Category Archives: surplus waste & excess food in society

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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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

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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 foodsSouth 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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What’s Cooking, September 2022

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?

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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What’s Cooking, March 2022

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 had another great instalment of our online research talk series on February 10th, with ‘paired papers’ focused on beer, consumption and authenticity. Nadine Waehning and Victoria Wells (University of York Management School) shared their current research on how beer consumers ‘forage’: in addition to exploring between patch (pub) and within patch (product) consumer choices, they also gave us insights into some neat methods and a York pub tour to boot! Andrey Sgorla (University of Siena) then shared insights from his research into the narrative construction of the Brazilian craft beer market and brewers’ performances of passion and authenticity. A recording of the session is available on our ‘past talks’ webpage.

Our next online research talk is coming up soon! On March 23rd (3.30-5 GMT on Zoom), two of our very own SHU CHEFS members are talking about their research on pubs, alcohol and the pandemic: Joanna Reynolds will give a talk on ‘“Pub-ageddon”! Risk, responsibility and alcohol licensing in England during COVID-19 pandemic,’ providing on analysis of how the media reported restrictions on pubs and bars over the course of 2020, and the shifting discursive framing of problems relating to alcohol consumption and licensing; Pallavi Singh will be sharing insights from qualitative research on ‘Sustainability in the beer and pub industry during the COVID-19 period: An emerging new normal,’ drawing on in-depth interviews with pub and brewery owners, managers, and customers, as well as netnographic and offline observations of pubs’ engagement with customers. 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 new food-focused PhD research from new GTAs in Sheffield Business School, and a call for participants in research on wine consumers);
  • resources/calls for papers/conference announcements (including upcoming online events (online event on the sociology of wine, with (optional!) tasting; webinar on research on post-hospitalization food), funding deadlines and conference calls);
  • the usual call for contributions and content for the May 2022 edition of What’s Cooking.

Cheers, Jen

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Recent CHEFS Activities

We are pleased to welcome two new GTAs in Sheffield Business School, each with a food focus to their research!

In the Department of Management, Ufuoma Arangebi is working with Dianne Dean and Pallavi Singh on her PhD project, which explores the intergenerational and cross cultural attitudes towards the symbolic nature of food and food waste. Ufuoma’s specialist area is Marketing. She has a BSc in Geography and Regional planning and an MSc in International Business. She is very interested in food consumption, the symbolic and ritualistic nature of preparing and sharing food, particularly within the community.

In the Department of Service Sector Management, Megan Flint is working with Jenny Paxman, Tony Lynn and Simon Bowles on her PhD project which aims to explore the consumer health valuation of plant-based convenience foods versus their actual nutritional profile and satiating potential. Megan’s specialist area is Nutrition and Public Health. She has a BSc in Nutrition and Public Health and an MSc in Nutrition with Public Health Management. She’s particularly interested in consumer engagement with novel plant-based convenience foods, and their health value in comparison to meat-based equivalents.

John Dunning and student researcher Rachel Robinson are currently undertaking data collection on wine gifting and cultural values, for research in collaboration with Jennifer Smith Maguire and Samantha McCormick. They are keen to recruit British and Chinese consumers of varying levels of wine involvement for semi-structured interviews. 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!

Jennifer Smith Maguire is taking part in an online launch event, to mark the publication of the ‘Constructing the Sociology (or Sociologies) of Wine’ special issue of the Journal of Cultural Analysis and Social Change. (The journal is open access.) All are welcome, so please join us for short talks from the article authors: Friday March 11th, 2.30-4.30 on Zoom. Registration details are below; registered participants will receive the Zoom link when they sign up, along with a list of wine-and-paper pairing recommendations for an informal tasting to close the launch event. Jen is also delighted to share that the co-edited Routledge Handbook of Wine and Culture is now available for pre-order, with a 20% discount available until 30th April (code ASM02). The book offers a comprehensive, interdisciplinary overview of contemporary research and thinking on how wine fits into the cultural frameworks of production and consumption. Editor royalties have been donated to WaterAid.

Jenny Paxman has been busy with organising the Nutrition Society Summer Meeting 2022, to be hosted in Sheffield, 12-15 July. Registration is now open—see the details in the section below; abstract deadline is 17 April.

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Resources/call for papers/conference announcements

Constructing the Sociology (or Sociologies) of Wine, online launch event, 11 March, 14.30—16.30 (GMT)
This event is open to all, and marks the ‘Constructing the Sociology (or Sociologies) of Wine’ special issue of the Journal of Cultural Analysis and Social Change. Each of the special issue authors will be suggesting a style and/or region of wine to accompany their article; participants are welcome to join in an informal towards the end of the event. (Wines not supplied!) To attend, please register via Eventbrite. Attendees will receive the Zoom link when they sign up, along with a list of wine and paper pairing recommendations.

