Category Archives: Science

Research and development: science, meat science, food technology, nutrition, nutrients, new product development.

Foodplus: value added to beef

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More value is to be generated from beef with the development of innovative new products for food, ingredients and healthcare, thanks to the latest Primary Growth Partnership (PGP) programme.

PGP co-funding has been approved by the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) for an $87 million Foodplus programme, run by meat processor and exporter Anzco Foods. The PGP fund is committing $43.5 million over seven years towards the programme, with ANZCO matching that funding.

Foodplus will identify opportunities to create new products, with a particular focus on parts of the beef carcase that currently generate less value. ANZCO has identified three markets for innovative new products: food, ingredients and healthcare.

“Adding further value to the carcase is essential for the future success of the meat industry,” MPI director-general Wayne McNee says. “ANZCO’s vision for Foodplus is relevant and bold and now backed by a significant investment.”

Sir Graeme HarrisonANZCO Foods chairman, Sir Graeme Harrison is enthusiastic about the potential of the new Foodplus programme to enhance business opportunities for the sector.

It will give a vital boost to the industry, he says. “For too long, the meat industry has been criticised as being a production-led commodity business characterised by high volatility and marginal profitability. This government-industry partnership provides a springboard to further transform our industry, to leverage off the inherent strengths of our farming practices and animal health status and to collaborate and capitalise on the benefits of quality New Zealand research and innovation.”

“As Foodplus begins to use the PGP’s comprehensive research opportunities, ANZCO will introduce more projects that will certainly challenge and re-invent the traditional uses of beef cattle in particular.

“The Foodplus initiative will build on the existing expertise within ANZCO Foods but also add considerable new processes and opportunities never before realised in the meat industry,” says Sir Graeme.

Rennie Davidson, chief executive  of ANZCO’s Food & Solutions division says ANZCO welcomed the opportunity to partner with the Crown on the Foodplus programme. “It is a large-scale project that wouldn’t be achievable without collaboration. We’re excited about the potential that this will bring to the sector.”

The company also recently announced a company-wide energy management programme, which will see it working with the Energy Efficiency Conservation Authority’s business unit over two years to achieve savings of $2 million a year in its processing plant energy usage.

ANZCO Foods is a multinational group of companies and one of New Zealand’s largest exporters, with sales of $1.3 billion and employing more than 3,000 staff worldwide.

This article has appeared in Food NZ magazine (February/March 2013) and is reproduced with kind permission.

$38 million funding for greenhouse gas research

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Allan BarberThe Pastoral Greenhouse Gas Research Consortium (PGgRc) has just announced that it has secured funding for a further seven years’ research into greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation. $2.3 million per annum will be contributed by industry partners to be matched by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment with the balance to come from AgResearch in its capacity as leader of the research project. Meat industry commentator Allan Barber has taken a look in his latest blog post.

The consortium has been in existence since 2002 and to date has spent about $45 million of 50/50 joint venture funding from industry and government. Its members are Fonterra, Beef & Lamb New Zealand, DairyNZ, AgResearch, Landcorp Farming, DEEResearch, PGG Wrightson Ltd and Fertiliser Association Joint Venture.

As its name indicates, the consortium’s sole focus since it started 11 years ago has been on finding ways to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and during that period it has made some significant advances. It has developed knowledge specifically in sequencing the first rumen methanogen genome, developing a low emission sheep flock and finding feeds that can reduce methane emissions.

Mark Aspin, consortium manager, told me that a continuation of the funding will enable the programme to focus on five key areas of research:

  •  Refining  animal breeding tools for low emission livestock
  • Identifying more low greenhouse gas feeds
  • Identifying inhibitors that reduce ruminant emissions
  • Developing a vaccine to reduce ruminant emissions
  • Understanding the productivity effects and enhancing the adoption of mitigations.

The refreshed research programme, while recognising the long term commitment required, will be strongly focused on delivery of mitigation solutions, developed through an increased partnership between the consortium and the New Zealand Agricultural Research Centre (NZAGRC). Both of these organisations will coordinate their operations to ensure rapid delivery of effective options for farmers.

While New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions would constitute a significant proportion of our obligations under any future commitment to reduce emissions, political points scoring tends to obscure why it is so critical to get it right. Our economy and our agricultural sector in particular both depend on deciding on the correct entry point which is, I suspect, why the present Government has been so reluctant to commit itself.

Agriculture contributes 46 percent of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions, a proportion no other country comes even remotely close to producing. Ireland with 27 percent is the closest and all other first world economies are in single figures.

