̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Global Food Security Strategic Research Initiative

Removing sweets and crisps from supermarket checkouts linked to dramatic fall in unhealthy snack purchases

cjb250 — Tue, 18 Dec 2018 19:00:52 +0000

̽��ֱ��study, published in the journal PLOS Medicine, found that 76% fewer purchases of sugary confectionery, chocolate and potato crisps were bought and eaten ‘on-the-go’ from supermarkets with checkout food policies compared to those without. In addition, 17% fewer small packages of these items were bought and taken home from supermarkets immediately after introducing a checkout food policy.

Large supermarket chains such as Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury’s have captured the majority of the grocery market and play a major role in shaping food preferences and purchasing behaviour. Retail practices such as product displays, positioning, promotions and pricing can all influence consumers’ choices in stores.

Supermarket checkouts provide a unique location for prompting purchases as all customers have to pass through them to pay and may spend considerable time in queues; however, the majority of food at supermarket checkouts could be considered unhealthy. Over the last decade, many UK supermarket groups have made voluntary commitments to remove or limit unhealthy foods at the tills or to provide healthier options.

“Many snacks picked up at the checkout may be unplanned, impulse buys – and the options tend to be confectionery, chocolate or crisps,” says Dr Jean Adams from the Centre for Diet and Activity Research at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge. “Several supermarkets have now introduced policies to remove these items from their checkouts, and we wanted to know if this had any impact on people’s purchasing choices.”

To examine the effect that the introduction of checkout food policies in major supermarket chains has had on shoppers’ purchasing habits, Dr Adams led a team of researchers at the universities of Cambridge, Stirling and Newcastle who analysed data from the Kantar Worldpanel’s Consumer panel for food, beverages and household products. Six out of the nine major supermarkets introduced checkout food policies between 2013 and 2017. ( ̽��ֱ��researchers anonymised the information to avoid ‘naming and shaming’ companies.)

Firstly, the team looked at how purchases of less healthy common checkout foods brought home changed following the implementation of checkout policies. They used data from over 30,000 UK households from 12 months before to 12 months after implementation.

̽��ֱ��researchers found that implementation of a checkout food policy was associated with an immediate 17% reduction in purchases. After a year, shoppers were still purchasing over 15% fewer of the items compared to when no policy was in place.

Next, they looked at data from 7,500 shoppers who recorded food bought and eaten ‘on-the-go’ during 2016-17 from supermarkets with and without checkout food policies. On-the-go purchases are often impulsive and can be the result of children pestering their parents. ̽��ֱ��researchers found that shoppers made 76% fewer annual purchases of less healthy common checkout foods from supermarkets with checkout food policies compared to those without.

As the study was not a randomised control trial, it was not possible to say definitely that the changes in purchasing behaviour were due to the checkout food policies. Stores that chose to have checkout food policies may have been different from those that did not. Or shoppers may have changed to purchasing larger packages from the same stores, or similar products from stores that aren’t supermarkets.

“Our findings suggest that by removing sweets and crisps from the checkout, supermarkets can have a positive influence on the types of purchases their shoppers make,” says Dr Katrine Ejlerskov, the study’s first author. “This would be a relatively simple intervention with the potential to encourage healthier eating. Many of these purchases may have been impulse buys, so if the shopper doesn’t pick up a chocolate bar at the till, it may be one less chocolate bar that they consume.”

“It may seem obvious that removing unhealthy food options from the checkout would reduce the amount that people buy, but it is evidence such as this that helps build the case for government interventions to improve unhealthy behaviours,” adds Dr Adams.

“One such intervention might be to introduce nutritional standards for checkout food as suggested in the Government’s recent Childhood Obesity Plan. Such a government-led policy might prove attractive to supermarkets as it would provide a level playing field across the sector.”

̽��ֱ��work was undertaken by the authors as part of the Public Health Research Consortium. ̽��ֱ��Public Health Research Consortium is funded by the Department of Health and Social Care Policy Research Programme.

Reference
Ejlerskov, KT et al. Supermarket policies on less healthy food at checkouts: natural experimental evaluation using interrupted time series analyses of purchases. PLOS Medicine; 18 Dec 2018; DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1002712

Policies aimed at removing sweets and crisps from checkouts could lead to a dramatic reduction in the amount of unhealthy food purchased to eat ‘on-the-go’ and a significant reduction in that purchased to take home, suggests new research led by the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

It is evidence such as this that helps build the case for government interventions to improve unhealthy behaviours

Jean Adams

paulbr75 (Pixabay)

Shopping carts

Researcher Profile: Dr Jean Adams

“Most people have a vague idea about what eating better involves – more fruit and veg, less fat and sugar – and they also often have an aspiration to eat better,” says Dr Jean Adams. “But they don’t always manage to put this aspiration into practice.”

