Most people commonly eat plant foods rich in starch, notably cereal products (e.g. bread, rice), and also some that are rich in fat (e.g. tree nuts). However, little is known about how such foods release starch and fat in the human gut and how, in turn, this may influence digestion and ultimately the absorption of nutrients into the body. Improving our understanding of these processes is important for basic scientists studying the behaviour of foods in the gut and their effects on metabolism. It is also important for health professionals and policy makers that are worried about excessive food consumption and the growing problem of obesity and associated problems of heart disease and diabetes. Moreover, the rate and extent of starch and fat digestion and absorption into the blood stream are important factors in altering the risk of heart disease. The release of fat and starch from plant foods and the digestion and absorption of these nutrients by the body are highly complex processes. Our progress in understanding these processes is impeded by the hugely complex structure and properties of plant foods and individual nutrients. Our project proposal brings together a unique combination of world experts from different institutions and disciplines. These experts have formed a large team in order to improve our knowledge of how edible plants behave in the gut and how the gut reacts to the starch and fat available for digestion. For example, it is important to know about the rate at which nutrients are released from plant foods as they move along the gut, since this will affect the time course of digestion and absorption. This in turn will influence the way the nutrients are metabolised within the body. We currently study almond nuts and cereals, e.g. wheat, to see how fat and starch are released from plant tissues. Starch, fat and other nutrients are found inside numerous cells that make up the plant tissue, e.g. an almond seed contains about 50 million cells. Such cells are very small in size, often with a diameter of less than about one tenth of a mm. One significant factor that seems to affect nutrient release from plant cells is the presence of cell walls, more commonly referred to in nutrition as 'dietary fibre'. How starch and fat are released from these cells is poorly understood. Initial studies will involve examining the role of cell walls as physical barriers in controlling the release and digestion of nutrients, using various methods to examine plant tissue at a cellular scale. One novel method will be the use of a recently established 'Dynamic Gastric Model', a computer-controlled simulation of digestion in the human stomach. We will also feed human volunteers with the same plant foods rich in fat and starch, to determine the effects of processing and mastication on nutrient release and digestion and the rate at which digested nutrients are transported into the blood stream. Finally, we will also produce a mathematical description of how fat and starch are released from edible plant tissues during digestion. It is envisaged that in the future, the use of mathematics will allow research scientists to predict the behaviour of similar foods in the gut without having to do so many laboratory experiments. This work will help the food industry to produce new food products or ingredients that have a controlled release of starch and fat in the gut, which could, for example, help to reduce the risk of heart disease. Indeed, Premier Foods, a large food manufacturer, has agreed to collaborate with us and provide scientific and technological expertise. Premier Foods has also agreed to provide cereals (e.g. wheat) and food products made with these cereals, all of which have been specially prepared to control starch release. These raw materials and food products will be used in our project to study how they behave in the gut and assess their potential benefits in reducing the risk of heart disease.

This project concerns new ways of fabricating exciting new wireless sensing technologies. Our Digital Future and The Internet of Things have application in intelligent buildings, homeland security, oil and gas industries, assisted living and healthcare, agriculture, transport and environmental monitoring. Research is already being carried out in Intelligent packaging to indicate wirelessly when food is deteriorating; tamper-proof light-sensing tags; labels that detect explosives; or sweat and pH sensors for biomedical applications that assess how a recent operation is healing. The sensors in these new technologies must be small, thin and very cheap. Also, not needing a battery will reduce cost and the need for chemicals which are bad for the environment. In this project we will investigate sensing technologies two areas of global significance: (i) Food Security and (ii) National Security/Bio-sensing. In the first application, Food Security, (i.e. the stable and sustainable provision of sufficient food to the populations of developed and developing countries) will become critically important with expanding global populations and increasing food prices. Roughly 30-40% of all food is currently wasted with an increasing need for postharvest storage technologies effecting small scale traders, distributers, vendors and consumers. Reducing waste in developed countries is particularly challenging and is linked to cultural attitudes and lifestyle. In the UK the following sectors account for various proportions total waste: Farms: 15%, Transport/processing: 25%, Retail: 10%, Food service: 15%, Home & municipal: 35%. Smart packaging which detects food breakdown from farm pack house to consumer storage can significantly impact on this wastage at all parts in the chain though technologies are sought that will minimise the cost and infrastructure impact on suppliers and customers. The second application is for bodyworn and bio-sensing where body- and skin-mounted wireless sensors have significant potential for monitoring of vital signs in security, emergency services, and medical/health use. However, there is a continuing drive for organisations such as the police to adopt existing and modified off-the-shelf technologies rather than developing infrastructure from scratch. For instance, smart phones are now permitted for certain uses by the armed forces and the MoD Blackberry has been adopted for classified email access. The technologies proposed here for rapid development and manufacture do not require unique new-builds as they enable add-ons to NFC RFID enabled smart phones and commercial RFID readers. In all applications, battery-free wireless sensor fabrication has significant benefits for replacement cost and environmental issues such as extraction of materials and disposal at end of life. Also, barriers exist to national and global adoption of this emerging sensing area because many current technologies are adaptations of conventional wireless, power storage and sensing solutions. We propose a new approach where digital fabrication processes are applied to novel passive wireless sensing to lead to game changing impact, reduced costs and wastage, and to overcome the barriers to large scale adoption. The digital fabrication to be used is Inkjet printing, and we will not only print stretching and bending metal tracks onto elastic polymer substrates, but also modify the substrates to make them sensitive to certain chemicals. Finally, we will also explore how to print the polymer substrate itself, enabling the entire tag metal antenna and sensing base to be fabricated by inkjet.

