Category Archives: appetite

by | March 12, 2024 · 9:52 am

What’s Cooking, March 2024

What’s Cooking is an update on all things related to SHUFood: Sheffield Hallam University’s food research cluster, comprising, CHEFS (exploring the socio-cultural dimensions of food and drink), SWEFS (exploring drivers and interventions to address food waste), and SHARe (exploring appetite regulation and modulation). What’s been cooking since our last edition?

We’re delighted to announce something new for Hallam-based SHUFood members: SHUFood Research Chats! These monthly online meetings offer a space to talk all things research: showcase work, provide updates, discuss plans, explore collaborations… They have evolved from the Food and Nutrition subject group’s long and happy history of research chats, and we’re looking forward to welcoming a wider SHUFood group! You can bring along updates to share, or just come along to see what everyone else is up to—all are welcome. The first SHUFood chat will be on Wednesday 10 April (15:30 to 16:30) via MS Teams. If you’re interested, please email Dr Jordan Beaumont (j.beaumont@shu.ac.uk) for more information and a calendar invite.

We’re busily preparing for 24 April, when we’ll be holding our SHUFood Annual Discourse event (2-5pm on campus). We’re excited to be hosting three fabulous speakers who reflect our three SHUFood themes: Professor Graham Finlayson (University of Leeds) will be talking about sugar replacement and appetite, Dr Megan Blake (University of Sheffield) will be talking about the ontological status of surplus food, and Professor Benedetta Cappellini (Durham University) will be talking about foodcare and mothers’ food practices. Full details to come on the SHUFood Events page. We’re also inviting all SHUFood researchers from any career stage to share existing research posters as part of the event—see details below in the ‘Resources and Calls for Papers’ section.

Finally, some exciting local news: Sheffield has been awarded the Silver Sustainable Food Places award! We’re very proud to be a named organisation on the application, and delighted that so many SHUFood and Sheffield Hallam colleagues are actively contributing to making Sheffield a more sustainable food place.

Below, we have:

  • updates on recent outputs and activities from our clusters and members;
  • resources and calls for papers (including a call for research participants for a study of food addiction);
  • the usual call for contributions and content for the mid-May 2024 edition of What’s Cooking. Our newsletter has moved to alternate mid-months: the deadline for submissions (research news and updates, calls for expression of interest, relevant calls for papers/conference/event announcements) to Google Form by Monday 13 May.

Cheers,
The SHUFood Team!

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Cluster Updates

Jenny Paxman (RNutr Food) has been been awarded a prestigious Association for Nutrition (AfN) Fellowship, joining a limited number of leading Registered Nutritionists to have been conferred the title. AfN fellows are recognised for their high standards of professional leadership and significant and sustained contribution to the advancement of nutrition regulation, practice, research or education at a national or international level.  Applications for fellowship are rigorously a peer reviewed and must be supported by both Committee and Council. Jenny is Subject Group Leader for Food and Nutrition, a core member of the SHUFood leadership team, abnd SHUFood SHARe researcher. We’re super proud of her!

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Jenny Paxman recently participated in a Nutrition Society Roundtable: Differentiating fungi-derived proteins – is there a role for a fungal protein category within food based dietary guidelines (FBDG) and how is this best communicated? This member-led meeting kicked off with presentations from experts in the field. Dr Emma Derbyshire from Nutritional Insight explored ‘Fungi vs plants: taxonomy, nutritional value, role in the diet and representation in food-based dietary guidelines around the world’ highlighting the different approaches taken globally.  Prof. Benjamin Wall (University of Exeter) went on to share some of the trials evidence exploring effects on muscle anabolism, cardio metabolic health and the microbiome.  The final presentation prior to discussion was from Prof. Paul Thomas (University of Stirling) who presented insights into the sustainability credentials of fungi-derived proteins. The live-streamed presentations and subsequent debate sought to answer seven key questions and lively discussion followed.  Look out for the published summary paper in due course.

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Lucie Nield, Jordan Beaumont, Rachel Rundle, Simon Bowles, Helen Martin, Claire Wall, Jo Pearce and David Harness have received a NIHR Application Development Award to run a study exploring the scale and scope of dark kitchens (food outlets with no customer-facing storefront who sell food exclusively through online platforms for delivery only) across the north of England. The project will work with consumers, local authorities and dark kitchen businesses to explore perceptions of “dark kitchens” and current approaches to identifying and regulating these businesses.

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Dr Jordan Beaumont was invited to give a guest lecture to psychology students and academics at Christ University (India). The lecture – Eating Behaviour: From “Normal” to Disordered Eating – provided an overview of Jordan’s research, and served as an opportunity to overview some of the collaborative work between Sheffield Hallam and Christ University.

Jennifer Smith Maguire will be participating in the ‘Workshop on Leisure & Consumption of Economic Elites’ in late March: a fully funded, closed workshop of 13 invited papers taking place at the University of Amsterdam. Jen’s workshop contribution examines the role of elite cultural intermediaries in shaping elite taste preferences and practices, and their utility as an empirical entry point for studying elite consumption dispositions. The working paper analyses media representations of biodynamic and natural wine over a twenty-year timespan, highlighting how these forms of ‘weird wine’ become conventional yet retain their insecure status as objects of legitimate, discerning consumption. Jen’s also part of a special session on ‘Consumer Culture Insights into Brands and their Heritage’ at the CCT 2024 conference, where she’ll be presenting a paper examining natural wines and the aesthetics of provenance.

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Publications:

Flint, M., Leroy, F., Bowles, S., Lynn, A. & Paxman, J. (2024). The acceptability and sensory attributes of plant-based burger products under open and closed label conditions [abstract only]. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 82 (OCE5), E278-E278. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0029665123003774

Fowler-Davis, S., Benkowitz, C., Nield, L. & Dayson, C. (2024). Green Spaces and the Impact on Cognitive Frailty; a scoping review. Frontiers in Public Health, 11:1278542. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1278542

Hawkins, A., & Rundle, R. (2024). School Food Hero and the Battle of the Food Foe: a story of public health policy, power imbalance and potential. Social Science and Medicine, 342. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.116520

Lynn, A., Shaw, C., Sorsby, A., Ashworth, P., Hanif, F., Williams, C., & Ranchordas, M. (2024). Caffeine gum improves 5 km running performance in recreational runners completing parkrun events. European Journal of Nutrition. http://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-024-03349-3

Nield, L. (2024). “I Prefer Eating Less Than Eating Healthy”: Drivers of Food Choice in a Sample of Muslim Adolescents. Adolescents, 4 (1), 41-61. https://doi.org/10.3390/adolescents4010004

Nield, L., Thelwell, M., Chan, A., Choppin, S. & Marshall, S. (2024). Patient perceptions of three-dimensional (3D) surface imaging technology and traditional methods used to assess anthropometry. Obesity Pillars, 100100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obpill.2024.100100

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Resources and Calls for Papers

SHUFood Research Chats are monthly online meetings that offer a space to talk all things research: showcase work, provide updates, discuss plans, explore collaborations… You can bring along updates to share, or just come along to see what everyone else is up to—all are welcome. Please email Dr Jordan Beaumont (j.beaumont@shu.ac.uk) for more information and a calendar invite. The next SHUFood chat will be Wednesday 10 April (15:30 to 16:30).

 

Food Addiction Research: Participants Needed!
We’re looking to understand how people feel about ‘food addiction.’ The term ‘food addiction’ is widely used in popular culture including on social media. We would like to better understand how different people perceive ‘food addiction’ (no matter what viewpoint they have). As much of the current research under-represents certain groups or communities, we would like to hear from any adult (over 18 years), irrespective of demographic characteristics or how you identify. We believe that having a clear understanding about how people feel about ‘food addiction’ (no matter what viewpoint they have), will help improve future research in this area that could have an impact on weight management strategies and services. Please complete the very short (10-15 min) survey via: https://lnkd.in/eKamgJCc  Please share amongst your networks – we hope to reach as many people as possible and represent as diverse a range of individuals as we can.

Have you presented a SHUFood-relevant academic poster recently? Share it again!
All SHUFood researchers from any career stage are invited to share an existing research poster as part of the SHUFood Annual Discourse research showcase (24 April). Please send e-posters to j.r.paxman@shu.ac.uk or, if you have a physical copy of your poster, please email so we can arrange to collect this from you in the week before the event. We are trying to avoid waste by printing twice. We are interested in:

  • Food and drink storytelling, discourse, and ritual
  • Urban/regional food/ drink development (e.g., via wine and food tourism)
  • Inequalities, social justice, and sustainability of food/ drink
  • Institutional food settings (e.g., school lunches)
  • Attitudes towards food waste
  • Cost and management of food waste
  • Social, political, and economic impacts of overconsumption and food waste
  • Appetite regulation and modulation
  • Eating behaviour
  • Hedonics, food and feeding
  • Obesity and weight management
  • Sensory analysis

We aim to showcase as many posters as possible but can’t guarantee we can share them all.

