At St. Merkorious Charity, our mission is to provide essential support to those in need, ensuring that no one in our community goes hungry. St. Merkorious Charity has been a beacon of hope for many, offering cooked food, fresh and dry hampers, clothing and many support services to thousands of individuals and families facing hardship.    Our numbers are rising rapidly, we are currently assisting approximately 5,000 people each month, ensuring they have access to nutritious meals and essential resources. This year we celebrate our 11th year as an official charity and our new facility represents a significant milestone in our Read more...

Pesticon 2024 took place from August 14th to 16th at The Star, Gold Coast, QLD, Australia. Juliana Elliott, our Technical Manager, attended and found the conference to be an exceptional platform for networking within the pest industry. It provided her with a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with some of our certified clients, meet new industry professionals, and explore emerging trends in pest management. During the conference, Juliana delivered a presentation titled "Food Industry Requirements: Good, Better, Best!" She remarked, "It was a privilege to speak at Pesticon this year about top-notch pest servicing for the food industry and to discuss Read more...

The Allergen Bureau’s VITAL® (Voluntary Incidental Trace Allergen Labelling) Program is a standardised allergen risk assessment process for the food industry. The system is used by HACCP Australia consultants to assist our clients meet the requirements of compliant allergen labelling. Carrying out a VITAL risk assessment using the VITAL tools – including VITAL Online – assists a food company to thoroughly review the allergen status of all the ingredients and the processing conditions that contribute towards the allergen status of the finished product. The VITAL Program produces a ‘labelling outcome’ that summarises the food allergens present in a food due to Read more...

By Karen Constable and Juliana Elliott – HACCP International Hand hygiene is an area which has received a lot of attention lately, both in the health care industry and in the food industry.  As a result, there’s plenty of new research and new technologies around the topic of hand hygiene.  Here, we take a look at some old ideas and some new ideas. Old idea:  Washing hands is all about killing bacteria. New idea:  Removing viruses from hands – particularly noroviruses – is an equally important, if not more important, reason to strive for clean hands. In recent years, norovirus Read more...

PLUG IN Pest Free have been the leader in electromagnetic pest control technology for years. Launching in 1995 from its headquarters in Australia, PLUG IN Pest Free quickly gained recognition as a household name in the domestic market as it expanded globally. In 1996 the Pest Free Commercial Pest Management System (certified by HACCP International for the Australasia and Asia licence regions) was launched and caught the attention of various industries who strive for a more safe, convenient, humane, and proven way to control and combat rodent infestations. Industries include hospitality, food processing and restaurants, hospitals and aged care, Read more...