With the introduction of new country of origin food labelling laws to Australia in late 2015, the Sunshine Coast Real Food Festival, to be held on September 12 & 13, will host a workshop to break down the barriers in understanding food labelling.

University of the Sunshine Coast Lecturer in Nutrition and Dietetics, Dr Sarah Burkhart will speak at the festival on topics such as how people can decipher what’s on a food label, country of origin, nutrition and health claims made on food labels.

“The Real Food Festival is a great opportunity for the community to not only see local producers come together to showcase the region’s food but also get up-to-date information from leading food professionals.

With the Sunshine Coast Real Food Festival fast approaching on September 12 & 13, festival goers can get set to participate in a range of interactive experiences.

Real Food Festival Director, Julie Shelton said this year there were more hands-on activities for festival goers of all ages than ever before.

Coffee Roasters to brew up a storm at Sunshine Coast Real Food Festival

Queensland’s Sunshine Coast has become the first region in Australia to establish a Coffee Roasters Guild in recognition of the quality of the region’s produce.

The Sunshine Coast Coffee Roasters Guild will work collectively to establish the Sunshine Coast as the coffee capital of Queensland.

Whales and their calves are playing and checking out the swimmers in record numbers as Sunreef’s Swim with Whales reaches heads towards its peak.

As Australia’s first Swim with Humpback Whales experience operators, Sunreef operate its unique tours from July to the end of October and already they are seeing lots of new whale calves.

With a month to go until the 2015 Sunshine Coast Real Food Festival, organisers have unveiled a festival program rich with food experiences, inspiring presentations and a celebration of the region’s food producers.

Not only can visitors indulge in the region’s best produce with over 100 food and food-related exhibits, they can experience 88 sessions across seven venues, throughout the two days.

Sunshine Coast Businessman Philip Hart has become the newest ambassador to Sunshine Coast Airport’s Fly Local campaign, which aims to highlight the importance and benefits to the community of people choosing to Fly Local.

The 2015 Real Food Festival organisers will start the month countdown to the big event with a sneak peak of the festival at a long table lunch prepared by Rory Thorpe  for Festival stakeholders at Spicers Tamarind Retreat on Tuesday (4^th August).

With increased demand for local organic produce to ensure clean and healthy food, the fifth annual Sunshine Coast Real Food Festival will hold workshops to educate locals on the importance of local food supply chains and how the community can get involved.

Local food supply pioneer and owner of Good Harvest, Mick Dan, said his presentation will focus on how the local real food movement has gone global.

“After travelling around the world working with local communities and development projects and just having returned from a research trip in the Amazon, I’m passionate about educating the community about their local food supply chain.