Identities and Diversity Research Cluster: Seminar Series call – extended deadline (31 March)
We are pleased to share a call for papers for a new online seminar series of the Identities & Diversity cluster of the Drinking Studies Network, which will start mid-2024. The cluster focuses on alcohol’s relationship to the formation, performance, representation and regulation of different identities in historical, contemporary and cross-cultural settings. If you are interested in presenting in the seminar series, please email Samantha Wilkinson Samantha.wilkinson@mmu.ac.uk and Deborah Toner dt151@le.ac.uk by 31 March with your name and affiliation, presentation title, and a brief summary of your presentation (up to 200 words). The aim is to run an online seminar every three months, with two or three presenters in each panel, commencing in May/June 2024. We envisage the seminars running for 60 to 90 minutes: 20 minutes presentation time for each presenter, and 10 minutes Q&A for each presenter – though this is very flexible, and we welcome suggestions for alternative format from presenters. Please specify in your submission if you are proposing a different format. You can find out more about the cluster here: Identities and Diversity – Drinking Studies Network (wordpress.com).

Public House 2030: Will pubs still be here at the end of the decade? (register by 19 April)
‘Public House 2030’ is a one-day workshop aimed at examining the future of UK pubs. Hosted by Newcastle Business School at Northumbria University Newcastle in collaboration with the Beeronomics Society, and supported by Campaign for Pubs, the event will bring together people from the sector to discuss the changes affecting pubs, the different business models in the industry, and the impact of their decline of local economies and communities. Chaired by Professor Ignazio Cabras, head of accounting and financial management at Northumbria University Newcastle, the workshop features notable speakers including Grahame Morris MP, Dr. Liz Hind, Greg Mulholland, Dr Thomas Thurnell-Read, and more, addressing threats and exploring solutions for a sustainable future. Free to attend on a first-come, first-served basis. Register now by emailing Kevin Fletcher at kevin.fletcher@northumbria.ac.uk by the 19th April 2024. 

Journal of Marketing Management Special Issue- *CFP* (deadline 16 September)
Nadine Waehning, Victoria Wells and Robert Bowen are putting together a special issue entitled: ‘Perspectives on drinking, manufacture and drinking spaces and places.’ Papers are welcomed from across a range of disciplines related to markets, consumers, marketing etc. The deadline for submissions is 16th September 2024. The CFP and further information can be found at: https://www.jmmnews.com/perspectives-on-drinking/.

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Call for content for the next edition of What’s Cooking

The next edition of What’s Cooking will be mid-May. Please send content (research updates, calls for expression of interest, relevant calls for papers/conference/event announcements) by Monday 13 May via this Google Form. 

SHUFood blog
Interested in writing a blog post? These are usually 800-1200 words and written for a general audience in an informal style. Blogs can revisit work you’ve already done (e.g., highlighting a recent output/publication); discuss research or research-related activities (teaching, public engagement, etc.) that you are working on; offer your informed take on contemporary food/drink issues or policy; provide a profile on your research. If you’d like to contribute a piece, please get in touch with Jen (j.smith1@shu.ac.uk).

Want to stay updated? Follow us on X (OK fine, we’ll call it that): @SHUFood. You can also subscribe to the blog and/or join our Jisc email list: see information on the very bottom of each SHUFood blog page.

 

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Filed under appetite, eating behaviour, food practices, food waste, plant-based foods, SHARe Sheffield Hallam Appetite Research, SHUFood, Uncategorized, What's Cooking?, wine

by | January 12, 2024 · 10:09 am

What’s Cooking, January 2024

What’s Cooking is an update on all things related to SHUFood: Sheffield Hallam University’s food research cluster, comprising, CHEFS (exploring the socio-cultural dimensions of food and drink), SWEFS (exploring drivers and interventions to address food waste), and SHARe (exploring appetite regulation and modulation). What’s been cooking since our last edition?

Mark your calendars! On 24 April, 2-5pm, we’re looking forward to our SHUFood Annual Discourse event, which will be open to all. More details to come, but expect to hear some fantastic presentations about food-focused research reflecting our three cluster themes. It’ll be a busy day: 24 April is also the date for the annual Food and Nutrition All Student Conference, which is an internal event. With the theme “FoodZ”, the event will explore what food means to GenZ, with featured speaker Zoe Hunter from Sheffield’s Food Works.

Check out our recent blog posts from our December focus on sustainability and food:

  • ‘Sustainable Food and Drink: An immersive tasting and learning event’: On 7 December, SHUFood and the National Centre of Excellence for Food Engineering (NCEFE) teamed up to deliver a research event as part of Sheffield’s Local Food Action Plan. The event offered members of the public a chance to think differently about sustainable food and drink, testing their knowledge with a sustainability quiz while sampling sustainable wine, whiskey and canapés.
  • Di Dean contribute a blog post, ‘To bin or not to bin, that is the question!’ to help get into the holiday spirit, with a focus on creative ways to use up holiday surplus food and reduce waste and a range of helpful recipe and website suggestions.

We’re excited to see our passion for food further reinforced at Sheffield Hallam with the recent appointment of Tim Smith CBE as the University’s Chair of the Board. Tim is the Chairman of Cranswick plc, a leading supplier in the food sector, and the Co-Chair of the Food and Drink Sector Council. He has been the Chairman of the Government’s Trade and Agriculture Commission, was previously Chief Executive of the UK’s Food Standards Agency, and was named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to agriculture, food, and drink trade policy in the 2022 New Year Honours.

Below, we have:

  • updates on recent outputs and activities from across SHUFood;
  • resources and calls for papers;
  • the usual call for contributions and content for the March 2024 edition of What’s Cooking. Our newsletter has moved to alternate mid-months: the deadline for submissions (research news and updates, calls for expression of interest, relevant calls for papers/conference/event announcements) to Google Form by Friday 15 March, 9am.

Cheers,
The SHUFood Team!

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Cluster Updates

Congratulations to John Dunning, who has been appointed as Non-Executive Director, Trading and Enterprise Board, Yorkshire Sculpture Park. John has also recently been active in his role as member of the Academic Board at HRC Hospitality and Culinary Academy in Sofia, Bulgaria, and as external examiner at César Ritz, in Switzerland, drawing on his expertise with regard to wine research and teaching.

Dr Jordan Beaumont and Lucie Nield, on behalf of the Sheffield Hallam Appetite Research (SHARe) cluster, hosted the regional Association for the Study of Obesity (ASO) meeting in December. This half-day conference brought together students, academics, researchers and industry partners to explore appetite and eating behaviour research from across the Yorkshire region. Over 70 delegates attended the hybrid event, with presentations from Dr Jo Pearce and Claire Wall (Sheffield Hallam University), Bixuan Yan (University of Sheffield), Clarissa Dakin (University of Leeds), Dr Alice Kininmouth (University of Leeds), and Dr Sundus Mahdi (University of York).

Updates from Sheffield Hallam’s Food and Nutrition subject group:

Dr Jo Pearce and Claire Wall have recently published a paper exploring the energy and nutrient content of school lunches that are provided for children attending school-based nurseries (https://doi.org/10.1017/S1368980023002331). Jo and Claire also presented this work at the Sheffield Hallam Appetite Research (SHARe) cluster and Association for the Study of Obesity (ASO) co-hosted regional event in December, which explore appetite and eating behaviour research across the Yorkshire region (https://aso.org.uk/event/aso-yorkshire-network-event-appetite-and-eating-behaviours-children-and-adults-insights). The event was organised by Lucie Nield and Dr Jordan Beaumont in collaboration with the ASO regional team.

Dr Rachel Rundle has just submitted a manuscript with Anna Hawkins (Department of the Natural and Built Environment) titled: “School Food Hero and the Battle of the Food Foe: a story of public health policy, power imbalance and potential”. We ask a lot of school food with very little input and funding, expecting to battle evils of the food industry and competing choice. The paper shows that the School Food Hero is one in a team of Avengers fighting the battle!

Lucie Nield presented a workshop around how to implement research using other people (with international perspective) at the Evidence-Based Healthcare conference in Sicily in October.

Dr Caroline Millman and Anna Sorsby have recently been awarded funding from the RIPEN Hub (https://www.ripenhub.co.uk/) to conduct sensory work on products containing chickpeas, which will include measuring satiety and energy intake. Caroline is also doing some very exciting work with vegan cheese – currently looking to at scaling up recipes and processing changes.

Meg Flint is powering through a mountain of data on plant-based meat alternatives. Meg, along with her supervisory team (Jenny Paxman, Dr Simon Bowles and Dr Tony Lynn) are working on a publication around the sensory attributes of plant-based meat alternatives, which includes some exciting lab analysis on nutrient composition to help better compare meat-based and plant-based products.