Sustain Webinar, 16 March (2-3pm)
Home from Hospital and access to food. This event marks the launch of Home from hospital: Ensuring people have access to food at discharge from hospital and beyond. The guide highlights the importance of this issue and presents good practice case studies from around the country. This event will feature a summary of the guide and speakers from some of the case study areas in the report. Register via the Sustain webpage.

EuroSense 2022 Conference: abstract deadline 18 March
EuroSense 2022 the 10th European Conference on Sensory and Consumer Research, theme: ‘A Sense of Earth’. 13-16 September 2022, Turku, Finland. Submission deadline of 18 March 2022 for abstracts for workshops, talks and poster presentations on the following themes: Sensory and Consumer Science for Sustainability and Biodiversity | Sensory, FoodTech & Health | Sensory Food Terroir | Cross Cultural in Sensory and Consumer Research | Citizen Involvement | Multisensory Perception | Food Choice, Sensory Perception and Beyond | Sensometrics. View topic descriptions and submit abstracts here

Brewers’ Research and Education Fund: application deadline 31 March
British Beer & Pub Association, through the Brewers’ Research and Education Fund, invites applications for its research grants. These support scientific research and education that supports the UK brewing industry. Projects must satisfy at least one of the following objectives: promoting brewing education, training and research; researching and educating the public about beer consumption; researching the composition and nutritional value of beer in relation to diet and wellbeing; promoting research related to the environmental and economic sustainability of the brewing sector. Project must have a principal benefit to the brewing industry in the UK. Organisations, institutions and individuals may apply.  Information and application procedure available here.

Nutrition Society Summer Meeting 2022: abstract deadline 17 April
We’re excited to announce that registration for the Sheffield-hosted Nutrition Society Summer Meeting 2022 is now open. The four day conference, ‘Food and Nutrition: Pathways to a sustainable future’, 12-15 July, will be an in-person event hosted at Sheffield Hallam University city campus organised by SHU in partnership with The University of Sheffield and Sheffield City Council.  The conference will cover various pathways to a sustainable future in food and nutrition, including:

  • Building of ethical food systems
  • Eroding nutritional inequalities
  • Sustaining an ageing population
  • Navigating dietary trends
  • Understanding mechanisms for health
  • Enabling activity: lessons from exercise science

The call for abstracts is now open for our oral communication and poster streams (deadline 17th April 2022).  Please see more details here: https://www.nutritionsociety.org/events/summer-conference-2022-food-and-nutrition-pathways-sustainable-future

Useful resources: Food Insecurity Tracking data from the Food Foundation

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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 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 Friday 29 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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What’s Cooking, April 2020

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?

In this April 2020 edition:

  • An update on CHEFS activities;
  • Call for content for the June 2020 edition of What’s Cooking.

In these strange and unsettling times, I hope a little CHEFS news will brighten your day.

Stay well!
Cheers, Jen

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Recent CHEFS Activities

Jillian Newton is leading SHU BREW 2020, a one-day conference specifically curated for the microbrewing community, with invited academic and industry speakers, beer tasting and networking. The event is currently scheduled to take place on July 16th, although that is being kept under review due to the coronavirus situation. Nevertheless, the event planning has brought a range colleagues together in new ways, and has already attracted registrations (register here). Find out more on the SHU BREW 2020 webpage.

Paul Beresford and Craig Hirst had their article ‘How Consumers Reconcile Discordant Food Retailer Brand Images’ accepted for publication in the Journal of Marketing Management. The article is based on part of their data from on ongoing longitudinal analysis of discount food retailer switching behaviour. This particular study is positioned in relation to the evolving market conditions of UK grocery retail and offers insight into the consumer led co-creative processes underlying the switching behaviour to discount food retailers by middle-class consumers. Based on phenomenological interviews with ideographic analysis, this research draws on theories related to cultural branding and brand relationships, to demonstrate how consumers negotiate individuated brand meanings. It reveals how, in spite of normative marketplace discourses, consumers are able to reframe and negotiate personally relevant meanings suitable to their own lifestyles and life projects. In so doing, this study contributes to the literature by offering an account of how brand relationships are appropriated in negotiations with stigmatised brand images to make them relevant and suitable for hitherto incongruent market segments. The findings therefore hold relevance for grocery retail managers and other practitioners engaged with the management of low involvement and mundane brands, who will have a better understanding of the process through which such relationships manifest themselves in food retail switching behaviour. Craig and Paul are now pulling together a partner paper that looks at how the news media is playing a role in this process through the stories they report about grocery retail brands over time.

