Press Releases

Reading only UK uni chosen for European health research network group

Release Date : 27 March 2009

Professor Ian Givens, the joint leader of the University of Reading's Food Chain and Health Research Theme, has been chosen to play an important role in a new European research network. The project aims to create better collaboration between experts involved in improving the quality and safety of human foods.

Feed for Health, a European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) initiative will last five years and aims to increase interaction between experts and research groups from across Europe. The project will work in areas such as designing human food that is derived from animals healthier and the relationship between animal feed and food safety.

The University of Reading is the only UK university to be selected for the project and Professor Givens will be leading one of the four work groups created. His will examine the relationship between the make-up of foods and human health.

Professor Givens said: "I am delighted to be a part of what we hope will be a crucial project looking at the impact of processes in the food chain on food constituents and health. I look forward to leading the area that is concerned with the effect of animal-derived food composition on human health, in association with the University of Copenhagen."

Feed for Health's major benefit will be identifying research needs. Funding from governments and industry for research into feedstuffs and farm animal nutrition is reducing, so there is a growing need to focus research on the most crucial areas. In addition, the network will allow dissemination of information and experience at national and regional levels. It will also create a training and exchange programme for postgraduate students, postdoctoral fellows and young researchers focused on feed and both animal and human health.

One of the University of Reading's key research areas is Food Chain and Health, which investigates the idea of identifying particular food ingredients that may exert beneficial properties on human health. An effective approach requires the co-ordination of expertise across agriculture, animal and plant sciences, economics, psychology, food policy, bioscience, food science and nutrition and consumer choice.

"Feed for Health very much links to the University's 'Food Chain and Health' research objectives," continued Professor Givens. "It recognises the importance of food chain issues in relation to diet related human health, so critical in the current climate of obesity and an ageing population. "

Professor Givens recently completed a study that demonstrated changing the feeding regimes of dairy cows can reduce the saturated fat content of milk by 22%. This would lead to a reduction in the amount of saturated fat in normal diets and in turn lower the risk of cardiovascular disease.

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For all University of Reading media enquiries please contact James Barr, Press Officer tel 0118 378 7115 or email j.w.barr@reading.ac.uk

Notes for Editors:

To watch short films explaining the University of Reading's research into Food Chain & Health, please click here

The University of Reading is ranked as one of the UK's top research-intensive universities. The quality and diversity of the University's research and teaching is recognised internationally as one of the top 200 universities in the world.

The University of Reading's School of Agriculture, Policy and Development is a world leader in teaching and research in the natural and social sciences relating to agriculture, the food chain, rural environments and the countryside and international development. Its work covers the businesses and people associated with these sectors (such as food and agribusiness, rural livelihoods, communities and consumers), and the policy and political environments in which they function locally, nationally, regionally and globally.

The University's Department of Food Biosciences leads the University's Food Chain and Health theme, and is the largest University department of its kind in the UK. It is renowned for its excellence in teaching and research and achieved a rating of '5' in the last Research Assessment Exercise.

Feed for Health's main aim is to develop an integrated and collaborative network of research groups that focuses on the roles of feed and animal nutrition in improving animal health and also the quality, safety and wholesomeness of human foods of animal origin. For more information about the project and the other partners involved please visit