Lots of successful funding bids, including two recent internal small grants to explore packed lunches in early years settings (Dr Jo Pearce and Claire Wall) and preliminary work on the perceptions of food addiction (Dr Jordan Beaumont and Jenny Paxman). Even more bid application and successes to share soon, in addition to exciting outputs on perceptions of body morphology, adolescent food choice, food insecurity and childhood obesity, behavioural weight management, school food, food safety, food addiction, nutrition and self-regulation of eating, natural green space and psychological wellbeing, non-invasive brain stimulation techniques, and so much more…

Recent publications:

Badjona, A., Bradshaw, R., Millman, C., Howarth, M. & Dubey, B. (2023). Faba Beans Protein as an Unconventional Protein Source for the Food Industry: Processing Influence on Nutritional, Techno-Functionality, and Bioactivity, Food Reviews International. https://doi.org/10.1080/87559129.2023.2245036

Wall, C., & Pearce, J. (2023). Energy and nutrient content of school lunches provided for children attending school-based nurseries: A cross-sectional study. Public Health Nutrition, 1-26. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1368980023002331

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Resources and Calls for Papers

16th Annual Conference of the American Association of Wine Economists (AAWE). Lausanne, Switzerland (July 1-5, 2024). Abstract Submission Deadline: January 31, 2024
Abstracts must be 500–1,200 words long. AAWE membership is required for abstract submissions. Information: www.wine-economics.org

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Call for content for the next edition of What’s Cooking

The next edition of What’s Cooking will be mid-March. Please send content (research updates, calls for expression of interest, relevant calls for papers/conference/event announcements) by 9am Friday 15 March via this Google Form.

SHUFood blog

Interested in writing a blog post? These are usually 800-1200 words and written for a general audience in an informal style. Blogs can revisit work you’ve already done (e.g., highlighting a recent output/publication); discuss research or research-related activities (teaching, public engagement, etc.) that you are working on; offer your informed take on contemporary food/drink issues or policy; provide a profile on your research. If you’d like to contribute a piece, please get in touch with Jen (j.smith1@shu.ac.uk).

Want to stay updated? Follow us on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter): @SHUFood. You can also subscribe to the blog and/or join our Jisc email list: see information on the very bottom of each SHUFood blog page.

 

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Filed under appetite, CHEFS, Diet and health, eating behaviour, food practices, hospitality, SHARe Sheffield Hallam Appetite Research, sustainability, SWEFS Surplus Waste and Excess Food in Society, What's Cooking?

by | December 7, 2023 · 1:47 pm

Picturing Good Food: Our Winners!

Back in October, SHUFood delivered a public engagement research event as part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science: Picturing Good Food. The event explored the ways in which social science contributes to the development of healthier, more sustainable, and more enjoyable food practices. It was also a brilliant excuse to bring together our three research clusters, CHEFS, SWEFS and SHARe to increase awareness of our food-related research.

The event took place in Sheffield’s Winter Gardens, and featured engaging activities for all ages. We were especially delighted to have had so many younger children as eager participants, who enjoyed the activities while learning more about the potential for food to have a positive impact for health and the environment. The activities delved into attitudes towards eating, plant-based foods, and food waste, which have become increasingly popular topics in the last few years.

Children (and not a few adults!!) took part in a series of hands-on activities, including the chance to draw their vision of good food. Whilst we saw outstanding artistic expression from all who participated, we nevertheless set ourselves the difficult task of identifying winners.

Drum roll please…

In the infant category (5-7 years), we extend our congratulations to two winners: Reggie (aged 7) and Diala (aged 8). Both your talents have shown through, and we are extremely impressed by your amazing capabilities on attitudes to eating, plant-based foods, and food waste.

From our junior category (7-11 years), a big congratulations to Annika (aged 10) and Millie (aged 10). Your food drawings are spectacular, and your creativity is amazing!

Congratulations once again on your inspiring drawings on perceptions of food and drink.

We’ve messaged winners (or rather, their adult agents!) on Twitter, but haven’t yet heard back from a few. Please get in touch (j.smith1@shu.ac.uk) to claim your prize.

And a big thank you from the SHUFood team to all of the brilliant Sheffield Hallam University Food and Nutrition Student Champions who helped with the event, and Kayleigh Cope for drafting this blog!

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Filed under appetite, CHEFS, Diet and health, eating behaviour, food practices, food waste, research, SHARe Sheffield Hallam Appetite Research, sustainability, SWEFS Surplus Waste and Excess Food in Society, Uncategorized

by | June 29, 2023 · 9:40 pm

What’s Cooking, July 2023

What’s Cooking is an update on all things related to CHEFS: the Culture, Health, Environment, Food and Society research cluster at Sheffield Hallam University. What’s been cooking since our last edition?

We’ve had two fantastic ‘paired papers’ sessions recently, organised by sister foodie clusters:

  • In May, SWEFS (Surplus Waste and Excess Food in Society) hosted a session on ‘Food Waste and Working with Vulnerable Participants’ with presentations from Professor Dorothy Yen (Brunel University), and from Dr Chrysostomos Apostolidis (Durham University) and Dr David M. Brown (Heriot-Watt University). Recording here
  • In June, SHARe (Sheffield Hallam Appetite Research) hosted a session on ‘Exploring human appetite and eating behaviour.’ The session, Chaired by Anna Sorsby, featured work presented by Dr Miriam Clegg (University of Reading) and Dr Jordan Beaumont (Sheffield Hallam University). Recording here A more detailed write-up is below!

Full details on the ‘past talks’ page. That wraps up our 22/23 program of talks—thanks to all for organising, presenting, attending, and participating!

Watch this space for what’s to come in 23/24, including a CHEFS-NCEFE collab on sustainable food. This is part of our commitment to support ShefFood’s ‘Local Food Action Plan’, and its aim to ‘connect and enhance communication between food organisations working on different parts of the Sheffield food system.’

Below, we have:

  • updates on recent activities;
  • summary of the recent SHARe paired papers session;
  • resources: Sheffield Food Partnership’s Local Food Action Plan, recently launched;
  • the usual call for contributions and content for the September 2023 edition of What’s Cooking; deadline for submissions (research news and updates, calls for expression of interest, relevant calls for papers/conference/event announcements) to smith1@shu.ac.uk by 30 August.

Cheers,
Jen

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Recent CHEFS Activities

Huge congratulations to Pallavi Singh and Dianne Dean (co-leads of the SWEFS cluster) and Scott Jones for recognition of their work with Sheffield City Council, around the council’s introduction of a food waste trial scheme. Pallavi, Di, and Scott are carrying out research to better understand the process of household food disposal across selected areas of Sheffield. The project was a shortlisted nomination for the 2023 PRME Faculty Recognition Award for Excellence in SDG Integration!

On 8 June, Sheffield Business School hosted its annual PGR/ECR conference, with the theme ‘Developing Our Research Culture.’ The SWEFS (Surplus Waste and Excess Food in Society) research culture was well represented by Nikita Marie Bridgeman, who won best PGR paper for her presentation, “Intergeneration Attitudes Towards Food Waste: A Socioeconomic Status Perspective.” Well done!

More accolades from the SBS PGR/ECR conference: The SHARe (Sheffield Hallam Appetite Research) research cluster was thrilled to have outstanding representation from one of our ECR colleagues, Dr Jordan Beaumont, and GTA, Megan Flint. Meg’s e-poster was entitled “The acceptability, sensory attributes, and emotional response to plant-based meat alternatives under open and closed label conditions.” Jordan’s work, on “An evaluation of tier two weight management services in the Yorkshire and Humber Region” went on to win the Best ECR Paper Prize! We’re thrilled for both of these SHARe colleagues!  It’s brilliant to see how well received both presentations were.

Dr Jordan Beaumont presented a poster on the same work at the 30th European Congress on Obesity (ECO), which was held in Dublin in May. You can view Jordan’s poster, here.

GTA Megan Flint with colleagues Dr Simon Bowles, Dr Tony Lynn and Jenny Paxman have had their work on The acceptability and sensory attributes of plant-based burger products under open and closed label conditions accepted for presentation at the forthcoming Nutrition Society Summer Conference: Nutrition at key stages of the lifecycle – Liverpool 2023. This work was undertaken with Fiona Leroy, a recent intern from Institute Agro Dijon. This work has been chosen by the Nutrition Society Theme Lead for Food Systems as their highlight of the conference and will therefore be presented in the conference opening session, after invited plenary lecture one.  We are so proud that this work has been recognised in this way.  It’s a great opportunity to showcase what the Food and Nutrition team are currently engaged in research-wise.  This is a further feather in Meg’s cap after last year’s postgraduate research win at the same conference, collaboratively hosted by F&N at Sheffield Hallam, University of Sheffield and Sheffield City Council, here at SHU last year.  In further great news, recent work by F&N colleagues Claire Wall and Dr Jo Pearce has also been accepted to be presented at the same conference.  Claire and Jo will be presenting on “Energy and nutrient content of school lunches provided for children attending early years settings within primary schools: A cross-sectional study”, and plan on submitting the full-text article to Public Health Nutrition shortly.

