Reducing post harvest food waste
Food waste costs the Australian economy about $36.6 billion each year.
The WA Government is supporting Western Australian small to medium-sized food and beverage businesses quantify their food waste and investigate value add opportunities to cut costs, boost income and reduce landfill through the Post Harvest Food Waste Transformation project.
The department, in collaboration with Curtin University and End Food Waste Australia CRC, is supporting small and medium enterprises(SMEs) and collaborations of SMEs who may lack time and financial capacity to investigate food waste innovation.
A flexible research-based decision making framework, that will transform waste streams into value-add products or increase shelf-life to reduce waste, is currently being tested across five WA waste priority commodity areas that have been identifed.
Business Visits program
The department's Business Visits program provides businesses with an opportunity to discuss growth plans, challenges and support services offered by the WA and Federal Governments.
A typical business visit involves a triage ‘business health check’, which benchmarks the business against the wider industry sector.
This compliemntary service provides an opportunity
- to discuss challenges experienced by your business in your sector
- to discuss growth aspirations
- for a two-way discussion on the various support mechanisms
- to explore government support mechanisms and or other services through the Food and Beverage Professional Service Provider Directory.
Information shared during business visits is confidential and helps inform the department's policy and program decision-making, to ensure support programs match the needs of industry.
Education partnerships
We work with universities and research institutions to develop and deliver projects to assist WA food and beverage manufacturers.
These projects empower businesses with future recruitment opportunities, access to innovative ideas and, collaborative relationships with universities and research institutes - providing expertise and specialised resources to drive success.
Current partnerships:
WA Food Industry Education Collaboration
Supported by CSIRO, this collaboration provides high-quality paid internships to help WA businesses access new skills and expertise, and for tertiary STEM students to gain workplace experience and transition into STEM jobs within the WA food and beverage sector.
Under guidance from the business, and with support from CSIRO, up to 20 students will spend a minimum 200 hours each, to help solve real world technical challenges in food manufacturing, production, processing and technology areas.
Digital manufacturing on a shoestring program
This partnership with Cambridge University, working alongside North Metropolitan TAFE, Edith Cowan University and The University of Western Australia, is designed to help food and beverage manufacturing SMEs adopt affordable digital solutions.
A collaboration with Curtin University to investigate food waste innovation.
Contact us
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Food Industry Innovation