Hemp Oz has been recognised as a leading Australian food innovator in the fourth annual FIAL Innovations Book: Celebrating Australian Food and Agribusiness Innovations. This prestigious 2019 collection of Australia’s best innovations highlights the Hemp Oz success story among 50 industry-leading innovations.
Hemp Oz was recognised for its inspired solution to an age-old problem: namely that oil (or rather hemp seed oil) and water don’t mix.
When Hemp Oz founder and CEO, John Leith was inspired to give the on-trend beverage kombucha a healthy twist by introducing hemp oil he needed to overcome the challenge of infusing hemp seed oil into water-soluble solutions.
The FIAL Innovation Book recognised this innovation was significant, not just for healthy beverages but for the future of hemp-based food and drinks. Hemp as a food, has only been available to Australian consumers since regulations changed in 2017. Therefore, very little experimentation in food technology had been undertaken to date. Hemp seed oil is considered a super food due to its naturally high content and ratio of Omega 3, 6 and 9 and antioxidants. Hemp oil, while nutritious, is light sensitive and can be unpredictable under certain conditions. Finding a solution where the oil was stabilised was challenging.
John’s vision and determination to overcome this challenge led the company to develop a new approach with propriety food technology. The outcome was an innovative solution allowing Hemp Oz to infuse hemp into a wide range of beverages and launch Australia’s first Hemp infused Kombucha, cementing its position in a competitive marketplace.
“Having our propriety hemp emulsion technology recognised as one of the country's leading innovations by this prestigious book is a real honour and we are extremely proud of this fantastic achievement,” said John.
The FIAL Innovations Book will be launched as part of the upcoming Global Table Food Summit in Melbourne 3-5 September, 2019
Food Innovation Australia Limited (FIAL) is an industry-led, not-for-profit organisation that works with the food and agribusiness industry to improve productivity and grow the share of Australian food in the global marketplace. FIAL is a government funded initiative to collaboratively fuel growth throughout the food and agribusiness industry.
