Research Highlights

There are many exciting food research projects taking place at The University of Manchester. This page highlights some of the research currently taking place or recently finished at the University.


Food Insecurity, Nutritional Deficiency and Older People in the UK: A Scoping Study

Purdam, K., Garratt, E., and Esmail, A.

Manchester Institute for Collaborative Research on Ageing (MICRA), Food@Manchester and Manchester City Council

Food insecurity, when people do not have the capacity and resources to ensure a sufficient supply of nutritionally appropriate food, has again become a critical ethical and social policy issue in the UK. More than 1 million people aged 65 years and older in the UK are estimated to be malnourished. ‌‌This scoping research includes an evidence review, a practitioners and public evidence call, modeling of food insecurity risk factors using the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing and a series of interviews with foodbank users and volunteers. The research will contribute to the development of a shared understanding of food insecurity risks faced by older people and the circumstances and experiences of people using foodbanks.

Dr. K. Purdam will lead this interdisciplinary research project in collaboration with Professor A. Esmail alongside colleagues in health research and social statistics at the University of Manchester.

For more details visit the website.


Emissions associated with meeting the future global wheat demand: A case study of UK production under climate change constraints.

Röder, M., Thornley, P., Campbell, G., and Bows, A.,

Published data is used to analyse how global wheat production can be increased to match projected demand. The results show that the largest projected wheat demand increases are in areas most likely to suffer severe climate change impacts, but that global demand could be met if northern hemisphere producers exploit climate change benefits to increase production and narrow their yield gaps. Life cycle assessment of different climate change scenarios shows that in the case of one of the most important wheat producers (the UK) it may be possible to improve yields with an increase of only 0.6% in the emission intensity per unit of wheat produced in a 2 °C scenario. However, UK production would need to rise substantially, increasing total UK wheat production emissions by 26%. This demonstrates how national emission inventories and associated targets do not incentivise minimisation of global greenhouse gas emissions while meeting increased food demands, highlighting a triad of challenges: meeting the rising demand for food, adapting to climate change and reducing emissions.

Published in: Environmental Science & Policy (Volume 39, May 2014, Pages 13–24)

For a copy of the report, please click here.


High arsenic in rice is associated with elevated genotoxic effects in humans

Banerjee, M., Banerjee, N., Bhattacharjee, P., Mondal, D., Lythgoe, P.R., Martinez, M., Pan, J., Polya, D.A., and Giri, A.K.

Arsenic in drinking water may cause major deleterious health impacts including death. Although arsenic in rice has recently been demonstrated to be a potential exposure route for humans, there has been to date no direct evidence for the impact of such exposure on human health. Here we show for the first time, through a cohort study in West Bengal, India, involving over 400 human subjects not otherwise significantly exposed to arsenic through drinking water, elevated genotoxic effects, as measured by micronuclei (MN) in urothelial cells, associated with the staple consumption of cooked rice with >200 μg/kg arsenic. Further work is required to determine the applicability to populations with different dietary and genetic characteristics, but with over 3 billion people in the world consuming rice as a staple food and several percent of this rice containing such elevated arsenic concentrations, this study raises considerable concerns over the threat to human health.

Published in: Scientific Reports (Volume 3, July 2013, Article number 2195)

For a copy of the report, please click here.


What's cooking? Adaptation and Mitigation in the UK Food System.

Bows, A., Dawkins, E., Gough, C., Mander, S., McLachlan, C., Röder, M., Thom, L., Thornley, P. & Wood, R.

This work was funded by the Sustainable Consumption Institute and involved researchers from the Stockholm Environment Institute, the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and the Satake Centre for Grain Process Engineering. The report is based on a 2 year study of UK food systems and climate change. Food which families now take for granted, such as meat and fresh vegetables, could become too expensive for many, if global temperatures rise in line with the current trends and reach 4⁰C within the lifetime of many people. Dr Alice Bows, Principal Investigator, says greenhouse gas targets will be missed unless policymakers take account of the potential impacts of climate change on food-related emissions. Much emphasis is placed on decarbonising the energy system, yet the emissions associated with agriculture, particularly the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide, are likely to be much more difficult to cut.

For a copy of the report, please click here.


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