New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research
Encyclopedia
Plant & Food Research is a New Zealand
Crown Research Institute (CRI). The institute was formed on 1 December 2008 by merging existing CRIs HortResearch
and Crop and Food Research
.
The merged organisation has over 900 staff based at sites throughout New Zealand as well as science and business development staff working in the USA, Europe
, Asia
and Australia
.
The interests of the institute are based in horticulture, arable and seafood research, specifically in the areas of sustainable production, bioprotection, elite genetics & intelligent breeding, food and health science and biomaterials.
New and novel plant varieties – Pipfruit, kiwifruit
, stonefruit, berries, potatoes, brassicas, onions, peas
, cereals, hops
and ornamentals.
Conventional breeding – Over 300 hectares of research orchards and farms across New Zealand plus unique germplasm
collections for key crops.
Functional genomics – Molecular biology, genetic mapping, marker assisted selection
, bioinformatics
, metabolic profiling.
Consumer and producer trait targets – Health, colour, texture, flavour, storage, flowering, shape, dwarfing, pest and disease resistance.
Postharvest
Smart packaging – Biosensors and consumer-friendly packaging including ripeSense, now marketed by Ripesense Limited.
Environmentally friendly pest and disease treatments and grading technologies – Heat treatment (water or air) for insect disinfestation or pathogen reduction. Near Infra-Red (NIR) and non-destructive firmness grading technologies.
Hi-tech storage – Modified atmosphere
storage plus novel temperature manipulations and optimisation. Controlled atmosphere
storage including dynamic CA storage.
Ripening control and monitoring – Ethylene treatments (pre-ripening or conditioning), Ethylene antagonists SmartFresh .
Freshcut innovation – Technology that supports fresh-cut solutions with added food safety.
Sustainability & Bioprotection
Carbon efficiency – Whole lifecycle analysis for key crops including kiwifruit and wine.
Soil ecology – Soil and water management and modelling. Risk assessment.
Crop management tools – Software tools that optimise inputs and interventions. CropLogic Potato Calculator and Spray Plan Manager.
Integrated pest and disease management – IPM and IFP systems.
Pollination – Artificial pollination
, honeybee ecology, varroa mite resistance and natural varroa controls.
Non-chemical pest and disease control – Biocontrols, pheromone-based insect mating disruption and trapping, Sterile Insect Technique.
Insect biology - Biology, life history, behaviour and ecology of insects and mites.
Food & Health
Functional foods – Plant-based foods and food ingredients that offer consumers health benefits beyond basic nutrition
.
Superfruits and high health vegetable cultivars – New, novel, natural plant cultivars with enhanced levels of health-promoting compounds.
Nutrigenomics and gastronomics – Customised foods tailored to the needs of individuals based on their genetic profile.
Sensory evaluation – Understanding and predicting future global consumer, market and technology trends through research into consumer behaviour
and preferences.
High value seafoods – New harvesting, postharvest, processing and storage technologies that improve the texture, taste and shelf life of key finfish, shellfish
and crustacean
species.
New Zealand and the Forest Biosecurity Research Council.
A collaborative science programme delivering science-based solutions, new tools, technologies and knowledge to protect New Zealand's terrestrial plants. The programme supports the international competitiveness of New Zealand's export industries and protects natural, recreational and amenity estates from exotic pests and diseases.
Engineering Marine Molecules
Development of new extraction and molecular modification technologies for the industrial manufacture of marine protein and lipid products for use in food, biomaterials and nutraceuticals.
Exploiting opportunities from Horticultural Genomics
Identification of the genetic mechanisms involved in key plant traits to inform breeding programmes, including the establishment of technologies required for gene identification and marker characterisation.
Fashionable plants
Development of novel varieties and technologies for the high-value ornamental market.
Food-microbe-host interactions – in association with AgResearch
The development of a technological platform to generate knowledge about the interactions between food, the intestinal microbiome and the human genome. This knowledge will be used to develop new, value-added, export-focused SMART foods that deliver improved health, performance and well-being.
From Tools to Traits
Development of non-food and new food products with novel functional, health or colour properties derived from an improved knowledge and understanding of the carbohydrate and carotenoid pigment pathways of plants.
Lifestyle Foods
Developing knowledge, tools and concepts to enable industry to deliver healthy products for consumers, initially in the form of convenient snack foods, with good sensory appeal and targeted energy release capability.
