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Popular Australian food retailer announces closure By CINDY TRAN FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA Published: 22:00, 2 December 2024 | Updated: 22:00, 2 December 2024 e-mail Advertisement A popular gourmet food retailer has launched a massive 40 percent off closing down sale - just months after announcing its sudden collapse. The Essential Ingredient, which featured as a specialty food brand on cooking show MasterChef Australia, entered into voluntary administration in late September - after almost 40 years of trading. The Australian company, known for its high-end grocery items, pantry staples and cookware, blamed rising rent costs and other expenses for its unexpected closure. The online store is now permanently closed, while its Melbourne and Sydney retail outlets will remain open until stocks last. It's unclear when the three physical stores will shut their doors for good, but the Crows Nest outlet in Sydney's north shore has announced its closing down sale, leaving loyal customers devastated. 'Oh gosh, my heart is breaking, so many fond memories and good people,' one said. 'A sad day indeed. Such a beautiful store. These places will become a thing of the past. Sending love,' another shared. 'No no! This makes me very sad,' one added. The company was established in 1986 and has been selling cookware, kitchen equipment and culinary books from both local and international suppliers. Robert Ditrich, Rebecca Gill and Craig Crosbie of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Australia were appointed as voluntary administrators in late September. The directors of The Essential Ingredient Syd Weddell and Peter Walmsley described the collapse at the time as an 'enormous disappointment'. The company had been unable to return to pre-Covid profitability, despite some post-pandemic investments in growth, the directors said. 'We are committed to working with PwC and our talented staff to continue servicing our highly valued customers,' they said. The administrators revealed the business had faced a 'challenging' operating environment. 'The legacy of stock losses during the Covid closure and higher operating costs has all taken a toll on profitability,' Mr Ditrich said. 'Our aim is to move quickly to preserve the business and as many jobs as possible. We intend to continue trading and sell the business and assets as a going concern, with strong interest expected from prospective buyers.' Want more stories like this from the Daily Mail? Visit our profile page and hit the follow button above for more of the news you need. Melbourne Masterchef Australia Sydney Share or comment on this article: Popular Australian food retailer announces closure e-mail

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By Dr. Colin Michie FRCPCH University of Central Lancashire Our eyes send about 60 picture frames a second to the brain, working at about the same speed as an Ethernet connection. This digital messaging is created by our retinas. Images of what we are looking at, our vision, is focused onto the retinas by the corneas and lenses. Lenses are dynamic, biconvex, elastic, crystalline discs, about a centimetre across, suspended at the front of the eye, just behind the pupils – those keyholes to our souls! You have more protein per weight of tissue in your lenses that anywhere else in the body – 70% is made up of clear, crysallin proteins. These are particularly long-lived molecules, specially layered so that the lens can focus effectively and rapidly. Cells in the lens centre, behind the pupil, move their nuclei and other structures to the sides so the lens works like a disc of biological glass. For an object close to you, the lens is thicker: it is thinner for distance vision. These changes can take place rapidly – imagine how it all works in sports, for instance a ball game, or racing a boat! The optical power of the eye is approximately 60 dioptres, a measure of how the curved cornea and lens focus images onto the retina. About two thirds of this power comes from the cornea. The lens is more powerful when we are young, but after the age of 50 it contributes less to this process of focusing or accommodation. Cataracts are a common cause of loss of vision in older people. An estimated 30% of those over 65 years of age will develop them, usually in both eyes. It is a leading cause of blindness and visual impairment. It is estimated that for every million population in Latin America and the Caribbean, 5,000 are blind and 20,000 are visually impaired. At least 66% of the blindness is attributable to treatable conditions such as cataract. Visual impairment was noted to be a common disability in the health review in St. Maarten in 2017. Cataracts cause the lenses to become cloudy, usually slowly. This will influence your quality of life, typically causing a change in colour perception, making the world a little more yellow or brown, possibly blurry too. Double vision, reduced night vision and glare around light sources can also become troublesome. Early treatment is more effective, so if you or someone you know has these changes to their vision, please seek an eye check. Those over the age of 55 are recommended to have one every 1-3 years. Lens deterioration and damage may be delayed by protecting those crystallins! Stopping smoking, reducing blood sugars and protecting the eyes from ultraviolet light are all useful measures – these conditions all damage the lenses. Hats and sunglasses are in! Diet may well be influential too: the intake of blueberries or other sources of anthocyanins are beneficial for many aspects of eye health. However no medications cure cataracts: surgery is the recommended way to bring back vision. While awaiting operation, adaptations help, such as improved lighting and using a magnifying glass to read. Avoiding falls, along with providing social supports become particularly important – a white cane will be helpful. Removing cataracts surgically is a safe, standardised, rapid procedure that does not need a general anaesthetic. 95% of operations take 10-15 minutes. The clouded lens is broken up and extracted through a tiny incision in the side of cornea. A replacement plastic lens sits in the same position. In some situations, both eyes may be operated on at the same time. Complication rates are very low. Most patients find the world looks particularly blue for the first weeks of recovery. Colour sight resolves as the retina adjusts and provides a better image. Implanting a plastic lens was first used in 1949 by the surgeon Ridley, operating on fighter pilots in the United Kingdom (UK). He had observed that his patients sometimes had areas of clear vision when they had plastic embedded in the front of an injured eye. His first trial lens was made of Perspex: a range of different products have since been employed. Historically an operation called “couching” was performed by some community surgeons or healers. This involved dislocating the lens and pushing it into the cavity at the back of the eye. However this was a risky and often unsuccessful way of solving a problem that now can be more reasonably managed. Those with cataracts often require help and support with daily tasks; waits for cataract surgery can be long and challenging. Communities in St. Maarten should continue to check that citizens wear sunglasses, and guide and care for those with visual impairment. Useful resources: “Making a decision about Cataracts” and “Overview-Cataract surgery”, both on the National Health Service (UK) website: www.nhs.uk. Dr. Colin Michie is currently the Associate Dean for Research and Knowledge Exchange at the School of Medicine in the University of Central Lancashire. He specialises in paediatrics, nutrition, and immunology. Michie has worked in the UK, southern Africa and Gaza as a paediatrician and educator and was the a ssociate Academic Dean for the American University of the Caribbean Medical School in St. Maarten a few years ago.Europe's Gas Storage Empties At Fastest Rate Since 2016

The Premier League table is starting to have a 1979 kind of feel to it — with Liverpool at the top of the standings and Nottingham Forest in second place as the closest challenger. Liverpool padded its lead with a 5-0 rout of West Ham on Sunday, while upstart Nottingham Forest climbed into second place by beating Everton 2-0 to continue its surprising push for a Champions League place. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings. Get updates and player profiles ahead of Friday's high school games, plus a recap Saturday with stories, photos, video Frequency: Seasonal Twice a week