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The Australian food industry
Australian native food industry
In the core strand, The Australian Food Industry, you learn about sectors of the Australian food industry and you learn to investigate recent developments in one specific sector.
It is only since the 1980s that native or bush foods have been harvested for commercial use. Their unique flavours are providing chefs, food technologists and the general public with opportunities to create new and exciting dishes and products. The Australian Native Food Industry web site was launched in 2002 and provides an excellent resource for any one interested in investigating this industry. The information presented in this tutorial also has relevance for the core strand, Food product development and the option strand, Contemporary food issues: Marketplace.
Outcomes
This material addresses aspects of the following syllabus outcomes:
| H1.2 | A student examines the nature and extent of the Australian food industry. |
| H3.1 | A student investigates operations of one organisation within the Australian food industry. |
Extract from Stage 6 Food Technology Syllabus © Board of Studies NSW 1999.
Industry profile
While hundreds of native plants have been used by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders for thousands of years, it has only been in recent years that they have been used commercially.
In general, native plants with the greatest potential for food use and cultivation are likely to possess the following core characteristics:
- They have a good and novel flavour.
- They are easy to harvest, handle, transport and store, or at least not present any major difficulties in these areas.
- They are easy to process.
- They have an existing, or likely potential, market demand.
- They are relatively easy to propagate.
- Their likely agronomy
is reasonably well understood, and does not appear to pose any
major obstacles to successful cultivation.
Extract from Australian Native food Industry, 6.12.02.
The most common native plants to be harvested are:
- acacias
- bush tomatoes
- citrus
- Davidson plums
- Illawarra plums
- lemon aspen
- lemon myrtle
- mountain pepper
- muntries
- quandong
- riberries.
Extract from Australian Native food Industry, 6.12.02.
Vic Cherikoff Food Services
Vic Cherikoff is a leader
in the interest in native foods. The web site of his company Vic
Cherikoff Food Services 
provides lots of information about how to use native foods. Select
the Chefs button for some interesting advice about promoting
native foods and improving restaurant business. Select articles
for information about the functionality of native Australian
ingredients, such as the protective role against diabetes of
wattle seeds. Or, take a look at menu ideas or flavours.
This web site would be very useful for a food product development activity or to examine trends in the marketplace.
Two other web sites which may be useful are:
Dining down under
http://www.dining-downunder.com
Activity
Completing the following chart may help you to build a picture of the native foods industry.
| Name of food | Where it is found | Flavour and usage | Retail products and cost |
|---|---|---|---|
|