Presented as part of Technology Transfer Seminars 2023

Following on from Sarah Robert’s presentation on reducing gluten allergenicity, Paul Johnston presented the results of research exploring another option for addressing the gluten-related disorders – developing a low allergenicity wheat.

Gluten-related disorders are a worldwide problem in the form of coeliac disease, wheat allergies and non-coeliac wheat sensitivity. As approximately 20% of worldwide calories comes from wheat and gluten is also found in a multitude of foods, the issue is significant. Solutions involve gluten avoidance (studies show that up to 30% of people actively avoid gluten), longer fermentation, gliadin extraction technologies, and wheat varieties with reduced allergenicity – the focus of this research.

Gluten epitopes are specific amino acid sequences, often high in Proline (P) and Glutamine (Q), making them resistant to intestinal degradation. An immune response to these gluten epitopes can be triggered in genetically susceptible consumers. Gluten epitopes exist within the larger gluten complex but only make up a small portion of the total gluten protein.

In breeding for a low gluten epitope, there is a need for variation in epitope concentration, which requires a wide sample of milling and feed wheats from NZ, Canada, Australia and the UK. Understanding the role of genetics versus environmental factors versus management is also essential, as is understanding the connections between epitope concentrations and other important traits such as grain protein and baking quality.

Paul emphasised baking quality and the importance of flour needing to be fit for purpose. Breeding is complex ten-year process he says, and while it is possible to shortcut the process there is never going to be one line of wheat that does everything.

Findings over the last three years in which the project has been running are that low epitope wheat won’t help those who are already suffering from coeliac disease, but there is potential way to reduce the frequency of inflammatory issues in consumers.

As results indicate that it is possible to breed for lower gluten epitope, the next steps are to identify how best to implement this knowledge into the PFR wheat breeding program and produce fit for purpose wheat cultivars with reduced gluten epitope.

Presented as part of Technology Transfer Seminars 2023

As the third most produced cereal in the world, wheat is used in many products and vital gluten is increasingly being added to a wide range of products because of the valuable rheological properties it can add to products without adding much to cost. This has resulted in there being an increased dietary intake of total wheat gluten over the decades, often without consumers realising it.

With up to 30% of the population having the potential to develop Coeliac disease (CD), and 15-20% of people diagnosed, it potentially leaves 80% of the population exposed to risk and complications of the disease. For other consumers non-coeliac gluten sensitivity (NCGS) is an issue. Up to 15% of the population have self-reported problems with consuming gluten products, including bread. It is now also a well-known marketing strategy to target consumers looking to avoid/reduce gluten intake.

So how can we counteract the negative association of eating wheat and improve overall digestibility and comfort from eating wheat-based foods? Reducing the levels of coeliac epitopes in foods made from New Zealand wheats is one strategy being investigated by Sarah Roberts and team. They are exploring the reductions that are possible through breeding, agronomy, milling, and processing techniques prior to baking.

Plant & Food NZ “Wheats for wellness” programme is developing new cultivars and processing strategies to reduce the impact of coeliac peptides. New wheats breeds have been bred with lower levels of epitopes while maintaining wheat quality. Initial milling discoveries show that combining selected flour streams could possibly produce useable quantities of flour with epitope concentrations reduced by up to 25%. The ingestion of lower levels of gluten/epitopes may have delaying effects on susceptibility of developing CD or NCGS. Severity of the symptoms may also be reduced.

Sarah presented on a series of BIRT funded research projects looking into whether different technologies could be brought together to improve consumer tolerance (improved digestibility and comfort) to gluten found in wheat-based products. This could have profound consequences for disease incidence, pathogenesis and overall consumer health.

Results from these projects so far have shown that:

Conventional wheat breeding can be used to breed wheat cultivars with lower levels of immunogenic peptides, whilst still providing commercially feasible agronomic and baking qualities.

Milling technologies could be applied to reduced epitope levels in flours used industrially.
Sourdough starter lactobacillus strains can be isolated from sourdough starters which have the capabilities to hydrolyse gluten.

