ciminfood-blog

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On the 21st to 25th of May Eleanor Warner and Amy Ellis, two CIM members from the University of Birmingham, attended the 14th International Hydrocolloids Conference, hosted by the University of Nanchang, China.

 Each morning consisted of talks from excellent plenary lectures, including Mike Gidley (University of Queensland), Steve Cui (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada), Stefan Kasapis (RMIT University), Kurt Draget (NTNU) and Graham Sworn (DuPont). These presentations sparked interesting discussion which continued over the breaks and lunch. After lunch, the delegates spilt to four rooms, with each room having speakers from a set topic. These topics included Hydrocolloid Functionality, Hydrocolloid Sources and Materials, Bioactive Hydrocolloids and Hydrocolloids for Delivery. During two of these sessions, Eleanor and Amy presented their work on “Comparing the viscoelastic properties of gelatin and kappa-carrageenan mixtures to their printability” and “The role of hydrocolloid particles in the stabilisation of foams” respectively. Both Eleanor and Amy received positive feedback regarding their scientific work and overall presentations.

 We are very jealous of those who get to attend the 15th International Hydrocolloids Conference in 2020, which is to be hosted by RMIT in Australia.

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Food Waste: Cash in Trash

Contribution by Lucia Azanedo, Research Assistant University of Loughborough

Sustainable fashion is increasingly popular among consumers, and companies are responding by focusing on technical innovation, improved efficiency and related mission orientation.  In 2017, 42 out of 100 brands revealed that their suppliers are shifting to a circular economy.  The fashion industry is looking for more sustainable sources in creating their designs, even adopting the use of biomaterials such as food waste. Below are 4 examples of companies making traction in this area:

1. Sport Clothing from coffee grounds:

 4 years of research and development by S.Cafe has led to a patented process that removes the phenol, ester and oil from coffee grounds and turns them into yarn. The yarn can be used in a variety of different products, from outdoor and sport performance apparel to household items. Thanks to the coffee grounds, the fabrics offers up to 200% faster drying time compared to cotton. Moreover, the micro pores on the yarn absorb odours and protect against UV rays.

 Due to the increasing demand for this invention, a partnership with local coffee shops has developed to collect their used coffee grounds. These spent grounds provide a sustainable and efficient source of raw material. As their advertising says: ‘Drink it, Wear it!’ [1]

 2. Coffee ink:

Based in California, Stencilworks claims to be the only printing company in the world using ink made from used coffee grounds to produce dyes for screen printing can be. Coffee is a natural pigment therefore spent coffee will do the same job as unbrewed grounds in this respect. The technique involves mixing the spent grounds with vinegar (as a fixative) followed by straining and cooking down the liquid until matching the thickness of the commercial ink. This enables printing on a variety of fabrics to create graphics that can withstand washing and daily wear. Slightly more than 2 litres of ink can print 200 t-shirts -with the company even offering a customized t-shirt with your own spent grounds. This company adopts a smart and sustainable approach as there is no waste from chemical discharge and the materials and process are claimed to be cheaper than commercial ink production. [2]

 3. Bags and shoes from discarded fish skin:

 By 2030 it is thought we will be producing 185 million tons of fish globally. Of this 50% is considered food and 50% waste which will equate to 92.5 million tonnes of waste per year. As only 30% can be converted into fish meal for animal feed, 65 million tons will remain unaccounted for and the likely outcome is that it will be dumped into the sea. [3]

 Fashion brands - such as Nike, Prada and Dior - have found a stylish way to use this by-product of the fishing industry by converting it into furniture, bags and belts. Fish leather is well suited to these applications; it can be visually striking but it is also a particularly strong leather, thus providing an ideal end of life solution for otherwise discarded fish waste. [4]

 Fish leather manufacturers, such as Atlantic Leather, also promote the use of fish skin as a sustainable alternative to increasing cow leather production as well as creating jobs in areas of production such as Iceland [6]. However, there are a number of concerns about the eco-credentials of manufacturing accessories from fish leather and there is need for a detailed comparison with cow leather to fully validate this claim. Despite this, the fact remains that fish leather does add substantial value to what is otherwise a waste product, giving this area significant potential.

 4. Shoes from Corn:

 Corn is usually thought of as a food or food additive, but corn has uncountable uses and it can be found in many products that are part of our daily routines. The most valuable part of the corn plant is the grain, but the remaining parts are often discarded. A vegan shoe company based in Spain (Slowwalk) has developed shoes from organic vegetable matter using the inedible parts of corn. The shoe sole is also made of recycled natural latex rubber from floors. The product, in addition to being sustainable and comfortable due to its flexibility and shock absorbing capacity, is also available in a trendy design. [7]

Hopefully these fascinating examples have caught the attention of our more fashion loving readers who have an interest in sustainability. Want to keep up to date? Here are some great sources to follow to find out more about the products mentioned in this article:

Images from: https://www.slowwalk.es/ and http://www.atlanticleather.is/welcome-marquee/

 [1] S. Café Sustainable Performance. (2015). Brand Story [online] Available at: http://www.scafefabrics.com/en-global [Accessed 22 Feb. 2018].