Jean’s research group in the Centre for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR) asks why this is the case – and what can be done about it. “We’re particularly interested in how we can provide environments that make it easier for everyone to eat better. This might involve making healthier foods more available, cheaper, attractive, or easier to prepare.”

Jean began her career studying medicine at Newcastle ̽��ֱ��, but admits she “never really enjoyed it”. But between her second and third year at medical school, she did a research year and realised this was where her passion lay. She went on to study for a PhD in public health and since then her career has involved public health research, rather than clinical medicine.

“I do a lot of talking and listening to people working in local and national government to understand what sorts of opportunities they feel are coming up and what research they would find helpful. In Cambridge we then try and focus on what the most rigorous and useful research we could do would be.”

Jean hopes that her research will lead to more people finding it easier to eat better. “Poor diet accounts for as much death and disease in the UK as tobacco smoking, so we are trying to address a major problem,” she says.

While she finds her work interesting and rewarding, she says research can be more prosaic than it is sometimes painted. “I have never had a Eureka moment and no-one’s ever slapped a sheaf of papers on my desk that explains everything! In my experience, research is more about grinding things out with a lot of refining and polishing leading to incremental accumulation of knowledge.”

Nor is it particularly glamorous: “ ̽��ֱ��CEDAR offices are in a slightly dingy corner deep in the heart of Addenbrooke’s Hospital. We have a small meeting room with a big white board. Sometimes I think that whiteboard has been the key vehicle for almost all of the great research CEDAR has produced!”

But fortunately, it can be both enjoyable and exhilarating. “My favourite meetings are the ones where we talk about ideas and share our brain power to arrive at new insights. I particularly enjoy when someone makes me see an old problem in a new way, or helps me crystallise some vague ideas that have been bubbling in my head for a while.

“We also try not to take ourselves too seriously and have a lot of fun along the way.”

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

Yes

Licence type:

Public Domain

Maggots and rotting food waste: a new recipe for sustainable fish and animal feed

cjb250 — Tue, 31 Jul 2018 07:00:03 +0000

̽��ֱ��company behind this idea is Entomics Biosystems. It was set up in 2015 by a group of students from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, with support from the Cambridge Judge Entrepreneurship Centre’s ‘Accelerate Cambridge’ programme.

“It’s one of those stories where we came together in a pub over a pint, talking about weird ideas,” explains its CEO and co-founder Matt McLaren. “ ̽��ֱ��team has members from the Department of Biochemistry, from Engineering, from the [Judge] Business School, so it really is a diverse skill set.”

According to the company, each year over 1.3 billion tonnes of food are wasted globally – equating to around US$1 trillion of lost value. With an increasing population and modern lifestyles, the burden of food waste on society and the environment is set to increase in the future.

Entomics focuses on ‘insect biomass conversion’. Larvae of the black soldier fly chew their way through several tonnes of food waste collected from local supermarkets and food processing plants. ̽��ֱ��insects are fed different ‘recipes’ under controlled conditions to see how these affect growth rates and nutritional profiles. They metabolise the food waste into fats and proteins, growing to around 5,000 times their body weight within just a couple of weeks.

As McLaren, explains, these fats and proteins “are great sources of nutrition for salmon and poultry – in fact, insects are part of their natural diet”. Entomics is currently working with partners including the ̽��ֱ�� of Stirling, who are world-leading salmon aquaculture experts, to validate and test their products in the field.

“Farmed salmon in Scotland are currently fed on fishmeal which comes from wild-caught anchovies from as far away as Chile and Peru, which are then shipped across the world to Scotland,” he explains. “Insects provide a nice, sustainable solution.”

With support including from Innovate UK and the European Institute of Technology (via EIT FoodKIC), Entomics is using a novel bioprocessing technique to boost the nutritional and functional benefits of these insect-derived feeds, using a microbial fermentation technology they have termed ‘Metamorphosis’. Essentially, these specialised feeds represent a sustainable, holistic approach to improving overall fish health and welfare.

“There are several benefits to this process,” explains Miha Pipan, Chief Scientific Officer and fellow co-founder, “from affecting the gut’s microbiome and trying to preserve a healthier bacterial community there, to training immune systems to make livestock more resistant to disease challenges and at the same time reduce the need for veterinary medicines, antibiotics and vaccines.”