Future Vegetables
The development of high value vegetables that can be produced sustainably and exported to world markets, including development of product concepts with enhanced consumer values and underpinned by new and improved production technologies that support economic and environmental sustainability.
Higher Value Seafoods
Increasing the value of seafood products through increased harvest recovery and creating niche products based on New Zealand seafood.
Kiwifruit Research Consortium – in association with ZESPRI Group Limited
Development of plant breeding, screening and evaluation technologies to increase number of cultivars developed in the breeding programme with reduced time to market.
Land Use Change and Intensification - in association with AgResearch
Developing improved tools and land management practices and decision support tools that enhance the productive capacity of agricultural land while retaining soil and groundwater quality.
Looking into fruit
Development of tools and technologies to measure quality attributes of fruit pre-harvest, reducing harvest losses and labour costs while maximising yield.
Low-impact disease control
Development of purpose-built disease management systems for the horticulture industry, incorporating biological, genetic and fungicidal controls applied according to disease risk.
New Berries
Identifying components of berryfruit with added health benefits and developing customised berryfruit products with high flavour and validated health-enhancing attributes.
Nutrigenomics – in association with The University of Auckland and AgResearch
Determining how food and food composition affects health based on genetic information, including developing gene-specific foods that prevent, control or cure disease. The initial target for the programme is Crohn’s disease and other inflammatory bowel disorders.
Pipfruit 2020 - a juicy future
An integrated research programme developed to underpin industry strategies for economic transformation through enhanced quality of fruit products and services, including building an understanding of consumer preferences and applying this knowledge to breeding programmes.
Premium kiwifruit: growing the future
Building fundamental understanding of carbon partitioning and development of fruit, leading to the development of innovative new kiwifruit technologies, to increase productivity and fruit quality.
Roots for Sustainability - in association with AgResearch
Identifying germplasm resources for breeding new and improved pastoral and arable crop cultivars with root systems that improve water and nutrient uptake, and reduce the impact of productive systems on the environment.
Sensor labels
Development of cost-effective horticultural packaging systems with ripeness indicators that conform to global food contact regulations.
Sustainable IPM
Reducing the reliance of New Zealand horticulture on broad-spectrum and persistent insecticides by developing alternative and sustainable means of controlling pests, and delivering produce that achieves the most stringent market requirements.
Sustainable Land Use Research Initiative (SLURI) - in association with Landcare Research and AgResearch
Developing tools and knowledge to quantify and value the function, quality and resilience of New Zealand’s productive soils and landscapes across a range of land uses for land management and policy purposes.
Taste the Future
Development of novel kiwifruit varieties to achieve premium prices, including maintaining an elite germplasm collection and identifying novel compounds and genes that can be used in producing high value flavour ingredients for foods and beverages.
Wellness Foods
Developing innovative foods based on combining the health-enhancing properties from fruits and vegetables.
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
Crown Research Institute (CRI). The institute was formed on 1 December 2008 by merging existing CRIs HortResearch
HortResearch
HortResearch was a Crown Research Institute of New Zealand. The focus of research in this company was mainly in the development of new fruit varieties and other food products...
and Crop and Food Research
New Zealand Institute for Crop and Food Research
The Institute for Crop and Food Research was formed in 1992 as a New Zealand-based biological science Crown Research Institute researching new knowledge in five main areas:* sustainable water and land use* high performance plants* personalised foods...
.
The merged organisation has over 900 staff based at sites throughout New Zealand as well as science and business development staff working in the USA, Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
.
The interests of the institute are based in horticulture, arable and seafood research, specifically in the areas of sustainable production, bioprotection, elite genetics & intelligent breeding, food and health science and biomaterials.
Areas of Research
BreedingNew and novel plant varieties – Pipfruit, kiwifruit
Kiwifruit
The kiwifruit, often shortened to kiwi in many parts of the world, is the edible berry of a cultivar group of the woody vine Actinidia deliciosa and hybrids between this and other species in the genus Actinidia....
, stonefruit, berries, potatoes, brassicas, onions, peas
PEAS
P.E.A.S. is an acronym in artificial intelligence that stands for Performance, Environment, Actuators, Sensors.-Performance:Performance is a function that measures the quality of the actions the agent did....
, cereals, hops
Hops
Hops are the female flower clusters , of a hop species, Humulus lupulus. They are used primarily as a flavoring and stability agent in beer, to which they impart a bitter, tangy flavor, though hops are also used for various purposes in other beverages and herbal medicine...
and ornamentals.
