Category Archives: research

by Jennifer Smith Maguire | 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:

SWEFS (Surplus, Waste and Excess Food in Society) hosted a Food Waste research networking event;
SHARe (Sheffield Hallam Appetite Research) hosted a Complete and Finish event to support appetite-related research ideas;
CHEFS (Culture, Health, Environment, Food and Society…for all things socio-cultural related to food and drink) hosted The English and Welsh Wine Symposium and a paired papers session on ‘Food, Wine and Discourse’ (abstracts and recording on the ‘past talks’ page).

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

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

by Jennifer Smith Maguire | · 5:33 am

SWEFS Food Waste Event

On 25 April, the SWEFS (Surplus, Waste and Excess Food in Society) Research Sub-Cluster, co-led by Dr Pallavi Singh and Professor Dianne Dean, held 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.

Professor Dianne Dean, Dr Pallavi Singh, and Dr Scott Jones shared their work with Sheffield City Council on household food waste collection service.

Professor Martin Howarth discussed the current work done by NCEFE.

photo of someone giving a presentation

SWEFS current Sheffield Business School PhD students, Nikita Marie Bridgeman and Ufuoma Arangebi, presented their respective projects.

Finally, participants took part in small group roundtable discussions to identify current and future potential food waste related projects.

To know more about SWEFS’s work and join the TEAMS channel, please contact Dr Pallavi Singh on p.singh@shu.ac.uk.

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by Jennifer Smith Maguire | March 23, 2023 · 3:31 pm

SHARe event report

On Wednesday 8^th 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:

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.

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 13^th 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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Filed under appetite, eating behaviour, research, SHARe Sheffield Hallam Appetite Research, Uncategorized

by Jennifer Smith Maguire | February 28, 2023 · 9:57 pm

What’s Cooking, March 2023

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

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 Jennifer Smith Maguire | September 1, 2022 · 7:07 am

What’s Cooking, September 2022

Check out our most recent research blog post, in which Jo Pearce offers her reflections on a PhD by published work. Jo also gives us a whistle stop tour of her research on how the promotion of healthy eating habits and dietary guidelines can impact on the health outcomes of women and children.

The next instalment of our online research talk series is coming up in October: ‘Children’s Food, Feeding and Inequalities’ will feature research presentations from Irmak Karademir Hazir and Filippo Oncini. The date will be confirmed shortly, with information distributed via the JISC list and our Twitter account (be sure to follow us: @SHU_CHEFS). Meanwhile, details (including full abstracts and the Zoom joining link) are available on our Online Research Talks page. The online talks are open to all, both local and global, students and staff, practitioners and public. Please feel free to share with your networks—all welcome!

After a summer break, our virtual research roundtables are back! The roundtables are an informal chance to check in, share updates, trade suggestions, ask questions and bounce ideas around. No prep needed—just a chance to meet up and talk CHEFS for an hour:

Friday 16 September, 3.30-4.30pm
Thursday 17 November, 4-5pm
Wednesday 14 December, 4-5pm

Research roundtable meeting invites (with Zoom link and meeting password) will be sent out shortly via the CHEFS JISC list. Not joined the JISC list yet? See information on the very bottom of each CHEFS webpage. In the meantime, please email me directly (j.smith1@shu.ac.uk) if you’d like me to forward a meeting invite.

Below, we have:

updates on recent CHEFS members’ activities (including a recent publication on baby-led weaning, research on household food waste in collaboration with Sheffield City Council—with a call for participants!, and reflections on the recent Nutrition Society Summer Conference);
resources/calls for papers/conference announcements (various calls for papers in relation to food/drink and sustainability, craft, time, communication);
the usual call for contributions and content for the November 2022 edition of What’s Cooking.

Cheers,
Jen

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Recent CHEFS Activities

Jo Pearce and Rachel Rundle have had their latest paper on baby-led weaning (BLW) published in the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics. In ‘Baby-led weaning: A thematic analysis of comments made by parents using online parenting forums,’ they report on an interpretive thematic analysis of messages and responses posted on three UK parenting forums, relating to complementary feeding. The analysis found that the characterisation of BLW by parents was varied but they described BLW having an ethos which included trusting the baby, role modelling, developing confidence with food and sharing the social aspects of mealtimes. BLW also offered an alternative to those actively seeking something different or a default for those whose baby refused purees or spoon feeding. BLW felt like a natural progression, with low parental effort for some, and a source of anxiety, stress, choking risk and mess for others. Many parents struggled to find a process (what to eat and when) within BLW, that they could follow. Finger foods were used synonymously with BLW but many mixed/blurred aspects of both TW and BLW. The authors conclude that the interpretation of BLW varies considerably between parents and a broader definition of BLW may be required, along with guidance on the process and purpose of BLW.