The PGgRc has set itself an ambitious goal, stating in its press release “The new work aims to develop a suite of ready-made tools that will reduce greenhouse gases by 30 per cent by 2030 while supporting the agricultural industry’s growth targets of two per cent each year.” The benchmark year is 2008 when I understand emissions were at 1990 levels. As Aspin said “it’s a big challenge, but we think we can get there.”

I suspect the Green party won’t be satisfied with this progress, because anything short of total commitment to eliminating greenhouse gases is unacceptable, whatever it costs the country. But it is a very solid programme of work backed by science and industry and public money which has some challenging, but achievable goals.

The best thing about it is that it won’t send agriculture and the country into a state of bankruptcy, but it should produce some real improvements in our GHG emissions.

Allan Barber is a meat industry commentator and has his own blog Barber’s Meaty Issues. This item has also appeared at www.interest.co.nz.

 

Tackling agricultural emissions

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The New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre (NZAGRC)’s work has been highlighted in a film, produced recently by Motu.

This film, which you can watch below, is the product of years of research into how New Zealand can reduce its agricultural greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) to reduce climate change. It covers the basic science along with current and potential future technological solutions. With a range of views from farmers to scientists to economists, the film also looks at the challenge of mitigating agricultural GHGs. It covers how New Zealand can develop policy and actions to not only deal with NZ’s emissions, but lead the world in showing other countries it can be done.

You can watch more Motu videos here.

Beef industry stamps footprint

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The government recently announced that it will not sign up for new commitments under the Kyoto Protocol when the treaty’s first commitment period expires at the end of next year. However, this does not mean the meat industry’s sustainability focus will lessen, or that this country’s greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation efforts for the primary sector are not important.
In August, the New Zealand Beef Footprint study was released highlighting beef productivity gains and giving New Zealand’s beef processors and exporters the comprehensive information they need for their customers about the meat’s carbon footprint.
Meat Industry Association (MIA) chief executive Tim Ritchie says that his organisation had supported the study because sustainability is still a critical issue in important markets.
“While it is possibly not as front-of-mind in markets as it was two or three years ago, sustainability remains very important and greenhouse gas emissions are a key component of sustainability.”
The study has created a benchmark for understanding where greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are occurring across the beef supply chain, including production, processing, transportation and consumption.It has found that the majority (over 90 percent) of emissions occur on the farm. The footprint varies depending on the type of farm, the sex and age of the animals and whether or not animals from the dairy industry are used.
Overall, the weighted New Zealand average GHG emissions from beef animals from sheep and beef farms was 10.5kg CO2-equvalents (CO2-e) per kg of liveweight.Emissions arising from transport to market are extremely low.
Transport accounts for 4.2 percent of emissions, the report shows. In particular, oceanic shipping is very efficient and this study shows it contributes just 1.1-2.7 percent of the total carbon footprint.In addition, consumption accounts for 3.3 percent of emissions while just 2.1 percent comes from processing, which the report notes “is an area over which industry has direct control and where technologies are available to reduce emissions.”
Dr Stewart Ledgard, the lead author of the report says that until there is a globally-agreed methodology for ‘footprinting’ of meat products, it is hard to assess how New Zealand’s footprint compared to others. This study used the Life Cycle Assessment approach, which is consistent with the PAS2050 published standard for GHG footprinting.The beef study was undertaken by AgResearch and funded by the Meat Industry Association, Ballance Agri-Nutrients, Landcorp and the Ministry for Primary Industries greenhouse gas footprinting strategy. B+LNZ Ltd and individual meat processors provided data and information for the study. This adds to a study already completed on New Zealand lamb’s carbon footprint in 2010.

More reading: see ‘A Greenhouse Gas Footprint Study for Exported New Zealand Beef’, M Lieffering, S Ledgard, M Boyes & R Kemp, February 2012.

This article appeared in Food NZ magazine (December 2012/January 2013).

NZAGRC produces new factsheets

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The New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre (NZAGRC) has produced its first three new factsheets, which are aimed at providing background and a broader context to the work of the Centre and the challenges this country faces regarding climate change and greenhouse gases (GHGs).

These handy items talk about how livestock agriculture impacts climate change, how climate change is affecting NZ agriculture and the complicated ground of GHG metrics.

The fact sheets are: ‘The impact of livestock agriculture on climate change‘; ‘Impacts of global climate change on New Zealand agriculture‘; and  ‘Economic and Policy Implications of Alternative GHG Metrics’. You can download them here or click the image above.

