News Ticker

Authored by Helen Masters, senior vice president and general manager, Asia Pacific, Infor  It’s the sound you dread: a bang, crash or shout heralding that one of your employees has been injured. In that moment, you know that many things have been lost — a person’s wellbeing (and possibly their life), the morale of other employees, and possibly, their confidence in the safety of their workplace. Underlying it all, the productivity, cohesion, and workflow you depend on to deliver a competitive, profitable product may also be impacted. Workplace mishaps in Australia killed 182 employees in 2016, according to statistics from Safe Work Australia and resulted in nearly 104,000 non-fatal serious injuries. Although workplace deaths have halved in a decade, and workplace-related injury and diseases reduced by a quarter, these still translate to 1.5 deaths per 100,000 workers and nearly 1 percent of workers affected by a serious work-related injury or illness.  The effects are a serious drain on companies and on the wider economy — work related injuries and fatalities cost the nation $61.8 billion in 2012, nearly 5 percent of GDP. Safer operations mean higher productivity The old line about prevention being better than cure has never been more important than when talking about workplace safety. A safe workplace is essential to ensuring reliable, uninterrupted operations. With strong safety programs, companies can significantly improve their productivity, while reinforcing their bottom line and not only boosting morale and wellbeing among their employees but also having a positive impact on the families and close friends of their employees. There are no accidents The question for many businesses is how to get from here to there. In the transport industry, there is an assumption that there are no accidents, just collisions that could have been prevented with foresight and planning. It is hard […]

The positive health effects  of probiotics are why Associate Professor Liu Shao Quan, who is part of the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Food Science and Technology Programme, has dedicated part of his research to developing new probiotic foods and drinks that could appeal to more people and expand the options for a healthier diet. Over the past few years, he and his students have created probiotic beer – a first in the market – and two other probiotic beverages made with durian pulp and okara respectively. Okara is soy pulp that is leftover from the production of soy products such as soy milk and tofu. The probiotics problem At this year’s Vitafoods Asia 2018 conference, which will take place on Sept 11 and 12 at Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre, Prof Liu will speak about the difficulties of keeping probiotics alive in foods and drinks, and his research to improve their survival chances. Prof Liu’s talk is titled “Improving the Viability of Probiotics in Food”. He explained: “Many foods and beverages are acidic, and acids inhibit probiotics’ survival and activity. Besides, when foods and beverages are stored at elevated temperatures, probiotics can grow and produce more acids. This will lead to the probiotics’ death and decrease the health benefits of the foods and beverages.” He noted that some microorganisms can help to protect probiotics and improve their odds of survival, but the mechanisms of the process are not well-understood. He and his students experimented with different probiotic strains, yeasts and cultures in creating their beverages. “Beers contain hop acids that prevent the growth and survival of probiotics, but we successfully developed a beer with live probiotics. Our probiotic durian beverage and probiotic okara beverage also have high cell counts of live probiotics,” he said. Breakthroughs in […]