 [2] Domestic Stencilworks. (2018). Coffee Printing. [online] Available at: https://www.domesticstencilworks.com/collections/coffee-printing [Accessed 22 Feb. 2018].

 [3] THE WORLD BANK. (2013). FISH TO 2030. Prospects for Fisheries and Aquaculture. [online] Available at: http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/458631468152376668/pdf/831770WP0P11260ES003000Fish0to02030.pdf [Accessed 22 Feb. 2018].

 [4] Braw,E. (2014). Prada, Dior and Nike are finding a fashionable new purpose for fish skins. [online] The guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/sustainable-fashion-blog/2014/oct/16/fish-skins-fashion-leather-prada-nike-dior  [Accessed 22 Feb. 2018].

 [5] The Fish Leather Company (2015). Fish Leather A Non-Wastage Material. [online] Available at: http://thefishleather.co/fish-leather-eco-friendly-non-wastage-material/ [Accessed 22 Feb. 2018].

 [6] Atlantic Leather (2016). PIONEERING FORCE IN THE MIDDLE OF ICELAND! [online] Available at: http://www.atlanticleather.is/thestory/ [Accessed 22 Feb. 2018].

 [7] Slowwalk (2018). Vegan shoes - Slowwalk creates the shoes of corn skin. [online] Available at: https://www.slowwalk.es/en/vegan-sneakers [Accessed 22 Feb. 2018].

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A closer look at ready meals in UK supermarkets...

Rania Harastani, University of Loughborough

Photo: Ready Meals at Waitrose Supermarket, alamy.com

Time scarcity, accompanied by modest cooking skills, have obliged many people to accept convenience foods such as supermarket ready meals or fast and takeaway food as a part of their diet. In 2016, the value of the UK ‘food-to-go’ market was £16.1 billion, and this number is estimated to rise by 6.2%, reaching £21.7 billion in 2021, indicating significant growth. Despite its convenience frequent consumption of prepared foods is associated with developing non-communicable diseases NCDs (e.g. obesity, type II diabetes, cardiovascular disease and some cancers). Consequently, governmental bodies and research institutes have hastened their efforts to control food production and increase the awareness of diet-health related issues. A well-known example of this is the successful use of ‘traffic light’ labelling established in 2006 by the Food Standard Agency (FSA) that informs consumers about how the nutrient content of a specific food product relates to the governmental recommended daily intake. Another example is the formation of numerous campaigns aimed at raising awareness of the consequences of unhealthy diets and sedentary lifestyles such as Food4Thought and Change4life. These efforts did not only push fast food chains to add some healthy options to their menus, but also inspired the food industry to consider producing healthier convenience food products and making them readily available in supermarkets. 

Supermarket food products are generally trusted in Europe; in the UK for example, 44% of consumers believe that supermarkets provide all the products that lead to a healthy diet. Consumer trust is not only limited to the previous aspect, but it extends to the belief that these food stores are able to deliver personalised nutrition. A recent survey of 9381 European participants indicated that 17% prefer to get their personalised meals from supermarkets. Although this percentage came after family doctors (31%), dieticians (28%) and private health organisations (24%) it demonstrates a remarkable confidence by consumers that supermarkets can be as professional and scientific as specialised health care providers. It also illustrates the huge responsibility of supermarkets to keep up with their consumers’ expectations and increase their performance. 

In reality, UK supermarket strategies are continuously aiming to deliver healthier foods, either voluntarily to meet consumer demands or to comply with governmental targets and regulations. Nevertheless delivering fresh, healthy foods with extended shelf life can sometimes be very challenging from a sensorial and technical point of view. These challenges are, for example, represented by lack of consumer acceptance of less salty soups, or outlined by shelf-life reduction due to a decreased amount of added sugar in a confectionary product. In spite of these facts it is worth mentioning that some considerations for healthy production can be implemented simply and easily without any challenges. 

Several recent surveys have investigated the nutritional quality of ready meals offered by UK supermarkets. A study found that a significant number of food products (38%) sold as ‘meals’ did not contain enough calories (<500 kcal) to constitute a proper meal. Another research on 100 chilled ready meals from three leading UK supermarkets found that none of the analysed meals complied with all World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendations. Finally, a survey published in 2015 that looked into the nutritional profile of 166 ready meals from 41 food stores found that only 20% of those meals were low in fat, salt and sugar, including two-thirds of ‘healthier’ meals. This percentage even at 20% indicates that it is indeed feasible to sell healthy and tasty industrially produced food products.

At the moment, supermarket ready meals contribute to 7.4% of the ‘food to go’ market. Most current retailed meals need intensified research for controlling their nutrient composition, portion size and satiety effect, but evidence suggests that such achievements are possible if the demand is there. In the future, supermarkets will play a bigger role in supplying ready meals especially when methods of personalised nutrition and nutrigenomics are developed. 