Jo Pearce and Claire Wall have had their paper “School lunch portion sizes provided for children attending early years settings within primary schools: a cross‐sectional study” published online in the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics. Claire and Jo will also be presenting this work at the Nutrition Society conference next month.

Jordan Beaumont, Claire Wall, Lucie Nield, Jo Pearce, Simon Bowles and Rachel Rundle are undertaking work with the Sheffield Children’s Hospital Complications of Excess Weight (CEW) clinic, with a project exploring food insecurity and childhood obesity. Jordan and Lucie are also nearing the end of their tier 2 weight management service evaluation project, with interviews conducted and transcribed, and project RAs doing the first round of framework analysis. They are looking to hold a dissemination event in November with participants to feedback findings and get input on the recommendations regarding findings and best practice.

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On 13 June, SHARe hosted a CHEFS online talks session with paired papers focussing on research relating to appetite regulation and modulation. The session, chaired by Anna Sorsby, featured work presented by Dr Miriam Clegg (University of Reading) and Dr Jordan Beaumont (Sheffield Hallam University). Recording here.

Dr Miriam Clegg is Associate Professor and Deputy Director (Institute of Food, Nutrition & Health), School Director of Postdoctoral Researchers, and Programme Director BSc Nutrition at University of Reading. Miriam is a Registered Nutritionist with a research interest in appetite, incorporating markers of food intake, eating behaviours and nutritional status including gastrointestinal transit, energy expenditure and hormones related to appetite. Miriam is PI on the BBSRC funded Food4Years Ageing Network. Miriam is Assistant Editor for 3 esteemed nutrition journals (BJN, J Hum Nutr and Dietetics and J Nutr Science). Miriam’s presentation was entitled: Dietary strategies for improving healthy life expectancy – the role of appetite research.

Abstract: Increased feelings of hunger and lack of satiety is linked to reduced adherence to weight loss interventions and difficulties in weight loss maintenance. With 63.8% of the population overweight or obese in England, appetite research has been suggested as a useful tool to reduce calorie intake. On the opposite side of the appetite narrative, a large section of the population are at risk of malnutrition, with or without obesity. UK life expectancy has increased through the 20th and 21st Centuries, yet there is little evidence that these gains in life expectancy are always translated to increased years living in good health for older adults, when compared to previous generations. A nutritious diet is recognised as essential for healthy aging, well-being, reducing the risk of chronic diseases and the rate of functional decline, and changes to lifestyle (i.e. diet, nutrition and physical activity) can maintain or improve body composition, cognitive and mental health, immune function and vascular health in older adults. Research often cites that 1/10 adults aged 65+ is malnourished or at risk of malnutrition based on 2015 statistics, however recent research from Age UK highlights that this may be even higher since the pandemic (2). Contrary to common belief, nutritional needs only decrease marginally with age, and are sometimes higher than the needs of younger individuals. Protein is a good example. The European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism (ESPEN) and the PROT-AGE Study Group have advised that a healthy older adult’s recommended daily protein intake should be increased to 1-1.2g/kg to maintain functionality, independence and fight infection. Protein is also known to be the most satiating macronutrient, and strategies to improve protein intake in older adults need to ascertain if increases in protein intake are like to impact overall food intake. Recent research from our group has used strategies to increase protein intake in older adults, focusing on foods that are liked and consumed by older adults (3). In the future, designing and producing a food environment that meets the diverse needs of older adults should work with them in the creation of bespoke, equitable interventions (4).

  1. Yakubu AH, Platts K, Sorsby A et al. (2023) J Funct Foods 102, 105471
  2. Age UK (2012) Understanding Society: COVID-19 Study
  3. Smith R., Clegg M & Methven L. (2022) Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr DOI:https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10408398.2022.2137777
  4. Clegg M, Methven L, Lanham-New S et al . (2023) Nutr Bull. 48, 124-133

Dr Jordan Beaumont is a Registered Nutritionist and Lecturer within the Food and Nutrition group at Sheffield Hallam University. Jordan is Course Leader for the MSc Food Consumer Marketing and Product Development and co-lead of the Sheffield Hallam Appetite REsearch (SHARe) cluster. Jordan’s research focusses on obesity and weight management, exploring novel interventions for weight management, the perceptions of health and obesity, and eating behaviours and appetite control.  Jordan’s presentation was on Modulating eating behaviour with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS).

Abstract: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a form of non-invasive brain stimulation involving the application of a constant and weak electrical current to the brain, is a popular technique for changing cortical activity and downstream behaviour (1). There has been particular interest in the use of this technique in weight management, with an emphasis on changing eating behaviour. However, despite promising early findings, studies have failed to identify a consistent effect of tDCS across eating-related measures (2, 3). Our research explores the application of tDCS, and through this work we have established stimulation parameters that appear to produce a consistent change in eating behaviour, and identified populations who may benefit from this technique (4, 5). This paired papers talk will overview our recent studies applying tDCS to change eating-related measures across different population, and will consider the therapeutic use of this technique in weight management.

1. Filmer et al. (2014) Trends Neurosci; 37, 742-753, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tins.2014.08.003

2. Fregni et al. (2008) Appetite; 51 (1), 34-41, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2007.09.016

3. Beaumont et al. (2021) Appetite; 157, 105004, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2020.105004

4. Beaumont et al. (2022) Obesity Reviews; 23 (2), e13364, https://doi.org/10.1111/obr.13364

5. Beaumont et al. (2022) Psychosomatic Medicine; 84 (6), 646-657, http://doi.org/10.1097/psy.0000000000001074

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Resources

ShefFood, Sheffield’s Food Partnership, launched its Local Food Action Plan (LFAP) in June. The LFAP is now live on the ShefFood website along with a brand new page for all our key strategic and research documents. You can also read some of the responses to the LFAP from the launch here. The next step for ShefFood is the Sustainable Food Places Silver Award bid which will be submitted in July. Want to get involved? Check out our latest events or email info@sheffood.org.uk

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Call for content for the next edition of What’s Cooking

The next edition of What’s Cooking will be September 2023. Please send content (research updates, calls for expression of interest, relevant calls for papers/conference/event announcements) to j.smith1@shu.ac.uk by 30 August.

CHEFS blog

Interested in writing a blog post? These are usually 800-1200 words and written for a general audience in an informal style. Blogs can revisit work you’ve already done (e.g., highlighting a recent output/publication); discuss research or research-related activities (teaching, public engagement, etc.) that you are working on; offer your informed take on contemporary food/drink issues or policy; provide a profile on your research. If you’d like to contribute a piece, please get in touch with Jen (j.smith1@shu.ac.uk).

Want to stay updated? Follow us on Twitter (@SHU_CHEFS), subscribe to the blog and/or join our Jisc email list: see information on the very bottom of each CHEFS webpage.

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by | May 1, 2023 · 6:00 am

What’s Cooking, May 2023

What’s Cooking is an update on all things related to CHEFS: the Culture, Health, Environment, Food and Society research cluster at Sheffield Hallam University. What’s been cooking since our last edition?

This spring has witnessed a flurry of activity for all three of our clusters: a great reminder of the diversity of food-related research (and our love of acronyms) here at Sheffield Hallam University:

We’re also excited to expand the CHEFS ‘paired papers’ format with two upcoming events organised by SWEFS and SHARe:

  • 11 May, 3-4.30 on Zoom: SWEFS paired papers session on ‘Food Waste and Working with Vulnerable Participants’ (titles, abstracts on the ‘research talks’ page)
  • 13 June, 3-4.30 on Zoom: SHARe paired papers session on ‘Exploring Human Appetite and Eating Behaviour’ (titles, abstracts on the ‘research talks’ page)

Below, we have:

  • updates on recent activities (including write-ups of the various CHEFS, SWEFS and SHARe events);
  • resources/calls for papers/conference announcements (Sheffield Food Partnership (ShefFood) are hosting the launch of the Local Food Action Plan for Sheffield on Thursday 15 June).
  • the usual call for contributions and content for the July 2023 edition of What’s Cooking.

