Unilever Australia has joined forces with Clean Up Australia, Cool.org and Coles to supply free Clean Up Kits and online educational resources to schools across the nation. Unilever is donating $150,000 to Clean Up Australia which is being used to update five lesson plans on Cool.org – an online platform which supports Australian teachers bring the real-world into the classroom through curriculum-aligned resources. The updated lesson plans cover key topics including how litter affects nature; what a circular economy is; the Australasian Recycling Label; and how to dispose of waste correctly ..read more

Coles says its support of FightMND’s annual Big Freeze campaign has been strengthened through new fundraising initiatives. For the first time, Coles customers can convert their Flybuys points into donations for FightMND during the Big Freeze 10 campaign concluding on 21 June, with 1000 points equating to a $5 donation for the charity. The initiative coincides with FightMND’s 10th anniversary of the Big Freeze event in June and Coles’ seventh year of fundraising for the leading motor neurone disease (MND) charity in Australia. The special 10-year anniversary Big Freeze Beanie is on sale now at ..read more

One of the world’s foremost tea-makers Dilmah is Australia-bound to reinforce a key health message: “drinking a daily cup of tea can help you live longer.” Few know the benefits of black tea as well as Dilhan Fernando, CEO of Dilmah Tea, who is visiting Australia this month. “Black tea isn’t just a beverage, it’s a shield against illness and a tonic for vitality. With its proven ability to boost immunity, a daily cup of plain Ceylon black tea can fortify your defences against the flu and common colds, helping you stay strong and resilient especially throughout winter,” Mr Fernando said. He wi ..read more

Australian retailers are coming together to tackle retail crime at the industry-wide Retail Crime Symposium in July. In an industry first collaboration, the Australian Retailers Association (ARA) and the National Retail Association (NRA) have joined forces to host the 2024 event, bringing together police, government, SDA union, Crimestoppers and retailers large and small from across the nation to tackle one of the sector’s most significant issues. The symposium will be held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Melbourne on Thursday, July 18, featuring speakers in law enforcement, loss prevention, secu ..read more

DoorDash has teamed up with Foodbank to pilot Project DASH in South Australia. Project DASH is promoted as DoorDash’s initiative to empower food banks, food pantries, and other social impact organisations to deliver food and essential items to people experiencing food insecurity. The delivery platform will collaborate with Foodbank SA and OTR across SA to gather surplus nonperishable and ambient food items such as canned vegetables, grains, pasta, and other household staples. Dashers will deliver food hampers to community members in need that may not be able to make it to Foodbank, such as se ..read more

Premium nut butter brand Fix & Fogg is “making history” as it ventures into “the final frontier” for the very first time. “Requested by astronauts on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 for their journey in outer space, the brand will embark on its “biggest and nuttiest venture to date”, fuelling the spacecraft for six months with its iconic peanut butter spread.” “This is a truly exhilarating moment for Fix & Fogg,” says Fix & Fogg Founder Roman Jewell. “To be chosen as the first New Zealand food brand to journey into space is an honour beyond words. We love to help people go places, but it’s n ..read more

Baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani has stepped up to the plate to debut in a whole new league – Aussie supermarket shelves. The Japanese star, who signed the largest contract in professional sports history with the LA Dodgers last year, has signed on as official ambassador with green tea brand Oi Ocha. Oi Ocha is the flagship green tea brand of the iconic Japanese company Ito En. “It has clocked more than 43 billion cumulative bottle sales worldwide since its launch in 1989 and accrued a slew of high-profile fans, with celebs such as Hailey Bieber and Alessandra Ambrosio snapped sipping o ..read more

A new report from the Grattan Institute has reignited calls for a sugar drinks tax to tackle obesity and diabetes. Sickly sweet: It’s time for a sugary drinks tax shows that obesity has tripled in Australia since 1980 and diabetes has nearly tripled since 2000. The report says sugary drinks are the biggest single source of sugar in our diets, and they increase people’s risk of developing both diseases. The report highlights the success of sugar taxes elsewhere in the world, where they they slash sales and get manufacturers to put less sugar in their drinks. In the UK, for example, one in thre ..read more

Grabango, a leading provider of checkout-free technology for large-scale chains, has retrofitted an existing, full-size ALDI store to enable checkout-free shopping. ALDIgo, which launched at a suburban location in the Chicago area, uses computer vision to identify and keep track of every item in the store, allowing shoppers to exit the store without waiting in line or scanning items. To use ALDIGo, customers shop as they usually would. When done, shoppers can pay with either their credit or debit card, or with the Grabango app, at the Grabango pay station near the exit. Alternatively, shopper ..read more

The plant-based meat industry in Australia is said to be steadily expanding, with significant growth in the foodservice sector. According to Food Frontier’s ‘2023 State of the Industry’ report, plant-based meat sales in Australia have increased by a total of 47% between 2020 and 2023 and per-capita consumption has increased by 28%. “Despite the economic challenges faced by plant-based meat companies here and overseas it’s evident that the industry is here to stay, and that Australia is performing better than overseas markets in the face of these pressures,” says Food Frontier CEO Dr Simon Eas ..read more