Dianne Dean, Pallavi Singh, Scott Jones, and Nikita-Marie Bridgeman, all from Sheffield Business School, are working with Sheffield City Council to examine household food waste. Flats and households in four trial areas in Sheffield have been selected by Sheffield City Council to take part in a weekly food waste recycling trail, taking place over the next three months. If you live in a trial area (Woodseats/Meersbrook/Norton Lees/Chapeltown/Ecclesfield/Burncross/ Arbourthorne/Gleadless Valley/Darnall) you may have been given a food caddy to collect food waste in, roll of liners for the caddy and an outside food waste bin. The research team are seeking participants that live in one of the four trial areas and are taking part in the Sheffield City Council food waste trial scheme. The research team are interested in better understanding the process of food disposal in the household and data will be collected by means of diaries and semi-structured interviews. If you are in the Sheffield City Council food waste trial scheme, and would like to participate in the research project, please email Professor Dianne Dean (Dianne.Dean@shu.ac.uk) or Dr Pallavi Singh (p.singh@shu.ac.uk).

Jenny Paxman reflected on the Nutrition Society Summer Conference, which took place in July in Sheffield, with a focus on ‘Food and Nutrition: Pathways to a Sustainable Future.’ The Scientific Programme Organisers comprised Jenny and Lucie Nield from Sheffield Hallam University, and Liz Williams and Samantha Caton from the University of Sheffield, and the conference was a collaborative endeavour with teams from Sheffield Hallam University, The University of Sheffield and Sheffield City Council working together throughout. Delegates were effusive in their praise of everything from the main venue at SHU, to the social activities and of course the scientific programme! We welcomed speakers from all over the world, and it was wonderful to reconnect with colleagues and collaborators.

Jennifer Smith Maguire was interviewed by WineLand Magazine (which targets South African wine industry stakeholders) about her collaborative research on wine farmworker heritage stories; the article is due out in this month’s ‘heritage’ issue. Jen will also be presenting ‘Vina aperta and the quest for interconnectedness’ as a keynote at the online symposium ‘Towards an Eliasian Understanding of Food in the 21st Century’, organised by the University of Huddersfield on 7 September. Drawing on the work of Norbert Elias, the talk considers what we might learn about wine, and food more generally, by contrasting the concepts of vinum clausum (a view of wine as a static object, the consumption of which is reducible to discrete variables) and vina aperta (a view of wine as a processual ‘thing,’ the accomplishment of which is fundamentally bound up with the problems of humans’ interdependence with the natural world, others, and with themselves). The paper suggests that foregrounding the processual, interdependent character of wine provides valuable insights into what drives some producers and consumers to pursue alternative market relations that quench a thirst for interconnectedness, while offering potential routes toward more sustainable production and consumption.

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Resources/call for papers/conference announcements

Call for papers: special issue on Food and Sustainability. Deadline 30 September.
The journal Sustainability (impact factor: 3.251) will feature a special issue on the topic of ‘Food and Sustainability’. This Special Issue will focus broadly on how the food and drink industry can meet the challenge of embedding sustainability into its business strategies and operations as well as nudging consumers towards making more sustainable food choices. Many food businesses today are under pressure to demonstrate how their products and services are making a positive contribution towards society. However, one of the biggest challenges for businesses is progressing sustainability initiatives from an added benefit view to an integrated, value-driven to business approach. Deadline for submission is 30 September 2022. Full details here.

Call for papers: XX ISA World Congress of Sociology- Economic Sociology of Craftsmanship. Deadline 30 September.
Andrey Sgorla is coordinating a session on the Economic Sociology of Craftsmanship at the XX ISA World Congress of Sociology. This will be presented in English and Spanish and will take place from June 25th- July 1st 2023 in Melbourne, Australia. The deadline for authors to submit their abstracts is September 30th 2022 at 24:00 GMT. More information available at Session: Economic Sociology of Craftsmanship (XX ISA World Congress of Sociology (June 25-July 1, 2023)) (confex.com). Any questions about the session or call for papers can be sent to Andrey at afsgorla@gmail.com.

