The AFCCC, in its 2023 review of the effectiveness of its operations, decided to concentrate more on making the AFCCC website Australia’s most comprehensive and coordinated resource centre for everything to do with helping industry to achieve cold chain compliance.
This included the development of new Cold Food Codes and establishing more formal relationships or alliances with all industry bodies which can contribute towards the development of codes of practice, training and education.
The considerable involvement of the AFCCC on the various Australian bodies in the fight against food wastage has been toned down in favour of the bigger compliance picture, but it doesn’t mean it has dropped the ball on the food waste campaign.
This year began with two significant commitments to food waste initiatives and each will see its newly appointed executive director, Brett Henderson and consultant director Adam Wade being appointed to the organisations mounting the programs.
The AFCCC was approached by Standards Australia to participate in meetings and to review the development of interim standards for food loss and waste. Brett Henderson will take up a seat on the Food Loss and Waste committee responsible for the interim standard.
The AFCCC team, including its chairman Mark Mitchell, will join a Supply Chain Innovation research project initiated by RMIT University, which will focus on interventions and innovation in the supply chain. Their research will cover pack house to retail stages and look at shelf-life extension, packaging, technology diffusion, data systems, and pilot/ large scale plants, all aimed at reducing food loss and waste, drive industry profitability and shrink greenhouse emissions.
The aim is to develop large-scale projects which could help businesses across Australia double their R&D cash investments or state governments being able to halve their investment whilst focusing on big-ticket items that make sense for their jurisdiction in terms of food categories and markets.
AFCCC chairman Mark Mitchell said all efforts to reduce food loss and wastage were essential to the bigger goal of industry cold chain compliance to world standards.