This years RI Christmas Lectures are on human health in space!

More information here.

The 2015 CHRISTMAS LECTURES How to survive in space

We are excited to announce that this year’s Christmas Lecturer is Dr Kevin Fong, an emergency doctor and expert in space medicine, who will present the three part CHRISTMAS LECTURES series 'How to survive in space' on BBC Four this festive season. In celebration of British astronaut Tim Peake's upcoming mission to the International Space Station (ISS), this year's Lectures will shine a spotlight on international achievements in space science and engineering. Kevin and the ISS astronauts will open a window onto today’s most exciting space missions, explore the future of space travel and offer a unique insight into the challenges of protecting human life in the hostile environment of space.

Free event at JIC Norwich : become fascinated with Fungi for #ukfungusday2013

Looking forward to tomorrow (Oct 13th) at John Innes Centre (Near the Norfolk & Norwich Hospital).
We've a free family-friendly event (and not just for families) where you can be fascinated by fungi as it is UK Fungus Day.
Fungi range from the familiar Mushrooms & Toadstools to the moulds we dread to find on our bread to the yeasts that are used to make bread and beer.

The event will have several activities (arts & crafts, story telling, fungal foray (looking at woodland fungi with an expert), how the toadstool got its spots, mushroom growers, mushroom recipe tastings, beer tastings, fungi in medicine & disease, fungi used in food production (affecting taste, flavour & texture) and more...).
Come along to JIC on Sunday 13th to have a Fun-gi day!

Institute goes "Gangham Style"...

Gangham style finally hits the Institute of Food Research - Something my colleagues
 whipped up for the Institute Christmas party. Who says scientists don't have a (warped)
sense of humour?
Seasons greetings to anyone reading this blog.

A batch of Food Factory reviewing...

I finally caught up on Food Factory episodes...

Second in series looked at how bubbles are used in food processing.
So we had the celeb guests making "Chocolate coated honeycomb bars" (Hows that for avoiding mentioning brand names?) and Stefan made extruded maize snacks (Cheesy puffs). I loved the bit where he used a tumble dryer to coat the (unflavoured) puffs with a mix of oil and cheese flavouring. Brought back happy memories of my early days at the Institute where food materials research was done using extrusion cookers. Stefan also looked at why bubbly chocolate can taste more chocolaty than a solid bar.

In the third episode, the celebs made "Wheaty breakfast bricks" and Stefan made pasta (spaghetti) from wheat (using a hand mincer and lots of elbow grease).
So the focus was on mechanical processing of a basic food-stock (wheat). An important point was that removing water made for a long shelf life as reducing the water activity (Aw) slows down spoilage due to bacterial growth.




The fourth episode explored different applications of freezing in food processing.

The celebrity guests made a three flavour/colour ice lolly and the Host (Stefan) made freeze dried coffee. We also saw how peas are rapidly frozen after harvesting and why (stopping sugar turning into starch and loosing sweetness as well as affecting shelf life).





Hopefully, this series is succeeding in making people think about the food that they buy in supermarkets and stores and the effort involved in producing it.

Open Days for school & public at the Institute of Food Research

IFR Open Day

Saturday 29 September 2012

10:00 - 16:00

This is a unique opportunity to wander around the Institute of Food Research, talk to scientists about their work, follow trails, take part in competitions and find out about what goes on inside one of the world's centres of scientific excellence right on your doorstep.

Schools Open Day

Friday 28 September

09:30 - 15:30

Open to Yrs 10-13, this is an exciting opportunity to wander round one of the UKs leading research centres, the Institute of Food Research, and find out about careers in science and what goes on inside it. There will be open labs, demonstrations, talks and activities around the buildings including flow cytometry, nuclear magnetic resonance or NMR for short, microscopy, chemical imaging and a chance to go inside a Biorefinery– an opportunity to see in action equipment you can often only read about or see photos of.
There will be activities on biofilms, translating proteins into music, taking part in a fat content taste panel, doing something a bit Risky, go inside the Step Back in Time Lab, take part in a sciart activity and the BBSRC Bioenergy display. Taste & Flavour, Do you Know Your Fats, Iron Extraction from Special K and keeping up the Olympic theme in case its long forgotten, Food for Sport, games and hands on fun not to mention walking through an inflatable colon!
You must register to attend and places are limited to 30 per year group per school, unless we have unfilled spaces. The only session you have to book in for are the set of short talks which last an hour in total which will be from 09:30, 10:45, 12:00, 13:15 and 14:30.  Talks will be on Food & Appetite, Food Safety, data mining, super Broccoli, Carbohydrate-protein interactions and food allergies. You are then free to do whatever you choose, although if certain areas get congested we may ask you to move on!
There will also be the chance to talk to other scientists from across the Norwich Research Park including the Genome Analysis Centre and John Innes Centre.
A dedicated careers area will be attended by the Food and Drink Federation, Chilled Foods Association, Leeds University, Institute of Food Science and Technology and London South Bank University, not to mention our own young up and coming researchers to talk informally to anyone wanting to know what it’s like to work in science, from physics to chemistry, biology to microbiology, molecular genetics, biochemistry and maths.
There is parking available on site and if dry you are welcome to have lunch and refreshments in the grounds. However, we have limited space inside to sit and eat so would prefer it if you could plan not to do so. Exceptions may be made for those travelling some distance.
To book your place please contact dawn.barrett@nbi.ac.uk by Friday 21st September.

Food Factory series - how does convenience food get made?

New series of Food Factory - looking at how foods are made for supermarkets.
Answering questions like "How many Tomatoes in a cuppasoup sachet?"* and "Are there any oranges in orange squash?"
Interview with Stefan here with a few clips as well.
It's on BBC1 at 7:30 on Mondays -looks good.

* 12 tomatoes (apparently)...