Call for chapters: time and alcohol. Deadline 4 November.
‘It’s Five O’clock Somewhere’: Time, Alcohol, and Other Beverages. Dr Peter Howland is looking for 10-12 chapters which critically explore the history and/or ethnographies of time and the role that it plays in the production, exchange and consumption of drinks and beverages (of any form) to be included in an edited volume. All disciplinary perspectives are welcome and it is hoped that this publication will be included in Routledge’s Critical Beverage Studies series. If you would like to apply to be included in this proposal, please email your name, institutional details, a proposed paper title and an abstract (200-500 words) to p.j.howland@massey.ac.nz. The deadline for applications is 4th November 2022.

Call for papers: Third International Conference on Food and Communication. Deadline TBC (details due in September).
The third conference on Food and Communication brings together researchers who work on the intersection of food and communication. The next one will be held in Örebro, Sweden, 13 – 15th September 2023 and the call for papers will be announced soon in September 2022. More information available at: Food & Communication Conference – Food & Communication Conference (foodcommunication.net) and you can see some of the previous conference events on Twitter via the hashtag #foodcommunicationconf

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Call for content for the next edition of What’s Cooking
The next edition of What’s Cooking will be November 2022. Please send content (research updates, calls for expression of interest, relevant calls for papers/conference/event announcements) to j.smith1@shu.ac.uk by 31 October.

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 alcohol, Diet and health, food practices, food waste, research, surplus waste & excess food in society, sustainability

by Jennifer Smith Maguire | July 21, 2022 · 6:44 pm

Reflections on a PhD by Published Work

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-ND

In June, I successfully defended my PhD on the Basis of Published Work, ‘Teachable moments in the promotion of healthy eating habits in pregnancy and early childhood.’ My dissertation focuses on how nutritional exposures during pregnancy, infancy and early childhood can impact on both the short-term and long-term health outcomes of children, drawing together eight previously published articles. In this blog, I want to share some insights on the increasingly common, if still atypical, option of pursuing a PhD by publication. But first, a quick snapshot of my dissertation!

Pregnancy has often been described as a ‘teachable moment’, where women may have increased motivation to change their dietary and other health behaviours. Other teachable moments exist whenever families make choices around nutrition, such as breast or formula feeding, the introduction of solid foods and what to eat at home or at school. The thesis considers whether the promotion of healthy eating habits and adherence to dietary guidelines during these teachable moments have the potential to improve the health outcomes of women and children. The thesis was comprised of eight papers: article one was a service evaluation of a midwife-led intervention to prevent excessive gestational weight gain, articles two and three explored women’s feelings about their weight, diet, nutrition, and physical activity (PA) during pregnancy; four and five were systematic reviews and found some limited evidence that very early introduction of solid foods (≤ 4 months) and high intakes of protein in infancy may contribute to overweight and obesity risk later in childhood. Articles six and seven (in press) explored baby-led weaning (BLW) and found understanding of and adherence to the characteristics of BLW varied considerably amongst parents reporting using the method. A final paper explored why some families choose not to take universal infant free school meals. Overall, the research highlights that health promotion activity should focus on the long-term healthy eating habits of women as the gatekeepers of the family diet, whilst recognising the challenges that women face during and following pregnancy.

Following my PhD viva, my examiners asked me to add a section reflecting on the published works route and why I had chosen to complete my PhD in this way. I know why I had chosen this route, but as I looked for some references to support the reflection, I found there was surprisingly little written in the academic literature. Apparently, PhD by published works is becoming increasing popular, but neither the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) nor the UK Council for Graduate Education (UKCGE) publish statistics about the number of registered candidates, percentage of candidates or completions in the UK. Moreover, each institution publishes its own guidelines, which vary in the level detail provided to prospective candidates.

The major criteria of any PhD are appropriate methods, coherence, contribution of knowledge, critical appreciation, independence, and intellectual merit. As Powell notes, PhD candidates should also be ‘capable of continuing to undertake research in an independent and original way’ So, what does this mean for the published works route?

Well, for me, it meant completing and publishing between four and eight (N.B. this may vary, depending on institution) journal articles or book chapters. Each work needed to represent an original contribution to knowledge. Publications had to be first-authored by me, or I had to contribute substantially to one or more aspect of the research (study design, collecting data, analysis and writing up). Additionally, I wrote an overarching narrative comprising a literature review, a critical evaluation of the methodologies used within the publications from the perspective of my research philosophy and a discussion of the theme uniting the publications. Taking this route to PhD also meant that I worked independently. My advisor co-authored six of my publications and was very supportive but in terms of preparing the thesis, they just provided some guidance on which publications were suitable to use, the structure of the final report and some feedback on each completed section. My total thesis, including publications and a critical narrative had to adhere to one theme and total 70,000-100,000 words (again, this varies with considerably by institution).

