Fonterra making flavour concentrate at Edgecumbe

Fonterra have installed new technology at Edgecumbe that transforms the milk fat stream into an intense flavour concentrate which uses milk fat as the flavour carrier.

This 100% natural ingredient can be added to many food products including dairy, bakery and confectionery to impart authentic caramel or cooked dairy flavours that can improve customer acceptance of products. One particular variant, Crumb Flavour, can be added to chocolate, recreating the caramelised milk chocolate flavour popular in New Zealand without the need for a fresh milk supply. This is particularly useful for markets like Asia with a growing demand for high quality chocolate.

Fonterra can see significant potential for the product as consumers demand more authentic, indulgent flavours as well as natural alternatives to current flavour options.

Fonterrahave patented this new technology in important markets around the world using an international patenting treaty.

Sally Ostick launches Scaffold Research

NZIFST Professional Member Sally Ostick has launched Scaffold Research, providing New Zealand companies with high quality online research powered by Buzz Channel – a specialist online research company.

Scaffold Research focuses on strengthening partnerships between suppliers and manufacturers by combining targeted survey methods with consultation to identify and measure expectations. Both parties should expect to see positive business results.

In addition to general supplier evaluation, businesses can use Scaffold™ to measure the performance of international agents or sales teams and ensure offices worldwide are maintaining the companies’ values and guidelines.

Director, Sally Ostick has been on the manufacturing, purchasing and supplier sides of business relationships for more than 25 years. She has a proven track record of excellent relationships with manufacturers and suppliers around the world and has the objective of making the possible visible.

Sally would love to talk to you about her new venture and how your company can benefit. Check out her website at www.scaffoldresearch.com

Buzz Channel was established in 2004 by business people who are long time users of research and dedicated to making the complicated simple.

More health benefits of golden kiwifruit

Carbohydrate chemists from Industrial Research Limited (IRL) have uncovered the secrets behind the cell wall of Zespri’s patented variety of gold kiwifruit.

IRL chemist Dr Simon Hinkley says a number of studies have shown kiwifruit to be beneficial for the digestive system because they are high in fibre and contain bioactive agents that promote the growth of beneficial intestinal bacteria. Among these agents are the polysaccharides or complex carbohydrates.

But, says Dr Hinkley, most research published to date has focused on the original, green variety with a gap in knowledge about the newer gold kiwifruit.

The IRL team found little difference between the types and total levels of complex carbohydrates in the two varieties although ZESPRI®GOLD Kiwifruit has higher amounts of a compound known to break down more easily in the stomach.

Zespri Health Science Manager Lynley Drummond says the research has provided the tools needed to study whether there are different health benefits from eating a gold or a green kiwifruit.

“Now we know the structure of the components in each variety, we can follow them through the digestive process.”

She says that research is being carried out through a collaborative project involving IRL, Plant and Food Research, AgResearch and the Riddet Institute.

“It’s no longer good enough to say a product must be good for you – consumers are rightly demanding robust science that proves the efficacy of foods that make claims about their health benefits.”

Kiwifruit marketer Zespri, which owns the Plant Variety Rights for ZESPRI®GOLD Kiwifruit (Actinidia chinensis var. Hort16A), commissioned the research to find out more about its potential health benefits.

The original analytical work by IRL’s Carbohydrate Chemistry team has been published in Carbohydrate Polymers, a peer-reviewed journal focusing on carbohydrate polymers with industrial uses.

First Professor of Food Science at Lincoln University

Lincoln University has appointed Charles Brennan as its first Professor of Food Science. The move to Lincoln University is a return to New Zealand for Professor Brennan, who spent nearly five years at Massey University as Professor of Food Chemistry and Director of the Food Division up to 2009 and has come to the position from a professorship in Food Chemistry and Nutrition in the United Kingdom.

Professor Brennan’s research interests lie in the interface between food science and human nutrition and he is internationally known for his work on how bio-active ingredients and processing manipulate the nutritional quality of foods, especially in relation to the glycaemic response of products.

He is particularly interested in the innovative use of food wastes in order to enhance the sustainability of food production, the utilisation of extrusion technologies for delivering bio-active components in functional foods, and novel engineering solutions to optimise food processing systems.

At Lincoln University he joins the expanding disciplinary area of food science and is a member of the Department of Wine, Food and Molecular Biosciences. He will be involved in research relationships with AgResearch and the Food Innovation Network, which is based in Lincoln and exists at the interface of science and the food industry, seeking new items for New Zealand’s export markets.

Psa impact report released

Psa is having a severe impact on the premium Gold kiwifruit variety and production will be well down next year, a Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry report shows.

The outlook for New Zealand’s kiwifruit sector and the impact of the bacterial disease Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae has clarified since the release of the annual Situation and Outlook for New Zealand Agriculture and Forestry (SONZAF) report in June.

MAF has released a half-year update which shows loss of vines since the virulent strain stuck in November 2010 could take production of Gold kiwifruit from 30 million trays in 2011 to 20 or even 10 million trays in the 2012 season.

Psa has hit hardest around Te Puke in the Bay of Plenty where 41% of the total planted area is located. At this stage, just over a quarter of kiwifruit orchards in New Zealand are known to have the bacterium present.

Overall, up to 20% of Gold kiwifruit in Te Puke could still be harvested, and up to 80% in the wider Bay of Plenty. This would yield an export volume of around 16 million trays of Gold kiwifruit.

Psa has been slower to affect Green kiwifruit orchards, but orchard infection numbers have risen during the 2011 spring. The impact of Psa on green orchards in the medium term remains uncertain.

Overall, export volumes are expected to fall 21% to 89 million trays, and export returns are expected to fall 18% to $862 million, for the year ending 31 March 2013.