Longer fermentation times (>24 hours) are required to completely degrade gluten. A 40-60% reduction in gluten has positive effects on cytokine (inflammation) production.

Dough mixing conditions, baking temperatures and baking times have no effect on the digestibility of gluten proteins in breads although large changes in gluten aggregation and gluten macropolymer structure are seen.
The addition of yeast and increased fermentation times degrade fructan levels considerably, increasing digest comfort.

Using a combinational approach could ultimately lead to significant reductions in coeliac epitopes and FODMAPS in food products made from NZ wheats.

Presented as part of Technology Transfer Seminars 2023

Nutrients, food and health researcher Dr Andrew Reynolds is interested in what damages our health, and what costs our health system the most. Global studies show that dietary risks are the leading cause of death, due to their impact on heart disease, diabetes, and cancers. But how does this relate to what we eat in New Zealand? One area of interest is carbohydrates intakes, which make up around 47% of the energy we consume.

Both trials and cohort studies worldwide have shown that the amount of carbohydrate we consume does not matter to our health unless it is extreme – very low or high. There is far better evidence however, that it is the type of carbohydrate that is more important.

“Carbohydrates are a diverse group, ranging from simple sugars, to starch, to complex dietary fibres” Dr Reynolds said. High sugar intakes increase body weight and dental caries, dietary sources of starch appear relatively neutral to health but depend on cooking method (with deep frying and salting bad), while dietary fibre appears highly protective. High fibre intakes reduce risk of mortality, heart disease, T2 diabetes and colorectal cancer, while increasing fibre intakes improves weight, blood pressure and cholesterol.

Dietary recommendations for fibre are to have at least 25g per day, although the average intake in New Zealand hovers around 20g. One way to increase dietary fibre is to replace refined grains in the diet with whole grains. Our daily grain intake is around 238g, with only 28g or 12% being wholegrain, so there is great opportunity there to increase wholegrain intakes. But how can we change people’s preferences when the overwhelming majority of consumers want to eat refined white bread products? “People’s preferences for refined grains are not locked in for life, so this can be slowly changed overtime by always having tasty wholegrain options available, and reinforcing health messages about why they should be chosen over refined grains. In the meantime, I’m not against boosting the fibre content in refined grain products, it’s like parents trying to hide vegetables in their kid’s meals”.

Given the clear benefits with higher fibre and wholegrain intakes, Andrew was keen to find out from those present whether the flour milling and baking industries have practical and easy ways for getting more fibre and whole grains into our food supply. Digestibility, keeping qualities, the milling of whole grain to retain their benefits, crumb structure, barriers to adding fibre to bread and consumer acceptance were all up for discussion. Andrew’s health research in this area is expanding, and he aims to incorporate the practical perspectives of working with whole grain in baking and milling into his future projects.

Presented as part of Technology Transfer Seminars 2023

Stan began his working life in the laboratory of a flour mill as a quality co-ordinator. Being the one who got angry bakers on the phone telling him the flour was no good, his job was to placate them and assure them that the miller had done everything possible to ensure that the flour was within specification and the right quality. He says that in some ways flour testing has not moved on since he joined the industry. Some methods used today go back to the 1920’s, even though we make bread very differently today. He believes there is great opportunity to build on the tradition but to move forward and perhaps reduce the burden on those who work in the flour mills of the future, so they are not on the receiving end of complaints about poor quality and the underperformance of flour.

Stan suggested the key challenge starts with the question of whether flour and dough testing is predictive or indicative. He favours the latter and expressed disappointment in studies that refer to measured flour properties, correlate them with baking performance, and thereby claim a predictive testing method. What those studies fail to do, he says, is specify what the baking method is. Stan gave the example of the evaluation of flour properties and wheat varieties in the UK being based on three hours bulk fermentation for many years, a process which the UK had never used, and which the baking industry had moved way beyond.

