13 July 1994 Food Biochemistry at Lincoln a Popular Choice

Rising enrolments in food biochemistry papers offered by Lincoln University reflect a growing demand in the employment market for graduates with specialisations in this area.

"There is a growing emphasis in New Zealand on the processing side of meat production to complement our traditional strength of producing export carcasses," says Lincoln University biochemist Dr Geoffrey Savage.

"The processing of meat into various cuts and forms demands an understanding of the biochemistry of nutrition and we've been closely involved in this for a number of years at Lincoln."

Food biochemistry papers at Lincoln are offered at the 300 (third year) and masters levels, and they are taught by Dr Savage. At the 300-level, students would typically be studying for a Bachelor of Science or Bachelor of Agricultural Science degree.

Lincoln also offers the opportunity for food related papers to be taken within its Commerce degree programmes and also within the Bachelor of Parks, Recreation and Tourism degree.

 "In food biochemistry at Lincoln we are dealing with food for human consumption, not food for animals," says Dr Savage, who is also a well-known member of the NZ Nutrition Society.

"Through biochemistry we examine the beneficial properties of food as well as the negative things. With regard to meat, for example, we study all its aspects - colour, quality, texture - and ask what is the basis for each of these and how can we control and enhance such characteristics?

"In relation to crops, we look at issues like protein levels. In an increasingly diet conscious age, legumes such as lentils and chickpeas, to name only two, are now becoming important alternatives for meat as protein sources, and at Lincoln we are focusing more and more on their role. Chickpeas, for example, contain virtually no fat (3 percent) so obviously they can have a beneficial place in low fat diets. Legumes, including chickpeas, also contain interesting compounds which can lower blood cholesterol levels."

Research which Dr Savage has been directly involved with includes, what puts the attractive pinky colour in salmon meat; what is the chemistry behind the "keepability" of salami; what can be done about the toxic compounds that can be found in mouldy peanuts; how dangerous are mercury levels in fish; and should genetically engineered foodstuffs be specially labelled as such.

 "Lincoln graduates with a food biochemistry specialisation are moving out into all sorts of careers in the food and food processing industries and the research and developments areas which support them," says Dr Savage, "and at the moment the employment situation looks buoyant."

Associated with food biochemistry at Lincoln is animal biochemistry, taught by Dr Roy Bickerstaffe. Areas examined include meat quality; how can meat be made more tender; what are the factors to be taken into account in the storage of meat; what are the immunological and biochemical controls in the growth of meat?

As with food biochemistry, this too is an expanding area of interest with students. Taken together, food biochemistry and animal biochemistry form a "package" with the new technologies like molecular biology in which Lincoln has also made a name for itself in recent years. In 1989 for example, Lincoln scientists produced New Zealand's first transgenic animal, that is a species (in this case a mouse) carrying genetic material introduced by laboratory manipulation from another animal (a rabbit).

"Research work at Lincoln flows naturally from the laboratory to the lecture room and graduates emerge with an orientation towards the practical application in the technical world of the biological principles they have learned about," says Dr Savage.

 "Lincoln is happy to see its research and graduates beginning to have an impact on the New Zealand food processing industry, which is an important sector of the country's economic activity because value is added to food before it is exported."

Ian Collins, Journalist, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand.