Unilever Food Solutions has secured the prize of a lifetime for the winner of the Junior category of their annual Chef of the Year competition – a trip to Nice on the Côte d’Azur in France, to apprentice with Chef Jan Hendrik in his Michelin-star restaurant – in addition to a R10 000 cash prize.

Flexible PVC strip curtains from door and loading dock specialist, Maxiflex, are economical, practical, efficient, versatile and cost-effective partition solutions. The strip curtains present a flexible barrier across internal and external apertures providing seamless traffic flow, protecting goods and personnel, reducing energy costs and creating a safe, comfortable and more productive work environment.

The 25th annual Championship Boerewors competition is heating up. The top three finalists in the 2017 Championship Boerewors competition, Queen Mathebule (from Malamulele, Limpopo), James Lebepe (from Atteridgeville, Gauteng) and Moses Mathebule (from Lenyenye, Limpopo) are ready to put their boerewors recipe to the public taste test.

Image credit: Alon Skuy via Times Live

Butchers and suppliers in the meat industry will be interested to note a new trend reported in Bizcommunity.com: “People are deserting retail stores’ butchery aisles, cutting out the middleman and turning to buying meat in bulk. Seemingly, it is proving to be a great saving.”

Read what consumers are saying about the cost of meat and how they are tackling this challenge. It is likely to have a significant impact on meat suppliers and retailers.

From left to right: Tafadzwa, Veli, Maxwell Tshuma from IMQAS – training coordinator, Progress

Three of the Chalmar Beef’s employees were enrolled in the Junior Meat Examiners course with the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) in May. The training will run for 12 months and will be followed by an internal graduation ceremony.

In June, an outbreak of the highly pathogenic Avian influenza H5N8 was confirmed in SA, after it had already wreaked havoc in the poultry industry in Zimbabwe. It has also been reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. According to the FAO, South Africa has so far culled over 800 000 birds, while Zimbabwe puts the figure at approximately 215 000 birds. In these two countries, the disease has mainly been identified on large commercial farms, where systems to monitor outbreaks are readily in place compared to smallholder and backyard producers.

The Competition Commission launched an investigation into the alleged fixing of prices and trading conditions in the meat industry by conducting simultaneous search and seizure operations at 13 premises belonging to seven meat suppliers in three provinces in June. The meat suppliers as well as the Red Meat Producers Organisation (RPO) has confirmed that they are cooperating with the investigation.

In most cases, shrinkage stems from inefficient stock and margin control. Spinnaker Software has developed various features in its Arch Retail System to help prevent shrinkage, and to maximise profits in butchery operations. Some of the most common reasons for shrinkage are:

Not that any South African needs an excuse to have a braai; but what better day to get those coals lit than on National Braai Day? It’s coming up on the on the 24th of September, and GLAD will help the day to run smoothly with a few handy hints.