A food technology course will show you how to plan and manage food processing on or off-farm to produce marketable food products.

Transforming agricultural products into edible form is at the heart of food processing and technology. So, if you’ve ever thought about becoming a food technologist or designing your own food product, this course is ideal for you.

Certificate of Food Processing & Technology is an online professional development program that will provide you with the skills and knowledge required to design a food product from concept to deployment.

In this food technology course, you will also learn how to plan, manage, and maintain a garden, including organising staff, equipment requirements, weed control, turf management and irrigation systems planning.

Learning Outcomes

Outcomes achieved by undertaking a food technology course include:

• Learn how sensory analysis, food trends, and D values affect the development of a new food product.
• Understand the five stages of food product creation and how they impact marketing efforts
• Explore policy, legalities, and the importance of health claims, warnings, and advisory statements
• Apply your knowledge as you design your food product with our problem-based learning project
• Understand where food comes from.
• Spoilage and the effect of microbes on food.
• Basics of preserving food.
• Meaning of nutrition density and essential nutrients.
• The role nutrition has in the development of a new food product.
• The meaning of processed foods.
• Types of preservatives and their role.
• The use of common food additives.
• Different ways to process food using heat.
• Different types of health claims and their purpose.
• Warning and advisory statements and their purpose.
• Effect of health and other claims on the development and marketing of food products.
• How concepts are determined in conjunction with consumer needs, wants, and trends.
• The process of developing a new food product from concept to end-product.
• The options in packaging materials and the decisions affecting packaging on a food and chemical level.
• The importance of labelling, including nutrition labels, warning statements, and allergen statements.
• The importance of storage in the success of a food product.
• The legal, policymaking and management considerations that impact food processing.

And more! 

 

8 Innovative Australian Food Products

As well as investment in a food technology course, a little inspiration goes a long way when you want to get a new food product off the ground! Look no further than these refreshing Australian products.

1.    Bondi ChaiLatte 

Bondi Chai is 100% Australian-owned and manufactured with 95% of the ingredients home-grown! The popular drink is fat-free, low in caffeine and made without gluten, anti-caking agents, preservatives, emulsifiers, colours or trans-fats. Bondi Chai is also certified to be served to school children and in aged care facilities. 

2.    MOJOTonic 

Co-founders Anthony and Sarah Crabb started MOJO, a kombucha beverage business, in 2009 selling at local farmers’ markets. Just nine years later, they sold the company to Coca Cola! MOJO has naturally occurred live cultures that are activated with a billion colony forming units of probiotics. 

3.    Spring & GroveSpring Water

Karen started Spring & Grove when she noticed a gap in the market for healthy drinks for kids. As a mother herself, she was always on the lookout for healthier alternatives. Spring and Grove contain the purest water from Australian underground springs. It’s also flavoured with essences and oils from real fruit, making the water fun without the sugar!

4.    My MuscleChef 

Since 2013, My Muscle Chef has been creating fresh, high-protein meals for Australians. The company was started by two brothers living in Sydney who wanted to power their workouts with nutrition. The ready-meal business now delivers over 1.6 million meals every month to over 4.500 suburbs across Australia. 

5.    Meluka RawHoney Probiotic 

This product is gaining traction, a 100% natural, organic raw honey drink with six multi-strain probiotics! This power-packed concentrate contains single-origin honey traceable back to a master beekeeper in the pristine Australian Bungawalbin Valley. 

6.    Mt ElephantHemp Bars

At the foot of Mt Elephant in Victoria, Australia, two farmers had the vision to bring the health benefits of hemp to the masses. And so, Mt Elephant Hemp Bars was born. The company now creates snacks, milks, oils, and spices, all with high-quality hemp – a superfood. Mt Elephant products are now stocked in hundreds of places throughout Australia.

7.    Shine +

Australian serial entrepreneur Dr Sam Prince and former PwC accountant Stephen Chapman created Australia’s first Nootropic drink in 2015. The drink helps people feel better, think better and do better – according to the founders and those loyal to the brand.

