increase font size
The Asian middle classes are the target for an AgResearch-led project on gut health.
Associate professor Nicole Roy says there is a substantial market in Asia for food products with substantiated health benefits.
The project has been allocated $3.6 million by the High-Value Nutrition National Science Challenge.
Roy and other AgResearch colleagues will work with the University of Otago, the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research and Plant & Food Research to research the relationship between nutrition and gut health.
The challenge aims to drive innovation in nutrition research, food science and health, to position New Zealand as a world leader in the rapidly increasing food-for-health market.
"In determining what we were going to do, we started with the consumer – the person buying these food products that will be developed and marketed by the NZ food industry based on the results of our work," says Roy.
"We know there is a link between the food we eat, how our gut functions and our brain. Stress is known to trigger poor gut function and discomfort. We want to provide knowledge the industry will use to develop food products to address this.
"We are focussing on the Asian markets because there's already an established culture that understands the benefits of such foods. A large number of these people lead stressful professional lives and experience gut problems as a result, which affects their productivity and quality of life. Gut health is a rising concern for consumers."
The emerging middle and upper classes in Asia who want to excel as their careers and age advance are an important consumer group. They will buy food and beverage products to feel physically comfortable and fit, to stay mentally sharp and to slow cognitive decline.
"Our focus will also consider the increasing evidence that the two-way communication between the gut and the brain is central to these problems."
Roy says the research is aimed at fast-tracking opportunities helping NZ's food and beverage industry to develop and market foods with validated health benefits, such as improved gut function and comfort.
AgResearch staff will also work in four other teams funded by High-Value Nutrition.
New Zealand must continue to educate Chinese consumers about the unique qualities of its red meat products and how they differ from competitors, says Silver Fern Farms chief executive Dan Boulton.
Alliance Group and Grand Farm have signed a strategic co-operation agreement with a focus on delivering more premium New Zealand grass-fed beef to Chinese consumers.
Chinese textile company Saibosi has partnered with Wools of New Zealand to put the 'farm to floor' story of New Zealand wool rugs on screen for its customers.
Research lending to the production of dairy products that benefit the elderly and improves the overall wellbeing of all people is a key focus of Fonterra's Research and Development centre, based in Palmerston North.
A significant breakthrough in understanding facial eczema (FE) in livestock brings New Zealand closer to reducing the disease’s devastating impact on farmers, animals, and rural communities.
Managing director of Woolover Ltd, David Brown, has put a lot of effort into verifying what seems intuitive, that keeping newborn stock's core temperature stable pays dividends by helping them realise their full genetic potential.
Within the next 10 years, New Zealand agriculture will need to manage its largest-ever intergenerational transfer of wealth, conservatively valued at $150 billion in farming assets.
Boutique Waikato cheese producer Meyer Cheese is investing in a new $3.5 million facility, designed to boost capacity and enhance the company's sustainability credentials.
OPINION: The Government's decision to rule out changes to Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT) that would cost every farmer thousands of dollars annually, is sensible.
Compensation assistance for farmers impacted by Mycoplama bovis is being wound up.
Selecting the reverse gear quicker than a lovestruck boyfriend who has met the in-laws for the first time, the Coalition Government has confirmed that the proposal to amend Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT) charged against farm utes has been canned.
OPINION: Years of floods and low food prices have driven a dairy farm in England's northeast to stop milking its…
OPINION: An animal activist organisation is calling for an investigation into the use of dairy cows in sexuallly explicit content…