I chose to complete my PhD via the published works route when I found myself in the position of being a university lecturer, but without a PhD. I could have opted for a traditional PhD, completed part time over six or more years. But given the amount of research I had already been involved with, and my existing academic and research experience, I opted for PhD by published works. A key advantage for me was being able to continue to research and publish alongside my teaching role. I could also complete the PhD without further reducing my part time hours.

Nevertheless, there are disadvantages of the published works route. First and foremost: it is not a quicker journey! It is still time consuming and competed with other demands of my job. There is also the added burden of accountability and self-motivation. Getting articles finished and published can be challenging and not all your publications will fit your theme, the time frame or eligibility criteria (for example, being published whilst in a previous job role).

This aside, the published works route should be an option all university staff are aware of—whether they are advising prospective PhD candidates, or (especially) if they are considering how to juggle a PhD alongside juggling part- or full-time work with family life. My advice would be to study your University’s specific guidance and find others at your institution who have completed their PhD work in this way, to decide if this is an option for you. Also, it helps to plan research-led teaching, for example, supervision of student projects, which will support you to complete publications in a timely manner. To quote Badley, in one of the few relevant articles I managed to find, a PhD by published works can ‘represent a formidable level of doctorateness’ but it is definitely not an easy option!

Jo Pearce completed her PhD at the University of Nottingham. She currently works as a senior lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University. Jo’s current research interests include complementary feeding, baby-led weaning, and school food.

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by Jennifer Smith Maguire | June 30, 2022 · 6:32 pm

What’s Cooking, July 2022

Check out our most recent blogs, featuring Megan Flint’s prize-winning e-poster, outlining her PhD research on Plant-based convenience foods: Consumer perceptions, nutrient profile and satiety, and Jennifer Smith Maguire’s account of a recent trip to South Africa as part of research on wine farmworker heritage stories.

The latest instalment of our online research talk series was just yesterday, with ‘paired papers’ focused on craft drink and food. Thomas Thurnell-Read shared his research on craft gin distillers and the themes of biography and kinship and craft gin, and Belinda Zakrzewska presented her co-authored work on authenticity, coloniality and Peruvian cuisine. A recording of the session is now available on our ‘past talks’ webpage. Looking ahead, the next ‘paired papers’ session will be in October (date TBC) on ‘Children’s Food, Feeding and Inequalities’ featuring research presentations from Irmak Karademir Hazir and Filippo Oncini. Full details (including full abstracts and the Zoom joining link) are available on our Online Research Talks page. The online talks are open to all, both local and global, students and staff, practitioners and public. Please feel free to share with your networks—all welcome!

If you’re around Sheffield, it’s not too late to register to attend the Nutrition Society summer conference, which Sheffield Hallam University and University of Sheffield are delighted to be hosting 12-15 July, with support from Sheffield City Council. The conference theme is Pathways to Sustainability. Registration deadline is 5 July. Conference information and registration link available here.

Below, we have:

updates on recent CHEFS members’ activities (a bumper crop of updates!);
resources/calls for papers/conference announcements (including a call for papers for a special issue on food and sustainability);
the usual call for contributions and content for the September 2022 edition of What’s Cooking.

Cheers,
Jen

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Recent CHEFS Activities

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 the two food-focused, joint winners of the conference prize for the best e-poster presentation! Ufuoma Arangebi’s poster examined ‘Intergenerational cross-cultural attitudes towards household food waste’ and Megan Flint’s poster examined ‘Plant-based convenience foods: Consumer perceptions, nutrient profile and satiety.’ Congratulations, Ufumuo and Megan! You can read more about Megan’s research, and see the full poster in her recent CHEFS blog.

