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Meat processing Award up for grabs

Australian meat processors should encourage their staff to enter the Barry Johnson – Cryovac Young Achievers Award 2007, a $12,500 study and travel grant enabling people working in the red-meat processing industry aged 18 to 39 to advance their technical knowledge and learn at first hand global developments in the packaging arena.

Entries for 2007 close August 3, 2007.

Established in 2001 by Cryovac Australia to recognise the achievements of Barry Johnson in his 40-year career in the local meat industry, the Award supports aspiring achievers in the meat processing and retail industries to develop their career through investigations into the packaging of fresh, frozen and processed meat products, enabling them to make ongoing contributions to meat packaging technology in Australia.

Last year’s grant winner, Michael Connors from Cargill Beef in Tamworth, NSW, recently returned from a one-month study tour to China, which allowed him to expand his knowledge of the meat industry beyond the Australian market.

“To now understand how other cultures use and distribute meat products allows me to utilise this knowledge in a production sense in Australia,” Connors said.

“The real benefit was an appreciation of how different Chinese processing techniques are (to Australian). There is an enormous gap in consumer education about the quality of chilled beef as the Chinese culture has always had fresh product.”

Connors said he envisions there will be future market opportunities for chilled beef products in China.

Given Cargill Beef has customers in China and Hong Kong, the study tour provided significant benefits to Connors’ employer.

Entries for 2007 close August 3, 2007.

For more information on the Awards visit the Sealed Air website or contact Les Muscat for application details.

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