• Entries open for 2026 Australasian Packaging Innovation & Design Awards
    Entries open for 2026 Australasian Packaging Innovation & Design Awards
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Entries are open for the 2026 Australasian Packaging Innovation & Design (PIDA) Awards, which recognise packaging design and professionals in Australia and New Zealand.

The awards cover 16 categories, including Design Innovation of the Year across six manufacturing sectors: Food, Beverage, Health, Beauty & Wellness, Domestic & Household, Labelling & Decoration, and Outside of the Box. Four special awards are available: Sustainable Packaging Design, Save Food Packaging Design, Accessible & Inclusive Packaging Design, and Marketing.

Three individual awards recognise contributions to the packaging industry: Young Packaging Professional of the Year, Industry Packaging Professional of the Year, and Packaging Technologist of the Year. The latter acknowledges achievements by individuals working in packaging across Australia, New Zealand and Asia.

Three scholarships are also available, two supported by the Australasian Bioplastics Association (ABA): the ABA Diploma in Packaging Scholarship, the ABA Certificate in Packaging Scholarship, and the AIP President’s Award, which from 2026 is open to all Australasian Institute of Packaging (AIP) members across Southeast Asia.

The winners will be announced at a gala dinner on 28 July at the Crown Aviary in Melbourne. The awards will run alongside FoodPro 2026, and finalists and winners will be displayed at the tradeshow. Entries close on 27 February 2026.

Winners of the PIDA Awards are the only entrants eligible for the WorldStar Packaging Awards from the region.

For more information, click here.

Food & Drink Business

Our Top 100 2025 edition of Food & Drink Business magazine is more than the annual flagship Top 100 Report. Industry leaders reflect on the year past and the one ahead, we provide our annual news review, M&A wrap-up, and all the executive moves, and a Roman-inspired sports drink, Posca, is our final Rising Star for 2025.

A blend of salt, red wine vinegar, and water – known as Posca – was the ‘original sports drink’, helping to keep the soldiers of the Roman Empire marching up to 30 kilometres per day. Keira Joyce spoke with Posca Hydrate co-founders, Merrick Watts and Ed Stening, about reviving a 2000-year-old functional beverage for the modern healthy lifestyle.

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