Jo Pearce, senior lecturer in Nutrition, successfully defended her PhD by publication, ‘Teachable moments in the promotion of healthy eating habits in pregnancy and early childhood’, in June. Jo’s PhD engages with issues of how nutritional exposures during pregnancy, infancy and early childhood can impact on both the short-term and long-term health outcomes of children. Pregnancy has often been described as a ‘teachable moment’, where women may have increased motivation to change their dietary and other health behaviours. Other teachable moments exist whenever families make choices around nutrition, such as breast or formula feeding, the introduction of solid foods and what to eat at home or at school. The thesis considers whether the promotion of healthy eating habits and adherence to dietary guidelines during these teachable moments, have the potential to improve the health outcomes of women and children. The thesis was comprised of eight papers: two explored women’s feelings about their weight, diet, nutrition, and physical activity (PA) during pregnancy; two were systematic reviews and found some limited evidence that very early introduction of solid foods (≤ 4 months) and high intakes of protein in infancy may contribute to overweight and obesity risk later in childhood; two further papers explored baby-led weaning (BLW) and found understanding of and adherence to the characteristics of BLW varied considerably amongst parents reporting using the method; a final paper explored why some families choose not to take universal infant free school meals. Overall, the research highlights that health promotion activity should focus on the long-term healthy eating habits of women as the gatekeepers of the family diet, whilst recognising the challenges that women face during and following pregnancy. Congratulations Dr Pearce!

Caroline Westwood was recently at the annual ESRS (European Society for Rural Sociology) conference. The main conference theme was rural entrepreneurship, with talks covering a range of issues including agri-food entrepreneurship in small, rural SMEs, and connections between food, farming, rural tourism and diversification. Caroline presented the paper, ‘Rural and Agricultural Shows: New Strategies for Supporting Entrepreneurs,’ which focuses on the impacts that covid has had on exhibitors at these events. The conference presentation began by looking at attendees’ pre-pandemic experiences at these traditional events, followed by data collected from exhibitors who had attended virtual agricultural shows in 2020 during the pandemic, with a focus on how they have adapted their businesses since. This was in collaboration with Professor Gary Bosworth from Northumbria University who specialises in rural entrepreneurship. Caroline and Gary are planning future collaborations to extend this initial study.

Lucie Nield is currently working with adolescents from low SES groups to investigate food choice in adolescents. We have used a Photovoice methodology and have developed a number of research themes from the qualitative data. Next steps: working with the adolescents on how we can use the information to advocate for a change that they would like to see—namely changes to school lunches! Lucie is also working with SHU colleagues on two other research areas: with Jereme Snook, she is carrying out a review of the qualitative literature around lived experience of obesity and discrimination in all areas of life (e.g., education, healthcare, employment) and how this links with inequality; with Steven Marshall, Michael Thelwell and Simon Choppin, Lucie is also looking at new ways to measure people’s body shape and size. The team are currently recruiting for participants. Please use this link to see the Participant Information Sheet and questionnaire.

Lucie will also be presenting research findings at the People, Place and Policy Conference at Sheffield Hallam University on 6 July, from on a study investigating the lived experience of people who have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus in Sheffield. The research examines their experiences of the health service, dietary and lifestyle change with an aim of using the acquired knowledge to feed into service redesign and development. It has been coproduced by Community, Voluntary and Social Enterprise organisations and investigates their potential role and strengths in the management of type 2 diabetes mellitus.

John Dunning was recently in Crete for the ICOT (International Conference on Tourism) conference. John gave a presentation, ‘Wine service in restaurants: changing trends and the impact on the professional wine steward.’ Additionally, John was a participant in the Panel Discussion focused on ‘Wine tourism in Crete: Strengthening the industry-research nexus.’ The panel consisted of representatives of local government, winemaking, sommeliers, the hospitality sector, and academia—a fantastic mix!

John was also busy with travel and presentations in May. In early May, he was at the HRC Culinary Academy in Sofia Bulgaria, regarded as one of the best culinary schools in Eastern Europe. John delivered a presentation on food and culinary trends, carried out some professional development in their training restaurant, had discussions about curriculum, and met with hospitality employers in Sofia. Later in the month, John was at the 2022 CHME (Council for Hospitality Management Education) Conference in Edinburgh, where he presented a paper co-authored with Daniel Ma: ‘Wine consumer behaviour and attitudes: A focus on Australian Chardonnay.’

Jennifer Smith Maguire recently finished off her sabbatical period with a research trip to the Cape Wine Lands, South Africa: read about it in her recent CHEFS blog post. Jen is looking forward to September, when she’ll be delivering one of the keynote presentations (a taste of the wine book she’s been working on while on sabbatical!) at ‘Towards an Eliasian Understanding of Food in the 21st Century’, a one-day conference at the University of Huddersfield.