The relevance of what is being tested and the reason behind it underpinned Stan’s challenge to bakers to view flour specifications in a new light. He appealed to millers and bakers to be collaborative, pointing out that if bakeries don’t have the right quality flour, they can’t make bread, leaving millers with no purpose either.
He stressed that flour testing and baking are complicated processes for both sides, and in those circumstances, it is necessary to start off with the most appropriate methods, rather than relying on techniques which we have used for centuries – such as stretching a piece of dough in our hands. The Egyptians did it, and we still do it he says, because we feel that we are learning something from doing that.

Stan described the typical analyses a baker is confronted with when a bread flour specification arrives in a bakery, containing terms such as moisture, protein, falling number, damages starch, water absorption, ash/colour and dough rheology. He noted how important it is to know what the standard method is being used and what the measurements actually mean to the baker.
One measurement only he says is fundamental – moisture content. But there is no standard measurement for the rest. So everything else that follows is arbitrary, enshrined in our specifications over generations, and they are not wrong but the information has to be treated differently from the way in which we would normally use numbers.

Which of those numbers tells you what the bread is going to be like? No single number tells a baker all they need to know about flour and the quality of bread it will make. Millers are producing flour for a range of uses. They don’t know what an individual bakery is going to do with it. What is right for one bakery will be no good for another. Stan suggested that bakers may not have been giving millers the right information because they don’t know what the right information is. Is there a solution to this problem?

Examining each item on the list in detail, Stan demonstrated how they are indicative, not predictive, due to the complexity of the measurements which make it difficult to use them meaningfully. The specifications also don’t consider the relation between the numbers, and no-one questions the processes used as the basis for the numbers. He went on to suggest that the real challenge is to get bakers to better understand and interpret the data they have available in the bakery and work with the flour miller to work out how to put that into a flour specification. Tell the miller what you want he urges bakers. Working together, he concludes, is better than trying to understand abstract data. We don’t need to invent new methods. We need to make better use of the information we already have and collate it in a collaborative way so we can move to a better understanding of flour specifications. But there needs to be open mindedness and a slightly different approach.

Presented as part of Technology Transfer Seminars 2023

Returned bread and single use plastic bags are two major sustainability issues facing the industrial bread sector globally. Gert-Jan Moggre presented the results of the first stage of a research project he is part of, funded by BIRT and the Bioresource Processing Alliance, aiming to address these issues in a single solution by turning bread returns into bread packaging material.

In 2022 a total of 9,605 tonnes of bread return was collected in New Zealand, 74% of which was in the North Island, and 26% in the South Island. Most of the returns were loaf (86%). The majority of this is currently going to animal feed.

A compositional analysis showed that starch made up the bulk of the composition, with a larger variation in composition for mixed dried breadcrumb than white fine breadcrumb. Protein and insoluble fibre were identified as key components to try to control as their presence will affect the final properties of any new packaging material.

The project team developed and applied a method to extract starch from mixed dried breadcrumb (MDBC) and white fine breadcrumb (WFBC) starting materials with consistent composition (starch, protein and moisture), and which demonstrated consistent mechanical properties.

Three film casting experiments were carried out to test the options for creating material for packaging, first using bread thermoplastic starch (TPS) with no plasticiser, then bread TPS with plasticiser, and finally commercial TP with plasticiser.

They found differences in mechanical properties for the WFBC and MDBC in both rheological and film forming abilities, however thin-film composites could be formed from both the MDBC and WFBC when starch extract and supernatant were combined back in.

Tensile testing established that the more plasticity in the packaging, the more biodegradable it is, so there needs to be a balance between the bags being biodegradable and able to last long enough for good use.

The next steps in the project will be to test viability in commercial application by characterising material properties of TPS as a standardised, consistent polymer product, and carrying out a technoeconomic analysis to establish capital required, operating costs of proposed processes, and other factors that may affect profitability.

The Arable Awards NZ are a chance to get together and celebrate those in the Arable industry and the great things that have been done for the wider agricultural sector.

Federated Farmers, the Foundation of Arable Research, United Wheat Growers and the Grain & Seed Trade Association have been working together to make the New Zealand Arable Awards a showcase of the sector’s people and products, recognising, celebrating and rewarding excellence.

