Awards for Excellence

Citation

(2003), "Awards for Excellence", British Food Journal, Vol. 105 No. 7. https://doi.org/10.1108/bfj.2003.070105gaa.001

Awards for Excellence

C.E.A. SeamanQueen Margaret University College, Edinburgh, UK

E.A. HunterBiomathematics & Statistics Scotland, King's Buildings, Edinburgh, UK

C.E. HinksThe University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

A.H. HughesQueen Margaret University College, Edinburgh, UKandB.G. LowmanSAC Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

are the recipients of the journal's Outstanding Paper Award for Excellence for their paper

"The impact of bread type, sex, method of rearing, winter nutrition and subsequent grazing treatment on the rate of carcass cooling and eating quality of beef''

which appeared in the British Food Journal, Vol. 104 No. 11, 2002

Claire Seaman lectures in food research and research methodology within the Faculty of Business and Arts at Queen Margaret University College in Edinburgh. In addition, she has also successfully led the University College into the East of Scotland TCS Centre - TCS projects being DTI funded projects where academics and industry collaborate together - and has built up a portfolio of TCS projects across a wide range of subject areas.

E.A. Hunter is currently a principal statistician with Biomathematics and Statistics Scotland (BioSS), an organisation that supplies statistical and mathematical support to the government funded biological research institutes in Scotland. His responsibilities are to lead three small teams, each headed by a senior statistician, working with laboratory based biologists, epidemiologists working on the health and welfare of farm animals and plant scientists working on plant varieties. His major interest is the application of statistics to food science, in particular to the design and analysis of sensory experiments. Another interest is the fitting of mixed models to data from large aggregations of plant variety trial data.

Dr Charlie Hinks worked in the Institute of Ecology and Resource Management at the University of Edinburgh until 2001, teaching students and carrying out research on areas within the fields of agriculture, ecology and land management.

Dr Alan H. Hughes is currently Head of Consumer and Retail Management in the School of Business and Enterprise at Queen Margaret University College, Edinburgh. His early academic career (now spanning 30 years) was spent in the science-based disciplines of microbiology and hygiene, food science and biochemistry. His research interests at this time focused on the effects of multi-component preservation systems on the suppression of growth of micro-organisms. Retraining in business and promotion within the institution refocussed his career in the consumer studies/management subject domains. Research interests changed in parallel with these moves and he has been involved in a number of projects with a sensory focus in the food field including the eating quality of beef (the subject of the Literati award paper), influence of texture on acceptability of vegetable products by children, and recently, the development of young consumers' ability to interpret food labels to improve dietary choice.

Basil G. Lowman got his first degree and his PhD at Reading University, finishing in 1970. His PhD was based on the protein requirements of pregnant ewes; yet in February 1970 he became the Specialist Adviser for Beef Cattle at the East of Scotland College of Agriculture.

His main interest has always been the beef cow. In the early 1970s he was involved in large feeding trials with autumn calving beef cows, from which the system of condition scoring was developed. The studies then moved on to factors influencing fertility in beef cows, from which recommendations for compact calving and heifer management were developed.

In the early 1980s, buffer grazing was developed to improve grassland utilisation for all types of beef cattle, with winter trials on finishing cattle concentrating on the interaction of implants, feed additives and fishmeal, with specific emphasis placed on carcass composition and eating quality.

With the banning of implants the main emphasis moved onto lifetime systems of production for grass finishing cattle. More recent investigations have centred on breeding aspects for suckler cows, both the role of triple synchronisation of oestrus to facilitate the use of AI and the development of Estimated Breeding Values. Currently a major proportion of his work is involved with woodchip corrals for overwintering livestock.