“ ̽��ֱ��world’s looking for more sustainable sources of feed and I think increasingly there’s a recognition that it’s not just about basic nutrition, but it’s about overall health,” says McLaren. “We’re trying to take a promising, sustainable ingredient of the future – these insect-derived feeds – and trying to add a bit of biotechnology or science focus to it, to really enhance what the effect is in the end application and reduce reliance on traditional antibiotics and veterinary medicines.”

There is endless potential for innovation in the emerging insect industry in general, and the Entomics team is also working on an engineering project to build a smart, modular system for insect production in the future. This includes developing computer vision algorithms to understand and monitor insect behaviour during the production process – for example, the insects’ growth and health.

McLaren is grateful of the support that the company received from the Cambridge Judge Business School to get itself off the ground. “ ̽��ֱ��mentorship and coaching provided by the Accelerate Cambridge programme in particular has been vital to getting our business to its current stage, and the credibility of the Cambridge brand has allowed us to engage with some great academic and commercial partners.”

In a warehouse to the northeast of Cambridge are shelves upon shelves of trays teeming with maggots, munching their way through a meal of rotting fruit and vegetables. This may sound stomach-churning, but these insects could become the sustainable food of the future – at least for fish and animals – helping reduce the reliance on resource intensive proteins such as fishmeal and soy, while also mitigating the use of antibiotics in the food chain, one of the causes of the increase in drug-resistant bacteria.

Farmed salmon in Scotland are currently fed on fishmeal which comes from wild-caught anchovies from as far away as Chile and Peru, which are then shipped across the world to Scotland. Insects provide a nice, sustainable solution

Matt McLaren

Maggots and rotting food waste: a new recipe for sustainable fish and animal feed

̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge

Black soldier fly larvae

Yes

Why we just can't stop eating: the complex truth behind obesity

cjb250 — Mon, 23 Jul 2018 08:27:40 +0000

Britain has seen a dramatic transformation in recent years in its attitude towards food. We have gone from being a country ridiculed for its bland, carb-heavy cuisine, for whom the chicken tikka masala was the height of exoticness, to becoming a nation obsessed with food.

But alongside this obsession with food has come a growing understanding of the impact that our diet has on our bodies – not only on our waistlines, but also on conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and even dementia.

This relationship between our diet and our weight is simple: you eat too much, you get fat. Hence, some would argue, the solution should be equally simple: you eat less, you lose weight.

If only it were this easy. Anyone who has tried to shed a few pounds – and, crucially, to keep them off – knows that the answer is rarely so straightforward. In fact, even the food – and volume – that we ‘choose’ to eat is influenced by a surprising number of factors.

Obesity is often characterised as nothing more than greed and lack of willpower. ̽��ֱ��truth is far more complex.

Cedric Bousquet

Chattering teeth

Yes

Licence type:

Attribution

Cambridge and Indian partners launch collaboration to transform India’s "Green Revolution”

ag236 — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 09:58:15 +0000

̽��ֱ��adoption of modern methods and new technologies in agriculture that propelled India to self-sufficiency in grain production in the second half of the 20th century is known as the country’s “Green Revolution”. It allowed India to overcome poor agricultural productivity, especially in regions like the Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, although it relied on overuse of water, fertilisers and pesticides.

Today, climate change, continuing population growth and the rapid process of urbanisation have put added pressure on India’s ability to feed its population. TIGR2ESS – an acronym for “Transforming India’s Green Revolution by Research and Empowerment for Sustainable food Supplies” – is a £7.8 million programme funded by the UK Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) to develop more resilient, equal and diverse food systems in India. It aims to define the requirements for a second more sustainable Green Revolution, and to deliver this through a suite of research programmes, training workshops and educational activities

̽��ֱ��TIGR2ESS launch event took place in the context of a three-day workshop that brought together all the UK and India partners to discuss and finalise a plan for the programme’s effective implementation.

TIGR²ESS will support 14 postdoctoral researchers employed at partner research institutions and universities across India, as well as eight post-doctoral research associates from collaborating institutions in the UK

̽��ֱ��programme will create 3-year research opportunities for a total of 22 early-career researchers in the UK and India, and also promote academic exchanges at all levels in laboratories across India and the UK.

One of TIGR²ESS’ objectives is to foster mutually beneficial knowledge exchange and collaborative research through workshops in Cambridge and India. In addition, it will deliver a programme of outreach, education and entrepreneurship. In doing so, TIGR²ESS will help strengthen Indian research capacity in key areas of the food system, and will contribute to the development of smart agriculture in India.