Cheers,
Jen

****************************

Recent CHEFS Activities

In March, Jenny Paxman and Dr Jordan Beaumont organised and led a Sheffield Hallam Appetite REsearch (SHARe) sub-cluster ‘Complete and Finish’ event. Attendees included established and new SHARe members, both staff and students, who have a keen interest in eating behaviours, the hedonics of food and feeding, obesity and weight management or sensory analysis. The purpose of the event was to Shape, Sharpen and SHARe appetite-related research ideas. Getting to know others who are active in our field is a brilliant way to progress any project. For SHARe, the event helped to identify the overarching state of current projects, and to reflect on members orientations as individuals and as researchers. A full write-up of the event, including the Shape, Sharpen and SHARe diagnostic, is available here.

Also in March: CHEFS hosted the English and Welsh Wine Symposium. Co-organisers Professor Jennifer Smith Maguire and Dr John Dunning welcomed over 50 academics and industry professionals, including wine makers, winery owners, wine retailers and wine writers, and hospitality and retail professionals. The half day event explored the current context and future directions of the English and Welsh wine industry. There were two keynote presentations from Masters of Wine: Mr Simon Thorpe, CEO of WineGB, ‘WineGB and its role supporting an emerging wine region;’ Professor Steve Charters, Burgundy School of Wine and Spirits Business, ‘PDOs and Terroir: The Complexities of Wine and Place.‘ In addition, the afternoon included a tutored tasting of English and Welsh wines, a panel discussion featuring a cross-section of industry perspectives, and a networking reception featuring English sparkling wines, with all wines generously selected and donated by WineGB. A full write-up of the event, with photos and links to the keynote presentations, is available here.

In April, the SWEFS (Surplus, Waste and Excess Food in Society) Research Sub-Cluster, co-led by Dr Pallavi Singh and Prof Dianne Dean, organised their introductory workshop and networking event. The workshop brought together 34 colleagues from BTE and National Centre of Excellence for Food Engineering (NCEFE) together to discuss current research on Food Waste and develop interdisciplinary collaborations for impact-oriented research on the Global Issue of Food Waste in the Society. Prof Dianne Dean, Dr Pallavi Singh, and Dr Scott Jones shared their work with Sheffield City Council on household food waste collection service, Prof Martin Howarth discussed the current work done by NCEFE, and SWEFS current Sheffield Business School PhD students, Nikita Marie Bridgeman and Ufuoma Arangebi, presented their respective projects. To know more about SWEFS’s work and join the TEAMS channel, please contact Dr Pallavi Singh on p.singh@shu.ac.uk.  A write-up of the event, with photos from presentations, is available here.

Check out Gareth Robert’s latest instalment of his food PhD blog, which includes a tour of recent food sustainability events, and an emerging ‘rich picture’ of Gareth’s PhD on Yorkshire FFE: Food & Farming Events.

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Resources/call for papers/conference announcements

Local Food Action Plan Launch
Date and time: Thu, 15 Jun 2023 18:00 – 20:30 BST
Location: Victoria Hall Norfolk Street Sheffield City Centre S1 2JB
The Sheffield Food Partnership (ShefFood) are hosting the launch of the Local Food Action Plan for Sheffield on Thursday 15 June. ShefFood have co-created the action plan with almost 100 organisations in the city and in collaboration with FixOurFood through a series of 12 workshops to write and co-develop the action plan, which addresses 5 key pillars of a good local food system: food provision, food production, the food economy, health and wellbeing, and the good food movement. The action plan sets out specific commitments to action from diverse organisations across the city; over the next 7 years, these actions will take Sheffield’s food system on a journey to becoming fairer and more sustainable for people and planet. The launch event is free to attend (the community meal is on a pay-as-you-feel basis) and everyone is welcome, but spaces are limited so please do register for your free ticket via Eventbrite. For questions, please get in touch at info@sheffood.org.uk

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Call for content for the next edition of What’s Cooking

The next edition of What’s Cooking will be July 2023. Please send content (research updates, calls for expression of interest, relevant calls for papers/conference/event announcements) to j.smith1@shu.ac.uk by 29 June.

CHEFS blog

Interested in writing a blog post? These are usually 800-1200 words and written for a general audience in an informal style. Blogs can revisit work you’ve already done (e.g., highlighting a recent output/publication); discuss research or research-related activities (teaching, public engagement, etc.) that you are working on; offer your informed take on contemporary food/drink issues or policy; provide a profile on your research. If you’d like to contribute a piece, please get in touch with Jen (j.smith1@shu.ac.uk).

Want to stay updated? Follow us on Twitter (@SHU_CHEFS), subscribe to the blog and/or join our Jisc email list: see information on the very bottom of each CHEFS webpage.

 

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by | March 23, 2023 · 3:31 pm

SHARe event report

an image of people working around a table with a powerpoint presentation on the wall screenOn Wednesday 8th March our Sheffield Hallam Appetite REsearch (SHARe) sub-cluster met for a ‘Complete and Finish’ event here at SHU.  Attendees included SHARe co-leads Jenny Paxman and Dr Jordan Beaumont and other SHARe founders and steering group members: Dr Caroline Dalton, Dr Rachel Marsden, Dr Steve Brown.  We also welcomed Food and Nutrition GTA Megan Flint, Food and Nutrition Lecturer Dr Richard Gillis and Elizabeth Goodwin from Leeds Trinity University.  We were brilliantly supported for this event by Food and Nutrition Student Champion Millie-Ann Hall.

SHARe is a sub-cluster of engaged academics, PGRs and associates who have a keen interest in eating behaviours, the hedonics of food and feeding, obesity and weight management or sensory analysis.  This is by no means an exhaustive list – we are a really inclusive group welcoming anyone with shared research passions or something to offer in any field affiliated to appetite.  SHARe sits within the CHEFS research cluster (along with sister sub-clusters SWEFS (Surplus Waste and Excess Food in Society) and CHEFS (Culture, Health, Environment, Food and Society)).  You can find out more or sign-up to SHARe, and CHEFS here.

The purpose of the event was to Shape, Sharpen and SHARe (get it?) our appetite-related research ideas.  Getting to know others who are active in our field is a brilliant way to progress any project.  For SHARe, this event helped us to identify:

  • the overarching state of current projects;
  • our own nature, both as individuals and as researchers.

SHAPE:
Research idea generation; Project design; Funding ideas; Target journal suggestions; CPD and support needs
SHARPEN: 
Poster design/content; Abstract drafts; Conference presentations; Planned publications; Pilot questionnaires;
Recruitment material; Interview schedules
SHARE:
Research ideas; Collaborations; Potential examiners; Potential reviewers; Copies of work; Present

In the room there were varying degrees of familiarity.  Some had long-standing working relationships or had previously collaborated; others were meeting for the first time.  We all learnt something new about each other and our areas of interest and expertise.

As a group we cover all bases:

screenshot of Venn diagram of sharers, shapers, sharpeners

However, in terms of our research projects, individual’s projects may be at different stages but we are each most in need of shaping support.

screenshot of venn diagram of share input, shape input, sharpen input

Drilling down what this meant to attendees, it meant:

  • getting projects up and running;
  • finding and connecting with collaborators;
  • looking for concept or pilot project ‘adopters’;
  • seeking out funding opportunities;
  • getting back on the research horse.

We left feeling enthused and perhaps even a little clearer about next steps.  Some left with new connections, plans to meet, show-rounds to schedule and even specific projects to reignite!  Exciting times for SHARe.

Of course, it doesn’t end there.  As a sub-cluster we benefit from monthly CHEFS newsletters (‘What’s Cooking?’) with the associated opportunities to write and publish blog-pieces, search out conferences, explore calls for abstracts, find funding opportunities and to come together as researchers to enjoy the regular CHEFS talks.  SHARe will be hosting a CHEFS Talk on Tuesday 13th June 2023 15:00-16:30 with talks from Dr Miriam Clegg (University of Reading) and Dr Jordan Beaumont (Sheffield Hallam University).  Sign up here.  We can’t wait to see you there!

If you aren’t already a member you can join SHARe by clicking bit.ly/SHAReCluster

 

 

 

 

 

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by | February 28, 2023 · 9:57 pm

What’s Cooking, March 2023

What’s Cooking is an update on all things related to CHEFS: the Culture, Health, Environment, Food and Society research cluster at Sheffield Hallam University. What’s been cooking since our last edition?

Mark your calendars for the following upcoming CHEFS events:

  • 8 March, 1-3pm, on campus: Sheffield Hallam Appetite Research (SHARe) cluster – Complete and Finish Event. Sign up via:https://bit.ly/sharecomplete23
  • 9 March, 4-5.30pm, on Zoom: CHEFS online research talk on ‘Food, Wine and Discourse’ featuring paired papers from Meg Maker (on the potential for a more inclusive wine lexicon) and Joanne Hollows (archival media research on WWII cookery columns). Details including titles, abstracts and joining link here, or email Jen (smith1@shu.ac.uk) for an Outlook invite. (Rescheduled from 9 February.)
  • 25 April, 10-1pm, on campus: the Surplus Waste and Excess Food in Society (SWEFS) cluster is hosting an Introductory Workshop and Networking Event, to draw attention to the latest research on food waste at Sheffield Hallam University, and to identify potential areas for further research. The workshop is open to anyone at SHU who either is currently researching on any project related to food waste or is interested in this Global Challenge our society is facing. More details below; full details and registration here.