WorkSafe released a media statement (16/03/2023) highlighting a West Auckland bakery business which didn’t properly safeguard its machinery and have been sentenced over two incidents, six months apart, in which workers had their hands disfigured.

Bakeworks Limited, which makes gluten-free products, was sentenced in Waitakere District Court for health and safety failures related to both incidents.

In January 2021, a worker had four fingers severed when her hand got caught in a seed grinding machine. The worker had never previously used the grinder or received any training on its operation. The victim has since had seven surgeries on her hand and remains off work.

A WorkSafe New Zealand investigation found the grinder had no safe operating procedure, and its safety guard had not been replaced when it broke off 18 months prior. The worker was unsupervised, and the only training given to her was immediately prior to the incident.

In June 2021, another worker had her fingertip sliced off while using a dough dividing machine. The fingertip could not be reattached, and her treatment is ongoing.

WorkSafe found this machine again did not have any safe operating procedure, and its guillotine was freely accessible. There was no inspection or maintenance undertaken, and this victim was also inadequately trained – just like her colleague.

“Both of these incidents were entirely avoidable, but to harm a second worker is nothing short of reprehensible when Bakeworks was already on notice of the harm that deficient machine guarding can cause,” says WorkSafe’s area investigation manager, Danielle Henry.

“These victims were vulnerable workers who deserved far better from their employer. It is fundamentally wrong that harm rates are worse for Māori, Pacific peoples and migrant workers, and New Zealand needs to do better.”

Visit the WorkSafe website to read safety information about dough machinery

This new information sheet outlines the range of tests performed on flour to ensure it meets the customers’ expectations. The testing of flour covers several specific characteristics which gives the baker an indication of the flour’s strength and stability, and this is done on several different machines.

BIRT – Flour Testing Information Dec2022

MPI Media Release 29 November 2022

New Zealand Food Safety (NZFS) is supporting Davis Trading Company in its recall of imported poppy seeds that are not intended for sale directly to the public.

“Davis Trading Company sold product directly to consumers when it was intended to be sold only to manufacturers as an ingredient for making other foods,” says NZFS deputy director-general Vincent Arbuckle.

“The concern with this product is that it contains higher levels of alkaloids.

“There is no evidence to suggest that the product is unsafe for use in normal cooking and baking at home,” Mr Arbuckle said.

“However, people who consume large amounts of poppy seeds, including by drinking poppy seed tea, may be at risk. Anyone who consumes poppy seed tea and experiences any unusual and severe symptoms should seek urgent medical assistance.

“Given the product was not intended to be sold directly to consumers, our advice, if you have any recalled product, is that you return it to the place of purchase. If you’re unable to do that, dispose of it safely.”

Poppy seeds from these brands or stores are affected:

• Davis Food Ingredients
• Attitude Foods
• Bin Inn
• Essenté
• Farm By Nature
• Foodfirst
• Fresh Line
• Icelandic
• Wholesale Foods

Most of the recalled poppy seeds have already been removed from the supply chain. The recalled product has been sold at a range of ethnic supermarkets, produce stores and retail outlets throughout New Zealand. NZFS is working with the company to ensure the product is taken off shelves where it is available.

The poppy seeds recalled in Australia earlier this month are not available in New Zealand.

If you have consumed any of these poppy seeds and are concerned for your health, contact your health professional, or call Healthline on 0800 611 116.

NZ Herald ( 23/11/2022) featured an article on Sharmaine Allison, who reckons she’s got the best job.

Sure, she had to study at university, and her official title is “Senior Product Development Technologist”, at heart she’s a baker who works with a team to come up with new varieties of Ploughmans breads.

That involves a lot of taste-testing– and, as Sharmaine told media personality Hayley Sproull when she visited the Ploughmans bakery in Christchurch, “any job where eating food is part of the role description is always a winner.”

You can watch a video about Sharmaine and read the article by visiting NZ Herald