Further factsheets are planned on specific research areas.

Robotic technology off to Australia

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Dunedin-based production equipment specialist and MIA affiliate member Scott – in association with Robotic Technologies (a joint venture between it and meat processor Silver Fern Farms) – has won an $11 million contract to provide lamb boning room automation technology to two Australian meat processors.

The Australian Lamb Company (ALC) and JBS Australia, a division of the world’s biggest meat processor, will take receipt of the new equipment, which will be installed and in operation before the end of next year.

After installing a fully automated X-Ray Primal system from Scott in 2010, ALC noticed more accurate cutting through use of the x-ray image on each individual carcase, a significant reduction in bandsaw meat dust and a consistent room product flow. In addition, with two less operational staff operating bandsaws, the company anticipates that that there will be a reduction in Occupational Health and Safety claims.

The biggest surprise, however, for ALC general manager of operations Darren Verrall was the consistent room product flow, which has resulted in an extra 250 carcases being processed each shift.

The X-Ray Primal accurately dissects the lamb carcase into forequarter, middle (rack and loin) and hindquarter segments with the use of the x-ray image to define every bone position. Along with the powered rotary cutting knives that can pitch and yaw at the required angles, the entire system can produce accurate cuts that are just not possible using a traditional manual bandsaw.

On viewing the system in operation at ALC, JBS chief executive Don Jackson contracted Scott to deliver a full automated and integrated X-Ray Primal Middle System for its Bordertown facility in South Australia.

Scott is now working with both companies to determine how to use the individual carcase data obtained from the x-ray system to benefit their producers, in addition to bone-in and boneless forequarter automation developments.

The successful contract assisted Scott’s rise in the 2012 TIN100 Report, which is produced by the Technology Investment Network in association with Industrial Research Ltd to showcase New Zealand’s top high-tech companies. Scott grew an impressive 15.1 percent and graduated from the $20m-$49m category into the $50m-$99m set, with revenues of $53.6 million. In its latest August year-end results, the company has reported a further 19 percent revenue growth to $63.8 million.

In addition, Scott has been recently announced as a finalist in the 2012 Westpac Otago Business Excellence Awards.

More information about the vision for Stage 1 of the technology’s development can be found about the system in the video below. For more information about Scott visit the website www.scott.co.nz.

This article appeared in Food NZ magazine (December 2012/January 2013).

 

Rendering R&D gets international boost

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The first New Zealand meat industry appointments to the international Fats and Protein Research Association (FPRF) were made recently.

Graham Shortland, chief executive of Waitoa-based Wallace Corporation, is now a director of the Foundation, while meat scientist Mike North, formerly with AgResearch and now project manager for Taranaki Bio Extracts, has been appointed to the FPRF research committee.

Shortland believes that this is a “super opportunity” for the New Zealand and Australian rendering industry to be directly involved in and influence a very credible organisation. “I’m looking forward to taking up the role,” he says.

The US-based FPRF sponsors research on rendered products to enhance current usage and also to develop new uses.

Rendering is an important contributor to revenues for the New Zealand meat industry, producing value-added products, tallow and bone meal (see Food NZ February/March 2010) and also mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. Exports of both products to the year end June 2012 were worth $308 million. Tallow exports grew in value by $16 million to $169 million, with volume rising 15,710 tonnes to 134,177 tonnes, with China taking over two-thirds of the exported product. While the value of meat and bone meal exports – primarily to Indonesia and the US – grew by $10 million to $139 million, the volume fell slightly, by just over 3,000 tonnes, on the previous year to 145,563 tonnes.

Both Wallace Corporation and Taranaki Bio Extracts are members of the Meat Industry Association (MIA)’s Renderers’ Group, which recently received New Zealand Trade & Enterprise funding for a market development project aiming to increase returns by selling rendered products into higher value applications and markets. Insights Shortland and North gain from their involvement with FPRF will be fed back into that project, which is now at stage one: targeted market research.

“We are now starting to see a clearer picture of where we might obtain higher returns for some of our basic commodities,” says Shortland. “The FPRF has carried out research and innovation projects that could well help us move our value-add objectives ahead more speedily.”

Offering his congratulations on their appointment, Renderers’ Group executive member Alan von Tunzelman, general manager of PVL Proteins Ltd and a past president of the World Renderers’ Organisation, said he never thought a nominee from this country would be appointed to a role in the international organisation.

