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Background Reducing sugar in packaged foods and beverages could help protect children's future health. Clear methods for the development of feasible yet impactful sugar reduction program targets are needed. Objectives To outline methods for the development of program targets that would reduce, by 20%, the total sugar content of packaged foods and beverages commonly consumed by children. New Zealand (NZ) is used as a case study. Methods Sugar content and pack size targets were developed using a 6-step process informed by the UK sugar and salt reduction programs. Food groups contributing ≥2% to children's total sugar intake were identified using national dietary survey data. Consumption volume, sugar content, and pack size were obtained from household panel data linked with a packaged food composition database. Category-specific targets were set as 20% reductions in sales-weighted means adjusted for feasibility, i.e., ∼1/3 of products already meeting the target, and alignment with existing, relevant targets. Results Twenty-two food groups were identified as major contributors to NZ children's total sugar intake. Mean reductions required in sugar content and pack size to meet the targets were 5.2 g  per 100 g/mL (26%) and 61.2 g/mL/pack (23%), respectively. The percentage of products already meeting the sugar targets ranged from 14% for electrolyte drinks and flavored dairy milk to 50% for cereal bars, and for pack size targets compliance ranged from 32% for chocolate confectionary to 62% for fruit juices and drinks. Estimated reductions in annual household sugar purchases if the sugar and pack size targets were met were 1459 g (23%) and 286 g (6%), respectively. Conclusions Methods for the development of sugar and pack size reduction targets are presented, providing a robust, step-by-step process for countries to follow. The results of the case study provide a suggested benchmark for a potential national sugar reduction program in NZ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Approximately 45% of all exports from New Zealand are food products or by-products, and an estimated 60% of these are exported in the refrigerated state. The leading food sectors in terms of volume and income are in order: the dairy industry, the red meat industry, the horticultural industry and the seafood industry. Due to its geographic isolation, New Zealand food exports form part of some of the longest cold chains in the world. Responsibility for temperature integrity in the cold chain is placed on the processors and exporters and is overseen by the Ministry for Primary Industry of the Government of New Zealand. Currently, the major research theme related to the cold-chain in New Zealand is focussed around optimising chilling and freezing processes for shelf-life extension. Improving energy efficiency in refrigeration processes is also a significant research theme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: New Zealand has a much higher rate of reported campylobacteriosis cases than the rest of the developed world. It has been assumed that New Zealanders have worse home hygiene practices during food preparation than the citizens of other developed countries. If this is the case then the study has to address how to educate New Zealanders more effectively about food hygiene practices. A QMRA study using the Bayesian approach has indicated that hygiene has a significant impact on the total probability of illness, as an increase in the poor hygiene percentage by approximately 50% reflected an increase of approximately 50% in the probability of illness. The findings of the QMRA and a review of consumer food handling practice in New Zealand and other developed countries confirm the hypothesis that poor hygiene may contribute to the high rate of campylobacteriosis in New Zealand. There is a lack of New Zealand data and studies regarding consumer knowledge and handling practices. The few studies that were conducted were not comprehensive. The poor hygiene practice of consumers could be linked to demographic, socioeconomic and psychological variables, as well as to personal receptivity to new information, previous knowledge and cultural influence. This study recommends using social marketing as a cost effective option for a future educational or communication strategy aimed at educating New Zealanders and improving their domestic food handling practices. Evidently, the priority for the scientific community, risk managers, policy makers and health professionals is not to celebrate the questionable (for the scientific community in New Zealand and abroad) rapid decline of campylobacteriosis cases but to accurately investigate further the rapid decline, and to think about how to further reduce the current rate as it is still the highest among the developed countries. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: New Zealand has a much higher rate of reported campylobacteriosis cases than the rest of the developed world. The two main risk factors identified internationally for campylobacteriosis are, consumption of undercooked chicken and cross-contamination during food preparation. One possible reason is that New Zealanders have poorer home hygiene practices during food preparation than the citizens of other developed countries. The objective of this study was to investigate cross-contamination during chicken preparation at home as a possible hypothesis to explain the high reported rate of campylobacteriosis. An extensive search of data bases of publications concerned with consumer food handling practices or self-reported practices, consumers'' knowledge or perception about food safety and consumers'' observed practices, was conducted. Personal communication with science groups in New Zealand and the world were also carried out. It was found that in New Zealand there is a lack of data regarding consumer knowledge and studies on handling practices. The few studies conducted in New Zealand were not comprehensive. It appears from the findings of this study, that New Zealanders'' knowledge of basic food hygiene is lower in comparison to people of other developed countries. For example, New Zealanders scored the lowest in their knowledge about food safety or hygiene. Most of the evidence collected in this study supports the hypothesis that New Zealanders are poorer in home hygiene than people of other developed countries, and this has possibly contributed to New Zealand having the highest rate of campylobacteriosis among developed countries. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Under neoliberal schemes like audit systems, consumer demands born of concerns about food safety, the environment and animal welfare are theoretically poised to influence agricultural production systems (). Whether such influences might reverse or redirect the trend toward environmentally-damaging rampant productivism of the 20th century hinges in part on the subjective positions of farmers and the ways in which they inform how farmers respond to policy and market signals. In this paper we argue the need for a genuine engagement with both the complexities of farmer subjectivity and the interactions amongst farmer subjectivity and agro-ecologies, and animal bodies in particular. This paper presents a case study of sheep farmers on the South Island that reveals contestation and transitions in traditional markers of “good farming”, particularly animal health. We observe how such transitions arise from reconfigurations of the relationships between agro-ecological, political and social histories. In this paper’s formulation, neither state subsidies nor neoliberalism in agriculture is primary cause or ultimate effect of the transformation of agricultural practice. Rather, changes in the political economy expose contradictions in farmer subjectivities, the resolution of which may block or reinforce trends suggested by the political economy. We suggest that contested ideas about animal health within the social field of pastoral farming in New Zealand makes it possible that New Zealand’s sheep growers may take the high road of best environmental practice via highly audited environmental standards of production demanded by elite consumer markets, or that they may remain in the intensifying trajectory of continuing to drive the sheep’s body to its maximum possible intensity of production. The mixed legacy of neoliberal reform is that it has simultaneously enabled both of these contradictory trajectories in New Zealand pastoralism. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The thermal denaturation of the naturally occurring lactoferrin in raw bovine whole milk has been measured over a range of temperatures from 65 to 121 °C for holding times from 2 up to 300 s designed to mimic heating processes used in the food manufacturing industry. Data were generated by heat treatments of raw whole milk from two different sources, New Zealand (NZ) and China, and with lactoferrin at two different levels of naturally occurring iron saturation. Denaturation rates for lactoferrin in the Chinese-sourced milk samples were at least two-fold greater than lactoferrin in the NZ milk over the temperature range 65–80 °C. At 85 °C rates of denaturation were the same although more than 80-fold greater than at 65 °C whereas, at 95 °C, lactoferrin in the NZ milk denatured at twice the rate of that in the Chinese milk. The differences in denaturation rates up to 80 °C likely reflected the greater heat stability of the more iron-saturated NZ milk samples. From these data, a combined kinetic and Arrhenius-based model has been developed and validated that allows calculation of native lactoferrin retained after thermal processing at any temperature-time combination in the experimental range (65–95 °C). This model should have applicability in the evaluation of existing processes and for the design of processes to improve the retention of lactoferrin during food manufacture. • A kinetic model validated for the thermal denaturation of lactoferrin in raw milk. • Loss of lactoferrin with increasing time and temperature over the range 65–95 °C. • The iron saturation of lactoferrin in Chinese milk is lower than those in NZ milk. • Heat stabilities for lactoferrin in Chinese milk were lower than those in NZ milk up to 85 °C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The adhesion of frozen products such as dairy, water, and juices to industrial metallic surfaces is a major source of inefficiency in the food processing industry. There are different methods developed to quantify ice adhesion strength, but these methods tend to be incomparable due to a combination of tensile and shear force effects. Additionally, these methods usually involve ex-situ freezing which introduced additional experimental errors and prevent cycling of measurements. This paper proposes a new quantitative tensile force technique to characterise the tensile adhesion strength of frozen products to surfaces with less effects from the shear component of force. The in-situ freezing experimental set-up is presented along with case studies performed with commercially available milks in New Zealand to illustrate the benefits and limitations of the method. Results from this technique are not representative of the true ice adhesion strength due to effects of stress concentrations and the use of surfactants. However, this technique shows promise for comparison of the degree of icephobicity for different surfaces. • A method of tensile ice adhesion strength measurement with in-situ- ice formation was proposed. • Method enables comparison of frozen products adhesion strength of different samples. • This frozen product adhesion method is designed to be closer to the real-world conditions of Individual Quick Freezing. • An increase in the fat content in milk shows increased adhesion strength to the same stainless steel substrate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]