Student Award

Food safety award goes to DIT / TCD

The FSAI held its annual competition for best food safety related project in Irish colleges on 24 June last. The winning student was Tara Raftery, DIT and Trinity College, Dublin. Her project, entitled "Dietary fat intake, physical activity and metabolic profile of an adult cohort attending a hypertension clinic" aimed to investigate the relationship between dietary fat and ambulatory blood pressure in a cohort of hypertensive adults. Dietary fat, in particular the type of fat, is important in the regulation of blood pressure. Controversy exists surrounding the role of dietary monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) whereby some studies show blood pressure reduction on a MUFA-rich diet whilst others show no effect. Intervention trials have shown that when dietary saturated fat is replaced by MUFA, both systolic and diastolic blood pressure decrease. A cross-sectional study was performed to profile dietary intake, investigate the relationship between total dietary fat intake, dietary fatty acid composition, blood pressure and components of the metabolic syndrome. A semi-quantitative 3-day dietary record and questionnaire were used and 24h ambulatory blood pressure was measured using a SpaceLabs monitor. A fasting blood sample was collected for determination of serum lipids and plasma glucose, and waist circumference was measured. Orla Condell, University College Dublin, was second with her project "Evaluation of novel Cronobacter isolation methods and identification and characterisation of Cronobacter isolates from baby food";. Cronobacter are gram-negative facultative anaerobes and opportunistic pathogens causing meningitis, bacteraemia (bacteria in the blood) and gastrointestinal disease in premature and low birth weight neonates. Transmission of Cronobacterhas been associated with infant formula. The current ISO/TS 22964 for Cronobacter isolation is a long, five day protocol and recently it has been found that Cronobacterdo not grow well in the enrichment broths recommended. In this study three novel isolation protocols were evaluated and compared to the ISO method, using spiked and unspiked samples as well as dilution to extinction and desiccation recovery assays.

Testimonial

The BSc in Human Nutrition and Dietetics is a highly rewarding but challenging programme of study. The highlights for me were my practice placement and my undergraduate research project. Practice placement provides undergraduate students with an excellent opportunity to understand the role of the Dietitian and to establish core competences in hospital and community settings. Undertaking a research project provides an excellent platform into the field of research and proved to be an invaluable learning experience. After graduation, I started my career as a Clinical Dietitian. The interest in research and skills developed as an undergraduate allowed me to incorporate small amounts of research into my clinical work. I am now preparing to embark on a full-time scholarship funded PhD in the area of Clinical Nutrition. I am very fortunatethat the PhD enables me to merge both my clinical and research interests. Suffice to say since completing my CAO, and with the dedicated efforts of the lecturers on this programme, I have not looked back.