 References 

• Celnik, D, Gillespie, L, and Lean, MEJ (2012) Time-scarcity, ready-meals, ill-health and the obesity epidemic. Trends in Food Science & Technology, 27(1), 4–11. 

• Howard, S, Adams, J and White, M (2012) Nutritional content of supermarket ready meals and recipes by television chefs in the United Kingdom: cross sectional study. British Medical Journal, 345, e7607. 

• http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/christopher-james-clark/5-inspiring-campaigns-to-_b_5755430.html 

• https://www.nhs.uk/change4life-beta/be-food-smart#gchdZ1AhVfdR7k7j.97

• IGD, press release (2016) IGD forecasts food-to-go to take bigger bite of UK grocery https://www.igd.com/about-us/media/press-releases/press-release/t/igd-forecasts-food-to-go-to-take-bigger-bite-of-uk-grocery/i/16150 

• Lobstein, T, and Davies, S (2008) Defining and labelling “healthy” and “unhealthy” food. Public Health Nutrition, 12(3), 331-40.

• Stewart-Knox, B J, Markovina, J, Rankin, A, Bunting, BP, Kuznesof, S, Fischer, ARH, van der Lans, IA, Poinhos, R, de Almeida, MDV, Panzone, L, Gibney, M and  Frewer, L J (2016). Making personalised nutrition the easy choice: Creating policies to break down the barriers and reap the benefits. Food Policy, 63, 134–44. 

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An article jointly written by Tim Foster and Yi Ren (University of Nottingham) has recently been published in Baking Europe. The article highlights the applications of alternative ingredients applied in the production of gluten-free bread and the challenges to create products with acceptable sensory attributes.

The application of alternative flour to manufacture gluten-free bread is mostly a blend of one or more types of starch-based flours and, in most cases, hydrocolloids. The article discusses some of the current hydrocolloid applications in gluten-free breads and a rising star in the gluten-free area, Psyllium, to achieve desirable properties in breads.

The future of gluten-free product quality may lie on a purpose designed blend of these starches and hydrocolloids. Read the full article in Baking Europe summer 2017 edition.

http://www.bakingeurope.eu/

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CIM Researchers at the 11th European PhD Workshop on Food Engineering and Technology

On the 27th and 28th of April two CIM members, Ernesto Tripodi and Panagiotis Arkoumanis, took part in the 11th European PhD Workshop on Food Engineering and Technology which was held in Singen (Germany) and hosted by the Nestlé Product Technology Centre. The workshop was organised by The European Federation of Food Science and Technology (EFFoST), the European Federation of Chemical Engineering (EFCE), Nestlé Research and the Bühler Group. For the workshop, 14 PhD researchers in food engineering and technology from 10 different countries were invited to present their work. The presentations were evaluated by a jury consisting of industrial representatives from Nestlé and Bühler Group and also leading food engineering Professors from different European universities.

Panagiotis and Ernesto presented their respective PhD work which have a common theme involving the study of lower-energy alternatives to food emulsification. In the first case, Panagiotis spoke on “Food-grade Pickering emulsions via rotating membrane emulsification”, whereas Ernesto presented on “Low-energy manufacture using Confined Impinging Jets”. Both Panagiotis and Ernesto successfully defended their work within the time slot reserved to the questions by the industrial representatives and academics after the presentation. They received positive feedback regarding the quality of their scientific work and overall presentations.

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CIM Conference 2017: 30-31st March

Holly Cuthill (researcher) and Natalie Chiu (CIM Outreach Officer) - University of Nottingham

The 2017 CIM conference was held at The University of Birmingham from the 30th to 31st March with 134 delegates and 62 industry representatives in attendance. Posters were set up for the full two days of the conference in addition to sessions running in break times and at the beginning of each day. The welcome and introduction was led by Professor Shahin Rahimifard. Emma McLeod from Mondelēz got the conference underway with ‘Challenges for the Future of our Food’ and spoke topically around sustainability and the importance of our research. The three topics focused on at the conference were Food Structure, Redistributed Manufacture and Food Waste.

‘Food Microstructure in the Era of Personalized Food Products’ by Professor José M. Aguilera Radic explained the term ‘neurogastronomy’ as being the study of food sensations in the brain. His talk on Gastronomic Engineering linked food engineering with material science and highlighted the important role chefs can play in development. Specific research has focused on modifying food structure to have a desired effect such as using protein to delay/restrict starch gelatinisation as well as using microgels as texture modifiers in foods. Dr Fotis Spyropoulos discussed ‘Formulation Design and Manufacture of Pickering emulsions’ and how they can be processed to have controlled release of molecules. ‘Manufacturing Pickering emulsions: pitfalls and how to avoid them’ by Dr Paul Clegg, a food physicist from University of Edinburgh, spoke about creating Pickering emulsions through increasing the interface and therefore creating more colliding particles.

