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Dr Oz Dedehayir & Dr Jack Adams – Coffs Agrifood Living Lab (CALL) – 2025 FFS Research Showcase

Dr Oz Dedehayir & Dr Jack Adams – 'Coffs Agrifood Living Lab (CALL)' (FFS Research Showcase 2025)

FIPWA – Stake Hill, WA

Building smarter and resilient agrifood ecosystems across Australia

Challenge The Sustainable Innovative Food Technologies Centre is located at the Food Innovation Precinct Western Australia in Nambeelup. Image courtesy of Murdoch University Media Australia’s agrifood ecosystems are experiencing unprecedented challenges. Climate volatility, supply chain disruptions, rapid urbanisation, and changing consumer expectations have exposed vulnerabilities across both metropolitan and regional food systems. While the country…

Laying the groundwork: Scaling seed supply for commercial native rice cultivation

Laying the groundwork: Scaling seed supply for commercial native rice cultivation

Challenge Native rice found on Top End floodplains used for cooking – Indigenous bush tucker The journey toward commercialising Australian native rice began with a fundamental hurdle: the insufficient availability of viable seed stock. Harvesting from the wild – often done by hand in remote, crocodile-inhabited wetlands – is not only hazardous but also yields…

Gather & Grow: Celebrating Coffs' Food Future

Celebrating Coffs’ food future: A journey with Future Food Systems

The Future Food Systems team recently travelled to Coffs Harbour to reconnect with the agrifood industry and continue building on the strong foundations laid by the Coffs Agrifood Living Lab (CALL) project. The trip continues our mission of bringing the sector together, celebrating success, sharing challenges, exploring skills and education pathways, and sparking fresh ideas for growth and innovation.

Policy comment on innovating Australian RD&E institutions: A triple-helix policy framework for sustainable food systems

Lijun Summerhayes, Douglas Baker

FFS text background

Policy comment on innovating Australian RD&E institutions: A triple-helix policy framework for sustainable food systems

Australia lacks innovative and systems-based food policies to address food system challenges that are increasingly compounded by climate change and globalised geopolitical conflicts (Summerhayes and Baker, 2024, UNFSS., 2021). A key barrier is the stagnation of institutional innovations, particularly within the Research, Development and Extension (RD&E) organisations that underpin these policy innovations. The absence of…

Members of FIPWA

Innovation precincts: More than just postcodes

We hear a lot about “innovation precincts” these days. Every region seems to want one, and every strategy document seems to reference them. And for good reason: innovation precincts can be powerful drivers of economic growth, collaboration, and industry transformation. The simple version of the story is this: put businesses, researchers, entrepreneurs, and government agencies…

Urban food planning in Australia

FFS Publication

Urban food planning in Australia: Enabling and constraining factors

This paper examines urban food planning in Australia and explores enabling and constraining factors in its integration with planning systems

SIFT with David Doepel

Dr James Krahe joined FFS Research Program Deputy Lead David Doepel at Murdoch University to discuss SIFT - Sustainable Innovative Food Technology WA, exploring the opportunities for small businesses emerging from the facility, the potential of High Pressure Processing (HPP) technology, and the power of collaboration. David also shares his personal journey in value-adding, crafting cheese at Melville Park with fellow custodian and partner, Barbara Connell.

Enhancing resilience and efficiency in Australia’s supply chains through optimisation and smart logistics

Enhancing resilience and efficiency in Australia’s supply chains through optimisation and smart logistics

This project focuses on enhancing the food distribution system within the Western Sydney Agribusiness Precinct by leveraging infrastructure investments, digital technologies, and sustainability-focused policies. Through the analysis of best practices and the development of data-driven forecasting models, the research addresses knowledge gaps in logistics planning and transport optimisation. The study incorporates advanced tools for AI-driven logistics and climate-smart agricultural practices, with the goal of reducing bottlenecks and improving supply chain responsiveness.