Check out the latest instalment in Gareth Robert’s PhD blog, which shares updates on his journey as he gets stuck in to the deliberative democracy field, gets to grips with RefWorks, and wrestles with the assignment for the Critical Thinking module.

Below, we have:

  • updates on recent CHEFS members’ activities (including an introduction to our latest food-focused GTA in Sheffield Business School; research on plant-based foods, and on weight management; a PhD journey milestone; a wine-themed event; details of the first SWEFS workshop);
  • resources/calls for papers/conference announcements (a call for involvement in one of five working groups that ShefFood is organising);
  • the usual call for contributions and content for the May 2023 edition of What’s Cooking.

Cheers,
Jen

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Recent CHEFS Activities

CHEFS is delighted to welcome a new, food-focused GTAs to Sheffield Business School! Samantha McCormick is working with supervisors Jennifer Smith Maguire and Lucie Nield on the project ‘Responsible Food Production and Consumption: A Community Co-Production Approach’. Sam is hoping to address Sustainable Development Goal 12 by aiming to encourage people in Sheffield to eat a more sustainable, nutritious diet. Sam graduated from BSc (Hons) Nutrition, Diet and Lifestyle at Sheffield Hallam in 2021, and has worked as a Research Assistant with Jen since December 2020. Sam is thrilled to be continuing her studies within the Food and Nutrition subject group at SHU. Since finishing her undergraduate studies, Sam has been working as a Patient Coach on the AWARE-IBD project with the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Team at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals leading on service improvements within the IBD service facilitated by training with the Sheffield Microsystem Coaching Academy. As part of this role, Sam has appeared on BBC Look North, BBC Radio Sheffield and the Sheffield Star describing her story and raising awareness of AWARE-IBD to encourage patients to get involved with the patient-led project. Outside of work and studies, Sam is part of Son de America, a traditional Latin-American dance group, and passionate about Mexican food and culture. Sam also has enjoys learning new languages and speaks Spanish.

Megan Flint is nearing the end of Phase 1 of her PhD, exploring consumer perceptions of plant-based meat alternatives. Megan and the team are on the final push to complete their survey (currently close to 400 participants!). If you could spare a few minutes, please do complete the survey! Megan has also gained ethical approval for a nutrient analysis of plant-based products vs. meat alternatives; this will inform Phase 3 of her PhD, which involves a feeding trial to compare satiating properties of plant- vs. meat-based products.

Jordan Beaumont recently delivered a presentation about his PhD research to the Nutritional Epidemiology Group at the University of Leeds, and will be presenting in April at the British Drinking and Feeding Group meeting on the perceptions of non-invasive brain stimulation as modalities for weight management. Jordan and Lucie Nield are about halfway through data collection for their tier 2 weight management evaluation project, and plan to present findings at the European Congress on Obesity in May.

Ufuoma Arangebi passed her confirmation of doctorate milestone (RF2) with no amendments. Congratulations! Ufuoma’s research, ‘Intergenerational Cross-Cultural Attitudes Towards Household Food Waste’ is supported by supervisors Dianne Dean and Pallavi Singh.

John Dunning has been busy putting the final touches on the CHEFS English and Welsh Wine Symposium, which will take place on 14 March. Organised by John and Jennifer Smith Maguire, the half-day event will welcome over 50 academic and practitioner participants to Sheffield Business School. The event will explore the current context and future directions of the English and Welsh wine industry via: two keynotes, from Simon Thorpe MW, CEO of WineGB, and Professor Steve Charters MW, a tutored tasting of English and Welsh wines, and a panel discussion featuring a cross-section of industry perspectives. The event has been made possible through support from the Department of Service Sector Management, and WineGB.

Jennifer Smith Maguire and co-authors Richard Ocejo and Michaela DeSoucey have recently had their article, Mobile Trust Regimes: Modes of Attachment in an Age of Banal Omnivorousness, nominated for the American Sociological Association’s Consumers and Consumption Section Distinguished Scholarly Publication Award, and the Association of the Study of Food and Society Belasco Prize for Scholarly Excellence. The article explores food malls and natural wine as two examples of the ways in which artisanal food/drink forms circulate through global channels while retaining auras of authentic embeddedness and local specificity. Jen gave a talk about the research at Birmingham Business School in February. Jen has also recently joined the Honorary Advisory Board for the Stockholm Gastronomy Conference, which will take place in November 2023 as part of Stockholm’s program of events as the 2023 European Capital of Gastronomy. The overall theme of the conference is ‘Gastronomy Research and Policy: The State of the Art in Europe.’ The conference is organized by The Swedish Academy of Culinary Art and Meal Science, The Swedish Academy of Gastronomy, and The Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture, and is supported by the International and European Academies of Gastronomy, The Academie International de la Gastronomie (AIG), and European Community of New Gastronomy (ECNG).

SWEFS (Surplus Waste and Excess Food in Society), a research subcluster of CHEFS, focusses research on drivers and potential interventions to address food waste.  This can include attitudes towards food waste, behavioural change, cost and management of food waste and social, political, and economic impacts of overconsumption and food waste. We are organising a series of workshops to bring academics, practitioners and other stakeholders together to facilitate discussion and promote academic and impact-oriented research on the SWEFS aim and offer solutions to a major Global Challenge. SWEFS invites you to the first SWEFS Workshop to draw attention to the latest research on Food Waste in Sheffield Hallam University and identify potential areas for further research. Building upon our network we seek to work with people to extend the scope of research into food waste. This workshop is open to anyone at SHU who either is currently researching on any project related to food waste or is interested in this Global Challenge our society is facing.
  • Introductory workshop and networking event
  • 25 April 2023, 10-1
  • Hallam View, Owen Building, Sheffield Hallam University, City Campus
  • Please register for the event here
  • Outline Programme
    • 10.00am – Welcome and Introduction of SWEFS
    • 10.30am – Presentations on recent work on Food waste in Sheffield Hallam University
    • 11.30am – Coffee Break for 15 Min
    • 11.45am – Brainstorming and Identifying key themes to develop research groups
    • 12.30pm – Lunch and networking

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Resources/call for papers/conference announcements

ShefFood, the food partnership for Sheffield, has launched a brand-new food charter for Sheffield as part of their Bronze to Silver Award bid for Sustainable food places. Over the next couple of months, ShefFood is bringing together food-based organisations from across Sheffield in five working groups to write a multi-stakeholder Action Plan for the city. The working groups (Food Ladders; Compost and Growing; Food Health and Obesity; Good Food Economy and Procurement; Good Food Movement—open meetings) have a series of workshops scheduled over January-March. Next up: Good Food Economy and Procurement workshop, 8 March; Food Ladders workshop, 13 March; Compose and Growing workshop, 23 March; Good Food Movement open workshop, 20 April.  Full dates, locations, and details on how to get involved are available here; to confirm your place at any of the meetings, or for more information, please email <info@sheffood.org.uk>.

Women and Alcohol Conference Workshop: Drinking studies. Crossing Boundaries, 25/26 July 2023. Call for Papers. Deadline: 30 March.

The Women and Alcohol Cluster of the Drinking Studies Network are excited to announce that the women and alcohol project team are holding a conference workshop on women and alcohol as part of the ‘Between the drunken ‘mother of destruction’ and the sober ‘angel of the house’. Hidden representations of women’s drinking in Polish and British public discourses in the second half of the 19th century’ project’. The conference workshop will be designed to encourage conversations across a range of academic and cultural boundaries (eg. geographical, disciplinary, linguistic, chronological, etc) and will provide excellent international networking opportunities. This conference workshop will take place at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw on 25th and 26th July 2023. There will also be the opportunity to attend a special workshop by historian and psychiatrist, Dr Iain Smith, on finding and using medical sources on the afternoon of 24th July 2023. Some sessions will also involve walking tours and museum visits (e.g., Warsaw has two museums dedicated to vodka). Any proposals for round-table discussion themes, hands on mini-workshops, 7-minute stimulus talks, and any interactive approaches are very welcome, please also let us know ideas for any sessions you would like to deliver.  At this stage, we would like expressions of interest to get an idea of who would like to attend and the range of research interests which people may bring. For more information and to express interest in attending please e-mail Dorota Dias-Lewandowska and Pam Lock on dsnwomencluster@gmail.com by Friday 30 March 2023. We hope to see many of you there for this fabulous event!

Gender, social class and contemporary (non)drinking practices in Australia- Online Seminar (28 March 2023).

