August 2014 Issue 12Riddet Institute

Private Bag 11 222Palmerston North

New Zealand

www.riddet.ac.nz

ISSN 2324-2949 (Print) ISSN 2324-2957 (Online)

Riddet Review

Riddet Institute

– an International

BenchmarkPage 2

What we

all need to

know about

FODMAPsPage 4

Honouring

Professor

Jim HarperPage 3

Collaboration

with prestigious

French research

centrePage 9

Professor Jim Harper was well known to many in the New Zealand food

industry as a leading food scientist, both in New Zealand and in the United

States. He played a huge role in the New Zealand dairy industry during

the 1980s.

He started the Whey Products Section at the New Zealand Dairy Research Institute (NZDRI) which, over the course of 5 years, developed the ultrafiltration process for whey to produce a range of functional whey protein concentrates. This technique allowed underutilized whey to become a profitable product. These concentrates changed the face of the New Zealand dairy industry as we know it. Jim was made an honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1998, in recognition of his contribution to the New Zealand dairy industry.

Professor Peter Munro comments “Jim made a huge contribution to the science needed to develop the whey protein concentrate industry in New Zealand. He tells the story in his own words in a fascinating chapter in the recently published book Whey to Go.”

After leaving his full-time job at NZDRI to resume an academic role at the Ohio State University, Jim returned regularly to the NZDRI, and subsequently Fonterra, during the Northern winter. From 2006 onwards, Dr Harper spent the winter quarter in New Zealand working alongside Dr Mike Boland of the Riddet Institute on a wide variety of topics. These areas of research included nanotechnology, the effects of high pressure processing on muscle tissue from meat and fish, and protein nutrition for the elderly.

After 2010, then in his late 80s, Jim could no longer maintain his regular visits to New Zealand due to health considerations, but his presence was by no means forgotten. He was honoured at the inaugural Riddet Institute National Conference: “Future of Food” in 2009 with the Harper symposium. This symposium covered the uses of dairy protein in foods of the future. At the symposium, Jim presented a paper on “Foods of the Future”, which concluded with the statement: “and as in the past - the future will surprise and astound us”. A statement that typifies Jim’s interest and excitement about a science-enabled future.

Jim contributed chapters to a number of New Zealand-originated books, including the above-mentioned Whey to Go, the recently published Food Structures, Nutrition and Health and both editions of Milk Proteins: from Expression to Food.

Professor Jim Harper (1923-2014), Faculty Emeritus at

Ohio State University (USA), passed away on the 13th July.

Message from the Directors

The Institute is greatly buoyed by the news

that there is to be new Government funding

for three further CoREs, following the recent

funding round. The Institute will be doing all

that it can to demonstrate the unquestionable

excellence of its science and the pivotal role

it plays in the New Zealand economy.

Riddet Institute a key contributor to ‘High-Value Nutrition’

High-Value Nutrition (HVN) is one of New Zealand’s ten National Science

Challenges, and aims to carry out clinically-based, biomedical research

to provide new opportunities for the development of high-value foods

with validated health claims.

HVN is required to undergo an establishment phase in 2014 to develop a comprehensive research and business plan for the 10-year challenge. The development of the research plan is led by the Science Leadership Team (SLT) chaired by Professor David Cameron-Smith. The Riddet Institute has been involved in developing this, and three Riddet Institute investigators (Professor Harjinder Singh, Dr. Nicole Roy and Dr Lisa Te Morenga) are members of the SLT.

The HVN programme focuses on four priority health targets: (i) Maternal and childhood, (2) Metabolic disease, (3) Gut and immunity and (4) Mobility. This research will be complementary to research programmes of the Riddet Institute, focussed on food structures, digestion and health. The Riddet Institute research findings and its extensive international network will feed directly into the HVN programme.

NEWS

FRONT COVER: Since its inception in 2003, the Riddet Institute has made many significant contributions to the global knowledge base on a wide range of different topics. Institute staff and associates have written hundreds of journal articles, and contributed to or edited numerous books. The cover image for this Riddet Review celebrates a number of authoritative books edited and/or authored by Riddet Institute investigators.

It is of note that Research Institutes dedicated to the important

area interconnecting food structure, digestion and nutrition

are beginning to be established elsewhere. Over the last year,

the Co-Directors have been asked to provide high level input

to prospective centres in the United Kingdom, Ireland, the

Netherlands and Norway. Increasingly the Riddet Institute is

seen as a benchmark in this area.

Riddet Institute – an International Benchmark

Jim Harper: a world-leading

food scientist

“Those of us who worked with him will

remember Jim’s cheerful disposition, his

willingness to engage in debate on a wide

range of science topics, his passion for

supporting and developing students and

early career scientists, and his love of a

good cup of coffee” says Mike Boland.

.3.2

FODMAPs is an increasingly recognised medical condition that is caused by various carbohydrates in our foods. In some people these carbohydrates end up being fermented by bacteria in the large intestine, where the result is bloating and general discomfort.

Anyone who bloats after a feed of artichokes or onions knows the unpleasantness of the fermentation effects all too well. People tend to self-diagnose, and higher awareness of so-called “gluten intolerance” (which supposedly gives similar gut symptoms to what is now known as FODMAPs) means that gluten often gets the blame.

Gluten is well proven to be the cause of the celiac disease that afflicts about 1 person in 100, but that is a separate condition to that caused by FODMAPS, and involves observable damage to the villi on the walls of the small intestine. Gluten intolerance is also known as non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS), and self-diagnosis usually comes about when an individual stops eating gluten-containing foods and the troubling gut problems go away.

