MASSEY UNIVERSITY News

Food Awards

An innovative Albany-based peanut butter company was among the winners at this year’s New Zealand Food Awards.
The awards, in association with Massey University, are a celebration of innovation in food and represent excellence and new industry benchmarks.
The Heart Foundation Tick Healthier Choice Award was won by start-up firm 100% Nutz Ltd for its peanut butter.
Company owner Paul Jolly, of Browns Bay, says following the award his email inbox has been inundated with enquiries from Kiwis who want to get their hands on the product as well as interest from the United Kingdom and United States.
“It is fantastic, we are finding it very hard to keep up. This means we can grow the company and hire more staff,” he says.
“We have gone from processing a ton of peanuts a month to two tons – this is in our first three months.”
The judging panel, led by chef and food critic Ray McVinnie, said that it was difficult to achieve an acceptable tasting product, with no added salt, that will meet consumer demands; “however 100 Percent Nuts has achieved great flavour and texture using no additional ingredients other than high quality peanuts”.
Mr Jolly, who runs a software distribution business, says there are plans to export and for a new range next year.
“If you are an entrepreneur at heart it doesn’t matter what the idea is you can do anything. Get a good plan and go for it.”
At the gala dinner event in Auckland’s Langham Hotel, Massey University Vice-Chancellor Steve Maharey spoke about the partnership between the University and the food industry.
“Our primary industries, and the food and beverage sector in particular, are the cornerstone of the New Zealand economy,” Mr Maharey says.
“We feed around 20 million people, but with the world population likely to reach nine billion, our aim has to be to lift this production dramatically from the current $23 billion in export to more than $40 billion over the next 10 years. We believe that this will only come through innovation driven by partnership between the University and industry.” 
The awards identify the best food products, with categories from dairy products and convenience to food business. Winners will be able to display the Food Awards mark, to differentiate the product on shelves as being of nationally recognised quality.
The New Zealand Food Awards are made possible by the support of principal sponsor Massey University, and supporting sponsors KPMG, the Riddet Institute, the Heart Foundation, AsureQuality, O-I New Zealand, and the New Zealand Institute of Food Science and Technology.
The quinoa, mushroom and roast vegetable ready-meals, made by Auckland’s Tasty Pot Company, were chosen ahead of more than 90 overall entries for the Massey University Supreme Award. The product was also named winner of the Zespri Award for Innovation in Food Products and winner of the convenience and meal solutions award.

Vitamin D research centre launched at Albany

The University has launched a vitamin D research centre at the Albany campus. Nutrition scientists will expand on previous work undertaken at the campus on the role of vitamin in a range of health issues and population groups.

Albany-based Dr Pamela von Hurst – co-director along with Associate Professor Jane Coad from the Manawatu campus – says the re-emergence of childhood rickets in New Zealand has highlighted concerns about vitamin D deficiency.

“It is only recently that there has been any acknowledgement that people living in countries like New Zealand and Australia could be vitamin D deficient. Unlike North America and Northern Europe, we do not have any significant fortification of the food supply with vitamin D, probably because it has never been thought to be necessary,” she says.

The launch coincided with a one-day symposium on vitamin D and its critical role in pregnancy, infancy and childhood. Guest speakers included one of the world’s leading researchers on vitamin D deficiency in infants and children, American paediatrician Professor Bruce Hollis. Professor Caryl Nowson, from Australia, spoke on vitamin D in the New Zealand and Australian food supply.

Whale Watch analysis wins accountancy contest

An innovative plan to create a sustainable visitor centre at Kaikoura’s Whale Watch tourist attraction has won two business studies students a trip to England.

Albany campus BBS students Lynda Low and Sheryn Becker, both of whom are majoring in accountancy, were unanimously judged the winners from 20 undergraduate teams in this year’s Institute of Chartered Accountants’ student challenge.

As part of their prize, they will spend five days in London next year shadowing two high-profile professional accountants, one a New Zealander

the other Australian.

“We based our report on three pillars economic viability, cultural acceptance and environmental sustainability,” Ms Low says. “We wanted to

show the importance of the environment to

the company.”

Psychologist challenges aid taboo

Organisational psychologist Professor Stuart Carr tackles the issue of dual salaries for local and international aid workers in his new book.

The Aid Triangle argues that the current system in which aid workers from developed countries can earn 10 times more than a local worker in a developing nation for doing the same job is unfair.

The scenario is one he and co-authors Professors Malcolm MacLachlan and Eilish McAuliffe call a form of “economic apartheid” dating back to colonial days. The huge disparity in pay rates can inflate the local economy to the detriment of locals, he says.

Professor Carr, at the University’s School of Psychology in Albany, is co-leading an international task force of 20 top-level industrial and organisational psychologists from high and low economies around the world to reduce poverty in developing countries. The task force grew from Professor Carr’s Poverty Research Group at Massey’s Albany campus:

http://poverty.massey.ac.nz