Dianne Dean, Pallavi Singh, Katie Dunn and Wei Chen have been invited to provide an outline bid for the Leverhulme Trust  and is worth approximately £240,000. The bid focusses on food waste which is a global problem, and household food waste in developed countries is a serious concern. However, this trend is also becoming an issue in newly emerging economies where food has traditionally been scarce and optimising food resources was crucial. The team seek to understand what food frugality practices continue to be used and what are being lost. It appears that we have forgotten how to treasure food so this research focuses on how intergenerational attitudes towards food waste are transferred, what food knowledge has been lost and how relearning can be incorporated into family practices. The team hopes to recruit two PhD students to conduct research in both India and China and help to build critical mass for the SWEFS and CHEFS research clusters.

Jennifer Smith Maguire recently had two articles published related to her research on wine and wine markets. “Aesthetic logics, terroir and the lamination of grower champagne” appears in Consumption, Markets and Culture in a special issue on ‘Taste’ and is co-authored Steve Charters (School of Wine & Spirits Business, Burgundy School of Business). Through an analysis of how ‘big brand’ and ‘grower’ champagnes are represented by trade associations, small-scale producers and wine writers, they develop the concept of lamination for making sense of how aesthetic logics shape markets. The other article comes from research with colleagues at La Trobe University: “Seeking a competitive advantage in wine tourism: Heritage and storytelling at the cellar-door,” co-authored with Warwick Frost, Jennifer Frost and Paul Strickland, appears in the International Journal of Hospitality Management. Drawing from interviews with representatives of wineries in southern Australia, the article examines issues of heritage, authenticity, branding and storytelling.

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

The next edition of What’s Cooking will be June 2020. Please send content (updates up to 200 words (images optional), and relevant calls for papers/conference/event announcements) to j.smith1@shu.ac.uk by Thursday 28 May. 

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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Food waste as sustainable luxury: Rachael Colley’s award-winning jewellery

ITAMI posterWe are delighted to announce that Rachael Colley, senior lecturer in jewellery and metalwork at Sheffield Hallam University, was recently awarded the grand prize at the 2019 ITAMI International Jewellery Exhibition in Japan for her series Sha-green. The series presents food waste, in the form of discarded citrus fruit peel, as a sustainable, biodegradable, vegan alternative to the traditionally animal-based luxurious decorative surface finish known as shagreen (ray or shark skin). This scented material comes alive when worn; as it is warmed by the body it emits a subtle fruity fragrance. A statement from The Museum of Arts & Crafts ITAMI about the award is given below.

2019 ITAMI International Jewellery Exhibition Grand Prix

It marks the 22nd ITAMI International Craft Exhibition and this year’s theme is “Jewellery”, which comes every other year. The Museum of Arts and Crafts ITAMI endeavors to broaden the culture of jewellery, where it houses ITAMI College of Jewellery that aims to foster professional jewellery artists, besides holding numerous jewellery exhibitions. As a result of such effort, the recognition of “ITAMI = jewellery” is now widely spread not only in Japan but also abroad where we received 1,132 pieces of works from 339 artists including 138 applicants from 19 countries abroad for the “ITAMI International Jewellery Exhibition” this time, resulting to 97 selected artists out of which 8 had received prizes after strict examination.Rachael Colley jewellery

Among those from diverse backgrounds, the works awarded with prizes as well as those selected demonstrate careful consideration towards relationship with body, nature and social environment. Not to mention that they posses of beauty as jewellery to adorn the body, the manners in which they stimulate the human five senses inspired by the ordinary daily lives are flooded with noteworthy uniqueness, and it is the very point that we the museum highly appreciate as examination criteria. Especially, the Grand Prix work of COLLEY Rachael got high reputation. It was her second participation, and her first entry work in 2017 “Vanitas series, M(eat) et al collection” also got Award for Promising Talent. This was a series of brooches which were designed to refer traditional themes found in the genre of still life painting. These reminded the wearer of the problem awareness by re-creating jewellery out of the waste food materials, and posed a problem about our destiny, pleasure, and so on. What we wearers were most impressed and amazed was the fact that we wear peeled vegetables’ skin. They are just next to our humans’ skin.

close up of pendantAs her previous work left us such impression, this time we were looking forward to her new pieces, which must be exciting and beautiful. Of course, she didn’t betray us to show her excellent “Sha-Green”. As alternative to traditionally animal-based luxurious decorative surface, food waste was presented. We find intelligence in the combination of metal frame and delicate texture of carefully engraved citrus peel. Moreover, it’s fascinating when it is warmed by our body it emits a subtle fruity fragrance.

The juries also admired her work because it consisted of expression, utility, and skill with good uses of materials, concepts and skilled craftsmanship. We would like many people to see and enjoy her attractive jewellery that makes shape something spiritual or thought.

The Museum of Arts and Crafts ITAMI

Rachael Colley accepting the award

Jewellery on display at the museumRachael Colley accepting the award, speech

Photo credits: Rachael Colley and The Museum of Arts & Crafts Itami.

 

 

 

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