However, research is finding that when most people with so-called gluten-intolerance are fed a diet free of FODMAPs and are then also fed gluten, they do not experience

the symptoms of “gluten-intolerance”. In a recent clinical trial, this happened to 34 out of 37 “gluten intolerant” subjects. A gluten-free diet appears to alleviate symptoms and convinces people into thinking they are gluten intolerant because FODMAPs and gluten usually are both present in the gluten-containing foods that “gluten-intolerant” people avoid. There is an interesting psychology to all this – we’re so focused on the notion of “gluten intolerance” that participants in the clinical trials who reacted positively to the removal of FODMAPs and suffered no adverse response to gluten refused to believe that gluten was not the cause of their conditions!

FODMAPs is a tricky condition to treat and it seems that what works for some people may not necessarily work for someone else. Therefore, a fair bit of experimentation might be needed for someone to determine what diet suits best. However, the medical fraternity is becoming increasingly more aware of FODMAPs and there are very good

websites providing dietary advice. Cereal grains like wheat and rye contain lower levels of FODMAPs than foods like onions, artichokes and various fruits, but because we generally eat more grain-based foods we are ingesting more FODMAPs from those sources. Anyone who has a genuine FODMAP condition may find that avoiding grain foods helps alleviate the symptoms.

Finally, there is a large school of scientists who need to catch up with these developments and consider how we further our understanding of them. Plenty of papers in the literature cite “the facts” about the 1% of consumers with celiac disease (true) and the other 8% or so who suffer from gluten intolerance (maybe not so true if FODMAPs are actually responsible). The recent reopening of the debate around the effect of saturated fats on health suggests there will be plenty of scope to research and debate these nutrition and health related issues in the years to come. In the meantime, maybe we should not be so ready to blame gluten.

PERSONAL OPINION

The FODMAP acronym

comes from the

general classification

of these problematic

carbohydrates -

Fermentable

Oligosaccharides

Disaccharides

Monosaccharides and

Polyols.

FODMAPs and the digestive system – is gluten unfairly getting the blame?

Nigel LarsenScience Group Leader,

Plant & Food Research

Principal Investigator,

Riddet Institute

www.riddetfoodlink.co.nz

The way our intestines function is influenced by a number of factors, including our genetics, our diet and the specific types of microorganisms that colonise them. The total collection of intestinal microorganisms, known as the microbiota, plays an important role in keeping us healthy.

How does a mother’s diet and intestinal bacteria influence her baby’s gut health?

When the microbiota is balanced in favour of ‘good’ bacteria, it breaks down dietary compounds that our bodies cannot digest, prevents ‘bad’ pathogenic bacteria from growing in our intestines, and helps maintain a strong immune system. Bifidobacteria and Lactobacillus are examples of beneficial species of intestinal bacteria that may have a role in preventing the development of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. If the microbiota becomes dominated by undesirable bacteria, a number of health issues can develop.

The microbiota that colonises our intestine as babies can have a significant impact on the development of our intestine and our immune system. The main source of these bacteria is our mother’s own microbiota. Before and during birth, the baby is exposed to bacteria from the mother’s vagina and faeces, which begins the process of colonisation of the intestinal tract. In the first few months following birth, the type of feeding (breast vs. bottle), general environment and any antibiotic treatments also contribute to setting and maintaining the balance of bacteria that make up our intestinal microbiota. Breast-fed infants receive additional bacteria from their mother’s milk. These bacteria are thought to travel from the mother’s intestinal tract to the milk ducts through her blood and lymphatic system. It has therefore been suggested that improving the mother’s microbiota may also help to prevent the development of diseases in her child.

The food we eat has a significant effect on the types of bacteria that make up our intestinal microbiota, and eating certain types of food has been shown to be the most effective way to improve and maintain a healthy intestinal microbiota. “Prebiotics” are compounds in foods that encourage the growth of health-promoting bacteria such as Bifidobacteria. Human milk has high levels of special complex sugars called oligosaccharides, which act as prebiotics. This means that they are able to stimulate the growth of health-promoting microbiota as well as improve our immune response.

To explore whether feeding a mother prebiotics similar to those found in human breast milk may have benefits for her baby, a goat milk oligosaccharide-enriched dietary supplement was developed. Goat milk was chosen after analysis of milk from different animals showed it had the oligosaccharide profile most similar to human milk. In the laboratory, this supplement was able to increase the number and function of a specific Bifidobacteria strain isolated from the faeces of babies. These goat milk oligosaccharides were also fed to pregnant and lactating mice, and showed benefits for the composition and metabolism of the intestinal microbiota in both mother and baby mice.

The next step is to analyse changes in various indicators of the health and function of intestinal microbiota in human mothers and babies following the consumption of goat milk oligosaccharides by the mother. This information will help us better understand how a mother’s diet can influence the health and well-being of her baby via her intestinal microbiota.

RESEARCH QUESTION

Caroline ThumPhD student

Riddet Institute, AgResearch

RIDDET INSTITUTE KEY RESEARCHERS

Dr Nicole RoyRiddet Institute, AgResearch

Dr Adrian CooksonRiddet Institute, AgResearch

Dr Warren McNabbRiddet Institute, AgResearch

“The quantity and quality of the mother’s

food during pregnancy and lactation are

the most influential but modifiable factors

that can affect the baby’s growth and

development. Prebiotics have a significant

influence on our gut health and it is

very important to understand how they

simultaneously influence the health of the

mother and her baby.”

www.riddetfoodlink.co.nz

.5.4

Many people will be aware of the problems with iron-deficiency anaemia in developing countries, particularly among primarily vegetarian populations. However, they may not be aware that this is also a significant issue in many Western countries.

Increasing numbers of pre-menopausal women consume little or no red meat, and are often not obtaining adequate iron from other food sources.

Food fortification has been recommended as a long term strategy to solve this problem. However, fortification of foods, especially liquid products, with iron is technically challenging owing to its reactivity with food components. Interactions of iron with food components can negatively affect the colour and flavour of food products. This means that very few liquid products on the supermarket shelf are fortified with meaningful quantities of iron, with dairy products being particularly challenging.