Professor Alexander Mathys from ETH Zurich presented ‘Innovative food production systems driven by resource efficiency and sustainability principles’ with details on Life Cycle Sustainability Analysis (LCSA). Dr Patrick Webb spoke on his research group’s work on ‘Water sustainability for the food manufacturing industry’. Day one’s plenary talks concluded with Dr John Ingram presenting ‘Redistributing Manufacturing: localised food systems’ using case studies from around Oxfordshire to illustrate what the manufacturing future might be like.

The second day kicked off with Dr Gavin Milligan speaking on ‘Directions in Waste Valorisation, Case studies from FoodWasteNet’ which included some interesting statistics on the amount of edible waste from a variety of vegetables – leaving us with a bit of food for thought. Dr David Gray followed on introducing CIM research at the University of Nottingham with a focus on ‘Unlocking Ingredients of Value from Underutilised Biomass’. To finish, Professor Savvas Tassou from Brunel University presented interesting findings on different refrigeration systems in his talk titled ‘The RCUK Centre for Sustainable Energy Use in Food Chains - Research into Energy Demand Reduction’.

The afternoon of the second day was a Food Futures workshop led by Professor Peter Lillford and Professor Ian Norton. The workshop gathered members of the food industry, academia and other key stakeholders discussing and highlighting key areas of interests for food research in the upcoming years.   

Sessions on the three key topics are mentioned below with the abstracts available by following the links.

To find out more:

http://www.manufacturingfoodfutures.com/

http://www.manufacturingfoodfutures.com/reports/presentations.aspx

http://www.manufacturingfoodfutures.com/documents/programme-manufacuring-food-futures-2017.pdf

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The CIM Annual Conference is coming up for 2017!

The free event offers a chance for individuals interested in our research to attend presentations by researchers and visiting plenary speakers, browse additional posters and network with others involved in the CIM.

After a successful two-day event in Loughborough in 2016, the 2017 conference will be held at the University of Birmingham from the 30th-31st of March.

To register please follow the link below: https://manufacturingfoodfutures.eventbrite.com

Or to simply find out more: http://www.manufacturingfoodfutures.com/

We hope to see you there!

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Food Matters Live, November 2016

Panagiotis Arkoumanis, University of Birmingham & Michelle Neville, University of Nottingham

Food Matters Live is the UK’s only event bringing together all areas of the food and drink industry. This year’s Food Matters Live Event took place at the Excel, London. 

Following on from last year’s success, The CIM in Food team went along to share and exchange opinions with other delegates from the Food & Drink Sector as well as to exhibit amongst 600 other R&D organisations, food service providers, wholesalers, retailers and many more. 

One of the great things about Food Matters Live is the chance to see what’s new and upcoming in the world of new food products with entrepreneurial start-up food businesses showcasing their new ideas. This year’s new product development saw a huge focus on ‘Raw’, ‘Sugar Free’ ‘Fat Free’ and upgrading of waste materials – one of the highlights being the Beef Jerky made from Coconut flesh that smelled, tasted and felt like the real thing -  amazing!. 

Members of the CIM in Food Team had the opportunity to attend live discussions and workshops organised by Food & Drink experts with some very influential speakers including Lord Robert Winston and Paula Radcliffe MBE. The variety of activities were broad over the three day event but this year’s conference discussions and workshops mainly focused on health, nutrition, innovation and ideas towards sustainable food systems. 

The CIM in Food Team are always eager to attend such events, providing precious opportunity to network and to continue doing our part in shaping the future of food.

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Food Factory 2016

Ernesto Tripodi, University of Birmingham

CIM Members from the University of Birmingham, Mattia Cassanelli and Ernesto Tripodi, participated and presented on the 19th of October at the 8th International Food Factory Conference held in Laval, France (http://www.food-factory.fr/). Mattia and Ernesto each presented their current PhD work which are ‘’Drying techniques in the food industry’’ and ‘’Low-energy emulsification using confined impinging jets’’, respectively.

Food Factory 2016 was divided in four main sessions: (1) New food factory (2) Safe food factory (3) Green food factory (4) Smart food factory In these sessions, researchers from around the world presented their work and addressed the main problems that are currently being dealt with in both food research and in industry.

The presentations made by the two CIM researchers sparked interest amongst the audience which allowed Mattia and Ernesto to network during the Conference breaks.

Left: Mattia and Right: Ernesto giving their presentations at the conference

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Global Conference on Sustainable Manufacturing

Guillermo Garcia-Garcia, University of Loughborough

CIM researcher Guillermo Garcia-Garcia spoke on October 4th 2016 at the 14th Global Conference on Sustainable Manufacturing held in Stellenbosch, South Africa. He presented a conference paper titled “Optimising industrial food waste management”, which describes a framework for analysis of alternatives to manage different types of industrial food waste. Two case studies completed with key UK food manufacturers were presented too. The paper will shortly be published in Procedia Manufacturing and will be available for download at no cost (http://www.gcsm.eu/index.html).