At the heart of the TIGR2ESS proposal are a series of Flagship Projects tackling fundamental research questions, and addressing the associated social issues facing farmers in the context of increasing urbanisation and climate change.

Professor Stephen Toope, Vice-Chancellor of the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, said: “TIGR²ESS will inform best practice in crop development and growth. It will allow greater genetic understanding of crop resilience to drought and disease. It will contribute to more effective use of scarce water supplies. It will build capacity and foster education.”

“It will empower women and entrepreneurs, and encourage innovation along the food supply chain. It will create opportunities for early-career researchers, and in doing so will contribute to India’s efforts to ensure it is able to meet the needs of its growing population. I am delighted that Cambridge is a part of this extraordinary initiative.”

Professor Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary of India’s Department of Science and Technology and Department of Biotechnology, added: “"India is a diverse country, and negotiating this diversity is the key to developing any interventions. ̽��ֱ��TIGR²ESS programme takes into account this diversity, and that will define its success. We need to take a holistic view at the nexus between agriculture, environment, water, climate, energy and health. Assessing the impact of technology applications or interventions in a larger setting is very important."

Presenting TIGR²ESS, the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge’s Professor Howard Griffiths, the programme’s principal investigator, said: “This unprecedented programme of joint activities will enable capacity building both in the UK and India, and shape the policy needed to define a second Green Revolution for India.”

“TIGR²ESS will address the challenges identified by our colleagues in India, and translate research outcomes to build agriculture systems that support sustainable livelihoods, enhancing the well-being and health of rural communities with a particular focus on improving the opportunities for equality, female empowerment and youth employment, and market-led entrepreneurial opportunities.”

Daniel Shah, Director, Research Councils UK (RCUK) India, said “TIGR²ESS is a great example of the UK and the Indian research teams partnering to address issues around food security and agriculture systems. This initiative also aligns with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision to double farmers’ income by 2020."

Researchers met in New Delhi today to formalise the launch of a programme that aims to jointly address some of India’s most pressing food security challenges.

This unprecedented programme of joint activities will enable capacity building both in the UK and India, and shape the policy needed to define a second Green Revolution for India.

Prof Howard Griffiths

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

Yes

Mulled wine: a recipe for sustainability?

cjb250 — Mon, 19 Dec 2016 08:37:23 +0000

Ingredients

1 bottle red wine
75g caster sugar
1 orange
1 vanilla pod, sliced lengthways
1 bay leaf
1 cinnamon stick
1 star anise
4 cloves
½ teaspoon nutmeg
Thumb-sized piece of ginger, sliced

Peel the orange using a vegetable peeler and squeeze the juice
Pour the wine and orange juice into a pan and add the peel and sliced ginger, together with the spices and bay leaf
Heat the mixture, slowly adding the sugar until it has all dissolved.
Just before the mixture boils, turn down the heat and simmer on a low heat for 10 minutes.
Strain the mixture and serve.

To celebrate the festive period, researchers from the Global Food Security initiative did what many offices do in the run-up to Christmas: organised an evening of mulled wine and cheese to bring everyone together. However, there was one difference, as Kirsten Van Fossen, a PhD student at Cambridge’s Institute for Manufacturing (IfM), who organised, the event explains:

“We asked researchers from across the university who are interested in issues of global food security to bring along mulled wine ingredients and to introduce their particular ingredient to the group – where they bought it, where it originates from and its journey to their store cupboard.”

̽��ֱ��majority of the ingredients brought along were purchased at local supermarkets, where produce from every corner of the globe is readily available. However, as the students explained, many of the ingredients could be grown at home or in the UK, yet have travelled thousands of miles to reach the supermarket shelves.

Claire Lambe, who is studying for an MPhil in Engineering for Sustainable Development, brought along star anise. “This spice is grown exclusively for mass production in China and Vietnam, yet I found out you could grow it in your own garden in the UK under the right conditions,” she says.

Root ginger, too, can be grown in the UK if it is protected from the frost, says Chris Barton, a fourth year Manufacturing Engineering student at the IfM. “I bought this at Sainsbury’s, though,” he admits. “There’s no identification of the source on it, but the likelihood is that it came from the Tibetan Plateau, about 5,000 miles away.”

Clara Aranda, an Engineering PhD student from the IfM explains that as with many foods, her ingredient, vanilla, is no longer mass produced in its original country of origin. “Vanilla originally comes from Mexico, but after the Spaniards came and distributed it around the world, it now mainly comes from Madagascar.”

