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Introduction by Head of School Welcome to another issue of MAGO which will update you on what is happening with our school. Our feature article introduces one of the school's current visitors, Kristberg Kristbergsson from the University of Iceland. Kris is working with Bhesh Bhandari and has recently presented a seminar on Solid Lipid Nanoparticles as Potential Delivery System for Bioactives in Foods to the school.There is also more to read on exciting research being conducted in the school and about the achievements of our staff and students. I have recently returned from a week's leadership course in Colorado Springs. The course was fast-paced and I was kept very busy. I will be putting into practice all I have learned about myself and my leadership style. I was also part of the Faculty delegation to China, which gave me the opportunity to visit a number of agricultural institutions and meet many senior officials. There are quite a few overseas trips planned for the rest of the year: I will be travelling to the UK and USA for research meetings at the end of October. I have also been invited to speak at the Australasian Region Biometrics Conference in Lake Taupo in New Zealand in November and to be a keynote speaker at the 10th Islamic Countries Conference on Statistical Sciences in Cairo in December. Regards 
Professor Kaye E Basford Head of School |
In this issue
Introduction by Head of School Professor Kristberg Kristbergsson New Funding for Sorghum Research Spotlight on new Higher Degree Students Student Higher Degree Research To obtain a hard copy, use the print version which will print out on A4 paper in portrait mode. Note: Depending upon your printer configuration, some photographs may shift position slightly. |
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Introducing Professor Kristberg Kristbergsson…
Kristberg is currently a Visiting Professor with LCAFS. Since you will probably have a hard time with his name you should call him Kris. Kris is Professor of Food Processing and Technology at the Department of Food Science and Nutrition, University of Iceland. He earned his Ph.D. in Food Science at the Department of Food Science, Rutgers University, USA in 1984 and M. Phil and M.S. from the same department in 1982. His B.Sc. in Food Science from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Iceland in 1979. Iceland is a small island in the North Atlantic where the economy has mostly been based on fisheries for more than a thousand years or ever since the Norse Vikings settled in the island in the early 900´s. However, in the past 5-10 years a few very imaginative financial "wonder-kids" tried to change the island into an international banking paradise with drastic results for the rest of the islanders. Well - we are back to fisheries in Iceland and if the financial crisis has given us anything it has brought back traditional values. In spite of the crisis, Iceland along with Australia, Norway and Canada, still ranks among the best places to live in the world according to all international and UN standards. Australians sometime think they are a small nation in a big island; well we really are a small nation of only 300 thousand people in a relatively big island of 103 thousand sq km (Australia is approximately 7.7 million sq km).
Why would you want to leave Iceland for sunny Brisbane? The decision was made in Japan last year where Kris and his wife, Professor Gudrun Marteinsdóttir, were giving talks at the World Fish Congress in Yokohama. His wife gave one of the plenary lectures after which she was asked to come and work with researchers at CSIRO in Cleveland. The timing was right since they both had a one semester sabbatical coming up. While Kris was contemplating how to spent the time in Australia he attended an ISEKI (see below) meeting in Sweden where he met his friend Professor Paul Singh from UC Davis who suggested he should hook up with Professor Besh Bhandari and contacted Besh on his behalf that same evening. Besh immediately asked Kris to come and spend some time at UQ.
Kris and his wife Gudrun spent almost ten years (1979-1989) in the US doing graduate work and working in industry. His doctoral dissertation was on the kinetics and mechanism of degradation reactions in foods affected by the state of water. At that time Kris also worked on practical problems related to food packaging, especially food shelf-life, permeation, migration and mechanical properties of packaging materials. He then did a post doc followed by several years with Nabisco Brands where he worked on food extrusion both in food product development and on basic research of extrusion processes and physicochemical properties of foods. After moving back to Iceland at the end of 1988 Kris joined the Department of Chemistry at the University of Iceland where his research has mostly been related to physicochemical properties and development of new processes for various types of seafood. He was instrumental in establishing the Department of Food and Nutrition in 1995. In the last five to six years Kris has been working on chitin and chitosan with respect to dietary properties and the effect on lipid digestion and more recently on the encapsulation of bioactive compounds like omega-3 fatty acids using solid lipid nanoparticles. Most of his research is in close collaboration with researchers in Europe and the US.