Centre vision: The EPSRC Centre for Innovative Food Manufacturing will meet the challenges of UK and global food security through developing world-leading technologies, tools and leaders, tailored to the specific needs of food products. With a turnover of £76.2bn (20% of the UK total), Food and drink is the largest manufacturing sector in the UK employing around 400,000 people. With an anticipated rapid growth in 'better value' products and in products designed for the nation's Health and Wellness, in particular for the ageing population, food manufacturing requires innovation in increased productivity - to produce more from less - to preserve natural resources such as water and energy, to minimise waste generation and to decrease the trade deficit in the sector. Crucially this will enable the UK food sector to be at the forefront of the next generation of sustainable production which are more natural and healthier., and to develop more resilient supply chains leading to state of the art manufacturing capability, in an increasingly competitive landscape. The proposed research focuses on identifying not only new sources of raw material but also on reducing the demand on existing resources through a simultaneous improvement of food products, manufacturing methods and supply networks. In this context, some of the key research questions are: How do we fully valorise biomass (including waste re-use) as new sources of raw material in food production?; How can we design and manufacture products with the high nutritional values using fewer raw materials?; How do we improve the efficiency of food production processes (e.g. through smart monitoring technologies; process intensification / flexible manufacturing) to consume fewer resources (materials, energy and water) across the supply chain?; How can we eliminate the production and post-production waste caused by inefficient supply and manufacturing activities and /or relationships? The scope of the proposed research focuses on the manufacturing activities from 'post-farm gate to supermarket shelf', and will be considered under two specific Grand Challenges (GC): 1) Innovative materials, products and processes and 2) Sustainable food supply and manufacture. These research challenges closely align with the EPSRC call for 'Centres for Innovative Manufacturing', in particular the three areas of Resource Efficiency in Manufacturing: processes and technologies towards complete reuse of key materials and components; the need to dramatically reduce energy demand, including the incorporation of smart energy monitoring and management technologies; optimisation of material and product re-use, re-manufacturing and recycling, Innovative Production Processes: manufactured foods being complex formulated systems, and Complex Multifunctional Products: food is a high volume product assembled using processes which operate from the nano- (raw material) to the macro-scales (packaged goods). The proposed EPSRC Centre brings together world leading expertise in the areas of biomaterial science, formulation engineering and sustainable manufacturing. Loughborough and Nottingham are involved in the current EPSRC Centres and will ensure complementarities with other EPSRC research portfolios. The Centre will deliver demonstrable tools, methods and specific technologies, will develop academic and industrial leaders, and will provide evidence to support future policy making, thus ensuring the long-term competitiveness and security of the UK and global food supply chain. The proposal benefits from the interest and support of a wide range of stakeholders from ingredient producers and manufacturers to retailers and governmental organisations and has exploitation opportunities as the research challenges fit with the strategic themes in the new TSB High Value Manufacturing Strategy 2012-2015.