The topic of the GCSM 2016 conference was “Decoupling growth from resource use”. The research talks aimed to bridge the gap between industrialized and emerging countries presenting the latest advancements in manufacturing technologies. Special attention was paid to discuss the three pillars of sustainability for those technologies: environmental, economic and social ramifications of key industrial processes assessed. Keynote speakers included Prof Günther Seliger (TU Berlin), Prof Francesco Jovane (Politecnico di Milano), Prof Fazleena Badurdeen (University of Kentucky) and Prof Stefan Bracke (Universität Wuppertal).

Guillermo also had the opportunity to discuss his work with top researchers from around the world during the conference breaks and dinner. The conference concluded with a visit to the Stellenbosch University, during which the attendees learned about the machine tools used to shape metal materials in the university laboratories, and a visit to a local company that manufactures plastic bottles and packaging materials for various applications.

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Teaching Food Science and Engineering in Cooking Master School

Mattia Cassanelli, University of Birmingham

A three-day training course on food science and engineering took place in Tione di Trento (TN) Italy at the beginning of November. Mattia Cassanelli, CIM researcher since March 2015 at the University of Birmingham, delivered a specific course on common ingredients from a scientific perspective to the Cooking Master School’ students (http://www.enaiptrentino.it/content/tecnico-superiore-di-cucina-e-della-ristorazione). The students attending the course were between 20 and 28 years old, cand came from different Italian regions stretching right the way from Sicily up to the northern side.

Above: The training course participants

Topics such as chocolate, ice cream, mayonnaise and emulsions, gels and spherification techniques as well as an overview about drying techniques in the food industry were presented, combining both theoretical and practical parts.

Above: Mattia explaining key concepts to the students

In particular the influence of water on chocolate blooming , 3D food printing, emulsion stabilisation, the role of ice cream ingredients, drying, caffeine extraction and some gelling agents were considered in detail throughout the session.

At the end of the course, the students were split into four groups and they were asked to prepare some desserts using these specific ingredients. Creativity, oral presentation embedding scientific terminology and organoleptic properties were the three main evaluation criteria.

Pictured Above: The best ranked sweet was created by using liquid nitrogen, liquorice gels and limoncello foam (in typical Italian spirit).

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Fotis Spyropoulos presenting at the Particles at Interfaces Conference.

Post submitted by Aris Lazidis, University of Birmingham

This September, CIM members from the University of Birmingham took part in the “Particles at Interfaces” Conference organised by the RSC/SCI Joint Colloids Group. Fotis Spyropoulos (pictured) delivered an oral presentation on the “Co-delivery of actives from Pickering emulsions” whilst Aris Lazidis presented his findings on “Stabilisation of emulsions and foams with wax nanoparticles” with a poster. The conference involved talks from a wide range of researchers with different backgrounds, working on the field, from around the world. The main topics covered were Pickering Emulsions and Foams, Applications of Pickering Systems, Design of interfacially active Particles, Identification of Particle interactions at Surfaces and Responsive/Multifunctional Particulate Systems. Excellent plenary lectures were given by experts like Bernard Binks and Vesselin Paunov from University of Hull, Steven Armes (University of Sheffield), Colin Bain (University of Durham), Paul Clegg (University of Edinburgh), Anthony Dinsmore (UMass Amherst), Annina Salonen (Universite Paris-Sud) and Jan Vermant (ETH Zurich). Many of the presentations inspired fruitful discussions which continued during the course of the conference breaks but also during the dinner and social activities. The opportunities for networking were many and everyone took advantage of them. We are now looking forward to the next meeting from the Joint Colloids Group.

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Inspiring the next generation of Thought Leaders

This month CIM researchers, Vincenzo di Bari, Joanne Gould, Steven Johnson, Michelle Neville and Jade Phillips, welcomed 18 students from the Sutton Trust Summer School to the Food Processing Hall at the University of Nottingham. The students took part in the “Creating Food Microstructures” activity where students studied, manufactured and tasted the different microstructures found in food.  

 The Sutton Trust is the UK’s leading charity improving social mobility through education. The trust works to combat educational inequality by breaking the link between educational opportunities and family background. Funded with partners and host universities, the trust currently supports nearly 2,000 students a year on their flagship summer schools programme. The summer schools offers students to try university life for one week through lectures, practicals, seminars and tutorials, but also a varied programme of social activities, giving participants an accurate idea of life as an undergraduate at a research-led university.

The session was split into 4 hands-on sessions focussing on products such as chocolate, butter, whipping cream and ice cream. In the first station, students were invited to contribute to on-going research at the University of Nottingham into the link between oral processing and the perceived texture of chocolate, by investigating the microstructure of the chocolate bolus produced before swallowing. At the churning of butter station students observed the phase inversion of cream to butter, and were able to compare this fresh butter to commercially produced butter. Following churning of butter, students were tasked with investigating the role of fat in stabilising air cells in whipped cream, which gave students an insight into how understanding ingredients and processes will enable us to engineer new healthier microstructures for future foods. Finally, students were able to get involved in a production run of ice cream using an industrial crystalliser, albeit on a smaller scale! Through these activities we aimed to teach the students that by understanding ingredients, microstructures and processes it will enable us to investigate manufacturing sustainable and healthy foods of the future. It was clear from the discussion afterwards that many students came away thinking we had a challenge on our hands, commenting that they would never have thought that simple day to day foods actually consisted of these complex microstructures!

http://summerschools.suttontrust.com/host-universities/university-of-nottingham/

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Water Minimisation in Food Manufacturing

Image: Multi-Analyte Sensor Kit (MASK)

Patrick Webb, University of Loughborough

Water is now a well-recognised sustainability concern in food manufacturing, with use of water resources a standard heading in corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting. One reason for scrutiny of multinationals over this issue is that in lower to middle income countries (LMICs) economic development can lead to competition for limited water resources between industry, agriculture and urban populations, with those least able to pay likely to lose out. This is reflected in the sixth of the UN Sustainable Development Goals “Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all” (1).