Interestingly, milk proteins bind iron more strongly than calcium, and scientists have been considering how to use this behaviour to help fortify food products with iron for over half a century. However, they have not previously been able to find a way to do this in a manner that enables a significant amount of iron to be added without it becoming unstable and precipitating.

As part of Vikas Mittal’s PhD project, the Riddet Institute has developed a new process for binding iron to milk proteins. This involves adding a particular type of phosphate, a mineral

that is already naturally present in milk. This enables the amount of iron to be increased by more than 6 times what was previously possible, without destabilisation. This process has been further optimised to allow the commercial-scale production of a powdered ingredient with significant benefits for iron fortification. The same approach could also be used to develop fortificants with other essential minerals, including zinc and copper, either individually or in combination.

Using this technology, iron can be successfully added to raw milk prior to the normal pasteurisation process, with no changes in its flavour or colour. The fortified milk can also be used to make cups of tea or coffee, for cooking and baking, on cereal or in porridge. Similarly, iron can be added to other dairy products, including yoghurt and ice-cream, with no negative sensory effects, as well as to a wide variety of non-dairy food and beverage products.

The addition of extra calcium to milk has enabled many women to make a simple substitution of “blue-top” for “yellow-top” in the supermarket and thus easily get an extra boost of calcium. This technology means that this is now also possible with iron. It just remains to be seen what colour top “Ferri-trim” will have.

RESEARCH QUESTION

Can we help people get more iron without changing their food consumption patterns?

Vikas MitalPhD student

Riddet Institute

RIDDET INSTITUTE KEY RESEARCHERS

Professor Harjinder Singh Riddet Institute

Dr Ashling EllisRiddet Institute

Dr Aiqian YeRiddet Institute

“This project has given

rise to new ingredients,

innovative technologies,

novel science and opened

up opportunities for

future research.”

I have visited China regularly since 1998, and have spoken at numerous conferences there. My underlying reason for this is to see how we can take NZ Inc (in one form or another) to the world’s most populous country.

New Zealand and Traditional Chinese Medicine – a combination with real potential?

We now have in China a burgeoning middle class that is growing each year, becoming more educated and beginning to have better living standards and prosperity. New Zealand supported China’s entry to the World Trade Organisation and has established the first Free Trade Agreement between a western nation and China.

This has given New Zealand a great head start in terms of engaging with China from an agri-food perspective. Coupled with New Zealand’s desire to increase its agri-food exports from the $24 billion to $62 billion by 2025 (requiring a compounding 7% annual growth rate), there is both a huge opportunity and a significant challenge for those of us in business and in academia to help make this happen. New products leveraging smart innovation coming from world-class research will help bridge this gap. It is my belief that the Riddet Institute and its partners have a major role to play here.

For the past 10 years, I have been involved in a joint venture operation in China to establish clinics for the treatment of diabetes, combining western methodology and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). The project has been given priority status by the Chinese Government, who have also provided subsidies to help get the clinics up and running.

Engaging with TCM provides a number of potential opportunities for New Zealand. I am assisting my Chinese colleagues in organising a forum on the Internationalization in Agriculture of Traditional Chinese Medicine, to be hosted by Massey University’s College of Health at Albany on the 20th of November 2014. China will be represented by 30-40 academics from some of the 53 TCM universities and Colleges in China, as well as Central Government Senior Health TCM officials. We have also founded the China/New Zealand Diabetes Research Institute as a Charitable Trust, which will feature leading academics and researchers from both China and NZ.

This forum will focus on how New Zealand’s agricultural and scientific communities may engage with TCM for mutual benefit. This may lead to such initiatives as collaborations to grow herbs in NZ for Chinese foodstuffs and medicines, collaborations over foods that provide TCM-based benefits for international markets, or collaborations to develop foods with TCM-components that meet the specific preferences of Chinese taste buds.

I am excited about this forum and what it may lead to. But hopefully this will be the first of many such interactions, as NZ Inc begins to consider the varied and significant opportunities that China and TCM may have to offer our agri-food industry.

PERSONAL OPINION

www.riddetfoodlink.co.nz www.riddetfoodlink.co.nz

Bruce Ullrich, OBEDirector of FCS Group

Massey University Council Member

Honorary Professor of Shanxi University of TCM

Bruce Ullrich, Massey University

Council Member, recently visited the

Riddet Institute and spoke to staff

about his interest in Traditional

Chinese Medicine. In this article, he

presents some of his thoughts on the

opportunities this area provides.

.7.6

Riddet Co-director receives international accolade

Distinguished Professor Paul Moughan, co-director

of the Riddet Institute, has been awarded an

honorary Doctorate in Science from the University

of Guelph in Canada, for his significant academic

contributions and leadership in food and human

nutrition sciences. The award was made at the

recent Spring Convocation of the university.

Guelph Vice-Chancellor Alastair Summerlee describes Professor Moughan as “truly impressive” and stated “he has helped make New Zealand a world leader integrating food science and food engineering with human nutrition and physiology related to human health”.

The University of Guelph is one of the world’s leading universities in food and agriculture.

Collaboration with prestigious French research centre

The Riddet Institute is part of an exciting and wide-ranging collaboration with the French National Institute for Agricultural

Research (INRA), one of Europe’s leading research centres. Both institutes have particular interests around factors that affect

protein digestion, and there are several joint projects currently underway to explore different aspects of this.

NEWS

Institute collaborates with top scientists

The Riddet Institute has a strong trackrecord of collaborating

with prestigious scientists from around the world. In the first half

of 2014, we hosted Professor Robert Wolfe, director of the Center

for Translational Research in Aging and Longevity at Texas A&M

University, and Associate Professor Thomas Walczyk, head of the

NUTRI-Trace group at the National University of Singapore.

Professor Wolfe is among the most prolific and well-published researchers in the fields of exercise science, nutrition, and aging. He is one of the highest NIH funded medical scientists in the USA. While here, he spoke about how to assess the optimal protein intake of older adults. This visit formed part of his ongoing collaborative research with the Riddet Institute, looking into the effects of nutrient intake and absorption kinetics on lean body mass and muscle function in older people.

