The science of good food

What is your background and how did you come to work at FaBA?

Since graduating with a Food Science and Nutrition Degree, I have worked in product development in the food industry, predominantly in the ready meals and nutraceutical industry. I have worked alongside chefs, taking their creative concepts and making them scalable to a factory. Meals don’t always translate well when you’re cooking them in a kitchen through to when you are looking to cook them at a large scale and freeze them for future consumption.

I’m really interested in the research behind the food that we eat, so I saw this role as a natural next step to combine those interests. It’s truly a unique role that bridges the gap between industry and academia.

What does your current role entail?

I’m working closely with researchers who have a lot of engineering knowledge but who may not have worked that closely with food previously. I’m providing insights into the food industry, ingredient information and nutritional considerations that they may not have had to consider with other research projects.

In turn they are teaching me what is possible in the kitchen when you combine the right ingredients with a scientific approach. Fundamental sciences like rheology and chemistry underline many of the foods that we eat, and have so much potential to help us make tastier and more nutritious food.

One of my major projects is focused on developing new plant-based meat products through high moisture extrusion. We are hoping we are able to turn some lesser known protein sources, such as lupins, into meat analogues.

What are some of the challenges that the F&B manufacturing industry experience that researchers can assist with?

There is a science to making food and you don’t think about it when you are cooking at home. For example, have you ever thought about what is happening when you’re thickening a sauce with corn flour? For a lot of people food is quite a creative part of their days and it’s emotive. The challenge comes from respecting the creativity while applying the science – and bridging that gap.

In my experience, working with creativity focused chefs, their biggest focus is making food delicious – but it’s science that can often really help meals come together at large scale.

Upscaling tends to be where manufacturers encounter their biggest challenges. For example, a classic problem is seeing foods split. It can be easy to make a sauce in small quantities that you are planning to eat straight away, but it’s a whole different scenario when you cook food at large scale so that it maintains its integrity throughout the manufacturing and storage process. You need to apply specific techniques and be creative with ingredients to keep the sauce stable to ensure the fats don’t separate out by the time a customer eats their meal!

How important is the role of universities in food development?

Universities are here to help, and we want to do research that supports industry growth. Many in the food industry don’t realise they can use universities as a resource to help develop new products; there are researchers and infrastructure available for you to use.

Whenever there is a technical problem with upscaling, quality consistency, processing efficiency or flavour development, there is a scientific solution that a university can support you with.