The Sobriety, Abstinence and Moderation Cluster and Women and Alcohol Cluster invite you to join us for an online seminar exploring themes of gender, social class and contemporary (non)drinking practices with a particular focus on the Australian context. This seminar will take place on Tuesday 28th March from 7-8pm Eastern Australian Time / 9-10am British Summer Time. Please contact emily.nicholls@york.ac.uk if you have any queries. You can attend this seminar using the Zoom link here (Meeting ID: 987 2886 4478, Passcode: 092281).

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Call for content for the next edition of What’s Cooking

The next edition of What’s Cooking will be May 2023. Please send content (research updates, calls for expression of interest, relevant calls for papers/conference/event announcements) to j.smith1@shu.ac.uk by 28 April.

CHEFS blog

Interested in writing a blog post? These are usually 800-1200 words and written for a general audience in an informal style. Blogs can revisit work you’ve already done (e.g., highlighting a recent output/publication); discuss research or research-related activities (teaching, public engagement, etc.) that you are working on; offer your informed take on contemporary food/drink issues or policy; provide a profile on your research. If you’d like to contribute a piece, please get in touch with Jen (j.smith1@shu.ac.uk).

Want to stay updated? Follow us on Twitter (@SHU_CHEFS), subscribe to the blog and/or join our Jisc email list: see information on the very bottom of each CHEFS webpage.

 

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Filed under appetite, eating behaviour, food waste, plant-based foods, research, SHARe Sheffield Hallam Appetite Research, sustainability, SWEFS Surplus Waste and Excess Food in Society, What's Cooking?, wine

by | January 4, 2023 · 8:26 pm

What’s Cooking, January 2023

What’s Cooking is an update on all things related to CHEFS: the Culture, Health, Environment, Food and Society research cluster at Sheffield Hallam University. What’s been cooking since our last edition?

 

First and foremost, happy new year! It seems an opportune moment to re-introduce the cluster, which spans three broad areas:

  • Culture, Health, Environment, Food and Society (CHEFS) focuses on the socio-cultural dimensions of food and drink markets and consumption, and is led by Jennifer Smith Maguire;
  • Surplus Waste and Excess Food in Society (SWEFS) focuses on drivers and potential interventions to address food waste, and is led by Pallavi Singh;
  • Sheffield Hallam Appetite Research (SHARe) focuses on appetite regulation and eating behaviour, and is co-led by Jenny Paxmanand Jordan Beaumont.

Please get in touch if you’d like to get involved, and email Jen (j.smith1@shu.ac.uk) if you’d like details added (or refreshed) on our Members Page.

Research England have recently launched round 2 of the Expanding Excellence in England (E3) fund. The E3 fund is focused on the strategic and sustainable expansion of small, excellent research units that push the frontiers of human knowledge and deliver transformative impacts and enhancing, and enhance the skills base and diversify talent in any given disciplines. E3 funds are thus typically directed at staff recruitment (staff contracts and developing a talent pipeline), activities related to conducting research and creating a conducive research environment, and capital investment. We’d like to explore a potential CHEFS/SWEFS/SHARe bid, with our truly inter-disciplinary focus on food and society as the USP. The internal SHU deadline for expressions of interest is 20 January. If you’d like to be involved in this discussion, please let Jen know by Monday 9 January (j.smith1@shu.ac.uk) so that you are included in the planning meeting (date/time TBC).

Mark your calendars for the following upcoming CHEFS events:

  • 26 January, 5.30-8pm, on campus: Barbara Bray MBE will deliver a BTE Talk (for the College of Business, Technology and Engineering) on ‘Consolidating the population, planet and people: Food industry solutions.’ Registration and details here.
  • 9 February, 4-5.30pm, on Zoom: CHEFS online research talk on ‘Food, Wine and Discourse’ featuring paired papers from Meg Maker (on the potential for a more inclusive wine lexicon) and Joanne Hollows (archival media research on WWII cookery columns). Titles and abstracts to come; for now, you can find details and joining link here, or email me (smith1@shu.ac.uk) for an Outlook invite.
  • 8 March, 1-3pm, on campus: SHARe is hosting a ‘Complete and Finish’ writing event. Email event organizer Jenny Paxman if you have questions/would like to receive an Outlook invite.
  • 14 March, 1.15-5.30pm, on campus (followed by refreshments and networking, 5.30-6.30): CHEFS is hosting theEnglish and Welsh Wine Symposium, a half-day event that explores the current context and future directions of the English and Welsh wine industry, with keynotes from Simon Thorpe MW, CEO of WineGB, and Professor Steve Charters MW, as well as a tutored tasting of English and Welsh wines, and a panel discussion featuring a cross-section of industry perspectives. More information and the Eventbrite registration link available here.  Any questions, please email event lead organiser, John Dunning (dunning@shu.ac.uk).

Below, we have:

  • updates on recent CHEFS members’ activities (a recap of 2022 activities; a novel online wine tasting; a new publication on wine value claims);
  • resources/calls for papers/conference announcements (including a call for involvement in one of five working groups that ShefFood is organising, as part of their Bronze to Silver Award bid for Sustainable food places);
  • the usual call for contributions and content for the March 2023 edition of What’s Cooking.

Cheers,
Jen

****************************

Recent CHEFS Activities

A quick recap of our 2022 CHEFS activities, which included:

  • 11 online research presentations, on craft, authenticity, beer, pubs, children, food, storytelling…and more! (recordings available here, including our final session of 2022 featuring Maria Touri’s research on digital storytelling and bridging the food producer/consumer gap);
  • 5 research roundtables;
  • 4 new GTA/PhD students: Megan, Ufuoma, Nikita, and Gareth (intros to their research here and here);
  • 3 research blog posts (about plant-based foods, South African wine farmworkers, and the PhD by Publication route);
  • a new, recurring PhD blog from Gareth Roberts, as he develops his PhD on food events, and sustainability.

photo of the wine tasting, with participants (visible in the Sheffield Hallam classroom and on the screen, attending from Puerto Rico via Zoom), raising their glasses John Dunning and David Graham hosted a novel wine tasting in November, with Nanette López and Zoe Santiago-Font of UAGM (Universidad Ana G. Méndez) and students in Puerto Rico. This was a live, simultaneous tutored wine tasting of 6 wines, with the same wines sourced both in Puerto Rico and in Sheffield. They are gearing up for future tastings—rum, perhaps!

A new publication from Jennifer Smith Maguire and Nikita-Marie Bridgeman, with co-authors Sharron Marco-Thyse (Centre for Rural Legal Studies, South Africa) and Charles Erasmus (Wine Industry Value Chain Round Table, South Africa): Wine farmworkers, provenance stories and ethical value claims, in the Journal of Wine Research, extends past research on ethical value claims in two ways. First, research often centres on certifications as mechanisms of ethical claims-making; in contrast, we focus on provenance stories as devices of wine brand differentiation and ethical value creation. Second, while value claims are broadly understood as co-creative outcomes involving producers, intermediaries, and consumers, we focus on manual farmworkers, who are largely absent, as story subjects and storytellers, in agri-food provenance stories and value claims. Focusing on the South African wine industry, the article analyses a comparative sample of South African, French, Italian and Australian winery websites, identifying provenance as the dominant frame for ethical value claims, family as a primary anchor for provenance, and South Africa’s distinctive prevalence of representations of farmworkers in winery communications. The article then reports on data from two ‘storytelling workshops’ with Cape Wineland farmworkers, which generated resonant themes – community and familiness; expertise and pride – that align with extant winery brand stories, and dominant market expectations and credence cues, suggesting potential for farmworkers to contribute to and be more securely included and recognized within premium wine value chains.

Finally: CHEFS is delighted to welcome Samantha McCormick, our latest food-focused GTA to Sheffield Business School! Sam is a SHU grad (BSc Hons Nutrition, Diet & Lifestyle) and will be starting her PhD journey in February; watch this space for an introduction in the next edition of What’s Cooking.

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Resources/call for papers/conference announcements

ShefFood, the food partnership for Sheffield, has launched a brand-new food charter for Sheffield as part of their Bronze to Silver Award bid for Sustainable food places. Over the next couple of months, ShefFood is bringing together food-based organisations from across Sheffield in five working groups to write a multi-stakeholder Action Plan for the city. The working groups (Food Ladders; Compost and Growing; Food Health and Obesity; Good Food Economy and Procurement; Good Food Movement—open meetings) have a series of workshops scheduled over January-March. Dates, locations, and details on how to get involved are available here; to confirm your place at any of the meetings, or for more information, please email <info@sheffood.org.uk>.

