Please activate JavaScript!
Please install Adobe Flash Player, click here for download
ePaper created 2016-03-08, 15:44:18 | version 1.34.01
4 | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016 | FOOD & BEVERAGE REPORTER www.fbreporter.com 6 SAFETY OSCARS FOR AIR PRODUCTS SA Air Products South Africa has notched up yet another clutch of “Noscars” for its innovative, sustainable health and safety programme at six sites – Cape Town, PE, Witbank, Springs, Empangeni and Newcastle. The awards were made at the recent NOSHCON 2015, Africa’s premier annual occupational risk management conference and exhibition, held in the Drakensberg. A Noscar is the highest accolade awarded by risk management specialists NOSA. Criteria include exceptional performance in managing occupational health and safety for three consecutive years. The gas industry can be a potentially hazardous working environment. As a result, Air Products SA’s risk- based health and safety management system is highly comprehensive, and takes into consideration both local and global elements, says Sue Janse van Vuuren, the company’s Corporate Risk Manager. “In South Africa our health and safety management system is designed to ensure compliance with the global Air Products systems, as well as local legislation. In addition, we use the NOSA Integrated 5 Star as our benchmark.” Air Products SA won its first Noscar in 2003, and since then has been awarded approximately 47 Noscars. Air Products Empangeni was also the National Sector Winner at NOSHCON 2015. SHOPPERS RUN SCARED Christmas shoppers in Britain shunned bacon and sausages in the aftermath of the recent World Health Organisation (WHO) report linking processed meats to cancer. According to research group IRI, sales of bacon, sausages and gammon were down 13% year-on-year. WHO claimed 50g of processed meat a day – less than one sausage – increased the risk of bowel cancer by almost 20%, and the report led to sensationalist headlines putting bacon and sausages alongside tobacco, arsenic and asbestos in the cancer-causing stakes. Nutritional experts have since declared processed meat is fine in moderation, and WHO backtracked after outrage from farmers, but, says IRI, it did not stop shoppers from slashing their purchases of these products. IRON WITHOUT THAT YUKKY TASTE Vegan and vegetarian diets are often criticised because they can be nutritionally deficient - especially in iron. But iron fortification has always been a challenge for food and beverage companies as traditional iron supplements have a strong metallic taste and powerful oxidative properties — both undesirable for foods. They also are hard to digest, and sometimes cause nausea, constipation, gastric distress and headaches. Now Frutarom Health BU offers a new approach to tackle iron deficiency. It is AB-Fortis, a patented encapsulated iron salt, described as a “clean label, GMO- free, all-natural ingredient” with a high iron content (40%) that can be formulated into a full range of food and beverage applications. AB-Fortis overcomes the taste and digestibility problems by providing stable encapsulation with minimal release of free iron into the food matrix. AB-Fortis is produced by AB-Biotics Co SA, Spain, and is marketed exclusively by Frutarom BU Health, Switzerland. www.frutaromhealth.com Sue Janse van Vuuren … using Nosa 5 Star benchmark BRIEFS