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Resources/call for papers/conference announcements

Call for papers for a special issue on Food and Sustainability. Deadline 30 September.
The journal Sustainability (impact factor: 3.251) will feature a special issue on the topic of ‘Food and Sustainability’. This Special Issue will focus broadly on how the food and drink industry can meet the challenge of embedding sustainability into its business strategies and operations as well as nudging consumers towards making more sustainable food choices. Many food businesses today are under pressure to demonstrate how their products and services are making a positive contribution towards society. However, one of the biggest challenges for businesses is progressing sustainability initiatives from an added benefit view to an integrated, value-driven to business approach. Deadline for submission is 30 September 2022. Full details here.

Eat Smart Sheffield: check out their summer 2022 newsletter

Food-focused teaching resources: Food and Drink Federation recorded webinars
Changing Consumer Habits: Levercliff, category consultants to the food and drink industry, have tracked consumer behaviour since March 2020. The research findings will reveal how consumer habits are evolving – what is important to them? What does the future look like?

The future of food & what it means for manufacturers: Natasha Catchpole and Ben Hughes from CFC will be discussing how manufacturers are responding to the huge consumer demand for meat free, vegan and vegetarian alternatives.

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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 2022. Please send content (research updates, calls for expression of interest, relevant calls for papers/conference/event announcements) to j.smith1@shu.ac.uk by 31 August.

CHEFS blog

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 Jennifer Smith Maguire | June 28, 2022 · 2:49 pm

Researching Wine Farmworker Heritage Stories

I spent last week in South Africa’s Cape Winelands. This long-delayed trip is part of ongoing research on wine farmworker heritage: a collaboration with Mr Charles Erasmus (of the Wine Industry Value Chain Roundtable, a multi-stakeholder organisation reflecting the entire South African wine industry), and Ms Sharron Marco-Thyse (of the Centre for Rural Legal Studies). The trip had originally been scheduled for May 2020, with the purpose of carrying out two ‘storytelling workshops’ with farmworkers. Covid cancelled that trip, but it didn’t cancel the research: Sharron and Charles conducted the workshops, and I attended via Zoom. In January 2021 we completed the findings report (available here), and when international travel restrictions finally lifted in early 2022, I rebooked my flight.

The question driving the research emerged as an upshot of my work on super-premium wines around the world. For fifteen years, I have looked at how various actors—winemakers, retailers, sommeliers, distributors, writers and so on—create markets for organic, biodynamic, ‘natural,’ and other small-scale wines (or as some like to call them: ‘weird’ wines!). Key to the creation of value for such wines are provenance stories: narratives and representations that offer some degree of transparency as to where a wine was made (often latched to the language of terroir), by whom, how, and when. (For example, I’ve written about these issues in relation to how specialist wine media circulate new criteria of ‘good taste’ and how small-scale ‘grower champagne’ producers challenge established product conventions.) Stories about the heritage of the winery, the authentic rootedness of wines in their place of origin, and the winemaker’s artisanal ethos of hand-crafted viticulture are the lingua franca for such wines. And yet, there is a glaring gap in the weird wine storyverse. While the winemakers I’ve interviewed almost always underscore the essential contribution of farm workers to careful production, those same workers rarely if ever appear in winery marketing communications. While wine intermediaries consistently champion hand-picked grapes and machine-free vineyard management as markers of quality, the actual people who hand-pick the grapes and hand-prune the vines are almost entirely absent from consumer-facing wine stories. In taking note of that void, I started to formulate a question: What would (and could) it look like to include farmworkers as wine provenance storytellers?

With that question in mind, and informed by research on the silencing and/or problematic framing of agricultural labour in food and drink value chains more generally (e.g., excellent work by Maria Touri, Anelyse Weiler and others), I emailed Charles, who I’d first met in 2015 while researching South African organic and biodynamic wine producers. Was he interested in collaborating? Yes! We started to explore what sort of research would be an appropriate way forward. After two unsuccessful large grant applications in 2018 (for an ambitious cross-cultural comparison of farmworkers and provenance in the context of South Africa, India and Ecuador, working with wonderful colleagues Maria Touri and Emma-Jayne Abbots), I decided to scale the research back to a more feasible pilot. It was high time to get back to South Africa and get this research started, one way or another…

On a Sheffield Hallam-funded trip in January 2019, Charles introduced me to Sharron, and we mapped out a plan. The resulting project design—centred on generating a compelling record of wine farmworkers’ heritage stories—drew heavily on Charles’ and Sharron’s immense experience in working with farmworkers, and Sharron’s expertise in facilitating workshops. On that trip, we also scoped potential case study wineries for the workshops, which led to us finding a ‘home’ for our pilot project: Seven Sisters, one of the very few black owned wine farms in South Africa. Seven Sisters is owned by Vivian Kleynhans. As a black woman winemaker, Vivian is an exceptional, inspiring pioneer; gaining her support for the pilot was truly critical.

