Food Quality & Safety

The Agribusiness Group serves large and vital sectors of the Australian economy including the agri-food industry and the human health sector.

CSIRO is improving Australia’s food production and farming systems to ensure food and fibre are delivered to Australians on a sustainable basis.

New food processing technologies and how they can be used to develop a more sustainable, secure, safe and profitable food industry will be discussed in Brisbane from 17-18 September during the 4th Innovative Foods Centre Conference – FIESTA2008.

Food manufacturers will soon have access to a new CSIRO-bred barley variety which has significant human health benefits.

To celebrate National Science Week 2008 CSIRO brings together boffins from Canberra's major academic and research organisations.

Australasia’s major livestock industries’ science and agribusiness conference – Horizons in Livestock Sciences – will be held in Christchurch, New Zealand, from 28-30 October 2008.

CSIRO is researching insect control and quality preservation of grain and stored durable products.

By developing food materials science and food design technologies, Australia is staying at the forefront of new product and ingredient development to deliver foods with added health and processing benefits.

CSIRO has one of the world’s biggest groups of superconductivity scientists working on detectors for applications in geophysics, physical security, food safety and oceanography and in the frontier science of quantum engineering.

The tropics are home to most of the world's rainforests and coral reefs, plus around half of the world’s population, but tropical nations produce only 20% of Gross World Product. This makes sustainable management of tropical landscapes a pressing research challenge.

Light-induced damage is a significant problem for food and beverage products packaged in glass bottles. Using nanotechnology CSIRO has produced a solution, explained in this video. (1:00)

The recent debate about soy products is discussed by Dr Peter Clifton from CSIRO's Human Nutrition in this podcast. (7:00)

Research at Food Science Australia’s Cannon Hill site is focussed on the development of muscle foods.

Mr Peter Allingham leads a project on growth history and sire-based effects on muscle structure and meat eating quality.

This article from Farming Ahead describes how researchers have closely monitoring contamination levels of raw cotton and stress that stakeholders must remain vigilant if Australia is to maintain its international standing as a high-quality producer. (3 pages)

This fact sheet outlines biosecurity research by CSIRO, which is helping to manage the increasing threat and damage from invasive alien species that come with globalisation. (2 pages)

Foodborne illness can be greatly reduced by correct handling, storage and cooking of food. By keeping food outside the danger zone temperatures, growth of food poisoning bacteria can be halted.

The Australian grain industry continues to rely heavily on the use of phosphine for effective insect control.