In addition to research on fish and encapsulation of bioactives Kris is Series Editor of the ISEKI Food Series which is a collection of books published by Springer with six volumes having been published since 2006. The ISEKI-Food book series is a collection of books where various aspects of food safety and environmental issues are introduced and reviewed by scientists specializing in the field. In all of the books a special emphasis has been placed on including case studies applicable to each specific topic. The books are intended for graduate students and senior level undergraduate students as well as professionals and researchers interested in food safety and environmental issues applicable to food safety. The books are all available from Springer in hard cover or as electronic files where individual chapters may be obtained (http://www.springer.com/series/7288).
The idea and planning of the books originates from two working groups in the European thematic network "ISEKI-Food" an acronym for "Integrating Safety and Environmental Knowledge Into Food Studies". There are 94 participating institutions or universities in the ISEKI-Food network from 30 countries in Europe representing most of the institutes and universities involved with Food Science education at the university level in Europe. Some international companies and non-teaching institutions have also participated in the program. The ISEKI-Food network is coordinated by Professor Cristina Silva at The Catholic University of Portugal, College of Biotechnology (Escola) in Porto. The program has a web site at: http://www.esb.ucp.pt/iseki/. The main objectives of ISEKI-Food have been to improve the harmonization of studies in food science and engineering in Europe and to develop and adapt food science curricula emphasizing the inclusion of safety and environmental topics.
At the beginning of 2008 ISEKI Food expanded into ISEKI Mundus which is a globalization of the network adding partners from 37 countries from all around the world continuing to work towards a safer and healthier food supply through education (http://www.esb.ucp.pt/iseki/ and https://www.iseki-food.eu/drupal/). The ISEKI Food Series is being continued and three more volumes are in the editorial stage and will be published in 2010-2011, Volume 7 "Food Processing", Volume 8 "Food and Biostatistics" and Volume 9 "Novel Technologies - their impact on products, consumer trends and environment", and three more are being planned for 2012-2014. UQ´s Professor Besh Bhandari will be contributing to the book on Food Processing which is edited by Kris and Semih Otles from Ege Universty in Turkey. The network has evolved into the ISEKI-Food Association with various benefits for individual members. (https://www.iseki-food.net/drupal/) If you want to talk to Kris, feel free to visit him in his office in Room C403 at Hartley Teakle, call him on +61 7 3346 9186, or leave a message on the answering machine. You can also contact him at kk@hi.is since he resides in Cleveland and frequently works at home. Kris and his wife leave Australia for Europe at the end of October but plans are already being made to spend the next Sabbatical here in Australia since they have become to appreciate Brisbane and its surroundings. Kris and his wife are also planning a visit Tasmania and Ayers Rock before they leave. |
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New funding support for Digesting genes in sorghum project…
Ian Godwin (UQ), Emma Mace and David Jordan [QPIF] are leading a project to investigate the genes that control crop yield, drought adaptation and insect resistance using the sequence of the sorghum genome thanks to recent funding support of $254,000 from the QPIF ReInvestment Fund and the Australian Research Council (ARC).  This joint project aims to determine the function of grain quality genes in sorghum and their impact on traits of interest to plant breeders. The research team is taking full advantage of this new opportunity to identify the genes associated with grain quality, which will, in turn, boost industry productivity, profitability and sustainability. In particular, the project team is researching which genes affect starch content, cell wall thickness and cell size in an attempt to improve its value as a source of energy. They are also currently developing a searchable library of gene variants that will allow scientists to determine the function of genes. The searchable library will allow them to screen for plants that contain variations in key genes involved in grain quality. The research will be centered at QPIF's Hermitage Research Station, east of Warwick, which has a world-class reputation in breeding sorghum. Sorghum is an important global food and a potential biofuel crop. It is the main summer grain crop in Queensland and a key feed in the beef, dairy, pig and poultry industries. Sorghum is also being considered potentially for the human diet because it has no gluten and contains a number of characteristics that may enhance human health. |