Call for papers: Third International Conference on Food and Communication. Deadline 15 February.
The third conference on Food and Communication will be held in Örebro, Sweden, 13 – 15th September 2023, with the theme “Communication ‘good’ foods.” By studying topics at the intersection of communication and food, the conference welcomes scientific contributions covering all geographic areas, historical periods, and methods, including, but not limited to food and: health; sustainability; ethics; science; branding/marketing; media; advice and cookbooks; governmental discourse; corporate discourse; professional communication (chefs, restaurants); politics; religion. Full information and abstract submission point available here.

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Call for content for the next edition of What’s Cooking

The next edition of What’s Cooking will be March 2023. Please send content (research updates, calls for expression of interest, relevant calls for papers/conference/event announcements) to j.smith1@shu.ac.uk by 27 February.

CHEFS blog

Interested in writing a blog post? These are usually 800-1200 words and written for a general audience in an informal style. Blogs can revisit work you’ve already done (e.g., highlighting a recent output/publication); discuss research or research-related activities (teaching, public engagement, etc.) that you are working on; offer your informed take on contemporary food/drink issues or policy; provide a profile on your research. If you’d like to contribute a piece, please get in touch with Jen (j.smith1@shu.ac.uk).

Want to stay updated? Follow us on Twitter (@SHU_CHEFS), subscribe to the blog and/or join our Jisc email list: see information on the very bottom of each CHEFS webpage.

 

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Filed under appetite, CHEFS, surplus waste & excess food in society, What's Cooking?, wine

by | June 13, 2022 · 7:56 am

Plant-Based Convenience Foods: Consumer Perceptions, Nutrient Profile and Satiety

Sheffield Business School and the Business, Technology, and Engineering College of Sheffield Hallam University recently hosted a PGR and ECR Conference on the theme ‘Does Impact Matter?‘ Congratulations to Megan Flint, who was joint winner of the conference prize for the best e-poster presentation!

Megan’s poster, ‘Plant-based convenience foods: Consumer perceptions, nutrient profile and satiety‘ sets out a clear case for investigating consumers’ perceptions, drivers and barriers with regard to plant-based convenience foods. Plant-based convenience foods sit at a complex junction: on the one hand, plant-based foods may offer a route to improved population health and environmental sustainability; on the other, there are potentially negative health consequences attached to the ultra-processing often underpinning plant-based convenience food safety and palatability.

Megan’s research explores consumers’ health valuation of plant-based convenience foods versus their actual nutritional profile and satiating potential. Doing so offers the potential to assess and improve consumer literacy of plant-based food products, whilst also potentially contributing to new product development and the design of more effective marketing strategies.

Research Questions:

  • What key drivers and barriers are associated with readiness and intent to engage with PB convenience foods in different consumer segments?
  • How does the nutritional profile of PB convenience foods compare with meat-based equivalents?
  • How do PB convenience compare to meat-based equivalents regarding satiating properties?

Research Objectives:

  • To measure current consumer understanding, engagement and health-related motivations to consume PB convenience foods through a cross- sectional survey.
  • To explore consumer experience of PB convenience foods through semi-structured interviews.
  • To analyse and evaluate the nutritional profile of PB convenience foods against suitable meat-based equivalents.
  • To investigate the satiating efficacy of PB convenience foods against a suitable meat-based comparator through an acute feeding study design.

The research design spans three studies: a quantitative cross-sectional design with consumers, complemented by semi-structured interviews;  a comparative analysis of the health value of plant-based convenience foods and meat-based equivalents; and a single-blinded randomised, two-way crossover study will analyse the outcome of plant-based and meat-based test meals on participant appetite and satiety.

Check out Megan’s full award-winning poster here: Megan Flint Poster Presentation 2022

Megan Flint is a Graduate Teaching Assistant and PhD student in the Department of Service Sector Management, Sheffield Business School, working with supervisors Jenny Paxman, Tony Lynn and Simon Bowles.

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Filed under appetite, Diet and health, eating behaviour, plant-based foods, research, sustainability

by | September 30, 2021 · 6:23 am

Electric Currents and Eating Behaviour

A person wearing a cap with wires emerging from it

Photo credit: Jordan Beaumont

Have you ever caught a whiff of freshly baked bread, or spotted a gooey chocolate brownie, and instantly been hit with a craving?

Do you run to the shops to buy yourself a treat, or just walk away and carry on with life?

Your response to food is a key part of eating behaviour, and your brain is an important hub for controlling these responses. By interpreting signals from our body, our brain directs us to eat (or stop eating) to maintain our energy needs. But eating goes beyond mere energy requirements – eating is often a social activity, and foods are a source of pleasure and reward. Our brain is able to incorporate these different factors to drive and control our eating behaviours. However, in the current environment, where we are constantly bombarded by food cues (such as the smell and sight of tempting food), it can be difficult to control our eating behaviour.

Data suggests that for some individuals, there is reduced activity within certain areas of the brain that are important for controlling eating behaviour and particularly for preventing impulsive actions associated with overconsumption (e.g. binge eating). This means it is even more difficult to control the response to food and related cues, and we know that people respond differently to the rewarding components of food with some individuals experiencing heightened reward sensitivity. This means these individuals find it particularly difficult to walk away from tempting foods, which often leads to the consumption (or overconsumption) of these highly rewarding, high-calorie foods.

That’s where our research comes in!

Our research looks to change how people respond to food and food-related cues. Specifically, we are looking to alter eating-related measures (e.g. in-the-moment food craving) using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a form of non-invasive brain stimulation where a weak electrical current is passed through the brain via electrodes placed on the scalp.

You want to do what, to my what?!

Electric currents + your brain = nasty One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest vibes, but it’s not what you think.

The electric current is very weak, usually up to 2.0 milliampere (mA). To give some context, electroconvulsive therapy (as seen in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) uses electric currents of up to 900 mA. At 2.0 mA, you’re likely to feel a little tingling or itching, but research on the safety of tDCS shows no damage to either the skin or brain tissue, and the technique is widely considered safe for children and adults, as well as healthy individuals and patient populations. (However, do note the ‘do not try this at home’ message at the end of the blog!)

a picture of the study equipment

Photo credit: Jordan Beaumont

While the technique may seem a little elaborate, the equipment is relatively simple – it involves two conductive rubber plates (electrodes), housed inside saline-soaked sponge pads, which are connected to a stimulation device powered using 2x AA batteries. To hold the electrodes in place, you wear a (very flattering) elasticated cap – modelled by yours truly above. That is as exciting as the equipment gets. During stimulation, you’re usually asked to remain seated and relaxed, but can also be asked to complete a computer-based task or watch a short video.

But, what does it actually do?

The brain is like a packed room, with people (neurons, or nerve cells) constantly chatting to each other (sending chemical signals called neurotransmitters). This chatting, or the passing of neurotransmitters from one neuron to the next, is how the brain tells our body to perform certain functions, and is important for driving our behaviour. Through tDCS, we are able to increase or decrease the amount of chatting that occurs, and as such the level of activity within certain parts of the room.

This becomes important where we see low activity in some areas of the brain, such as those that help control our eating behaviours, which contributes to “problematic” behaviour. Through tDCS, we are able to alter brain activity, learning, task performance and behaviour.

The miracle cure for obesity!

Well, not quite. Obesity and eating behaviour are incredibly complex – although the techniques show promise for altering our response to food and food-related cues in some populations (such as those with binge eating behaviour), we’re a long way from testing the efficacy as a tool for obesity treatment. To fully determine the role tDCS may play in altering eating behaviours, and the potential use of this technique for weight management, we need to carry out many (many) more studies. As such, we’re in constant need of participants…

We need your help!

Share your views on non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) techniques.

Whether you’re a tDCS pro, or just hearing about brain stimulation for the first time, we’re looking for individuals over the age of 18 to share their thoughts of these techniques. Simply fill out this short survey around the perceptions of tDCS and other forms of NIBS.

On completion of the survey, you have the opportunity to be entered into a free prize draw to win one of three £50 vouchers.

If you would like to find out more about our research, or you would like to participate in one of our other studies, you can email me via j.beaumont@shu.ac.uk.

An important note…

Please do not try this at home. tDCS procedures within research and clinical settings are rigorously controlled and meticulously monitored to ensure the protocols are safe and ethical. Do-it-yourself (DIY) tDCS can lead to some worrying side effects (e.g. headaches, skin burns, persistent metallic taste) due to the use of unregulated devices and settings beyond safe limits. tDCS should always be delivered by a trained professional.

 

About the author

Jordan Beaumont (@JordanDBeaumont) is a Registered Nutritionist and Associate Lecturer in Food and Nutrition at Sheffield Hallam University. He is also a PhD candidate and Visiting Lecturer at Leeds Trinity University. The research discussed in this blog was conducted at Leeds Trinity University, under the supervision of Dr Martin Barwood, Dr Danielle Davis, Dr Michelle Dalton and Professor Mark Russell.

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Filed under appetite, eating behaviour, research