Associate Professor Walczyk’s research group is one of the few groups worldwide that is capable of tracing element uptake, utilisation and excretion in the human body using stable isotope techniques. He visited in May to assist with a stable isotope study in healthy young women to assess the bioavailability of the Institute’s novel iron fortificant, FerriPro. He also met with Riddet Institute staff to discuss other potential applications of the stable or semi-stable isotope techniques, and possible further collaborative projects for the future.

Student explores the tiny world of microRNA

Ivy Men, a Riddet Institute PhD student at

AgResearch, is exploring whether a type of

small molecule called microRNA (miRNA)

that is found in various food sources may

survive the process of digestion, and

subsequently influence human intestinal

function by interacting with our genes.

NEWS

Jointly funded by the Riddet Institute and Gravida (National Research Centre for Growth & Development), Ivy is only 9 months into her PhD, but was recently awarded “highly commended” for a 3-minute thesis presentation and a poster at the 2014 Gravida Symposium.

During her project, Ivy will be investigating how miRNAs are produced, their functions, and their interactions in complex environments such as the human intestine. Her work will provide fundamental clues as to their roles in health, and allow us to develop a deeper and better understanding of food beyond its nutritional properties.

INRA’s Dr Mylène Gobert spent 6 months at the Riddet Institute earlier this year, working alongside Dr Mike Boland. Mylène’s project is exploring whether the oxidation of polyunsaturated fats that occurs during chewing affects meat protein quality and digestibility. It has been suggested that oxidised fats may react with proteins within the meat, and make the proteins more difficult to digest. Mylène compared grass-fed beef (low fat content) to grain-fed beef (high fat content).

There is a growing interest in feeding cattle with particular grains that will enhance their polyunsaturated fat levels. However, caution may need to be taken if indeed it is found that oxidation of fats affect digestibility. This information is valuable, particularly as the commodity price of beef continues to increase and the need, if not expectation, for quality products continues.

The Riddet Institute is currently hosting PhD candidate, Kera Nyemb. Kera is supervised by Professors Françoise Nau and Didier Dupont at INRA and Associate Professor Shane Rutherfurd from the Riddet Institute. Kera is part of a team investigating aspects of protein digestion in the gut, using both in vitro and animal models.

In work recently published in the journals Food Chemistry and Food Research International, the team found that heating egg white under different conditions enabled manipulation of the protein nanostructures that were formed. They subsequently analysed how these proteins were broken down at different stages of digestion in vitro, and found significant differences between them. This suggests that the way that the egg white proteins are cooked may impact their digestibility, which has important nutritional consequences. While Kera is in New Zealand, she will be working with Shane and other Riddet Institute colleagues to undertake this same experiment using a pig model.

“My project is interesting because understanding the relationship between food structure and health can help us to better design foods for certain categories of people with particular dietary needs, such as neonates, infants and the elderly”, she says.

Dr Laetitia Theron of INRA will be presenting work completed in collaboration with Riddet Institute researchers Drs Lovedeep Kaur and Mike Boland at the forthcoming 60th ICOMST conference in Uruguay on August 17-22. The presentation, Meat Proteolysis by Pepsin Highlighted by Maldi Imaging Mass Spectrometry highlights the in situ hydrolysis of proteins to peptides during the digestion of meat. This work has developed as part of the collaboration between Riddet Institute and INRA workers under a Dumont D’Urville collaboration grant (DDU 13-01).

In the project, MALDI (Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization) Mass spectrometry imaging was used to obtain the ionic map of proteins directly on the muscle section. This method allowed the researchers to localise the appearance and disappearance of proteins or fragments of proteins. These images could then be overlaid with images from microscopy and immuno-labeling for specific meat proteins. The results give new insights into the mechanisms of enzyme action within the muscle structure, and demonstrate the successful adaptation of technology originally developed for medical imaging into the sphere of food science.

.9.8

Riddet Institute at the IFT conference in New Orleans

NEWS

The Riddet Institute was well represented at this year’s annual meeting of the US Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) in New Orleans. It was the 75th anniversary of the event, which combines a large scientific programme and Institute planning meetings with the world’s largest food expo.

As an invited speaker, Dr Simon Loveday described the breadth, potential applications, and challenges associated with nano-encapsulation systems. These systems may allow for the ability to deliver biologically active substances into targeted tissues, enhancement of the flavour and other sensory characteristics of foods and the introduction of antibacterial nanostructures in food packaging. The meeting also gave him a chance to hear about the future of food technology: “the thing I like about this conference is… you get the chance to look up from your own specific focus and around at the ideas in other areas” Simon says.

Prateek Sharma presented results from a novel technique that can successfully measure the steady shear viscosity of mozzarella cheese. This was previously very difficult, because of the nature of the cheese, the fat melting at high temperatures, and changes to the structure and viscosity of cheese. Sharma demonstrated how changing the measurement conditions and using polymer rheology techniques may overcome such difficulties.

Professor Peter Munro (Fonterra Chair in Food Materials Science at the Riddet Institute) also attended the conference, primarily to gain further insight into emerging trends and scientific developments in the wider food technology space. Some of the discussions that he found particularly engaging ranged from how to produce food suitable for a trip to Mars through to how to reduce food waste, and understanding processed and imitation cheese, to how physiological differences in preferences for food texture may influence the development of future foods.

A relatively new addition to the IFT agenda was an international strategic leadership programme called LEAD360, which runs in parallel to the main meeting. The goal of LEAD360 is to build a group of leaders who will champion food science and technology in the 21st Century. It was born out of the recognition

Research Officer Dr Simon Loveday and PhD student Prateek Sharma both gave presentations on their research at the Riddet Institute.

that by 2050 the world’s population will reach over 9 billion, requiring food scientists to develop a strategy to meet the demands of these people. The programme aims to teach emerging global leaders personal and professional skills, as well as to foster lifelong connections within the industry, academia, and government. To help meet these aims, participants were asked to jointly identify a project that makes a small but meaningful contribution to an issue of relevance to them and their communities, and work on this together over the course of the workshop and the coming year. This is invaluable in shifting the programme from simply providing short-term connections to instead fostering long-term collaborations.

