F&B Sound Bites

At Beca Australia, we're proud of our commitment to discovering ways to work in partnership with First Nations to create equal opportunity, financial security, and enhance job opportunities for all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people.

While recognition and strategic commitment are essential first steps, tangible change is created by increasing the involvement of Indigenous thinking and business engagement across the supply chain. 

On this episode of the F&B Sound Bites, we speak with Anthony Corrie, Community Relationships Manager at Beca, and George Misfud, Director at the Indigenous Defence & Infrastructure Consortium, to share their perspectives on how F&B companies can elevate their Indigenous business engagement and learn what it truly means to be committed to reconciliation and prosperity for Indigenous communities. 

We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which we recorded this podcast episode. We pay our respects to elders past, present, and emerging.

Picture this: You've got a brownfield site. It's not perfect and it may be causing you some headaches, but it's got its gems and you're weighing several options. Do you love it, or do you list it?

While it might be tempting to look ahead and just list it, we're here to talk about the love it option, and how developing a masterplanning perspective can enable teams to unlock the value of your industrial facility.

On this episode of the F&B Sound Bites, we have Michael Warne, Senior Principal Architect at Beca and head of Beca's Design Practice team, to share how a masterplanning approach can discover different angles and be the missing piece to unlocking value for your brownfield sites.

What does it take to build one of Australia's largest beverage facilities? On this episode, Mark Robertson chats with Mark Toomey and Paul Woods from Frucor Suntory Oceania as they share their ambitions for latest multi-beverage facility in Queensland, and the career opportunities that the greenfield site provides.

Energy efficiencies and sustainability have been the name of the game in the F&B space. But if you're managing a food production facility, where do you start in getting those quick energy saving wins?  On this episode, we speak to Adrian Dickison (Senior Technical Director) and Mathieu Duguay (Business Director - Industrial Digital) to discuss the ultimate low-hanging fruit for energy savings at food production facilities: your refrigeration system. 

What's a green building? What certifies one? And why would a F&B facility choose to build one? Today we're talking with Ethan Duff - Senior Building Scientist at Beca, to share about his award-winning work with Cloudy Bay Wineries, and how developing a green building has supported their decarbonisation efforts and elevated their standing as a business strongly committed to sustainability.

Welcome to F&B Sounds Bites, a podcast on hot topics, trends and challenges for professionals in the engine room behind the Food and Beverage industry hosted by Hamish McCook. 

We flew a couple of our engineers to Munich in September 2022 to attend one of the biggest beverage conferences, and no we’re not talking about Oktoberfest (much to their dismay), but just as exciting – Drinktec! 

Known as the F&B Olympics, the five-day conference hosts state-of-the-art technology and knowledge sharing, with some of the world’s leading manufacturers and industrial key players to address the ever-changing consumers’ needs. 

With a jam-packed itinerary, Mark and Andrew had the privilege to discover and learn about the latest tech and innovation that sees beverages travelling from the plant to the mouths of consumers, in the most efficient, cost-effective and sustainable way. 

Try to ignore host Hamish McCook’s hint of envy as he chats to Australia’s Mark Robertson, Senior Associate in Mechanical Engineering and NZ’s Andrew Russell, Senior Associate in Project Management to unpack some of the key themes, trends and takeaways, covering packaging solutions, energy reduction, technology integration and of course, sustainability. 

Mark discusses the advancement in product packaging to provide a greater level of environmental transparency.  “Beer cans are progressing to include a carbon footprint that details the manufacturer’s CO2 emissions on the product, positioned along with the ingredients that allow consumers to make a sustainable decision”. 

Mark and Andrew were also impressed with the work we’re doing for our clients in the Asia Pacific - making incredible, real.  

"It’s important we keep a finger on the pulse of the FMCG world. Attending the conference has validated the decisions we’re making for our clients and has helped pushed us further to explore other avenues in other projects we’re doing because we’re seeing the benefits across the world.”

Stay tuned until the end as Mark and Andrew let us in on a few golden nuggets, including just who you should be keeping your eye on in the market. 

Episode time stamps: 

55 sec - Meet our guests Mark Robertson and Andrew Russell 

2:25 min - Why we attended Drinktec 

4:05 min - Key themes and learnings 

·         Advancements in packaging 

·         Plastic replacement 

·         Focus on sustainability – reducing CO2 emissions, focus on scope two and three reporting. 