The pilot project aimed to:

develop a multi-stakeholder perspective on South African wine farmworkers’ heritage stories (reflecting wine farmworkers and wine producers, and export market (UK) wine consumers and intermediaries);
demonstrate the potential of farmworkers as active co-creators of winery ethical brand value, and of farmworker heritage stories for ethical value creation in a major export market (UK).

The pilot was made possible through funding from the UK & Ireland Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) Seed Funding Scheme and Sheffield Hallam University (the Developing International Research Funding Opportunities (DIRFO) Scheme); through collaboration with, and contributions in kind from, Seven Sisters, WIVCRT, and CRLS; and through the research assistance of Ms Nikita-Marie Bridgeman, who carried out some of the UK-based components of the study as part of her dissertation for her MSc in Food Consumer Marketing and Product Development at Sheffield Hallam.

Last week, two years after those original storytelling workshops, I was back in the Winelands to explore next steps with Charles and Sharron. In a Renault Kwid (a rental car of dubious stamina and fuel efficiency), I covered 609 km in six days, travelling between Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Franschhoek, Paarl, and Somerset. I met with a range of wine industry stakeholders to present a summary of the pilot, gather responses to the findings, and solicit views on the value of extending the research. (When and where appropriate, I also asked the pragmatic funding question!)

One of the most important meetings of the trip was the first, which took me back to Seven Sisters. A few hours after my arrival in Cape Town, Sharron and I had a feedback session with some of the original participants in the 2020 farmworker storytelling workshops. It was super to see Vivian again, and to witness first hand that Seven Sisters had not only survived the pandemic (Covid-related restrictions hit the South African wine industry hard), but was thriving. It was also brilliant to finally meet participants in person (and to recognize each other, despite my previous workshop attendance having been limited to that of a floating head on a laptop!).

A central concern of the feedback session was to hear what taking part in the storytelling workshops had meant for participants. What stood out in their memories about the day, and what happened after the workshop? The participants reflected on how the workshops had taken them back to childhood memories of growing up on farms, feelings of freedom to roam and the openness of the space, and amusing tales of high jinks and mischief. They also returned to the theme of expertise, which had come up in the workshops: the intimate knowledge of and attentiveness to the health of the vines; the skilful techniques of pruning and harvesting. Particularly striking were comments about how there had been considerable storytelling after the workshop, both among participants and within their wider farm communities.

To be clear: such feedback does not suggest that farmworker memories, experiences, and everyday conditions are unfailingly positive. The opposite scenario is as (or more) likely, given the glacial rate of transformation of the post-apartheid wine industry and the continued marginalization of farmworkers (see, for example, Agatha Herman’s work). Rather, the feedback session underlined that having a space expressly focused on farmworker stories—happy and heart-breaking, optimistic and tragic—was a validating experience: these memories matter; these stories warrant sharing. In turn, the resulting stories offer a platform for fostering recognition (in Nancy Fraser’s sense of the term) of farmworkers as legitimate contributors to the narratives of South African wine. Such recognition requires a changed perception of farmworkers (on the part of farm and brand owners, the government, the domestic and global wine industry), which is critical for addressing the persistent, unequal distribution of resources and opportunities in South Africa.

Responses at the meetings across the week were overwhelmingly affirmative. This is welcome encouragement as we now seek funding to scale up the pilot, which is likely to involve storytelling workshops oriented to a wider range of wine farmworker contexts (e.g., those working on state-owned, black-owned, and traditional wine farms, and those involved as shareholders of black-owned brands). In the meantime, check out the Farmworker heritage stories pilot study summary and keep your funding fingers crossed for us!

Jennifer Smith Maguire is Professor of Cultural Production and Consumption at Sheffield Hallam University, and leads the CHEFS research cluster. Her research on fine wine cultural producers and intermediaries explores the construction of markets, tastes, and forms of legitimacy and value. She is slowly writing a book about provenance.