Dr Abby Thompson, Riddet Institute’s Food Innovation Manager, was selected as New Zealand’s representative for the inaugural LEAD360 programme in 2013, and was one of only four participants from the 2013 class that were invited by IFT to return this year as mentors and facilitators. She says “It was an extremely valuable opportunity to see the programme in operation from the ‘other side’. You had to step back from being actively engaged as a participant to instead be an active observer, implementing what we’d learned previously in order to adapt and respond to the specific individuals and the group dynamics.”

Dr Sina Hosseini-Parvar, a Postdoctoral Fellow who is collaborating with Riddet Institute staff on several projects, was New Zealand’s participant in the 2014 programme. Hosseini-Parvar noted that a key theme running through the event was fostering emotional intelligence - being self-aware of your interaction style and how to adapt your style to work effectively with others. He says these skills are especially important in a large organisation, where you encounter a range of people, and a range of interpersonal styles daily. One of the highlights for him was working with the four facilitators who had been participants in the previous year’s event. “Their mentorship was excellent, and so helpful for us to understand the main reason for the programme and also to build up our networks.”

Participants and mentors of IFT’s 2014 LEAD360 programme.

.11.10

Fonterra and Riddet Institute to drive dairy innovation with new agreement

Fonterra Cooperative Ltd. and the Riddet Institute have signed a new

research agreement that will see the two organisations collaborating on

innovation projects to drive value in Fonterra’s global business.

This agreement builds on the long-standing relationship between the organisations that dates back to the formation of the Riddet Institute in 2003.

The new agreement allows for research collaboration on a broader front in an open innovation environment.

Each organisation will seek to align strategies and capabilities to enable cross-organisational project teams to work on the innovation projects that will drive Fonterra’s global export business.

In order to do this, the Riddet Institute will attain a deep understanding of Fonterra’s science and technology pipeline so it can provide independent and impartial scientific advice and create channels by which ideas can be discussed, evaluated and actioned.

The Fonterra Chair of Dairy Science is one example of this relationship, and has been supported by Fonterra since 2005 and held by Distinguished Professor Harjinder Singh since its inception.

More recently, the collaboration on the post farm gate aspect of the dairy Primary Growth Partnership has been a cornerstone of the Riddet Institute’s research activities in dairy, led by Professors Peter Munro and Sally Poppitt.

Operations under the new agreement will kick off with a meeting between research leaders of the two organisations in early September.

Photograph: Fonterra’s Jacqueline Chow, Managing Director Global Brands and Nutrition, and co-Directors Harjinder Singh and Paul Moughan.

NEWS

Recognition for Riddet Institute scientists

Professor Richard Archer, one of the Riddet Institute’s Principal Investigators, has been recognised for his substantial contribution to science and technology and leadership. He was awarded the New Zealand Institute of Food Science and Technology’s most prestigious honour, the JC Andrews Award, at their annual conference in Christchurch in July. The award is presented in memory of Massey University’s first Chancellor, Dr John Clark Andrews, who proposed that New Zealand’s first food technology degree be established in 1964.

“To me, this is the premier award in a profession and industry which I personally regard as core to New Zealand’s wellbeing,” Professor Archer said. “Those who have won before are my industry heroes. Without their work we would be a poorer and much more boring place, still exporting butter and cheese in wooden boxes, whole frozen carcasses and not much else, and eating a diet of white bread, mutton roast and cordial.”

Principal Scientist and Executive Officer Dr Mike Boland was also recognised for his contribution to Food Science through his appointment as a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Food Science and Technology. Dr Boland leads a number of projects at the Riddet Institute, and is recognised for his scientific and strategic expertise in a diverse range of areas, including meat, dairy and kiwifruit. He has recently co-edited the two books that have been launched by the Riddet Institute, Food Structures, Digestion and Health and Milk Proteins: From Expression to Food (2nd Ed).

STUDENTS

Students and their science on show

The Riddet Institute showcased some of its brightest young talent at a recent Student Symposium, held in the Parliamentary

Grand Hall, Wellington on February 19th, 2014 and hosted by the Honourable Ian McKelvie.

Students eloquently presented both the challenges and solutions to creating “future foods inspired by nature”. They covered topics ranging from how to get more calcium into milk to modeling the electrical activity of the stomach. The event was a successful way for the Riddet Institute to continue the dialogue with food innovation leaders, government, and the public as well as demonstrating the exciting science being undertaken by students at the Institute.

These presentations were recorded, and can be accessed as webcasts in the News and Events section of www.riddetfoodlink.co.nz.

Mr Horng Yuan Saw - New solutions for processing food powders

The behaviour of powders is complex, because powders display characteristics of solids, liquids, and gases, although technically they are none of these. The processing of powders cannot occur without flow, therefore the ability to characterise and measure flowability is essential for efficient processing.

Dr Dulantha Ulluwishewa - An apical anaerobic model of the human intestinal barrier

The small intestine is the most exposed barrier of the human body, covering over 400m2 in surface area. Bacteria play a key role in the intestine’s function and the majority of these survive only in environments lacking oxygen. Therefore, in order to effectively study them, we need a model that incorporates both an oxygen-free environment for growing bacteria and an oxygenated environment for maintaining intestinal tissues. The Apical Anaerobic Model achieves this.

Ms Marjorie Griffiths - A small drop can make a big difference

Emulsions (suspensions of a small droplet of one liquid in a second liquid with which the first will not mix) can behave in a number of ways. Marjorie outlines a novel Optical Tweezer technique for capturing and controlling emulsion droplets, in order to better understand their properties.