Mapping the Sunshine Coast and Noosa food and agribusiness ecosystem

Mapping the Sunshine Coast and Noosa food and agribusiness ecosystem

Challenge The agrifood supply chain in Queensland’s Sunshine Coast and Noosa regions are facing a series of systemic barriers that limit the growth and resilience of local producers and manufacturers. Key challenges include limited access to funding and grants, complex regulatory compliance, inadequate local packaging and transportation infrastructure, and rising input costs, particularly in labour,…

Food security: Gauging Australian food security with sustainable food consumption

Lijun Summerhayes

FFS text background

Food security: Gauging Australian food security with sustainable food consumption

Australia is one of the most food-secure nations in the world, capable of feeding 75 million people, nearly three times its population. This abundance of food is attributable to the industrialisation of the agri-food system and advanced technologies, which are long assumed to have solved the atavistic challenge of feeding people adequately.

SIFT with Catherine McDaid

Catherine (Cat) McDaid serves as the Quality Assurance Manager at the Sustainable Innovative Food Technologies (SIFT) Centre in Western Australia. SIFT is a state-of-the-art facility dedicated to fostering innovation within the food and beverage sector by providing businesses with access to advanced manufacturing equipment and expert guidance.

SIFT with Bravo Gazpacho

See how Bravo Gazpacho works with FFS at SIFT WA to produce their top-quality gazpacho, blending tradition with innovation for the perfect taste

SIFT with Everboost

Working together to meet a growing demand. Loic Munso, founder of Everboost Sea Moss is currently utilising SIFT to scale-up production of his Sea Moss products.

Mission MushVroom

Mission MushVroom

Mission MushVroom is the first study to grow oyster mushrooms in space. Fast, nutrient-rich, and vitamin D-producing, they support astronaut health and sustainable space farming.

Freight modelling for sustainable future food systems delivery

Freight modelling for sustainable future food systems delivery

Smart, sustainable, resilient food systems require smart, sustainable, resilient transport systems at the location, regional, national and international scale. The development of short-term and long-term transport, land use and infrastructure plans to support such systems is contingent upon effective freight scenario planning, which encompasses potential drivers of change in the freight task and future trends in supply chains, including technology, demographics, climate change energy sources and emissions, and unplanned events. However, collecting accurate freight data poses significant challenges and is often expensive. Existing freight models lack the necessary flexibility to incorporate and reflect dynamic changes due to the nature of one-time data collection. Consequently, these limitations hinder a comprehensive assessment of the impacts of infrastructure and land use plans.

Governance of food relief in Australia: A rights-based approach

Governance of food relief in Australia: A rights-based approach

Taking a solutions-oriented approach, the project aims to reimagine how food relief systems could be better designed to tackle the full range of challenges that contribute to food insecurity. It will explore what a rights-based model of food relief governance might look like in the Australian context. This includes assessing policies, institutional arrangements, and delivery mechanisms to determine whether they promote dignity, sufficiency, and sustainability in food access.

Analyzing the Risk of Short-Term Losses in Free-Range Egg Production Using Commercial Data

Analyzing the Risk of Short-Term Losses in Free-Range Egg Production Using Commercial Data

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the risk of short-term free-range egg production losses using data derived from a combination of sensing technologies and management activities.

Understanding urban food systems: A spatial and temporal analysis in Sydney, Australia

Understanding urban food systems: A spatial and temporal analysis in Sydney, Australia

As food is a daily necessity for people, research on urban food systems, targeting urban food-related social issues and highlighting the importance of urban food policies, has increased. Past research has focused on food policies that target various food-related problems in urban areas, such as affordable food, food access equality and other food security related…

Food technology challenge program

Food technology challenge program

The project enables FIPWA SMEs to adopt sophisticated processing techniques that improve product safety, shelf life, and consumer appeal. It also builds technical capacity within the cluster and lays the groundwork for broader application of advanced processing technologies, positioning participating SMEs for sustainable growth and market expansion.