NEWS GLOBAL BABY FORMULA UNDER SPOTLIGHT 6 NOVEMBER 2017 NEWS SNIPS New Zealand’s best-known butchers, the Mad Butcher, has snagged the People’s Choice Award in the 2017 Devro Great New Zealand Sausage Competition with its chicken, pumpkin and feta sausage winning gold for Mad Butcher Albany’s Cameron Walker A staggering 850,000 pints of beer, 350,000 rotisserie chickens and 65 tonnes of coffee beans have been served by Skyline Queenstown in the past 50 years, along with 17 million gondola rides and 12 million luge experiences New Zealand researchers have discovered that a2 milk can ease or prevent dairy intolerance symptoms, even though it contains the same lactose levels as conventional cow’s milk Fish & Game is backing calls for the farming sector to properly tackle the environmental challenges it is facing, saying farming leaders must face up to their responsibilities. A.I AQUACULTURE TECH Scientists are set to research the application of transformational tech for the aquaculture industry, following funding approval for the two-year Precision Farming Technology for Aquaculture project which focuses on developing technologies that give farmers the ability to manage their farm and stock remotely. Cawthron Institute coastal and freshwater group manager Dr Chris Cornelisen will lead the project and is looking forward to bringing together a multi-disciplinary science team. “The project will combine cutting-edge research in sensing technologies, lasers and artificial intelligence with practical, applied research to provide solutions to the aquaculture industry,” Cornelisen says. Research into efficient and cost-effective underwater communications also aims to unlock the future potential of untethered sensors, drones and robotics. Cornelisen says unique challenges to farming in the ocean include accessibility by boat, manual recording of stock health, high costs and delicate equipment. “We’ll be developing new chemical sensors that can identify the amount of food and nutrients in the water, and imaging sensors that use artificial intelligence to let farmers ‘see’ their farm and stock condition in real time from a computer or mobile device. The aquaculture industry aims to reach $1 billion in sales by 2025. Technology that promotes sustainability, efficiency, and the ability to farm further offshore will play a significant role in achieving this target.” Children will wear small portable cameras on their clothes as part of a new University of Auckland study looking at how the marketing of healthy products and lifestyles affects children’s everyday lives. Dr Darren Powell of the Faculty of Education and Social Work will work with 16 children aged seven to nine from two schools, who will use wearable cameras to create visual images at diverse sites ranging from home and school to sports clubs. The images will be analysed alongside the children in order to get rich descriptions and original insights into the attempts of corporations and their various partners to market the concept of health to children. “Whilst there is a large body of literature examining the relationship between unhealthy food marketing and childhood obesity, relatively little is known about how the rapid turn to marketing healthy products and lifestyles influences children,” Powell says. ‘Consuming kids: The impact of marketing ‘health’ to children’ will include a critical examination of the ‘Coca-Colonisation’ of health and the many other concepts of health. A new investigative report into 400 infant milk formulas has warned that the four leading global manufacturers are allegedly “unduly boosting profits by exploiting parents’ understandable desire to give the best possible nutrition to their babies.” The report by The Changing Markets Foundation - in conjunction with Globalisation Monitor, SumOfUs and the European Public Health Alliance – says Nestlé, Danone, Mead Johnson Nutrition and Abbott premium products sold in 14 markets are not science-based, make claims with little nutritional backup and are highly-priced to take advantage of particularly the rapid-growing Asian markets. SumOfUs campaigner Eoin Dubsky says instead of nutritional science, companies are basing selling strategies on market research and consumer preferences, and the prices vary wildly around the world. Chinese parents can spend 40% of their average salary on infant formula, while those in European countries will spend up to 3% of their income. “It’s time to reign in the marketers and ensure that sleep-deprived and financially-stretched parents who need infant formula can easily find products that are affordable, safe and nutritionally complete.” Globally, only about 36% of babies under six months are exclusively breastfed, and the formula market currently worth US$47 billion is projected to increase by more than 50% by 2020, mainly due to rapid expansion in Asia. The report’s authors are calling for a comprehensive overhaul of global infant milk products and the introduction of stricter regulation. HI TECH KIDS
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