Sigfredo Fuentes delivering a keynote talk at the Digital Agro-Food & Forestry (r)evolution Symposium in Porto, Portugal (11-12 December 2019) organised by the Centre of Research of Agro-environmental and Biological Technologies (CITAB) Talk: New and Emerging Digital Technologies for the Agriculture of the Future.
Australian Society of Plant Scientist 2019 Teaching Award for Excellence and Innovation on Teaching Plant Science at University Level.
www.linkedin.com/posts/sigfredo-fuentes-66306757_asps-on-twitter-activity-6606155981384744961-63DY
An international collaboration between The University of Melbourne, Tecnologico de Monterrey and University of British Columbia is trying to unravel the link between consumers emotions and beer consumption.
Fuentes, S., Gonzalez Viejo, C, Torrico, D.D., Escobedo-Avellaneda, Z., Hernandez-Brenes, C., Rodriguez-Velazco, Y., Villarreal-Lara, R., Mandal, R., and Singh, A.P.
Some chemical compounds found in food and beverages have been associated with the release or suppression of certain hormones responsible for triggering different emotional responses. This study aimed to assess the chemical compounds found in beer and their effect on self-reported and subconscious emotional responses from consumers. A sensory session was conducted with 61 consumers who evaluated six beer samples with different alcohol content (2.5-9.6%). The questionnaire to assess acceptability and self-reported emotions was displayed in the Bio-Sensory application and videos were recorded to measure facial expressions. Furthermore, chemical analyses were conducted to measure compounds such as hordenine, iso-alpha acids, bitterness, alcohol content, pH, and acidity, among others. Multivariate data analyses based on principal components analysis and multiple factor analysis were conducted. Results showed that components such as hordenine, alcohol, bitterness and iso-alpha acids were related to emotions such as disappointed, smirking and contempt for the subconscious emotions, and with dizzy, sick, weary, disgusted and aggressive for the self-reported responses. On the other hand, acidity, and sugars such as glucose and fructose were related to overall liking and positive emotions such as joy, relaxed, happy and love for both the self-reported and subconscious emotions. The findings from this study helped to understand the association of the self-reported and subconscious responses towards consumers acceptability of beer.
Acknowledgements:
This study belongs to the project: Is happiness from beer consumption related to alcohol or specific beer compounds? How this question can be answered with biometrics of consumer perception.
Universities involved: The University of Melbourne, Tecnologico de Monterrey and University of British Columbia.
Funding body: Universitas 21
TEDx Melbourne Australia. Presentation of Digital Vineyards: https://www.researchgate.net/project/Digital-Vineyards
Tune in to Associate Professor Sigfredo Fuentes’ on ABC radio where he discusses his views on digital agriculture:
Interview starts at 2:06:00
Key topics:
– Australia as a key pioneer in digital agriculture, but with the lowest adoption by growers… why?
– The role of technology in providing farmers with access to digital agriculture
– How digital agriculture benefits farmers
Associate Professor Sigfredo Fuentes has been awarded the 2019 Australian Society of Plant Scientists (ASPS) teaching award. The award recognizes excellence, innovation (i.e. original and creative methods/student activities) and/or other contributions with successful learning outcomes to teaching plant science at University level.
The Australian Society of Plant Scientists (ASPS) is an incorporated society that promotes Plant Science in Australia. It provides professional contact within our community of tertiary and vocational lecturers and education specialists; primary & secondary school teachers; and researchers in the plant sciences.
He will be giving a presentation on teaching methods, innovations or contributions in the Science Communication and Education session at ASPS 2019. The conference will be held at La Trobe, Melbourne on the 26th-29th November.
Dr Sigredo Fuentes is a fellow of the Networked Society Institute (NSI) for Digital Agriculture, Food and Wine, Coordinator of Minor (AGRI90070 – 72 – 80 - 82) Research projects and Plant Growth and Processes (AGRI20026) as well as the International Coordinator of The Vineyard of The Future Initiative.