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Neal Menzies recently obtained a new grant of $219,000 for the project A national soil science curriculum in response to the needs of the students, academic staff, industry and the wider community. Neal is part of a national team working on this project. The overall project leader and manager is Alex McBratney, Pro-Dean and Professor Soil Science at the University of Sydney. Other team members are Professor Lyn Abbott from the University of Western Australia, Dr Robert Edis, Associate Dean Learning and Teaching at the University of Melbourne, Dr Cameron Grant from the University of Adelaide, Dr Damien Field, Associate Dean Postgraduate Studies at the University of Sydney, and Dr Tony Koppi, Project Manager at the University of Sydney Jacqui Batley received a UQ Foundation Research Excellence Award for 2009 at the Research week dinner held at Customs house in September. Jacqui received $70,000 funding for her project Conservation of blackleg disease resistance genes across the Brassicaceae; an insight into the Brassicaceae evolution. Jacqui's research is looking at why some crops are attacked with this devastating disease and yet others are not. She is using the latest gene-sequencing technologies to discover disease-resistant genes in wild Brassica species. Thanks to Jacqui's research Australia's canola farmers are one step closer to protecting their crops by non-chemical means. The University of Queensland Foundation Research Excellence Awards scheme is a means by which the University recognises demonstrated excellence and promise of future success in research, and the leadership potential of individual researchers in their respective fields. Vic Galea is a recipient of an ALTC citation worth $10,000. Citations are awarded to academic and professional staff who have made long-standing contributions to the quality of student learning and improving the overall student experience. Vic was also successful in receiving an Australian Learning and Teaching Award for Teaching Excellence in the Biological Sciences, Health and Related Studies category worth $25,000. A ceremony will be held on 24 November in Canberra where winners will receive their awards. This was one of three awards won by UQ. Mike Gidley received the Alsberg-French-Schoch Award at the Memorial Lecture meeting of the AACC Cereal Chemistry Meeting in Baltimore. The Alsberg-French-Schoch Memorial Lectureship was established in 1965 to honour chemists who have made distinguished contributions to fundamental starch science. The award is given every two to four years. |
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John Schiller's book (Rice in Laos), which was published last year, is currently being translated into the Lao language by the National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute within the Lao Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. The purpose of the translation is mainly so that it can be used within the agricultural education sector in Laos. David Farrell has given us pre-notice of his soon to be released new book in the article below. The views he expresses are his own. It is just five years since David Farrell (LCFS) started writing this book, Great Wealth Poor Health: contemporary: issues in eating and living. The book is now on its way from the printers in Hong Kong and is expected to arrive with the publishers CopyRight Publishing in Brisbane in early October.  The book is a commentary on some of the more sensitive and topical issues in our society; many of which tend to be skirted around; are politically sensitive, and we don't talk much about them in public. For example, are GM foods really the answer to increasing the global food supply and are they always safe? Are organic foods good value or indeed do they offer any real benefits? Red meat has recently been promoted as a healthy meat - is that the whole truth or is there a downside? Why does the average supermarket carry over 50 different milk products? David doesn't think that dietary cholesterol is the risk factor that we are led to believe and examines the historical reasons why statins are the most prescribed drug in Australia. Do the drug companies and your GP have a hand in all of this? This leads on to a scathing chapter on the health system, mainly in Queensland, with bureaucrats ducking and weaving to avoid the constant flack. The food industry is a powerful and political organisation and to some extent responsible for our obesity explosion running neck and neck with that of the US and UK. Are weight-losing regimes a waste of time and are there alternatives? Just where does the public get its nutritional advice from? Should there be taxes on foods known to contribute to obesity such as sugar, take-away-foods and most vegetable oils and should these taxes be used to subsidise fruit, vegetables and other non processed foods? Are our food scientists in the hands of industry and can we trust their research findings and pontifications on dietary matters? Exercise: never heard of it: but the book shows how important daily exercise is in its very many forms and puts an energy figure on many activities and calculates how much weight you can be expected to lose in a few months. Are our exercise centres catering for the needy or for the wealthy? Can those who should exercise most least afford it? Our children: is raising them in child care centres while mum and dad go to work doing good or doing harm? Is this the start of the obesity highway? The focus of the book is health and well being and there is a constant reminder of some simple solutions such as dietary fibre and the omega-3 fats. The sad situation of many of the ailments of our society stem not only from ignorance but from 'affluenza' (as described by Clive Hamilton). There are 20 healthy recipes for those interested in cooking. The 22 chapters start with 'energy' and the environment and end with 'what the future may hold for us"'. Each chapter is fully referenced (there are 998 references) and the index runs to over 1400 entries. There is a foreword by Professor Ron Leng (The University of New England) and a pithy summary paragraph by Professor Peter Cheeke of Oregon State University. The text lay- out is attractive and unusual and there are some humorous paragraphs. There is a special price of $25/copy (normally $33) for UQ staff providing you have an internal mailing address. Order from David Farrell CopyRight Publishing, PO Box 2927, Brisbane 4001 or by email d.farrell@uq.edu.au |