In the British context the Food and Drink Federation’s (FDF) 2013 position paper “A pre-competitive vision for the UK’s food and drink industries” (2) identified water together with energy as a priority area for research. Despite this, when it comes to sustainability investment decisions in the UK water often plays second fiddle to energy as direct costs are relatively low, both for supply and effluent disposal. Direct investment in water sustainability may be made on a strict cost-benefit basis, with payback periods in the order of two years. Stronger drivers are compliance or food safety. However there are other good reasons to pay attention to water usage and effluent production, as inefficiencies here may point to inefficiencies in production processes that are able to be addressed to bring down production costs and improve production flexibility. A simple example is analysing the true effect on hygiene of facility wash-downs. Washing at inappropriate times can actually spread microbial contamination through splashing and creation of aerosols, so that reducing cleaning frequency can actually improve hygiene while reducing water usage.

The key to water minimisation is to understand the existing use of water. Measurement of water use on site is the second step in the water reduction methodology described by WRAP in their publication “Your guide to water minimisation in the food and drink industry” (3). Sub-metering, the placement of water meters covering individual sections of a production facility, is one way of improving knowledge of water flow volumes and can provide benefits such as fast detection and localisation of leaks. In contrast the only hard data companies have on effluent typically comes from spot checks on the whole plant outflow for compliance purposes. The cause of any violations from the contamination levels in the discharge content may be unclear and have to be hunted down.

Food CIM research at the Centre for SMART at Loughborough University aims to provide the same level of process detail for effluent as is possible for water volumes, by identifying what and how much contamination each process in the manufacturing chain is putting into effluent. To achieve this an instrumentation set, dubbed ‘MASK’ (Multi-Analyte Sensor Kit) has been developed to allow easy, online and non-intrusive characterisation of process water content. As well as providing hard data to inform improvements in plant operation and design, MASK will have other uses, for example safety assurance for water reuse, or ensuring liquid waste streams are not disposed down the drain in contravention of company procedures. The sensor kit is currently being trialled in Food CIM partner facilities, and companies interested in MASK or in participating in the testing programme are invited to contact the lead researcher Patrick Webb.

Contact:

Patrick Webb

D.P.Webb@lboro.ac.uk

 References:

(1)   https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/

(2)   https://www.fdf.org.uk/events/Pre-Comp-Food-Booklet-Final.pdf

(3)   http://www.wrap.org.uk/sites/files/wrap/Water%20Minimisation%20in%20FD%20Industry.pdf

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Ouzo Effect

Saniye Samanci, University of Nottingham

Anise-flavoured alcoholic beverages have been consumed in the Middle East and Mediterranean countries for centuries. In these countries it is known by different names such as Raki, Araka, Araki; in France Pastis, Pernod, Ricard; in Italy Sambuca; in Greece Ouzo and in Turkey Raki (Scholten et al. 2008).

In Turkey the history of the Raki goes back 300 years and, unlike wine and beer, it is not produced via fermentation.  Typical Raki production involves a double-distillation step of grape pomace which is then mixed with ethanol in copper alembics before flavouring with aniseed.

Whatever it is named or however it is produced the unique thing about this alcoholic beverage is the phenomenon of turning milky white upon the addition of water. This sudden change in colour is known as the “Ouzo effect” (Vitale and Katz 2003). Typical Raki is composed of water (55%), Ethanol (45%) and 1.5- 1.7 gram of anise oil per litre. Anise oil is a naturally occurring water insoluble. It mainly contains trans-anethole (t-A), an ester with a very specific odour. (Carteau et al.2006).

Image: Sudden colour change in the trans-anethole/ethanol/water ternary system upon dilution with water.

There have been numerous studies undertaken in order to understand the mechanism behind the sudden oil droplet formation that occurs during the “Ouzo effect”, a so-called ‘spontaneous emulsification1’.  There are three different views on how this spontaneous emulsification of t-A occurs; it could be that surface tension fluctuations at the interface between the oil and bulk aqueous phases which triggers the phenomenon (Carteau et al.2007), or perhaps it is a mechanism known as ‘diffusion-stranding’ related to localised interface saturation and subsequent stranding of oil droplets caused by solvent diffusion, as has been suggested by Quintanar-Guerrero and co-workers (1997). The third suggestion from Vitale and Katz (2003) reported that the formation of oil droplets is due to homogeneous nucleation at a high rate, creating a large number of very small droplets.