“To get both appointed to the respective roles is a great tribute to how they feel about us as an organisation and as people who can contribute positively and make sensible inputs into the FPRF. This is a wonderful opportunity to advance international research and development into rendering and the great work performed by the Meat Industry Research Institute of New Zealand has a further chance of some new life.”

The Renderers Group runs training workshops, which enable experienced operators and  supervisors to receive the core knowledge necessary for the National Certificate in Meat Processing (Rendering Level 4) and to build networks with others in the industry. In addition, a joint meeting for members with Australian counterparts in March gave further opportunity for international sharing of knowledge.

In consultation with members, the group published the ‘New Zealand Rendering Industry Guidelines for Managing and Assessing Odour’  last year. Copies are available from the MIA.

Find out more about FPRF at its website www.fprf.org.

 

This article first appeared in Food NZ (December 2012/January 2013).

New programme to add value to beef

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A new $87 million innovation programme that will look at how more value can be generated from beef carcases has been approved for Government funding.

Ministry for Primary Industries director-general Wayne McNee today announced approved co-funding from the Primary Growth Partnership (PGP) for the new Foodplus programme.

The PGP Fund is committing $43.5 million over seven years for the programme, which is worth $87 million in total and is being run by ANZCO Foods.

Foodplus will identify opportunities to create new products, with a particular focus on parts of the beef carcase that currently generate less value. ANZCO has identified three markets for innovative new products: food, ingredients and healthcare.

ANZCO Foods is a multinational group of companies and one of New Zealand’s largest exporters, with sales of $1.3 billion and employing more than 3,000 staff worldwide. ANZCO Foods also owns processing plants and a cattle feedlot: CMP, Riverlands and Five Star Beef.

“Adding further value to the carcase is essential for the future success of the meat industry,” says McNee. “ANZCO’s vision for Foodplus is relevant and bold and now backed by a significant investment.”

Rennie Davidson, CEO of ANZCO’s Food & Solutions division says ANZCO welcomes the opportunity to partner with the Crown on the Foodplus programme. “It is a large-scale project that wouldn’t be achievable without collaboration. We’re excited about the potential that this will bring to the sector.”

This announcement brings the Government’s investment in meat industry PGP programmes to $129.5 million, for projects worth a total of over half a billion dollars.

Minister welcomes announcement

David Carter, NZ Primary Industries MinisterPrimary Industries Minister David Carter has welcomed the announcement of another successful PGP bid which lifts the total invested in the variety of projects to more than $650 million.

“ANZCO’s proposal to generate more value from the beef carcase with its Foodplus programme is bold and innovative.  This is exactly what PGP is about – transforming great ideas into tangible R&D programmes focussed on results,” says Carter.

“Today’s announcement lifts the total government-industry investment in PGP since its inception three years ago to $665 million.  This is firm proof of the Government’s drive to lift economic growth through primary sector innovation.

“Thanks to the collaborative government-industry approach, we have relevant projects underway across a range of sectors from dairy, arable, red meat and wool to forestry, seafood and aquaculture and manuka honey.

“New Zealand stands to gain from innovative investment in its primary industries because our food, fibre, fishing and forestry sectors are at the heart of our economy,” says the Minister.

ANZCO Foods is a multinational group of companies and one of New Zealand’s largest exporters, with sales of $1.3 billion and employing more than 3000 staff worldwide. The company owns processing plants and a cattle feedlot within a group including CMP, Riverlands and Five Star Beef.

Understanding food protein at heart of science prize

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A world-renowned contribution to the understanding of food protein has led to Distinguished Professor Paul Moughan and Professor Harjinder Singh together being awarded this year’s Prime Minister’s Science Prize – New Zealand’s most valuable award for scientific achievement.

The $500,000 award goes to the two who are Massey University food scientists and co-directors of the Riddet Institute, a centre of research excellence led from the Manawatū campus that focuses on food and health innovation.

Their contribution to food protein science is world-renowned. Singh’s expertise is in food protein structures and how they interact in food systems while Moughan’s work focuses on how proteins are broken down and absorbed in the digestive system and the resulting physiological benefits.

“It’s a marriage made in heaven,” says Moughan. Between us we cover the whole spectrum of food protein science, which is rare worldwide.”

Examples of innovation from their work include the development of a highly effective probiotic, ProBioLife, establishing the health benefits of kiwifruit which is giving Zespri an edge globally and a technology that allows high doses of fish-oil-dervied Omega-3 fatty acids to be added to food products without a fishy smell and after taste.