Our vision is to provide citizens of culturally-diverse disadvantaged communities with choice and agency over the food they consume, by co-developing new products, new supply chains and new policy frameworks that deliver an affordable, attractive, healthy and sustainable diet. Disadvantaged communities are defined as families and individuals who are at risk of food and housing insecurity, often culturally diverse, and whom experience multiple challenges such as financial, mental health and physical health. The proposed programme of research integrates some of the largest food businesses in the country, together with distribution and retail partners that reach into the heart of disadvantaged communities across the UK. Working alongside government departments and civil organisations, the team will develop a resilient, sustainable and adaptable food system for populations from different regions, age groups and socio-cultural backgrounds. At the end of the project the consortium will have developed methods for innovating food products, food supply chains and food/agricultural policies that are inclusive and robust. When implemented at national scale these will deliver the behavioural, health and economic benefits that a food system should provide for citizens, businesses and the environment. A baseline of 22% of people live in food poverty in the UK, often reliant on solutions outside of mainstream food systems, including food banks. This doesn't enable people to plan or chose their diet, or to improve their food security on a long term basis. Previous attempts at transforming the food-health system to become more equitable, sustainable and integrated have had limited impact as they fail to engage disadvantaged communities in the research process and the policy design, leading to a failure to impart knowledge sharing or social innovation. The disconnect between households, communities and national supply and production networks presents one of the greatest challenges to developing a socially just, healthier, and sustainable food system for everyone. This project will identify and implement the innovations and new configurations of the food system that are necessary to deliver improved nutritional public health and wellbeing for citizens from disadvantaged communities with enhanced environmental sustainability. The team will do this using co-design, co-production and participatory methods that enable major food businesses and community owned enterprises to engage with each other, and with the citizens who consume food. In the first part of the project a picture of the national food landscape in disadvantaged communities from across the UK will be built, and the impact of the current food system on environmental sustainability will be analysed. Investigation of current corporate, social and government policy frameworks that guide food and agriculture in the UK and across Europe will be evaluated to highlight positive directions for the future. Together, in phase 2, communities and businesses will co-develop new supply chains, new or reformulated exemplar food products and new policy frameworks. In phase 3, these innovations will be evaluated, adjusted and improved. The impact of scaling these innovations to basket level and national level will be evaluated, quantifying the potential impact of nationwide changes on the environment and health. By the end of the project we will have established effective methods for co-creation of policy, products and supply chains that can be implemented at a national level. As a result, every citizen will have the potential to make decisions about their food, and will have access to a diet that is affordable, attractive, healthy and environmentally sustainable.

Fusarium head blight (FHB) of cereals is caused by a number of fungi, chiefly Fusarium species. It is of particular concern because the Fusarium species produce trichothecene mycotoxins (DON, NIV, T2 and HT-2) within grain that are harmful to human and animal consumers. FHB disease poses an increasing threat to the UK wheat and barley crops. New species have appeared and spread in the UK for which climate change may, in part, be responsible. Future predicted climate changes are likely to exacerbate risks of epidemics in the UK. The EU recently set limits for DON and limits for T2/HT-2 are imminent. It is vital that the UK is positioned to be able to comply with this legislation. It is widely recognised that resistant varieties offer the best option to control FHB. All wheat and barley breeders consider it as a major but difficult target for resistance breeding. Incorporation of high levels of resistance to FHB into wheat and barley will be critical to prevent DON, T2, HT-2 and NIV mycotoxin contamination of grain from becoming a major problem for all elements of the UK food and feed chains. Timely application with appropriate fungicides can restrict disease development and mycotoxin accumulation. Under moderate to high disease pressure, however, fungicide application often fails to reduce DON contamination to below EU legislative limits in susceptible varieties such as those currently grown in the UK. Our previous work showed that much of the susceptibility of UK varieties is due to linkage between a gene that affects the height of wheat, Rht2 (also referred to as Rht-D1b) which is in almost all UK varieties, with a gene nearby on the chromosome that increases susceptibility to FHB. This association must be broken to enable breeders to produce FHB resistant varieties with acceptable agronomic characters. The project will produce molecular markers to the region about Rht2 allowing plant breeders to maintain this agronomically important gene in their breeding programmes while selecting against the linked FHB susceptibility factor. This project aims to identify resistance to Fusarium head blight (FHB) in wheat and barley that will function against all the causal fungi associated with this disease. This project will focus on the identification of Type 1 resistance (resistance to initial infection) in wheat and barley. We have developed new tools to characterise so-called 'Type 1' resistance (resistance to initial infection), which is important for preventing infection of wheat and barley against Fusarium species that produce DON mycotoxin and those that produce the more toxic T2 and HT-2 toxins as well as against non toxin producing FHB pathogens such as Microdochium species. Plant breeding companies can immediately use the plant materials, genetic knowledge and molecular markers linked to FHB resistance within their breeding programmes to produce new resistant varieties with good characters for growing as crops in the UK. This project will determine how fungicide application influences disease and toxin accumulation in varieties with different levels of FHB resistance. The project will demonstrate how individual FHB resistances affect the RL disease score, revealing how many, and what forms of resistance are required to ensure that toxin levels in UK grain do not exceed EU limits. The project will identify the components required to establish a sustainable, integrated approach to ensure that toxin levels in cereal grain remain below EU limits. An integrated approach, based on varieties with significantly enhanced resistance and appropriate fungicide application offers the best means to achieve sustainable control of FHB and minimise the risk of mycotoxins entering the food and feed chains.