Dr Tim Angeli - An innovative tool for understanding gut function

The process of digestion is modulated and regulated by electrical activity. Previous techniques to model such activity have only focused on specific points along the stomach and gut, therefore resulting in low spatial resolution models. Tim shows how a flexible, 256 electrode device allowed his team to model not only particular stomach and gut regions, but also at the whole organ level. He demonstrates a characteristic “wave” pattern for normal electrical activity in the gut, and contrasts it with dysrhythmic activity in an abnormal system.

Ms Lucile Tercinier - A new approach to calcium fortification of milk products

To obtain the recommended adult serving of calcium, an individual would need to consume around 1 litre of milk daily. Fortifying milk with calcium provides a way to meet nutritional needs, without excessive consumption. However, there are challenges with creating a stable product.

Ms Hayley Stewart - Harnessing lignin as a novel food ingredient

Lignin, which is found in many plants, is one of the most abundant organic polymers on Earth, and is a by-product of bioethanol production. Although lignin has been consumed naturally as part of plant-based foods throughout history, it is not yet added to foods in a refined form. Hayley highlights how lignin can be isolated easily to create molecules of consistent texture, shape and size. These particles may potentially be used to provide a similar mouthfeel to fat droplets in foods, but without providing any calories.

.13.12

The Summit held on February the 19th at the Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa, in Wellington was a star-studded event.

Kicked off by Minister for Primary Industries Nathan Guy, the summit featured the Chief Executive of the UK’s Institute for Food Research (IFR) Professor David Boxer, Dr Anil Srivastava, head of India’s Dairy Research Institute, and new Chancellor of Massey University and former Chief Executive of LandCorp Chris Kelly.

Minister Guy announced an updated Primary Industries Forecast, showing an upward trend for agriculture, forestry, and fishing exports by $4.9 billion to $36.4 billion for the year to 30 June 2014.

In keeping with the theme “the Asian Century”, Dr Srivastava described the great

progress India has made in agricultural production since the 1950s, highlighting India’s green, white and blue revolutions – driven off the application of science and technology, with food grain production increasing from 51 to 259 million tonnes, a fivefold increase, milk production increasing from 17 to 133 million tonnes (8-fold, with India now the world’s largest milk producer) and fish production increasing from 0.75 to 9.0 million tonnes, an 11-fold increase. Poverty and hunger percentages have reduced by more than half, but he noted that India still has significant problems feeding all of its population, and that there are still significant problems with post-harvest storage and distribution to be solved.

Dr Kelly identified that in historical terms, economic dominance by the West is just an aberration of the 19th and 20th centuries, and that Asia has otherwise dominated world GDP over the last two millenia – thus the current Asian rise can be seen as a “re-balancing”. To meet Asian demand he said New Zealand needs to be smarter in using its agricultural assets, with more use of smart technologies, better management of water and focus on product to market, not just stocking rates.

All speakers have kindly made their presentations available, and these can be downloaded in pdf form from the News and Events section of www.riddetfoodlink.co.nz.

2014 Riddet Institute Summit – “the Asian Century”

Riddet Institute presents keynote lecture at COST Conference in Portugal

Dr Mike Boland, Riddet Institute Principal Scientist, will be presenting a keynote lecture on “Human digestion: a processing perspective” at the 1st Congress on Food Structure Design, to be held in Porto, Portugal on October 15-17. This Congress

includes the wrap-up session of European COST Action FA1001 – The application of innovative fundamental food-structure- property relationships to the design of foods for health, wellness and pleasure.

The Riddet Institute has been a member of COST Action FA1001 since its inception in 2010. Other activities associated with this COST Action that have involved Institute personnel have included a presentation by Mike at a conference in Valencia in 2011, a short-term study leave in Palmerston North of PhD student Ana Christina Pinheiro (University of Minho, Portugal) and the preparation of a book entitled “Release of functionality in foods”, due out early next year.

The Riddet Institute is also involved in another COST Action, FA1005 – INFOGEST: Improving Health Properties of Food by Sharing our Knowledge on the Digestive Process.

COST is an intergovernmental framework for European Cooperation in Science and Technology, allowing the coordination of nationally-funded research on a European level. COST has a very specific mission

and goal. It contributes to reducing the fragmentation in European research investments and opening the European Research Area to cooperation worldwide. The Riddet Institute is one of the few non-European research organisations to be involved in these COST Actions.

For more information on the conference see: https://www.skyros-congressos.pt/foodstructure/

NEWS

2014 Student Colloquium brings top students together again

The Riddet Institute held a Student Colloquium at Te Papa in Wellington on 20th February.

The Colloquium gives students based at the different Riddet Institute partner organisations a chance to come together to build their professional and personal networks. It also provides a valuable opportunity for the students to hear about other research projects in similar and in complementary fields, and to share their experiences of the research journey.

This year, students were treated to interesting and challenging presentations from speakers on a range of topics. Professor Shaun Hendy from the MacDiarmid Institute spoke on ‘The Naked Scientist’, emphasising why it is important for scientists to communicate their work to those outside academia. Dr Sharon Adamson from the Ministry for Primary Industries spoke on how to manage uncertainty in both personal and professional situations, and Aimee Whitcroft gave the students a glimpse at the possible future of academic peer review with an introduction to the Publons system.

A more interactive part of this event required the students to effectively and concisely present a summary of their work to a scientifically-literate but non-expert audience, in less than three minutes and with only one PowerPoint slide. Nadja Berger, a PhD scholar based at AgResearch, was awarded the Riddet Institute trophy for the best student presentation, as she managed to clearly and succinctly explain how improving our understanding of gut physiology, particularly in regards to genes and protein structure, can help those with Inflammatory Bowel Disease. Two runners up, Christiane Schnidmeier and Ali Rashidinejad, were also named, as well as four highly commended entries: Shahin Roohinejad, Anant Dave, Eva Maier, and Sebastian Riedle.