Conventional breeding – Over 300 hectares of research orchards and farms across New Zealand plus unique germplasm
Germplasm
A germplasm is a collection of genetic resources for an organism. For plants, the germplasm may be stored as a seed collection or, for trees, in a nursery.-See also:*Germ plasm, the germ cell determining zone...
collections for key crops.
Functional genomics – Molecular biology, genetic mapping, marker assisted selection
Marker assisted selection
Marker assisted selection or marker aided selection ' is a process whereby a marker is used for indirect selection of a genetic determinant or determinants of a trait of interest...
, bioinformatics
Bioinformatics
Bioinformatics is the application of computer science and information technology to the field of biology and medicine. Bioinformatics deals with algorithms, databases and information systems, web technologies, artificial intelligence and soft computing, information and computation theory, software...
, metabolic profiling.
Consumer and producer trait targets – Health, colour, texture, flavour, storage, flowering, shape, dwarfing, pest and disease resistance.
Postharvest
Smart packaging – Biosensors and consumer-friendly packaging including ripeSense, now marketed by Ripesense Limited.
Environmentally friendly pest and disease treatments and grading technologies – Heat treatment (water or air) for insect disinfestation or pathogen reduction. Near Infra-Red (NIR) and non-destructive firmness grading technologies.
Hi-tech storage – Modified atmosphere
Modified atmosphere
Modified atmosphere is the practice of modifying the composition of the internal atmosphere of a package in order to improve the shelf life....
storage plus novel temperature manipulations and optimisation. Controlled atmosphere
Controlled atmosphere
A controlled atmosphere is an agricultural storage method. An atmosphere in which oxygen, carbon dioxide and nitrogen concentrations as well as temperature and humidity are regulated.Two major classes of commodity can be stored in controlled atmosphere:...
storage including dynamic CA storage.
Ripening control and monitoring – Ethylene treatments (pre-ripening or conditioning), Ethylene antagonists SmartFresh .
Freshcut innovation – Technology that supports fresh-cut solutions with added food safety.
Sustainability & Bioprotection
Carbon efficiency – Whole lifecycle analysis for key crops including kiwifruit and wine.
Soil ecology – Soil and water management and modelling. Risk assessment.
Crop management tools – Software tools that optimise inputs and interventions. CropLogic Potato Calculator and Spray Plan Manager.
Integrated pest and disease management – IPM and IFP systems.
Pollination – Artificial pollination
Pollination
Pollination is the process by which pollen is transferred in plants, thereby enabling fertilisation and sexual reproduction. Pollen grains transport the male gametes to where the female gamete are contained within the carpel; in gymnosperms the pollen is directly applied to the ovule itself...
, honeybee ecology, varroa mite resistance and natural varroa controls.
Non-chemical pest and disease control – Biocontrols, pheromone-based insect mating disruption and trapping, Sterile Insect Technique.
Insect biology - Biology, life history, behaviour and ecology of insects and mites.
Food & Health
Functional foods – Plant-based foods and food ingredients that offer consumers health benefits beyond basic nutrition
Nutrition
Nutrition is the provision, to cells and organisms, of the materials necessary to support life. Many common health problems can be prevented or alleviated with a healthy diet....
.
Superfruits and high health vegetable cultivars – New, novel, natural plant cultivars with enhanced levels of health-promoting compounds.
Nutrigenomics and gastronomics – Customised foods tailored to the needs of individuals based on their genetic profile.
Sensory evaluation – Understanding and predicting future global consumer, market and technology trends through research into consumer behaviour
Consumer behaviour
Consumer behaviour is the study of when, why, how, and where people do or do not buy a product. It blends elements from psychology, sociology, social anthropology and economics. It attempts to understand the buyer decision making process, both individually and in groups...
and preferences.
High value seafoods – New harvesting, postharvest, processing and storage technologies that improve the texture, taste and shelf life of key finfish, shellfish
Shellfish
Shellfish is a culinary and fisheries term for exoskeleton-bearing aquatic invertebrates used as food, including various species of molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms. Although most kinds of shellfish are harvested from saltwater environments, some kinds are found only in freshwater...
and crustacean
Crustacean
Crustaceans form a very large group of arthropods, usually treated as a subphylum, which includes such familiar animals as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles. The 50,000 described species range in size from Stygotantulus stocki at , to the Japanese spider crab with a leg span...
species.
