tna ha presentado el nuevo diseño del ventilador de congelador de bajo consumo para su Ferguson ener-freeze® FFV 3 y así reducir los costos energéticos en más del 30 %.

Processing and Packaging Equipment manufacturer tna has introduced a new energy-efficient fan design for its Ferguson ener-freeze® FFV 3 to reduce energy consumption by more than 30%

Management at one of McCain Foods’ processing plants in Timaru, New Zealand, has found over 100 opportunities for improvement in its logistics following a two day “energy blitz” from employees.