While the evening was intended as a relaxed and informal event, the message that underlies it is a serious one about our global food systems, which are coming under increasing strain from as ever-growing global population: mass production of food can drain resources, such as water, and is energy intensive; plant monoculture puts crops at risk of devastating diseases that can wipe out an entire harvest; food is transported all around the globe as consumers expect to be able to buy fresh ingredients all year round – even locally-grown produce can be transported all around the UK to be processed, bagged and then shipped to a local supermarket; and, while some people still starve, other countries – including the UK – face an epidemic of obesity from food saturated with sugars and fats.

“ ̽��ֱ��food system – everything from how food is grown, processed and delivered, to how it is consumed – has become a truly global network,” adds Van Fossen. “But while it’s led to great advances in terms of food availability and strengthening international bonds of trade, it’s come with a cost to the environment and society. We wanted everyone to reflect on that.”

“We still have a lot of work to do to work out the right interplay between local and global food systems,” explains Jacqueline Garget, coordinator of Cambridge Global Food Security. “Tonight’s mulled wine reception is like a microcosm of our strategic research initiative, bringing together researchers from across the university who are interested in building sustainable food systems. We want to provoke everyone to think about the issues we face and to search for potential solutions.”

Nothing quite says ‘Christmas party’ like the smell of mulled wine drifting around an office. It’s an easy drink to make – all of the ingredients can be purchased at your local supermarket. But have you ever wondered where the ingredients come from? Like Santa Claus, many of them have travelled halfway round the world to get here, say students from the Cambridge Global Food Security strategic research initiative.

rpavich

Mulled wine

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

Yes

Licence type:

Attribution

Cambridge to play major role in €400m EU food innovation project

cjb250 — Tue, 13 Dec 2016 09:25:34 +0000

̽��ֱ��project, called EIT Food, has ambitious aims to cut by half the amount of food waste in Europe within a decade, and reduce ill health caused by diet by 2030. It has received €400 million (£340m) of EU research funding, matched by 1.2 billion euros (£1 billion) of funding from industry and other sources over seven years.

̽��ֱ��project is funded by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), and will have a regional headquarters at the ̽��ֱ�� of Reading to co-ordinate innovation, cutting edge education programmes and support start-ups in the ‘north west’ sector of Europe, covering the UK, Ireland and Iceland.

̽��ֱ��Europe-wide scheme was put together by a partnership of 50 food business and research organisations from within Europe’s food sector, which provides jobs for 44 million people. Cambridge is part of one of five regional hubs across Europe. Already confirmed as core partners in the UK-based ‘Co-Location Centre’ (CLC) alongside Cambridge are academic centres Matís, Queen’s ̽��ֱ�� Belfast and the ̽��ֱ�� of Reading, as well as businesses ABP Food Group, PepsiCo and ̽��ֱ��Nielsen Company. Further partners are expected to be announced in the next year.

Professor Howard Griffiths, co-chair of the Global Food Security Strategic Research Initiative at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, who will lead Cambridge’s involvement in the EIT, said: "Sustainability is a top-level agenda which is engaging both global multinational food producers and academics. Our joint goal is in making the entire food system more resilient in the context of a changing climate, and improving health and nutrition for people across the world."

EIT Food will set up four programmes to target broad societal challenges, including:

personalised healthy food
the digitalization of the food system
consumer-driven supply chain development, customised products and new technology in farming, processing and retail
resource-efficient processes, making food more sustainable by eliminating waste and recycling by-products throughout the food chain.

EIT Food will also organize international entrepreneurship programmes for students, and develop a unique interdisciplinary EIT labelled Food System MSc for graduates. Thousands of students and food professionals will be trained via workshops, summer schools and online educational programmes like MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) and SPOCs (Specialized Private Online Courses).

Peter van Bladeren, Vice President Nestec, Global head Regulatory and Scientific Affairs for Nestlé and Chair of the Interim Supervisory Board of EIT Food, said: “EIT Food is committed to create the future curriculum for students and food professionals as a driving force for innovation and business creation; it will give the food manufacturing sector, which accounts for 44 million jobs in Europe, a unique competitive edge.”

Adapted from a press release by the ̽��ֱ�� of Reading

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge is one of a number of British universities and companies that have won access to a £340 million EU Innovation programme to change the way we eat, grow and distribute food.

Our joint goal is in making the entire food system more resilient in the context of a changing climate, and improving health and nutrition for people across the world

Howard Griffiths

U.S. Department of Agriculture

Fresh Food In Garbage Can To Illustrate Waste

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

Yes

Licence type:

Attribution