In total the $7.0 million High Value Nutrition fund has been allocated across foods being researched by a variety of government and university sponsored research bodies, and aims to explore their nutritional and health giving benefits.
Plant and Food researcher Dr John Monroe said the funding will help research to determine if kiwifruit can be incorporated into the diet without causing a blood glucose response. It will also study how kiwifruit can actually be used to counteract the glucose response in foods consumed about the same time.
“This is a world first to be looking at a ‘whole fruit’ effect and how kiwifruit improves the metabolic profile and reduces the risk of progression to diabetes,” he said.
Zespri’s health and nutrition innovation leader Dr Juliet Ansell said the research would be particularly beneficial for the marketing body’s work in selling more fruit in Asia.
“Asia is a growing market for us and Asians really value trust and they want to be able to trust the information we give them about the science benefits.”
Green kiwifruit has already obtained a health claim benefit last year from the Food Safety Australia NZ body on its ability to help maintain bowel health. Zespri is working to get that claim substantiated for the European market.
The funding has also been welcomed by Hawke’s Bay-based Firstlight Foods, where the money is to be spent investigating the affect elevated lipid levels in grass-fed Wagyu beef may have on cardiovascular health.
Firstlight Foods managing director Gerard Hickey said the grant was a significant boost for the company as it worked to target the high-value premium beef market with its grass-fed Wagyu meat.
“Research has already proven that complex lipids such as phospholipids, when extracted from milk and eggs are effective at reducing cholesterol absorption.
“However more work needs to be done to determine if these same lipids extracted from grass-fed beef, particularly Wagyu beef, will have the same effect. This funding will help us achieve that,” he said.
AgResearch project leader Dr Emma Birmingham said popular perception was that meat was bad for you.
“But in fact it contains a lot of nutrients, including vitamins and minerals present in the fat that can have beneficial health effects.”
Hickey said NZ was a producer of grass-fed meat in a world where grain-fed was the norm.
“This gives us the chance to prove the grass-fed protein from NZ grass-fed beef is indeed superior.”