8.    ZeroBottle – Great Northern Brewing

Non-alcoholic beverages are gaining traction with those who want to socialise with a cold beer without compromising health. Great Northern Brewing has created a recipe that has gone through removing alcohol without compromising the crisp taste. 

 

Growing Trends in Food & Beverage 

There are many emerging trends in consumer preference for foods and beverages. Discover insight into what types of food and beverages meet growing consumer trends with a food technology course!

Storytelling & Transparency 

Enter the latest trend in marketing – storytelling! Having nutritionally dense and tasty products is no longer enough for a market that craves an experience. Businesses are increasingly telling their ‘stories’ to win the hearts and minds of their customers. It is crucial to connect with people through shared values, motivations and aspirations, driving purchase, loyalty, and advocacy.

Transparency is equally important to savvy consumers who want to know that a company will deal with sensitive issues proactively and sincerely. Increasingly, partly due to social media and the ability to publish at the micro-level, companies are levelling with their customers about where their food comes from and how it’s produced. 

Plant-Based Products 

Australia is projected to continue to be the third fasted growing vegan market in the world! As this trend increases demand for plant-based foods, the vegan food market is predicted to grow from $150 million today to almost $3 billion by 2030

Millions of Australians are eating less meat. 1 in 3 Australians consciously limit their meat consumption, and 10 per cent are entirely meat-free. Further, 6 in 10 Aussies have tried or are interested in trying new plant-based meat products. 

A number of studies by peak health bodies, including the World Health Organisation, EAT-Lancet Commission and others, recommend eating less meat for better health and reducing the incidence of chronic disease. It seems Australians are getting the message as health is the number one reason that Aussies are choosing to eat less meat. The other top reasons for reducing meat consumption are the environment, animal welfare, cost and the increasing variety of plant-based options available. 

Immune-Boosting Ingredients

Exposure to COVID-19 has further increased the demand for immune-boosting foods and beverages, with immunity being top-of-mind for consumers. This desire to enhance health and wellness through foods and beverages provides new opportunities for nutrient-dense products with functional health benefits, especially those aimed at supporting the immune system.

Mood Based Products 

The newly emerging mood-food trend is partly due to lockdown, uncertainty and economic downturns impacting Australia’s mental health. According to Roy Morgan, 40.5% of Australians reported experiences mental health issues this year. Naturally, this is spiking interest in foods designed to lift state-of-mind. 

If you are planning to go to market with a mood-boosting product, New Nutrition Business recommends: 

1. Using a known and an emerging ingredient to provide reassurance and interest. 
2. Delivering a ‘feel the benefit’ difference. 
3. Promoting the emerging gut-brain axis – a growing body of research links gut health and brain and mental wellbeing benefits. 

Going Alcohol-Free 

A new sober-curious generation is embracing mindful drinking and non-alcoholic beverages. The global drinks market analysis from IWSR found that low and no-alcohol products in Australia grew by 2.9% in 2021, with alcohol sales declining by 1.4%. The prediction forecast is 16% growth by 2024, making low alcohol and non-alcoholic products one of the fastest-growing segments in the market! 

Organic 

Half of Australians say the motivation for buying organic is for personal health. 70% of Australians buy some form of organic food, contributing to the country’s strong industry worth $2.6 billion. However, the substantial price difference between organic and non-organic is the main barrier to uptake.

The Australian organic industry contributes over $2 billion annually to the national economy and grows year on year. The organic market segment is delivering 7.9% market growth per annum had has reached 62 international markets. 

Australians are buying more organic products than ever: 

• 80 out of 100 shoppers have purchased an organic product in the past 12 months, that’s around 9 million Australian households
• 13% of households spend 50% or more of their food budget on organics
• 37% of organic shoppers increased their household food allocation to organic
• More than half of organic shoppers check for certification marks on their organic purchases.
• 39% of shoppers say they would avoid purchasing an organic product if it did not display a certification mark
• 62% of shoppers recognised the Australian Certified Organic Bud trademark logo

*Reeves, M. (2020), IBISWorld Organic Farming in Australia.

 

Gain the skills and knowledge to create your own food or beverage products, start your own business or gain food tech skills with a food technology course such as our Certificate of Food Processing & Technology.