Food Action is a food technology consultancy based in the central north island of New Zealand. We mainly service Auckland, Waikato and Bay of Plenty, but have completed site work from Dunedin to Kaitaia, and are remote work specialists. We specialise in food labelling including nutrition panels, health and nutrition claims, product development, custom food control plans, national programmes and food science. We are a one stop shop for you technical and strategy needs – big and small. Contact us now on freephone or email. Check out our comprehensive range of services below or browse some of our blog articles on technical topics.

New Product Development

Got a great idea or product and want to take it to the next level?

Concept Design

Creating a viable concept from the outset is essential for success

Concept Design

Many ideas are doomed from the start. Don’t waste time and money when science is not on your side. We can quickly advise if you are onto a winner, or need to change direction early on. Contact us now

Formulation

Develop the right recipe and process

Formulation

Creating the perfect recipe is time consuming and can be frustrating. There can be clever ways of fast tracking the process and we can help. Contact us now

Commercialisation

Take your formulation to market

Commercialisation

A great idea, recipe and product alone is never enough. Navigating the commercial realities of taking a product to market is tricky and experience helps. We have not only helped other companies commercialise products, we’ve also created our own successes. Find out what you can claim.

Troubleshooting

Need technical help with your product development project?

Troubleshooting

Do you have an amazing product, but just have one or two technical issues you can’t correct? Don’t bang your head against the wall, there might be an easy fix that you are missing. Contact us now

Food Labels That Help Sell Your Food

Are you a bit confused by the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code, or don’t even know what it is? We can help.

Food Labelling

Want a legally compliant food label? We are experts.

Food Labelling

Confused by what needs to go onto a label? There are pages and pages of legislation that need to be read and reviewed in order to create a label. We can do this for you, or show you how to do it yourself. Contact us now

Nutrition Panels

Need help calculating a nutrition panel? We can help

Nutrition Panels

With the government introducing instant fines for incorrect panels, it is now more important than ever to get this right. We can create nutrition panels for you, or show you how to do them yourself. Contact us now

Health Claims

Not sure what you can claim about the benefits of your product?

Health and Nutrition Claims

There is little doubt that claims made about foods help sell some products, but are they always legal? New laws were introduced in 2016 which standardises what claims can be made. Find out what you can claim.

Health Stars

Need help with the Health Star Rating system?

Health Stars

Do you need help calculating the health stars for your product, or need to reformulate to get more stars? Don’t miss this opportunity to enhance and show the health credentials of your product. Contact us now

Food Act, Food Safety and Compliance

Food safety management can be a costly exercise. You can over do it and add cost daily, or under do it and risk sending out unsafe product which can be disastrous. The new Food Act 2014 is now live so you have a few options on how you can manage your business, and we can help you  do this while keeping costs under control.

Shelf Life Testing

Is your shelf life duration based on food quality, food safety, or don’t you know?

It’s easy to spend too much on shelf life testing, and you can lose money over time from a shelf life that is unnecessarily short.

Whether you just want to test the shelf life of your product, or extend it so you get more time on the shelf or in the fridge/freezer, we can help.

Whatever your product or needs, we know food and can help you run this gauntlet with the minimal risk to your business and your customers.

  • Best Before Dates

  • Use By Dates

  • Microbiological Testing

  • Water Activity and pH Testing

  • Accelerated Shelf Life Testing

  • Shelf Life Extension

  • Chemical Testing

  • Sensory Testing

Supermarket Entry

  • GS1 Barcodes

  • Foodstuffs Exchange

  • GS1 Product Recall

  • Foodstuffs Compliance Pack

  • Priced Packing Slips

  • GS1 Product Flow and National Product Catalogue

  • Custom Food Control Plans and National Programmes

  • Labelling Reports

Getting into supermarkets can be tricky and frustrating – we know. If you are looking to start off, Foodstuffs is most likely the route you will take rather than Progressive / Countdown.

Foodstuffs have several routes in – via stores with SAP systems, via stores without SAP, and via the Category Manager. Each process is quite different and we’ve done them all for either our own products (www.rline.co.nz) and other’s products.

If you get the steps wrong it can set you back by months and be costly. If you want to get into the supermarkets, we can help you navigate through the whole process.

 

 

Articles

5 Simple Mistakes with Food Labelling

As contract food technologists, we work with an extensive range of food labels. Unfortunately, most jobs involve fixing up client’s simple mistakes which end up being costly. On the surface these mistakes look basic but

Foodstuffs Priced Packing Slip

Initially published June 2017, updated May 2019, updated May 2020 As our drinks manufacturing business (https://rline.co.nz/) evolved, we have gone from Banklink to MYOB, to Xero. All changes were significant and took a lot of

Developing Nutrition Panels

Most food products require a nutrition panel, but not all products. There are a few exceptions like vinegar, tea, or very small products like sachets of ketchup from takeaways which are exempt. Creating a nutrition

Developing New Food Products

If you have a good idea, creating a new food product can be fun and exciting to do yourself. As a consultant I do some product development, but it can become expensive, and I generally

How to label foods correctly

Food labelling in NZ is horribly complicated. Unfortunately too many new operators just go into a store, find a comparable product, and copy all the mistakes someone else has already made. Others are unaware of