The challenge of reducing food waste and the related costs will be tackled at the Bringing Your Business Idea to Life expo in Victoria.
Food technologist and UK academic Dr Ajay Shah will present new solutions to reducing the massive cost of wasted resources, which amounts to $8 billion worth of food every year.
In NSW, the average household throws out $1036 of edible food every year, according to state government research, while in 2012 a Victorian government report estimated that people threw away $2,000 worth of food each year.
“This equates to 20 per cent – one out of five bags – of groceries bought. Further, up to 40 per cent of the household bin is comprised of food,” Dr Shah said.
“What we propose in the mix of solutions is the need to address aspects such as food safety and packaging; for instance, modifying the gases used inside the packaging but not changing the food.”
Now in its second year, Bringing Your Business Idea to Life – The Expo in Moorabbin, southeast Melbourne, helps business builders to energise their enterprise and is a designated ‘featured event’ of the Small Business Festival Victoria.
Organiser Jane Del Rosso said the expo was designed to support emerging food and non-food businesses by facilitating and providing essential expert knowledge and advice from successful businesses that had a great deal of experience to share.
“The topic of food safety and longer shelf life is certainly one of the more critical challenges facing new and emerging enterprises, not just the business fundamentals such as cash flow, licencing or regulatory matters,” Del Rosso said.
“If we can help today’s entrepreneurs to tackle some of the bigger issues such as food safety, safe packaging and product longevity, then they stand a greater chance themselves of staying in business longer. Food and hospitality businesses are notorious for being challenging to set up and sustain.”
The Bringing Your Business Idea to Life expo will be held 19 August at Kingston City Hall, 985 Nepean Hwy Moorabbin.