·         Digital integration - Internet of Things (IoT)  

·         High-temperature heat pumps 

·         Precision fermentation 

·         Dealcoholisation 

18 min - How we’re converting these learnings into our projects

19:45 min - Key takeaways “golden nuggets” 

Welcome to F&B Sounds Bites, a podcast on hot topics, trends and challenges for professionals in the engine room behind the Food and Beverage industry hosted by Mark Robertson. 

The last few years have been difficult, to say the least, and it’s clear we’re not out of the woods yet. Inflation has skyrocketed in the wake of COVID and the war in Ukraine is adding extra pressure on the global economy, slowing the recovery of already disrupted supply chains.

Price spikes, supply shortages, and delivery delays are wreaking havoc on businesses, and everyone is struggling to control cost overruns.  But fear not, as there are solutions that can help rein in the budget in this volatile pricing environment.

Our Australian host, Mark Robertson, Senior Associate – Mechanical Engineering chats with Beca’s Anthony Maurici - Senior Associate Project Management and Andrew Hofmeyr – Technical Director Cost Management weigh in on reducing project uncertainty and how through collaboration, communication and transparency, we can manage the challenges ahead and navigate the storm in one piece.

Welcome to F&B Sounds Bites, a podcast on hot topics, trends and challenges for professionals in the engine room behind the Food and Beverage industry hosted by Hamish McCook. 

 In a utopian world, Food and Beverage manufacturers wouldn’t have to forgo the long, confusing, and costly transition to cleaner energy sources to power their manufacturing plants. The ‘dirty’ grid would be miraculously funded by the government, transitioning it to green energy, flicking the magic switch to green. 

But like all great dreams, we are (against our own will) jolted back to reality. 

With economic, social, political pressures, and the absence of a credible national climate and energy policy, the Food and Beverage sector has taken leadership in going greener sooner, setting ambitious but achievable net-zero emission targets as early as 2030 (terrifyingly, less than 10 years away). Setting clear corporate goals that can be translated into project development goals is a foolproof method, but it can be a daunting task for many.

A combination of expertise needs to come together to provide solutions.  

Turning dreams into reality, Beca Australia’s Harshal Patel – future energy guru and market leader in the power team; and Mark Robertson – Market segment leader in the Food and Life Sciences sector, join our Host, Hamish McCook to offer their expert advice on quick wins, alternative approaches, and next steps for F&B listeners forgoing the transition to renewable energy for years to follow. 

Welcome to F&B Sounds Bites, a podcast on hot topics, trends and challenges for professionals in the engine room behind the Food and Beverage industry hosted by Hamish McCook.

Many sceptics thought Steve Jobs was a mad when he introduced Apple iPhone back in 2007. Yet today the smart phone is owned by an estimate of 1 billion of the population, fits in the palm of your hand and is smarter than we ever thought possible. 

So, after many years of research and innovation, Cellular Agriculture meat products may not be as farfetched as we think.  We’ve already solved the problems of CellAg using science, engineering, and production, but it’s the power of incorporating the technologies, skills and systems together to catapult it from an expensive lab creation to mass production, stocked on supermarket shelves around the world.

In this episode of F&B Sound Bites, we revisit the topic of CellAg with two expert engineers from NZ and the US, teaming up to offer their perspective on the barriers, opportunities and future for CellAg.  Find out just how close CellAg is to becoming an alternative, more sustainable, food source and what you need to be doing today to get ready.

Welcome to F&B Sounds Bites, a podcast on hot topics, trends and challenges for professionals in the engine room behind the Food and Beverage industry hosted by Hamish McCook.

Innovation in the food sector is hot right now. Consumers are demanding increased transparency such as clean label ingredients and ethical and responsible sourcing, plant-based foods in growing market categories, food available on demand with omni channel consumption, product mash ups and new flavours, as well as science-based foods offering enhanced nutrition. The list goes on.

But what does all this mean for hygienic design – arguably the backbone of the industry, and one that too has been evolving and growing more complex over time. The industry is under increasing pressure to be compliant with increasingly complex legislation, and now not just on our own shores but also internationally. Plus, how much do we really know about the challenges and needs of new foods under development? 

Thankfully it’s not all doom and gloom. There is has been a rise of globally led legislation, and science-based tools like genomic sequencing are having their time in the sun in the food industry, allowing for more targeted strategies for risk mitigation and response.

We sat down with Beca’s Rex Johnstone to unpack the challenges of hygienic design today and what it takes to protect the future of your business.