A recent focus has been developing a novel process to isolate proteins and peptides in low cost meat products and use them in a food product that has been shown to have health benefits for older people. The product is being commercialised by a New Zealand meat company.

The two scientists teamed up more than a decade ago to establish the Riddet Institute as a world-leading centre for food science research. Since 2003, the Institute has secured over $40 million in research funding and used it to carry out fundamental and strategic research and apply the knowledge to create new food products, processes and systems. The Institute has also trained 80 postgraduate scholars and 30 postdoctoral fellows.

“A lot of new ideas and ways of thinking are generated at the Riddet Institute and graduates take that knowledge out into industry,” says Singh.

In addition, the Institute has established Riddet Foodlink, a network of more than 100 companies interested in food innovation and research that work with Riddet Institute researchers.

The winning team plans to use $400,000 of the prize money for on-going research to commercialise discoveries made at the Riddet Institute. “We have a lot of bright minds that come up with really good ideas,” says Singh, adding that the prize money will allow the Institute to screen those ideas and take the most promising through to the next stage.

Moughan says he and Singh are honoured to have won the Prime Minister’s Science Prize and see it as recognition that science and technology is a key to New Zealand’s future. “Food is New Zealand’s biggest industry and there is great opportunity to leverage it further, through advanced scientific understanding, to grow the economy and improve our standard of living. We are privileged to be at the heart of that opportunity.”

No consistent evidence of ‘convincing’ red meat/cancer link, says US expert

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There is no consistent evidence of a ‘convincing link’ between colorectal cancer and red meat, according to one leading US epidemiologist who visited New Zealand recently.

With extensive experience in health research methodology and interpretation of epidemiological studies, particularly nutritional epidemiology, Dr Dominik Alexander is based in Boulder, Colorado, where he works for engineering and science consultancy firm Exponent Inc in its Health Sciences Centre for epidemiology, biostatistics and computational biology.

As an epidemiologist, he’s involved with examining exposure and outcome.
“Food is a necessary exposure. All people have to eat,” he says, adding that the result of over-exposure leads to higher Body Mass Index (BMI) rates, where there is an established increased risk for cancers such as colorectal, the most common cancer affecting the alimentary tract.

Last year, the World Cancer Research Fund released the second expert report on a continuous update project on diet and colorectal cancer. This was a comprehensive study, carried out by a panel of scientific experts, which reviewed 567 nutrition-cancer studies from all around the world (see Food New Zealand, July 2011).

The panel’s conclusion was that physical activity and foods containing dietary fibre convincingly reduced the risk of colorectal cancer and, the consumption of garlic, milk and calcium probably also helps to decrease the risk.  However, the report stated that there was a ‘convincing link’ between the consumption of fresh red meat – defined as beef, pork, lamb and goat from domesticated animals – and processed meat and an increased risk of colorectal cancer. This fact was picked up by media around the world and has been used to guide Department of Health nutritional guidelines here and overseas.

However, Dr Alexander points out, it is an ongoing appraisal, which, in his view, has overstated the conclusion that there is a link. “The scientific evidence does not support the ‘convincing link’. In fact, it’s getting weaker over time as more studies are published,” he says.

In addition, the report separated out fresh red meat and processed meats, like salami and jerky. However, he says, there’s actually very little difference between the two in terms of associations.

In the US, he has found the consumers with the highest intake of red meat tend to also smoke, have a higher alcohol consumption rate, do little exercise and are generally unhealthier. There’s also genetics and age to take into account as more people in developed, and increasingly in developing countries, are reaching senior years – one of the strongest risk factors for cancer.

“It’s very challenging to disentangle the factors.”

On recommended portion-sizes (intake values), he argues that they are difficult to quantify as every person is a different size and, therefore, difficult to quantify their risk. He calls it ‘heterogeneity’, where there is no uniform pattern: “75g might work for a small person, for example, but not for a large man involved in physical activity all day.”
In his work, he has looked at a range of intake values and sees no range of patterns for increased risk, with increased consumption.

In Dr Alexander’s view, the focus should be on cancer prevention. He says, “It all starts with physical exercise and maintaining a healthy body weight. In addition you need a well-balanced diet.”

Dr Dominik Alexander PhD MSPH visited New Zealand and Australia in September in a programme organised by Beef + Lamb NZ Inc and the Australian Meat & Livestock Association.

This article appeared in Food NZ magazine (October/November 2012).