Regardless of the mechanism spontaneous emulsification by the “Ouzo effect” has been receiving great attention from many industries; cosmetics, food and pharmaceutical sciences, for example, because compared to other emulsification techniques (generally high speed mixing) it does not require a large energy input in order to create an emulsion with droplet size in the submicron-range which would be favoured in these applications.

1)    Emulsification may be described as the process in which a liquid becomes dispersed, usually as droplets, in another liquid where normally these substances would not be miscible. Common food emulsion examples are mayonnaise (oil in water) or margarine (water in oil)

References

Scholten E., Linden E. and This Herve (2008) The life an Anise-Flavored alcoholic beverage: Does its stability cloud or confirm theory? Langmuir, 24, pp. 1701-1706.    

Vitale S.A. and Katz J.L. (2003) Liquid droplet dispersion formed by homogeneous liquid-liquid nucleation: “The Ouzo Effect”. Langmuir,19, pp.4105-4110.

Carteau D., Brunerie P., Guillemat B. and Bassani, D.M. (2006) Photochemistry in everyday life: The effect of spontaneous emulsification on the photochemistry of trans-anethole. Photochemical &Photobiological Sciences, 6, pp.423-430.

[ciminfood-blog]

Inside the IFST Spring Conference 2016 : Waste not, want not

Jade Phillips, University of Nottingham

The aim of the IFST’s 2016 conference ‘Waste not, want not’ in Birmingham was to highlight key global issues relating to the sustainability of food production and what sustainability for our planet actually entails. In the last 40 years alone, world produce production has increased by 25% per capita (Pretty et al, 2003). It was suggested that leading up to the present day we have been misinformed on an accurate definition of sustainability. An individual assumes/it is suggested that it is an increase of efficiency which, we learned at the conference, is now thought to be incorrect. In the Brundtland report (1987) sustainability was defined as “development that meets the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs”. Somehow, along the way of developing our nations and improving global productivity this definition seems to have been lost.  It is estimated that a third of food is being wasted annually (Gustavsson et al, 2011). This statistic, coupled with the challenging foresight that we will need to feed over 9 billion people by 2050 (Godfray et al, 2010), suggests that we have failed to sustain the global food production market, in accordance with the rise in worldwide population growth and one day in our generation we may see a drastic change. An example of this was given by a leading expert in aquaculture at the conference who stated that aquaculture production needs to increase by 46.4% in the next decade in order to meet demands of individuals across the globe.

With this in mind, food and beverage manufacturing companies are attempting to make their companies more sustainable, in order to meet the rising demand beginning to emerge now and will continue in the near future. This includes reducing: water consumption, carbon emissions and energy required to create each calorie of a total product. Some solutions to achieve these sustainability goals involved having energy management and carbon control systems in place at all steps of the food supply chain.

A suggestion was put forward that to improve global productivity of food production and manufacture a higher tax and price on specific products which bare excessive, negative impacts on the planet should be implemented, thereby reverting consumers away from these particular products and onto equivalent products that are both cheaper and more sustainable to produce. A key example mentioned was meat. In this product case study, the cost of land, water and carbon are not always reflected within the price. Meat is the number one contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and a report by Reijnders and Soret (2003) suggested that, per unit protein produced, meat production requires 6 to 17 times as much land as soy. Additionally, on average, 40-50% of the global grain production is used for livestock feed but can be as high as 70% in developed countries( Lundqvist et al, 2008). In conclusion of this particular segment it was suggested by several members at the conference that a reduction in meat consumption by individuals is key in order to sustain the environment we live in.

Another key suggestion made was to reduce food waste by any means necessary at a consumer level, which is where waste occurs in the largest proportion (FAO, 2011).  It was acknowledged at the conference that customers identified three main barriers when shopping: nutrient information being difficult to read/understand on packaging, advertised health claims and price. However, the largest concern when purchasing food and beverage products overall was that consumers no longer trust what is written on the label. Considerations for improvement of a reduction of waste could include battling these concerns and barriers for consumers.

A powerful thought provoked by one of the conference speakers was to imagine ‘if you were on a spaceship, where does the waste go? It stays on the spaceship. Eventually, like a spaceship, we too would run out of space and therefore eventually live in a dump.’ Something needs to be done in order to prevent global environmental impacts and sustain the planets livelihood for following generations to come and it needs to occur sooner rather than later. The EPSRC CIM in Food considers many aspects of enabling a sustainable environment for the future in projects which are undertaken, thus linking well with the content of the conference and global demand trends for action in this area.

References:

FAO. (2011). Global food losses and food waste – Extent, causes and prevention. Rome

Godfray, C , Beddington, J , Crute, I, Haddad, L ,Lawrence, D ,Muir, J , Pretty, J ,Robinson, S ,Thomas, S ,Toulmin,C. (2010). Food Security: The Challenge of Feeding 9 Billion People. Science . 327 (1), 812-818.

