The Newspaper Portrayal of Mothers Accessing Food Banks in the UK

Aim: This study investigated the newspaper portrayal of mothers’ accessing food banks in the UK. Specifically, how their identities were portrayed, how their experiences were portrayed and how the impact of this was portrayed. Method: Forty-five national online newspaper articles, focusing on mothers’ who had accessed food banks, were analysed from the 1st of October 2019 to the 1st of November 2020. The articles were analysed using Thematic Analysis six-phase framework developed by Braun and Clarke (2006). Results: Three themes were identified following the analysis. The first theme identified was ‘lives stolen by poverty’, subthemes ‘pushed down the ladder by political choices’, ‘narrowing opportunities’, ‘the odds are stacked against them’ and ‘morality’. The second theme was ‘struggling to survive’, followed by subthemes ‘mothering under scarcity’, ‘not knowing where to turn’ and the ‘impact on self-hood’. The third and final theme was ‘struggling to provide’, which was followed by subthemes ‘cycles of love and protection’ and ‘spilling over.’ Considerations and implications: This study placed a psychological lens to the portrayal of mothers’ accessing food banks. Consideration was provided to the implications of newspaper portrayals for mothers’, the support available to them and how these portrayals impact their wellbeing

Milk Processing by Nonthermal Liquid Plasma Discharge Technology

In this project, a non-thermal liquid plasma discharge (NTLPD) process has been developed and to be optimized to inactivate the microbial mechanisms and preserve the physical and nutritional quality of raw milk. This green process consists NTLPD reactor operated in a one pass continuous mode with a sterilized water priming phase to eliminate contamination before electric discharge occurs within the reactor. Specific objectives of this 10-week study include 1) integrating the sterilized water priming pump with the novel NTLPD reactor, 2) optimizing the NTLPD reactor based on the effect of milk flow rate and air flow rate on the total bacteria inactivation, and 3) investigating physical and nutritional qualities of the NTLPD treated milk that passes FDA Grade A Pasteurized Milk Ordinance. Up to now, preliminary results have suggested that the NTLPD process in the novel two-phase water priming design decreases the risk of bacterial contamination with 100% bacterial inactivation achieved at the power input of 200-watt, milk flow rate at 40 mi/min, and air flow rate controlled at 1 L/min. This provides a basis to meet the project objective 1) by showing that NTLPD technology could be a feasible alternative for fast and efficient milk processing