Published on the 15th June 2023 by ANSTO Staff
ANSTO’s food provenance project continues to have broad support from industry and the interest of the Australian Government.
ANSTO welcomed Senator the Honourable Tim Ayres Assistant Minister for Manufacturing and Trade for a briefing on the seafood provenance project at ANSTO last month.
Project Lead Dr Debashish Mazumder said representatives from partner organisations Sydney Fish Market, University of New South Wales, DPI Fisheries, New South Wales and the National Measurement Institute (NMI) were part of the official delegation that comprised a two-hour session.
Minister Ayres explained Country of Origin Labelling from a Government perspective. He also highlighted the capacity of this technology to build economic resilience within Australia and the region with confidence in provenance.
A round table discussion included an affirmation of ANSTO’s commitment to provenance research, remarks on the successful nature of the collaboration; comments on the need for provenance to mitigate biosecurity risks, and greater transparency across the supply chain.
“The Minister was very interested in our approach that we have developed over a number of years of research and is now at a point where there is an opportunity for expansion to the wider adoption across agricultural sectors,” said Dr Mazumder.
The same week ANSTO also hosted an industry-based briefing on the provenance technology for in person and online guests.
A video was screened to showcase the lab-based iso-elemental technology and portable handheld X-ray fluorescence scanning method.s
An Industry and Collaboration discussion was facilitated by A/Prof Jes Sammut (UNSW) to gather the views of collaborators and industry participants.
The future work will focus on an expansion of the seafood database nationwide to a wider range of locations. We also plan to foster collaboration for a wider adoption of these technologies across agricultural sectors to comply with traceability requirements for trade and biosecurity mitigation.
Food has been among the Australian research priorities, that are currently being revitalised with the National Science Statement.
Scientist