One of the judges, Dr Abby Thompson said: “It was very interesting to get a quick snap-shot of so many of the interesting projects Riddet Institute students are working on, and to see the different approaches that they used to communicate this. It was difficult to pick an overall winner, and so we ended up giving a number of runner-up and highly commended awards as well.”

The 2015 Student Colloquium is being planned for the first week of March.

NEWS

Dr Abby Thompson (right) presents Nadja Berger (left) with the

Riddet Institute trophy for best student presentation

• Distinguished Professor Paul Moughan was invited to be a member of the Food and Function Advisory Board, The Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge. He was also invited as an independent expert for the FAO Technical Workshop on Protein Quality Evaluation at St John’s Research Institute, Bangalore, India in March 2014.

• Distinguished Professor Harjinder Singh was invited to be a member of the Expert Panel Review for the assessment of a Dairy Processing Technology Centre proposal. The Centre is being established by the Irish Government and the Irish dairy industry.

• Associate Professor Paul Kilmartin (Associate Investigator) has been promoted to full Professor within the School of Chemical Sciences at The University of Auckland.

• Professor Laurie Melton (Principal Investigator) was appointed Editor of Food Chemistry, Elsevier, the top food science journal based on its impact factor.

• Lucile Tercinier, Riddet Institute PhD Scholar, was awarded the prize for best presentation at the 2nd Mineral & Dairy Product Symposium held in Auckland on 26-27 February.

• Haotian Zheng, Riddet Institute PhD Scholar, received a Chinese government award for an outstanding Chinese overseas student. He received this award at the Chinese Consulate in Wellington on 26th April.

Other recent achievements and awards

.15.14

NEWS

Kiwifruit on the cover of the Journal of Nutrition

A recent paper by Dr Carlos Montoya and colleagues

(Jason P. Hindmarsh, Lucrecia Gonzalez, Mike J. Boland,

Paul J. Moughan, and Shane M. Rutherfurd) was selected

as the focus of the front cover of The Journal of Nutrition. As

an additional recognition of the interest in their work, they

were invited to compile a short video explaining the main

findings of the paper. This video can be viewed at http://

www.scivee.tv/node/62306.

The study investigates how eating green kiwifruit can influence protein digestion in the stomach, as well as how quickly the stomach empties. Green kiwifruit contains the enzyme actinidin, which has previously been shown to increase both the gastric digestion and stomach emptying rate of some, but not all, protein sources. The findings suggest that it may be possible to increase amino acid absorption in the small intestine by including actinidin-containing foods, such as green kiwifruit, in the diet.

A Publication of the American Society for Nutrition • www.nutrition.org

Dietary supplement research portfolio at NIHn–3 PUFA intake and DNA methylation in Yup’ik people

Fiber intake and prostate cancer riskUrinary isoxanthohumol as a beer consumption biomarker

Supplement–What Comes First: The Food or the Nutrient?

THE JOURNAL OF NUTRITIONJ N

April 2014 • Volume 144 • Number 4

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Exciting new opportunities for Riddet Institute graduates

The Riddet Institute has a key role in supporting the personal and professional development of the next generation of food

and nutrition scientists for positions in both academia and industry. Graduates from our Masters and PhD programmes are

now employed by many of the top research organisations and food companies in New Zealand and world-wide, and many

continue to engage with the Riddet Institute by sponsoring projects or collaborating on research. In the last couple of months,

two recent Institute graduates have accepted new roles, one in Ireland, and one in Auckland.

“Collaborating with the leading investigators of the Riddet

Institute was exciting, and helped me understand the project

from a new perspective, especially the link between the

fundamental science and the applied science of food. I also

particularly enjoyed the multicultural spirit of the Institute,

and meeting students and leading scientists from across

different disciplines and nationalities.”

Dr Anant Dave has only recently completed his PhD on the “Structural Aspects of β-Lactoglobulin during Self-assembly into Amyloid-like Fibrils”, but has already relocated to Ireland to take up a Postdoctoral position at Teagasc’s Food Research Centre (TFRC). TFRC is Ireland’s premier centre for dairy research, and plays a key role linking fundamental dairy research with commercial products. The role focusses on the development of milk-based products using new process technology to create “nanostructures” from fat, protein and pectin-rich by-products.

Anant’s PhD explored the formation of a particular type of structure, called nanofibrils, from whey proteins, and how different conditions influenced the nature of the nanofibrils produced. The findings of his project may be useful in designing tools for controlling the formation and functionality of the nanofibrils, and identifying different opportunities for using them in food systems.

Professor Harjinder Singh, Anant’s PhD supervisor, comments “It is very pleasing to see another excellent scientist complete their training at the Riddet Institute and take up a position in a world-leading research centre.”

Reference: Montoya CA, Hindmarsh JP, Gonzalez L, Boland MJ, Moughan PJ, Rutherfurd SM. (2014). Dietary actinidin from kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa cv. Hayward) increases gastric digestion and the gastric emptying rate of several dietary proteins in growing rats. Journal of Nutrition, 144(4) :440-6.

NEWS

“Having the opportunity to be seconded to Goodman

Fielder was very valuable because it gave me a chance

to communicate the importance of collabration between

acadamic and commercial partners within the GF R&D

team, and how it can contribute to identifying new

opportunities and solving technological challenges

delivering strategic commercial advantage.”

Mrs Nimmi Taneja was part of the Riddet Institute for over 7 years, working as a Food Technologist on a wide range of projects. She completed her Masters of Technology at the Institute as a part-time student in 2013, looking at the optimisation of fermentation conditions of probiotic bacteria to maximise cell number and stability. She was then seconded to Goodman Fielder to work on a collaborative research project jointly funded by the company and Callaghan Innovation.