Major FRST Funded Research Programmes
Better Border Biosecurity – in association with AgResearch, Scion, the National Centre for Advanced Bio-Protection Technologies, MAF Biosecurity, the Department of Conservation, Environmental Risk Management AuthorityEnvironmental Risk Management Authority
The Environmental Risk Management Authority is a New Zealand government agency which controls the introduction of hazardous substances and new organisms....
New Zealand and the Forest Biosecurity Research Council.
A collaborative science programme delivering science-based solutions, new tools, technologies and knowledge to protect New Zealand's terrestrial plants. The programme supports the international competitiveness of New Zealand's export industries and protects natural, recreational and amenity estates from exotic pests and diseases.
Engineering Marine Molecules
Development of new extraction and molecular modification technologies for the industrial manufacture of marine protein and lipid products for use in food, biomaterials and nutraceuticals.
Exploiting opportunities from Horticultural Genomics
Identification of the genetic mechanisms involved in key plant traits to inform breeding programmes, including the establishment of technologies required for gene identification and marker characterisation.
Fashionable plants
Development of novel varieties and technologies for the high-value ornamental market.
Food-microbe-host interactions – in association with AgResearch
The development of a technological platform to generate knowledge about the interactions between food, the intestinal microbiome and the human genome. This knowledge will be used to develop new, value-added, export-focused SMART foods that deliver improved health, performance and well-being.
From Tools to Traits
Development of non-food and new food products with novel functional, health or colour properties derived from an improved knowledge and understanding of the carbohydrate and carotenoid pigment pathways of plants.
Lifestyle Foods
Developing knowledge, tools and concepts to enable industry to deliver healthy products for consumers, initially in the form of convenient snack foods, with good sensory appeal and targeted energy release capability.
Future Vegetables
The development of high value vegetables that can be produced sustainably and exported to world markets, including development of product concepts with enhanced consumer values and underpinned by new and improved production technologies that support economic and environmental sustainability.
Higher Value Seafoods
Increasing the value of seafood products through increased harvest recovery and creating niche products based on New Zealand seafood.
Kiwifruit Research Consortium – in association with ZESPRI Group Limited
Development of plant breeding, screening and evaluation technologies to increase number of cultivars developed in the breeding programme with reduced time to market.
Land Use Change and Intensification - in association with AgResearch
Developing improved tools and land management practices and decision support tools that enhance the productive capacity of agricultural land while retaining soil and groundwater quality.
Looking into fruit
Development of tools and technologies to measure quality attributes of fruit pre-harvest, reducing harvest losses and labour costs while maximising yield.
Low-impact disease control
Development of purpose-built disease management systems for the horticulture industry, incorporating biological, genetic and fungicidal controls applied according to disease risk.
New Berries
Identifying components of berryfruit with added health benefits and developing customised berryfruit products with high flavour and validated health-enhancing attributes.
Nutrigenomics – in association with The University of Auckland and AgResearch
Determining how food and food composition affects health based on genetic information, including developing gene-specific foods that prevent, control or cure disease. The initial target for the programme is Crohn’s disease and other inflammatory bowel disorders.
Pipfruit 2020 - a juicy future
An integrated research programme developed to underpin industry strategies for economic transformation through enhanced quality of fruit products and services, including building an understanding of consumer preferences and applying this knowledge to breeding programmes.
Premium kiwifruit: growing the future
Building fundamental understanding of carbon partitioning and development of fruit, leading to the development of innovative new kiwifruit technologies, to increase productivity and fruit quality.
Roots for Sustainability - in association with AgResearch
Identifying germplasm resources for breeding new and improved pastoral and arable crop cultivars with root systems that improve water and nutrient uptake, and reduce the impact of productive systems on the environment.
Sensor labels
Development of cost-effective horticultural packaging systems with ripeness indicators that conform to global food contact regulations.
Sustainable IPM
Reducing the reliance of New Zealand horticulture on broad-spectrum and persistent insecticides by developing alternative and sustainable means of controlling pests, and delivering produce that achieves the most stringent market requirements.
Sustainable Land Use Research Initiative (SLURI) - in association with Landcare Research and AgResearch
Developing tools and knowledge to quantify and value the function, quality and resilience of New Zealand’s productive soils and landscapes across a range of land uses for land management and policy purposes.
Taste the Future
Development of novel kiwifruit varieties to achieve premium prices, including maintaining an elite germplasm collection and identifying novel compounds and genes that can be used in producing high value flavour ingredients for foods and beverages.
Wellness Foods
Developing innovative foods based on combining the health-enhancing properties from fruits and vegetables.