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- Innovate faster and smarter to meet consumer needs
- Northern Foods finds way to stop spuds browning
- What is the reality on carbon emissions for bakery products?
Innovate faster and smarter to meet consumer needs
February 2008
Sheffield Hallam University is helping the UK's food manufacturers unlock the problems facing their business every day.
The University's Food Innovation Project is designed to help companies identify and respond to significant developments in the sector, including changes in environmental and health policies, consumer attitudes and innovation in packaging, production and distribution.
David Johnson, Project Manager said 'although the UK food industry has a strong reputation for research and development, the emphasis is on development and there is often a lack of underpinning research leading to genuine innovation. This is one of the reasons our food innovation programme, based on a multi-disciplinary approach, can really add value to a companies needs.'
Over 60 individual research projects have been completed or are still active on behalf of clients across many areas of the food and drink industry.
The University's food innovation team has explored a range of technologies and solutions to deal with the common issue of waste meat, including conversion technologies, such as incineration, rendering and composting, and creating bio-fuel and bio-gas from the waste.
An additional method of utilisation, which forms a specific research interest for the food innovation programme, is the use of microbial fuel cells. These can directly use organic matter (such as meat waste) to generate electricity using bacteria.
Northern Foods finds way to stop spuds browning
November 2007
In order to stop browning and oxidation of diced vegetables prior to cooking, many manufacturers would dip them in water containing sulphites. That left them with residual sulphite content on the products, which are now on the list of allergens that must be declared on food labels and are becoming increasingly unpopular with retailers and consumers.
Sheffield Hallam University has helped Northern Foods to develop a solution. The university was working with suppliers of fruits and sliced mushrooms on similar projects to help them find alternatives to preservatives such as sulphur dioxide and ascorbic acid.
Dr Andrew Fairclough said, 'manufacturers are increasingly exploring alternatives such as gas flushing and vacuum packaging in order to avoid sulphites. By switching to vacuum packing, Northern Foods has managed to almost double the shelf-life of its diced potatoes and save money through eliminating the need to purchase sulphite and significantly reducing water use.'
What is the reality on carbon emissions for bakery products?
October 2007
Dr Wayne Martindale and Michael Jones headed a recent project to develop a method for calculating CO2 emissions for the primary production and processing of bakery products, using recipe, processing energy and farm production data. The work used recipes from two catering companies and a national high street baker.
The project traced the supply chain of a number of high street bakery products, including a sausage roll, a strawberry tart and a ham and tomato sandwich. Researchers calculated the carbon emissions in each stage of the production, and found that the typical high street sandwich or sausage roll has a 'footprint' of between 14 and 34 grams of carbon dioxide.
The project is now developing methods of accounting for distribution impacts.
Dr Martindale says the project will investigate the relationship between carbon emissions and the health and wellbeing value of products. 'We should all have the correct facts to make the choices we want when buying food. We're privileged enough to be able to make those decisions in the UK - provided we are given that information.'
