1. Week 2 XNB151 Food
and Nutrition

2.  Pre
- food supply (week 2)
- anthropology & sociology of food (week 3)
- Why do we eat what we eat?
 Post
- physiology (weeks 4-13)
- Nutritional requirements and consequences of
too little/ too much nutrition)
- Difficult to determine as we cannot test on
humans – rely on labs tests with animal or
epidemiology

3.  Evolution may have occurred in association with
particular diets
 understanding diets and health of early humans assist in
optimising present food consumption to enhance health
 Three main ways to investigate eating patterns of
early humans
1. Anthropological study of our ancestors
2. Study of contemporary communities that follow
ancestral dietary patterns
3. Study of the human genome

4. It’s not my fault,
it’s genetic!
 Human species has existed for some 6000
generations (determined by studies of
genes in mitochondria)
 Likely
that most of genetic attributes of
hunter gathers have been retained
 How advantageous are these now?
 ‘Thrifty gene’

5. Plants Animals
Consumers

6. Crop growing Natural grazing (shepherding)
Harvesting Domestic animals
Storage Butchering/milking
Milling Markets Foods traded from outside the area
Consumers
Village Food System

9.  Primary Production
 Food processing
 Retail

10.  Includes
 Grain growers
 F & V growers
 Cattle, sheep & pig
farmers
 Dairy farmers
 Our source of FOOD!
 Significant contribution
to gross domestic
product for Australia

11.  Value of production varies annually.
Depend on:
 Weather, world export prices, value of
Australia $
Primary production may be affected by:
 Climate
 Government policies
 War
 Economy
 Weather/ natural disasters

12.  Food security is defined as the state in
which all persons obtain a nutritionally
adequate, culturally-appropriate diet at
all times through local non-emergency
services.
• access – physical & economic access
to food
• availability – the foods required for
an active healthy life are available to
all members of a community
• acceptability – the food is safe to
eat & fits in with social norms

13. Modification of primary produce into
recognisable items of food using
technology
Adds value through procedures that:
 preserve food & decrease waste
  product diversity & availability
 Reduces food preparation at home (convenience)
 Improvements in perceived appearance, flavour,
appeal of food, food safety etc

14. Specialised shops Supermarkets with 20,000 – 30,000
different items
• Served by individual staff Saving to clients by:
member • self service
• Stocked basic products • bar-code identification
used to create in home
• bulk buying by large companies
meals
Price Wars

15.  Other changes include:
 control of food retailing by 2 major
supermarket chains
 variety of products
 preparation time required
 advertising
 layout of the store
 petrol discount schemes

16.  Manufacturers may introduce new food
products
 Advertising for satisfactory sales
 Inadequate sales = decline to stock product
 For companies to  profits they must
gain market share from another
company, by:
 creating a new food
 marketing foods with a higher price &
profit margin
e.g. Logicol margarine (~$17/kg vs $4/kg!)
Burgen Soy & Linseed bread
 Foods go in & out of fashion like
clothing, particularly ‘health foods’
 Examples include:
 very low alcohol beer
 high fibre foods esp. oat bran
 olive oil

17.  Costnot always basis of consumer choice, often
opt for convenience
 Preparation time vs cost
 Convenience meals require minimal preparation
 Open package, heat, serve
 Ready-to-eat meals fastest growing area

18.  More food is eaten away from the home
 More snack foods are bought, because of:
 increased wealth (purchasing power)
 increased leisure time
 increased mobility (personal transport, more time
away from home)
 new technologies
 development of large-scale manufacturing (allow for
low costs)
 Eating out has  dramatically
 Has this caused us to become one of the most
overweight/obese countries in the world?!

19.  Previously
the composition of
the food was obvious
 Nowlabels are required so that
we know what we are eating!

20.  Regulation of food industry occurs at all
levels – farm, food industry & consumer
 May help or hinder depending on where you
fit in the food chain
 Examples include:
 Ensuring fair prices
 Environmental protection
 Ensuring safety of food exports & imports
 Ensuring accurate food information
http://www.news.com.au/business/egg-farmers-join-the-milk-battle/story-e6frfm1i-
1226016891683

21.  FSANZ(Food Standards Australia and New
Zealand)
 Responsible for food control, including
formulation of food laws and
regulations, labelling requirements, co-
ordinating food recalls
 Australia
New Zealand Food Standards Code
(The Code)
 Revised version introduced by FSANZ in 2000
www.foodstandards.gov.au

22.  Foods defined in food regulations are
standardised foods (foods not meeting this
specifications for standardised foods cannot
legally used the name of the standardised
food or be sold as such). Specifications
include:
 Specification for identity
 Specification for ingredient composition
 Specification for nutritional content
 Microbiological specifications
 Specified method of analysis
 Extra labelling requirements

23.  Other foods
 Foods that do not have a particular standard
must be safe for human consumption and
must comply with general provisions (e.g.
Labelling)
 Fortified foods
 Foods with added vitamins and minerals
 Mandatory – bread with folic acid and iodine
 Voluntary – permitted when evidence of
health benefit exists

25. Four critical areas for data
collection include
Food Food and
physical activity Nutritional
Food supply purchasing and
behaviours status
acquisition
Currently no formal monitoring
system in place in Australia

26.  To calculate ‘available food for consumption’ – Food
balance sheets
 Information on amounts of food (raw commodities)
available for consumption per year
Food available for use =
production + imports – exports
Food available for consumption =
production + imports – exports – industrial use – animal use
 Important – food available for consumption does NOT
tell us how much food is actually eaten!

27.  To compare food trends within Australia Apparent
food consumption data
Apparent consumption =
(commercial production + estimated home production
+ imports + opening stocks)
MINUS
(exports + usage for processed foods + non-food usage
+ wastage + closing stocks)

28.  food balance sheets
 food available, not food consumed
 national average, not individual/sub-group
specific
 apparent consumption data
 not used for all foods
 Overall– no ongoing, regular and
comprehensive system for monitoring food
supply and food availability

29.  Global Environment Monitoring System - Food
Contamination Monitoring and Assessment
Programme (GEMS/Food)
 WHO Initiative
 Assesses & monitors food contaminants, their
contribution to human exposure, & significance for
public health and trade
 WHO 13 cluster diets, that have been created to
cover average food consumption in 13 regions
 Twenty Key Foods Investigated
 Groups of countries based on consumption create
‘clusters’.
 Comparisons demonstrate major differences
between clusters

30.  Retail food sales- provide information on:
 type of foods purchased
 amount purchased
 population level consumption
 not measuring actual consumption of individuals

31.  Household food expenditure
 budget surveys
 provides data on amount of money/proportion
of income spent on food by different kinds of
households
 provides weighting figures for CPI (Consumer
Price Index)
 not measuring foods or nutrients