Amid the recent bushfires in Victoria, a winemaker watched as his winery in Tonimbuck – where he has lived in and worked at for 40 years – was destroyed by the blaze. Meanwhile, in northern NSW, the entire 2019 vintage of Topper’s Mountain Wines was lost just 5 hours before picking was scheduled to begin. 70% of the crop was destroyed in the fire whilst the remaining crop was ruined by smoke taint.
The aftermath of the bushfire at Tonimbuck (Source: News Corp Australia)
Considering the frequent nature of bushfires which are predicted to increase in frequency and severity, smoke taint is becoming an area of concern. When they happen around veraison, smoke contamination of grapevines and grapes can occur. This can result in unsaleable wines due to high levels of taint with associated financial losses for wine producers and on-flowing costs for future wine sales.
Smoke-tainted grapes in California
At the moment, there are no practical tools to determine which plants, vineyard sections or specific grape bunches have been affected by smoke contamination after a bushfire. This is where novel research involving remote sensing and machine learning comes in.
A trial to investigate the physiological effects of smoke contamination in four grapevine cultivars was established at a commercial vineyard in South Australia’s Adelaide Hills and at a research vineyard at the Waite campus of The University of Adelaide in the 2009-2010 season. The measurements which were taken into account included leaf conductance (gL), infrared thermography imaging (IRTI) and infrared index (Ig)2,3. Chemical analysis of the levels of the levels of smoke-related compounds from berries and resulting wine was also conducted. Results from the canopy level measurements showed that the changes in the pattern of gL within the canopies due to smoke contamination can be recognised using IRTI and Artificial Neural Networks (ANN). Furthermore, smoke-related compounds in berries and wine can be modelled using machine learning algorithms based on non-invasive near infrared spectroscopy (NIR) in berries. It took a few years to analyse the data using new and emerging tools for data analysis, such as new algorithms available in machine learning modelling. Now we are able to revisit data and generate useful models for growers (A. Prof. Sigfredo Fuentes from The University of Melbourne).
Hence, Machine learning algorithms and non-destructive measurements of grapevine canopies and berries alter bushfires for suspected smoke contamination offer powerful tools for growers to assess levels of contamination and to potentially map out affected areas. This information can be used to manage contamination in the field. By mapping contaminated grapevines, growers can perform differential harvests from non-affected areas to produce wines without smoke taint and avoid spoiling the whole production.
Research aside, it seems that amidst all the tragedy of bushfires, there is another light at the end of the tunnel for winemakers. Late last year, a Californian winery hit by a bushfire set out to make the best out of the tragedy. Smoke-tainted grapes were picked quickly and turned into raisins instead of being thrown away. The raisins ended up being “quite good, in fact, with no smoky notes — and contained the antioxidants of a glass of wine, but in concentrated, edible form.” Amazing!
At the end of the day, it is continual research and the dedication to absolute quality by winemakers that will ensure the minimisation of likelihood of a wine that you buy being contaminated by smoke.
Stay tuned on the blog for Parts 2 and 3 of the Tackling Smoke Taint series!
References:
Bedford, M. (2019). Bushfire rips through Topper’s Mountain vineyard devastating rare wines on harvest day. ABC News.
Graham, B., Smith, R. and Loomes, P. (2019). Township ‘wiped off map’ as winemaker watches life’s work destroyed on live television. news.com.au.
Ogletree, K. (2018). Father-Son Duo Turns Ruined Grapes Into Tasty Aid For Napa Fire Victims. NPR.
‘Drones, yeah right,’ you might groan. For so long they have promised much to viticulture and delivered dubious benefits. But at the dawn of a new IT revolution for agriculture, one of the field’s leading researchers is confident that’s all about to change, particularly as machine learning smartens up how vineyard managers and consultants can apply the data captured.We invited University of Melbourne-based Senior Lecturer in Digital Agriculture, Food and Wine, Dr Sigfredo Fuentes, to share his insights.
— Read on www.syngenta.com.au/news/vineyard/spoilt-data-can-drones-really-help-grape-and-wine-production