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by Jennifer Smith Maguire | June 13, 2022 · 7:56 am

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

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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by Jennifer Smith Maguire | May 3, 2022 · 7:53 am

What’s Cooking, May 2022

Sheffield Business School is currently advertising several GTA PhD scholarship opportunities in Hospitality, Tourism, Events and Food & Nutrition (full details on the FindAPhD page, and on the SHU website), and one of the projects is aligned with CHEFS: ‘Food events, ‘sustainability imaginaries’ and shaping consumer perceptions and behaviour,’ working with potential supervisor team of Jennifer Smith Maguire, Mark Norman and Caroline Westwood. We are keen to attract a strong pool of applicants: please can you share widely with your networks? The application deadline is approaching fast: 18 May, noon. More details below.

The latest instalment of our online research talk series was March 23^rd, with ‘paired papers’ focused on pubs, alcohol and the pandemic. Joanna Reynolds shared her analysis of how the media’s representations of restrictions on pubs and bars changed over the course of 2020, and Pallavi Singh shared insights from collaborative research on pubs’ and brewers’ changing responses to value creation over 2020. A recording of the session is available on our ‘past talks’ webpage.

Join us for the next session on ‘Craft, Kinship and Colonialism’ on 30 June, 3-4.30, featuring talks from Thomas Thurnell-Read on biography, kinship and craft gin, and from Belinda Zakrzewska on authenticity, coloniality and Peruvian cuisine. Full details (including full abstracts and the Zoom joining link) are available on our Online Research Talks page. The online talks are open to all, both local and global, students and staff, practitioners and public. Please feel free to share with your networks—all welcome!

Below, we have:

updates on recent CHEFS members’ activities (including a new study on alcohol provision and the experience of public space, and a call for participants in a study about wine gifting);
resources/calls for papers/conference announcements (details of the CHEFS GTA post with a link to further info and application instructions);
the usual call for contributions and content for the July 2022 edition of What’s Cooking.

Cheers,
Jen

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Recent CHEFS Activities

Joanna Reynolds will be starting a new, two-year study to examine the role of alcohol provision in changing public spaces, with a focus on different areas of Sheffield. The study, funded through the BA / Leverhulme small grants programme, will explore how alcohol provision affects people’s experiences of public spaces, in the context of changing local areas, and the ‘Build Back Better’ agenda, post-COVID. Please get in touch with Jo (Joanna.reynolds@shu.ac.uk) to find out more information about the study.

John Dunning and student researcher Rachel Robinson have been carrying out semi-structured interviews on wine gifting and cultural values. They are keen to recruit further British and Chinese consumers of varying levels of wine involvement. Interested in taking part? You do not have to be a wine expert, or have any particular wine knowledge, to take part and there are no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answers in the research; we are interested in your experiences and opinions! Involvement in the study is voluntary. If you are interested in taking part in an interview (conducted via Zoom), or if you’d like to know more about the research, please contact John (j.dunning@shu.ac.uk). Equally: please feel free to pass on this recruitment request to others. Thank you!

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Resources/call for papers/conference announcements

Graduate Teaching Assistant PhD Scholarship opportunity. Deadline: 18 May, noon.

Food events, ‘sustainability imaginaries’ and shaping consumer perceptions and behaviour

This project aims to improve the sustainability of regional food systems through the platform of food events (e.g. food festivals, farmers markets, agricultural shows), focusing on Yorkshire/Northern England. It explores the construction of food sustainability ‘imaginaries’ (Taylor 2004): normative conventions and expectations as to what constitutes sustainable food systems, and how people imagine everyday life (e.g., eating, purchasing, choosing, growing), and their roles, identities and relations to others in a sustainable food system.

Building on previous examinations of food events as drivers of sustainability (Lin & Bestor 2020; Organ et al 2015; Star, Rolfe & Brown 2020; Williams et al 2015), the research will:

(1) generate a comprehensive account of how ‘food sustainability imaginaries’ are constructed through a food event’s experiential, material and communicative dimensions;
(2) devise and evaluate a food event-based intervention through which to enhance consumers’ practices and behaviours in relation to the environmental, socio-cultural and economic sustainability of food.

Potential supervisory team: Jennifer Smith Maguire, Mark Norman, Caroline Westwood.

Deadline for submissions 18 May, noon.

Further project details available on our CHEFS blog page. To discuss the project, please contact Professor Jennifer Smith Maguire (j.smith1@shu.ac.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 2022. 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

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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Category Archives: research

SWEFS Food Waste Event

What’s Cooking, September 2022

Reflections on a PhD by Published Work

What’s Cooking, July 2022

Researching Wine Farmworker Heritage Stories

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

What’s Cooking, May 2022

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