Gustavsson, J., Cederberg, C., Sonesson, U., van Otterdijk, R., and Meybeck, A. (2011). Global Food Losses and Food Waste. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Available at: http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/ags/publications/GFL_web.pdf  

Lundqvist, J., de Fraiture, C., Molden, D. (2008). Saving Water: From Field to Fork – Curbing Losses and Wastage in the Food Chain. SIWI Policy Brief. SIWI. Available at: http://www.siwi.org/documents/Resources/Policy_Briefs/PB_From_Filed_to_Fork_2008.pdf

Pretty, J, Morison, J, Hine, R . (2003). Reducing food poverty by increasing agricultural sustainability in developing countries. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment. 95 (1), 217.

Reijnders and Soret. (2003). Quantification of the environmental impact of different dietary protein choices. Am J Clin Nutr. 78 (3), 6645-6685.

[ciminfood-blog]

Additive Manufacturing for the Food Industry

Sonia Holland, University of Nottingham

Images clockwise from top left : TNO pasta collaboration with Barilla ; ChocEdge 3D printed Paul McCartney based on scanned data ; 3D Systems and Modernist Cuisine Gaudi inspired sugar sculpture ; Cornell deep fried scallop spaceship

The last decade has seen great advances and progress in additive manufacturing (AM, commonly referred to as ‘3D Printing’) technology due to increased interest in funding R&D coupled with the expiry of a number of key patents in the area. Many manufacturing industries are now able to utilise the technology to rapidly produce intricate prototypes or end use products. These innovations are ongoing with more recent research also being conducted to find biomedical applications for the technology, and finally the role it could play in manufacturing food products. AM technology is an exciting topic and fairly well reported in the media due to the ‘futuristic’, ‘rapid’ and ‘novel’ connotations associated with the process and finished products, in particular for food applications due to the relatability for most people. In February this year Food AM was featured on the finale of BBC’s “Tomorrow’s Food” presented by Dara O’Briain1. Much interest was also generated in 2014 by the NASA funded project into 3D printed food primarily for astronauts2,3.

Though there are 7 recognised AM processes, each with differing energy sources, raw material input and layer fusing mechanisms (thus particular advantages and disadvantages for certain applications) in food Fused Deposition Modelling/extrusion techniques have been most common. The raw material is typically a paste that is pushed out of a small nozzle and builds up the 3D object layer-by-layer based on a computer design. Due to the technology being readily available to hobbyist users and machine flexibility it is difficult to know how many users have simply modified printers to take food cartridges. However, there are also many researchers and 3D printing companies who are investigating the potential for food printing either within their own groups or as collaborations with industry and culinary experts.

Cornell University in the US had a Food AM group headed by Jeffrey Lipton4 who extruded a number of paste-based products such as cookie dough, corn noodle dough, meat pastes and chocolate into interesting shapes (a deep fried rocket ship made of scallop meat, for example). TNO in the Netherlands are still conducting research in the area. After the completion of the PERFORMANCE project in October 20155 in which AM technology was used as an enabler in designing texturised food for elderly consumers they have continued other work streams such as the collaboration with Barilla pasta features on “Tomorrow’s Food”.

3D Systems, an established producer of 3D printers have entered the world of food AM through collaboration particularly when working with sugar in a binder jetting process6. As opposed to extruding a paste this process deposits small droplets of a binding material onto a powder (in this case sugar) in order to stick them together. The binder can be coloured to achieve some of the intricate sculptures they have created. Quite a few parties have used chocolate as a 3D printing material, notably ChocEdge7 developed a printer exclusively designed for chocolate printing as it began as a research project within the University of Exeter and has since expanded. When printing chocolate temperature considerations are key in melting and setting the chocolate again to allow correct bonding between the layers.

As alluded to previously, there are many other food AM printers and companies in existence (notably 3DChef, Bocusini and Foodini) it would be difficult to summarise them all in this post. However, there is an emerging theme in what has been seen with Food AM to date – the focus has primarily been interesting shape generation. While this in itself is an achievement to be able to ‘freely’ design and create objects that would be impossible by conventional methods, particularly for culinary application, it is not the full only thing AM has to offer the food industry. Indeed, there is potential for mass customisation of products – for example in shape, colour and flavour – because utilising AM technology can lead to distributed manufacture, where the product design data could be downloaded to a machine at your local supermarket or in your home, ‘customised’ and the result be printed out at point of sale or consumption (it is not as simple as this in real terms but gives the general idea). Building on from this, research in our CIM into food AM is more focused towards printing food ingredients, utilising the control and design freedom AM provides to provide inherent functionality or allow for construction of typical food texture and microstructure from less traditional ingredients.

1.       http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/proginfo/2015/49/tomorrows-food

2.  http://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/home/feature_3d_food_prt.htm

3.       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYB559Is9Y0

4.       http://creativemachines.cornell.edu/node/194

5.       http://www.performance-fp7.eu/media-corner/

6.       http://uk.3dsystems.com/culinary

7.        http://chocedge.com/