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Spotlight on LCAFS new Postgraduate Student Kelly Boulton…
Kelly has recently enrolled for a PhD in LCAFS; her principal advisor is Mike Gidley. Kelly's PhD is a component of a larger project funded by Horticulture Australia Limited (HAL). The project is investigating the satiety effects of particular vegetables and their role in weight management. The project is being worked on in conjunction with the University of Wollongong, Curtin University, and Queensland Primary Industries and Fisheries (QPIF). The University of Wollongong's Smart Food Centre will be conducting trials into the chosen vegetables role in weight management. Curtin University and QPIF will be determining the effect of the phytochemical composition of the vegetables on satiety and weight management. Kelly's PhD project involves two phases determining the role of vegetable type and form on satiety. Phase one involves the provision of breakfasts containing the vegetables to subjects, a subsequent ad libitum lunch and subject recording of feelings of fullness. Food diaries will be used for the remainder of the day. The second phase of Kelly's PhD will involve the use of a simulated digestive tract and the study of movement and reactions of the various vegetable types and forms. Kelly moved to Queensland three months ago from Melbourne where she was working at Deakin University as a Research Fellow within the WHO Centre for the Collaboration of Obesity Prevention. Kelly has completed an Applied Science - Food Science and Nutrition degree and a Master of Public Health majoring in Nutrition. Kelly is currently registered as a Public Health Nutritionist with the Nutrition Society of Australia. Kelly also has experience in two government departments working on food safety regulation. |
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LCAFS Welcomes the following new higher degree research students… Amalia Belgeri (MPhil), Effect of parthenium weed on native plant biodiversity during a period of concerted management, Principal Supervisor: Steve Adkins. Kelly Boulton (Phd), The importance of high vegetable consumption in controlling weight: evaluating the effect on appetite of vegetable based meals, Principal Supervisor: Mike Gidley. Zahid Hanif (Phd), Genetic diversity and invasive potential of parthenium weed, Principal Supervisor: Steve Adkins. Baxter Massey (Phd), Australian native plant species as models for understanding the regulation and roles of betalain pigment synthesis, Principal Supervisor: Dion Harrison. Eirik Visted (MPhil), Potential triple-bottom line benefits of urban food production, and how to facilitate them, Principal Supervisor: Richard Williams. Yi Zhou (PhD), Identifying drought resistance of couch grass genotypes using physiological and molecular methods, Principal supervisor: Chris Lambrides. |
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to the following students who have been awarded their higher degree research: Ismail Mohamed Ali Al-Bulushi (PhD), Gram-positive bacteria in sub-tropical marine fish and their mesophilic spoilage potential. Irina Antonova (PhD), Somatic embryogenesis for micropropagation of coconut (Cocos nucifera L.). Rosa Cuevas (Phd), Starch microstructure and functional properties in waxy rice (Oryza sativa L.). Jilushi Damunupola (PhD), Xylem flow in cut acacia holosericae stems. Son Dinh (PhD), Biology of Botrytis cinerea infecting waxflower (Chamelaucium) flowers and potential elicitation of host defence in this pathosystem. Indah Epriliati (PhD), Nutriomic Analysis Of Fresh And Processed Fruits Through The Development Of An In-Vitro Model Of The Human Digestive System. Mark Kenny (PhD), Studies of the biology, ecology and control of berry diseases of Coffea arabica L. in Papua New Guinea. Kanokkan Weeragul (PhD), The Effect of Manufacturing Factors on Stirred Yogurt Properties. These thesis are available to be borrowed. Email your request to lcafs@uq.edu.au. |
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The Student Product Development Prize and Perpetual trophy…
has been won by LCAFS 4th year Food Technology students (Trevor Goltz and Sarah Crennan) and David Chua (B Applied Sciences). The competition is an initiative of the Australian Institute of Food Science and Technology (AIFST), and sponsored by Earlee Products with support from SPC Ardmona (fruit & vegetable innovation), MLA (meat innovation) and Sensory Solutions for best sensory application. The award was presented at the annual conference held in Brisbane in July this year. Trevor, Sarah and David came up with the idea, and designed and developed the gluten free "Soyers" protoype as part of the Food3011 Product Development practical laboratory work supervised by Janette McDonald and coordinated by Bruce D'Arcy. The Product Development practical work is designed to help students understand all the issues involved in developing and commercialising a food product to meet consumer expectations for safety and quality. The student brief was enormous. They had to: Not only did the students win the annual Student Product Development award sponsored by Earlee Products, they also won the SPC Ardmona award for "A new innovative fruit or vegetable" product plus the Sensory Evaluation Award sponsored by Sensory Australia, as part of the competition.
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