Nimmi’s role in the project was to develop tangible prototypes by applying the technical inputs from Riddet Institute’s scientific team. The project has gone particularly well, and Nimmi has now accepted a permanent position within Goodman Fielder’s Research and Innovation team. Nimmi finds her new role particularly interesting because it involves identifying underlying technology gaps and scientific challenges for GF’s key platforms, and then helping to develop appropriate science and technology projects that can address these.

“This is yet another example of the Riddet Institute directly contributing to the innovation process of a New Zealand food company”, says Professor Paul Moughan.

.17.16

VISITING STUDENTS

French students focus on mozzarella

Two French food science students, Maelle Kerveillant and

Francois Pourchel, spent a 5 month internship at the Riddet

Institute from January to June 2014. They are both studying for

a food engineering degree at the National Engineering School

of Agronomy and Food Sciences at Nancy, France.

New Zealand manufactures a lot of mozzarella cheese for pizza applications, and both students worked on projects to help understand more about how the cheese behaves. Maelle looked at how different mozzarella cheeses performed during the oven baking of pizza, while Francois investigated the cheese’s mechanical properties, specifically anisotropy and strain stiffening.

This month has seen the release of two new books edited by members of the Riddet Institute. Both books include a blend

of contributions from university and national research institutes from New Zealand and overseas as well as from major food

industry groups such as Nestle, Unilever, and Fonterra.

New books released

The first book, “Food Structures, Digestion, and Health” edited by Mike Boland, Matt Golding, and Harjinder Singh has been developed from a selected range of conference presentations from the inaugural “Food Structures, Digestion, and Health” conference organised by the Riddet Institute in 2012, and has contributions from authors from a range of nine countries across Australasia, Europe and North America. The effects of food structure on bioavailability and rates of digestion and consequent release of nutrients and bioactives has been an important emerging aspect of food and nutrition over the last decade. The aim of both the conference and the book was to bring together expertise from around the world to discuss and present on this important topic. The 2012 conference has since been followed up by a second conference on the same topic organised jointly with CSIRO in Melbourne in October 2013, and the Riddet Institute will be hosting the third conference in the series in late 2015. Food Structures, Digestion, and Health is structured around four key aspects: 1. Understanding food structures in natural and processed foods and their behaviour during physiological processing, 2. Impact of food structures and matrices on nutrient uptake and bioavailability, 3. Modeling the gastrointestinal tract, 4. Food developments to meet the modern challenges of human health. An important aspect of this book is the strong industry input, providing a dose of practicality to sit alongside the more theoretical aspects of the topic.

NEW RELEASE

New roles for Riddet Institute Colleagues

Mark Ward, previously the General Manager at the Riddet Institute, was appointed Director of Business Engagement at Massey University’s newly created Te Puna Whakatipu (Spring of Development) in October last year. This in addition to his roles as FoodHQ’s Programme Director and as a Principal Advisor in strategy and the innovation pipeline for the Ministry for Primary Industries. Ward notes “Te Puna Whakatipu is about Strategic Business Growth, exploring the big picture internationally, and assembling the best people to develop large strategic programmes across the University. I have missed the team at Riddet over the last few months and plan to keep in close contact”. Ward was instrumental in setting up the Primary Growth Partnership with Fonterra and the Riddet Institute partners, and worked closely with the food industry and the Ministry for Primary Industries on innovation strategies for food export growth and regional economic development.

NEWS

Dr Juliet Ansell has taken up the role of Zespri’s Innovation Leader for Health and Nutrition after being seconded last year from Plant & Food Research. The role covers research in three key areas: digestive health, vitality, and nutrient density. Dr Ansell was formerly an Associate Investigator at the Riddet Institute, where she also supervised a PhD student. David Tanner, General Manager of Science & Innovation, says that Juliet made an excellent candidate because she built a rapport with the market and science side. “In my Innovation Leaders I look for someone who can translate between science and innovation... to translate science messages into marketing messages that have credibility” Tanner said. Juliet will continue to interact with the Riddet Institute as chair of the Zespri Strategic Research and Science Advisory Group, which the Riddet Institute is an integral part of.

Diana Cabrera has come

to the Riddet Institute from

the “Instituto Nacional de

Investigaciones Agricolas

Forestales y Agropecuarias”

in Mexico, where she worked

as an Associate Researcher

for five years. Diana has a

Masters degree in Biochemical

Engineering Science, and she

is hoping to start a PhD in the

near future.

The second book is “Milk Proteins: From Expression to Food, 2nd Edition” edited by Harjinder Singh, Mike Boland, and Abby Thompson. This book follows on from the first edition published in 2009, and provides a scientific background to milk proteins, covering the supply chain from the biology of production and the fundamental properties of the proteins themselves, right through to technical and market aspects of products that contain them, and is intended for academics, researchers, students, and industry personnel interested in milk proteins. This unique perspective on the dairy industry has proved very popular, and led to Elsevier asking the editors to produce a second, updated edition. Since the release of the first edition, there have been significant advances in some of the topics covered in the first edition. This means that all chapters have been revised and expanded to include this new knowledge. In addition, three new chapters have been added which focus on the world supply of food and the role of dairy proteins; milk proteins and human health; and the digestion and absorption of milk proteins in the gastro-intestinal tract.

The effects of food structure on bioavailability and rates of digestion and consequent release of nutrients and bioactives has been an important emerging aspect of food and nutrition over the last decade.

This unique perspective on the dairy industry has proved very popular, and led to Elsevier asking the editors to produce a second, updated edition.

Recent arrival from Mexico

While here, Diana is helping with a range of projects in order to gain experience in some of the different approaches used in human nutrition studies, such as in vitro fermentation techniques and ways of determining short-chain fatty acid production.

.19.18

CONFERENCE

MARK YOUR DIARY:

The Riddet Institute will be hosting

the 3rd International Conference on

Wellington28th-30th October 2015 The conference will be organised in collaboration with CSIRO Australia.

More details on the agenda and venue will become available in the coming months.

Food Structures, Digestion and HealthCollaboration across disciplines to deliver

better food and nutrition outcomes